2 Questions & 3 Keys

-more thoughts from John 5:1-18

The Scribes and Pharisees were wrestling with 2 basic questions:
1. What constitutes work on the Sabbath? What kind of work is forbidden by God on the Sabbath?
Notice that they completely miss the heart of their faith. They miss the heart of the Sabbath commandment. They miss the very heart of God. And because of that they completely miss God Himself. Not working is not the primary issue. Keeping the day Holy is the primary issue. Not working is a means to the end of keeping it holy. The Pharisees focus on the means and not the end. They came up with a list of 1521 things you could not do on the Sabbath. Their very attempt to not work was work! Do you ever feel like even when you rest, you can't rest? A life lived outside of the acknowledgment of the Living God is a restless life.

2. Does God work on the Sabbath? If so, what kind of work does God do?
Most Scribes agreed with Philo of Alexandria, the 1st century Jewish philosopher. He said, “God never ceases creating, but as it is the property of fire to burn or snow to be cold, it is the property of God to create.”
Dr. Raymond Brown shares his thoughts, "In particular, divine activity was visible in 2 ways. People were born and people died on the Sabbath. Since only God could give life and only God could deal with the fate of the dead in judgment, this meant that God was active on the Sabbath."

3 Keys
Brown goes on to cite Rabbi Johanna who put it this way: "God has put in His hand 3 keys which he entrusts to no one else. The key of rain, the key of birth, and the key of the resurrection of the dead. It was clear to everyone that God used these 3 keys on the Sabbath."
So when we read in Genesis 1 that God rested, it doesn’t mean that God sat back and took his hands off of creation to let it go it’s own way. God continues to work by sustaining creation moment by moment. We would see complete chaos if God were to cease working for one second. God uses the 3 keys.

Now listen to Jesus speak:
One of the solid facts of history was that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified because he angered the temple authorities by the way he acted on the Sabbath and by the way he spoke to justify his actions. Some healing was allowed on the Sabbath- so that was not the problem. The violation was in what Jesus told the lame man to do. “Take up your bed and walk.” Both are explicitly prohibited on the Sabbath. The Misnah- The carrying of things from one domain to another and the carrying of an empty bed is prohibited. Jesus knows the rules and he deliberately breaks them.

The POINT? Jesus Christ is in the business of making people whole and will not let human rules get in the way.

But what really angers the temple authorities is his justification for his actions.
John 5:17 got Jesus crucified.
“My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
The Jewish people would say “The Father” but they would never have said “My Father.” Jesus expressed a unique relationship with the one who is working on the Sabbath. And then Jesus adds “and I myself am working.” Jesus of Nazareth from Galilee, the Son of Mary, is claiming the right to do on the Sabbath what only the Living God can do. He is, in that statement, claiming the right to use the 3 keys. Never lose sight of the basic fact: Jesus was crucified because he broke the Pharisees Sabbath rules and because he justified his actions by claiming divine right to do so.
His actions by themselves were enough to get him into trouble. But his words caused the temple authorities to seek to kill him. Kill him! Religious men who wanted to follow God wanted to kill a man who healed someone in need. Why kill a man who makes people whole? Because in their minds they heard a claim of equality of God. They had to respond. They were the protectors of Israel’s theology. They could not ignore him. They could see that he was not a lunatic. They saw a man named Jesus who walked into a room and for some reason, just because of his mere presence, all rules were suspended! "Who does he think he is?"

Jesus is a man who was so impassioned with making people whole regardless of societal norms and glorifying His father that it got him killed.

That's what happens when we attach rules to how God should respond. The moment we begin to call the shots for God is the moment we begin to walk in the footsteps of the Pharisees. May we be focused on Jesus and how He acted and spoke, and seek to get rid of everything else that is simply peripheral.

~ Once again, thank you to Darrell Johnson for his insight on John 5