No Sunday Business

Scripture Luke 13:10-17 Common English Bible (CEB)

10 Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. 12 When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” 13 He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.

14 The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.”

15 The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? 16 Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17 When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.

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In the late 70s I moved to the Atlantic coast in South Florida, where I lived for the next 20 years.  Most days I would travel on US Highway #1 between work and home, or where ever else I needed t go.  It was, after all, the main street in a lot of towns from Maine to Miami.  Just south of town I would pass a house that had a huge wooden sign In their front yard that said “No Sunday Business.”   Now it wasn’t uncommon at the time to see that sentiment on bumper stickers, but this was a humongous sign right out on Federal Highway!  And they kept it nice, so it always looked freshly painted.  They were concerned about the commandment that says, “Keep the Sabbath holy.”    They really didn’t understand that technically “Sabbath” is the Seventh Day (Saturday), whereas Sunday is the Lord’s Day, which is what they really meant.  Anyway . . . As everyone knows, they fought a losing battle as more and more businesses began opening on Sundays.   

Now, I know some of you don’t remember this, but there was a time when most businesses did close on Sunday.  It wasn’t like today when pretty much all retail stores, malls and restaurants are open on Sundays, customer service reps staff their phones 24/7, and even the delivery services will bring the package you ordered on line to your door on Sunday afternoon.  I grew up in Pennsylvania which had lots of strange and antiquated laws known as the Blue Laws that dated back almost to when the area was first founded as a Quaker colony.  No Sunday business was one of those laws, with a very few exceptions.  In most of our cities and states the original bodies of law were based in the religious beliefs and practices of whoever held the majority in that place.  Sometimes when we are nostalgically looking back to the Good Old Days when churches were full every Sunday we forget that in many places there wasn’t much of anything else to do on Sundays except go to church.  Now Sunday services have to compete with sports, shopping, and work.  

But in Israel, religious law was all of the law.  Israel was governed by the Laws of Moses, so when Jesus healed that woman he wasn’t just breaking a custom.  He was very publicly breaking a law right in front of the synagogue!  And he called his accusers hypocrites because they were happy to break this law in private, feeding and watering their livestock where no one could see, but in public they would call out any infractions.   It’s like speeding on the freeway.  You only do it when there is no CHP vehicle in sight.  If you get caught, you’re in trouble.  If you don’t, well  . . . there are those who say “It’s only illegal if you get caught.”  This, by the way, is not true.  

Even today, the laws governing Sabbath are still observed by many Jews.  Not only are they observed, but as the world changes and new technologies are invented, they are continually updated by a body of rabbis who specialize in the Law.  So the definition of “work” gets more and more detailed.  Sometimes I will be in conversation with my friend Izzy, an Orthodox Jew living in Jerusalem, and he will suddenly say, “Gotta go.  Sabbath is about to begin.”  Use of a cell phone or computer is work, so our conversation must end before Sabbath begins.  

Jesus regularly challenged blind adherence to laws.   In the 6th Chapter of Luke’s Gospel he records other instances of Jesus breaking Sabbath law.  When he and his disciples were walking through a field of grain, and some of them were hungry and plucked some grains to eat, the Pharisees called him on it.  When he healed the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees called him on it.   But “Jesus said to the legal experts and Pharisees, “Here’s a question for you: Is it legal on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”  (Luke 6:9)    

No Sunday business makes sense, up to a point.   Keeping the Sabbath holy is one thing.  Refusing to allow a physician to heal is something else again. So is preventing someone from getting life saving medicines.  So is making hungry people stay hungry.   Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren’t created for the Sabbath.  This is why the Human One is Lord even over the Sabbath.”  (Mark 2:27-28)  

Rules are good.  I like rules.  Rules are intended to make life better for everyone, so that we can all get along.  Sometimes they are inconvenient.  I must remind myself, sometimes, that the rule against jaywalking is not intended to punish me by making me walk all the way to the corner when the place I am going is directly across the street.   It’s intended to keep me from getting run over!   Most of the 613 Laws that make up Torah were intended to help the people of Israel get along together as a community.  They were designed to let people know exactly what sort of behavior was expected from everyone at any time.  Mostly the were good laws for those people at that time.  Sometimes they got in the way of allowing a person to do good in an unusual situation.  Like healing on the Sabbath.   Mind you, saving someone’s life was permitted under the Law.  The healings Luke tells us Jesus performed were not lifesaving, and technically could have waited until the next day.  But Jesus said, “Why?  Why make this woman remain in pain and suffering one more day when I can take that all away from her now.”  And the Pharisees responded, “Rules is rules.”  

Rules are generally good.  I like rules.  Most of us are pretty good at following the rules.  But sometimes rules need to be broken.  When we are so focused on obeying a rule that it keeps us from doing good for another person or group of people, there is something wrong.  We saw that in the story of the Good Samaritan, when two people passed without helping because they were so focused on obeying a rule that they would rather let someone die at the side of the road than break that rule.  

Sometimes there are bad rules, or rules that are so petty and detailed that they really don’t improve anyone’s life.  Keep the Sabbath holy is a good rule, an important rule. We all need a day when we can rest from the busy-ness of our lives.  We all need time to when we can focus on God.  But when the rules about how to do that become so restrictive that we are more worried about obeying Sabbath rules than honoring the Sabbath, then the rule is a problem.  When the rules keep us from expressing joy and love, the rule is a problem.  A friend in Florida was very anti-church and when I asked why, she told me a story about her parents.  They had been life long members of a particular congregation, leaders in that congregation, known for their devotion to God, and their dedication to living a Christian life as it was define in that church.  But one year, on their wedding anniversary, as they danced together in their living room, a church member happened to be going by and saw them.  They quickly reported what they had seen to the church leaders. The next Sunday her parents were excommunicated from their congregation, because dancing was against the rules.   

Jesus in no way suggested that we should not honor the Sabbath. He never even said that the rules governing Sabbath observance were bad.  What he said was they needed to be seen though a different lens. If the rules help you honor God, that’s good.  That’s what they are intended for.  If the rule keeps one from doing good in a particular situation, it needs to be disregarded in that situation.  If following the rule means someone might die, the rule needs to be disregarded in order to save a life. Doing good is always holy work, it is always a blessing in God’s eyes, even if doing good means breaking a rule.   In this way the intent of Sabbath is observed, for the intent of Sabbath is that we take time to be holy.  That means praying to God, and listening for God, and being a blessing to others.   For whatever good we do in God’s name is a blessing, and holy.