Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – October 12, 2025

Praise to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text for this morning is a portion of the Holy Gospel that was read earlier.

Let me read from Luke 14 again.

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees,

they were watching him carefully.

And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. and Jesus responded to

the lawyers and Pharisees saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

But they remained silent.

Then Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away. Here ends our text.

Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath.

Was this lawful to do or not? Today we will learn what the Sabbath meant in

the Old Testament and what it means for us today.

Sabbath means rest. We will especially learn that Jesus is our source of peace

and rest from sin and death.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He brought everything

into existence in six days.

After creating Adam and Eve on the sixth day, Friday, all of creation was finished.

And looking back on creation, God said, it is very good.

There was nothing more to create. God put into creation the laws that govern the whole universe.

This universe did not happen by chance over a million billions of years.

It happened by the power and the word of God.

And so on the seventh day, God rested.

Now, this does not mean that he was tired and needed a nap or that he needed to relax.

Rather, it means that his work of creation is finished.

He delighted in all that

he made for six days Adam and

Eve were to work they were to tend the garden

and to take care of it they were to have dominion over

creation but when Saturday came

they rested just as God rested their rest helped them to relax but it also provided

a day to remember what God had done for them That he is their creator Who gave

them life And who sustains their life.

God gave the third commandment to the Israelites through Moses on the Mount of Sinai.

It reads, Exodus 20, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,

the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

So they were to work during six days, but on Saturday they were to do no work. Why?

Because on that day they were to remember that God is their creator and that

he gave them life and that he sustains their life by daily bread.

And so also today, hey, there is nothing wrong with working.

As a matter of fact, it is good that we provide for the family and nourish the family.

It's good that we do something and work.

Be faithful then in the vocation as a student in college, in school or in college.

Be faithful in your employment, in taking care of the family.

However, on Sunday, take time off of physical work and come to church.

Hear God's word and delight in God's creation.

And by doing this, then we reflect who God is and what he has done for us in our creation.

This morning, we remember our Creator.

We are reminded that He gave us life and that He sustains our life by daily bread.

As a matter of fact, in the beginning of our worship service this morning,

we confessed Psalm 124, verse 8.

Psalms 124:8

The pastor said, our help is in the name of the Lord.

And the people said, who made heaven and earth?

And also in the Nicene Creed, we confess that our one true God is the,

quote, maker of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible.

This morning, God is working.

He teaches us his word. He cleanses us from sin. He strengthens our faith in

Christ and he nourishes us with the body and blood of Christ.

We receive these gifts and we give him thanksgiving and praise.

So when we go home today and spend time with family or friends,

we will appreciate the wonders of God's creation and its complexity and the

gifts that God has given to us.

And we are thankful to God for what he has given our body and that he preserves

our life with daily bread.

In Deuteronomy, God expands on the third commandments.

Saying that Israel should remember the Sabbath day, but there's now a second

reason why they should physically rest on this day.

God says, because, quote,

you were a slave in the land of Egypt, And the Lord your God brought you out

from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm So on the Sabbath,

they were not to do any physical work They were to remember God as creator But

they were also to remember God as their redeemer Who redeemed them from the slavery of Egypt steps.

The third commandment in the Old Testament pointed forward, pointed forward to the coming Savior.

This coming Savior will defeat their enemy, the devil, death and the devil.

The Savior will be their rest. He will give them rest for their souls.

He will bring order to a fallen world.

He would be their source of peace and rest. For after all, he would be the Lord of the Sabbath.

So when Jesus appeared, he was that promised Savior.

The Son of God in human flesh, and through his miracles, he brought order to

our fallen world. He cleansed the lepers.

He gave hearing to the deaf. He stilled the storm, and he even raised the dead.

In our Holy Gospel for today, we learn that a man had drops.

He drops. He is where your joints fill up with fluid, your legs fill up with

fluid, and it is very painful.

Well, what does Jesus do? Does he say to the man, I'm sorry,

I cannot heal you today because today is the Sabbath.

Why don't you come back tomorrow and I'll heal you?

Jesus doesn't say that. That's ridiculous.

Instead, Jesus asked the Pharisees, in essence, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

Is it lawful to heal this man that dropped you on the Sabbath?

Now, the Pharisees should have said something like this.

Yes, Jesus, go ahead and heal this man.

He's in pain and you can restore him. This would be the loving thing to do for this poor man.

After all, you are the promised Savior. You came to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil.

The Sabbath is made for us so that we may rest from our work and focus on you

as our creator and redeemer.

You are the Lord of the Sabbath. And when we have a child or an animal that

falls into a pit, we certainly will go and rescue it on the Sabbath day.

Healing this man is more important than even rescuing a child or an animal from

the pit. So yes, Jesus, go ahead and heal him.

He never said this. He should have. They didn't say this because they don't

like Jesus And they don't want Jesus' popularity increase,

They do not believe that Jesus is the promised Savior The Son of God in human flesh And to them,

healing on the Sabbath meant breaking the law It was a sin And so if Jesus healed

on the Sabbath and he would be breaking the law He would be sinning and he is deserving of death.

Pharisees had no mercy and no love. You see, the Pharisees were so focused on

the law that they lost sight of Jesus, who came to be their Redeemer.

They thought that they could earn God's favor by doing the law.

They added one man-made rule after another on the third commandment,

hoping that they would avoid breaking it.

For example, they said, you can only walk so many steps on a Sabbath.

And they were very, very legalistic.

In so doing, they failed to see Jesus as their source of rest.

They thought that they could keep the law outwardly, but without faith in Christ,

it doesn't matter how much rest you do on the Sabbath, It will do you no good

if there is no faith in Christ.

So the Ten Commandments are good and necessary for us.

They are. They teach us what's right and wrong. They reveal to us God's will.

They curb evil in home and in school and in society.

They bring order to our world. Praise God for that.

The law helps keep order. But we must be careful not to focus so much on the

law that we lose sight of Jesus, our Savior.

We must be careful not to become so legalistic that we lose sight of the gospel.

Our obedience to the law does not win favor with God.

Rather, Christ's work of redemption and the cross has already won favor with

God. and we receive the benefits of the cross and the resurrection through faith,

through faith in Christ and not through the law and not through our good works.

God's law also shows us our sin. It's like a mirror.

It shows us what we've done wrong.

We cannot fulfill the law perfectly.

We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul,

and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

And there are times when we fall short every day.

We are sinners, and we need God's grace and mercy.

Spiritually speaking we are like that man with

dropsy we are burdened with a sickness of sin we are in pain living in this

fallen world and things don't go our way and we are afflicted by aging and and

troubles of this world we are weary and heavy laden and so we strive to live according to God's law.

We live moral and upright lives,

but Christianity is not merely and only a religion of moral and ethics.

Christianity is about God, our creator, and our redeemer.

It is about Jesus who died upon the cross and rose again.

It is about poor, miserable sinners like us receiving the gospel and the forgiveness

of sins, then, as a forgiven sinner, we joyfully love the neighbor.

We gladly follow the Ten Commandments, not in order to be saved,

but out of love and thanksgiving for what God has done to us in Christ.

In the Holy Gospel for today, Jesus says, He who humbles himself will be exalted.

And if anyone was truly humble, it was Jesus.

Though he is Lord of all, he became a servant.

Jesus once said, The Son of Man has not come to be served, but to serve,

and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus was human like us, yet without sin.

He placed himself under the law, and he obeyed it perfectly.

On Good Friday, the sixth day of the week, Jesus was nailed to a cross,

and crucifixion was one of the most humiliating, it was the most humiliating kind of death.

And before Jesus died, he said, it is finished.

Kind of like what God said on the sixth day of creation is very good.

The work of salvation is finished. Then Jesus bowed his head and died.

And his body was laid in the tomb Saturday, the Sabbath. and Jesus' body rusted,

rusted in the tomb all day Saturday.

Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath.

Jesus said, he who humbles himself will be exalted. Jesus humbled himself by means of the cross.

And God the Father exalted or raised his son from the dead.

Because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, worship has changed from Saturday to Sunday.

Worship on Sunday testifies to the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus once said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden,

and I will give you rest, rest for your souls.

Sabbath means rest. This is our day of rest.

We rest in Jesus and in his precious gospel.

We rest knowing that our sin is paid for and that heaven is open for you and

me and for all who believe.

Today is God's work day.

He speaks he teaches he

cleanses he refreshes he feeds he

reminds us that he is our creator and he that he

redeemed us with the blood of christ and we poor

sinners receive these gifts of life and

salvation and then we respond to him with thanksgiving and praise this is why

we call the divine service the divine service because god who is divine serves

us this morning with this precious gospel and the Lord's Supper.

So by God's grace, do not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred

and gladly hear and learn it,

making worship the highest priority in your life.

And may we, with true humility, love our neighbor as God in Christ loved us.

To God, our Creator and Redeemer, be all glory now and forevermore. Amen.