Healing of a sick man on Sabbath

A man was suffering from dropsy, meaning his body was swollen with fluid.

In the bible, especially in the book of Luke, we witness Jesus Christ heals on the day of Sabbath, which created questions and arguments around religious law. Understanding the importance of observing the Sabbath in Jewish life helps to understand how Christ and the early church were the targets of their criticisms.

Pulling an animal from a well on Sabbath is considered lawful by Jewish.  Surely God allows saving a human from hardship and misery on the Sabbath day. We know a miracle is not considered work, so Sabbath law does not apply to it.  It is necessary to accept today’s meaning of miracle, that it’s an act of divine power without interference of natural forces.  Our ancestors were not familiar with this analysis because for them, all the good energy was from the creator, or if it was bad or used in bad deed it was from Satan.

Distinguishing Christ or his disciples from other healers in that time and age was not easy; those healers were achieving their true results from what we call today spiritual healing.  Christ questioned which is allowed, saving a life or destroying it. Meaning, on the day of Sabbath doing nothing is considered bad and doing a good deed is good.  Christ’s reply is the key to understand his actions. Lord says: Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?

This man was in the devils captivity and had to be saved on Sabbath day.  The true words of this narrative, captivity, releasing and saving are truly the sick man’s condition; it clarifies the meaning of this miracle.

Healing is a kind of deliverance, and is graceful on Sabbath day.  This miracle like all other miracles is the sign of God winning against man’s enemy, Satan.  For Jesus and his messengers after him, healing of sick, is a representation of Gods kingdom.

According to Old testimony, it is God who saves the man from captivity, and gives the duty to his servants to do so.  According to the book of Luke, Jesus Christ saves mankind, and gives the responsibility to his disciples to save man from his sins. Also this is the healing of body, soul and spirit of man.

Let our Lord Jesus Christ save us from our sins so we can serve him throughout our life.

Hommily by Fr Thomas Sheno