As we’ve already seen (here and here), Jesus has quite a few run-ins with religious leaders on the Sabbath. One recurring theme that we see in a handful of these dust-ups is that somebody is ailing—physically broken—and in need of healing. In the Gospel of Luke, we see Jesus heal a man with a deformed hand (Luke 6), a woman who presumably has kyphosis (Luke 13), and a man whose arms and legs were swollen (Luke 14). In all this encounters, Jesus does what he’s been doing all throughout his public ministry: heals them. And he’s done so irrespective of cultural or religious norms. This is true even of the most important day in the Jewish calendar, the Sabbath.

For Jesus, the principle of Shalom that undergirded the Sabbath included physical Shalom for the broken, the hurting, the overlooked and the marginalized.

When getting peppered by questions by his critics, Jesus turns the tables on the religious leaders in Luke 6:9, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9 NLT)

Jesus is essentially asking: how on earth could a day that God fully intended to be good and pleasing to him and his people, be a day when people cannot be made whole (shalom) spiritually or physically? If God instituted the Sabbath as a weekly rhythm for his people to experience rest and renewal in all dimensions of their lives, how could one who had been ailing for years not be healed if the Healer was present?

Jesus goes even further after healing the woman with a severely degenerated back. Look at what he says in response to his critics this time around. “This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” (Luke 13:16 NLT)

First, Jesus notes her position in the family of Israel. He’s saying, “She is one of us. She’s not even an outsider whom God commanded we take care of in the Sabbath; she’s an insider.” He then directly links her 18-year ailment to the Enemy, Satan. “Is it better for Satan to reign another day than for me to heal on the Sabbath?” the Great Physician is rhetorically asking. And finally, Jesus is giving an off-camera wink when he tugs on the theme of this woman being released from bondage. God’s reframing of the Sabbath command in Exodus is an opportunity for the people of Israel to remember that they had been set free, they were no longer in bondage. On the day of “freeing,” why could this woman not experience freedom from a worser Pharaoh, Satan? 

It did not make sense. 

It completely missed the underlying realities of the Sabbath.

Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of healing—of Shalom—for the heart, soul, mind, and body.