Luke 14:14 One Shabbat Yeshua went to eat in the home of one of the leading P’rushim, and they were watching him closely. 2 In front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid. 3 Yeshua spoke up and asked the Torah experts and P’rushim, “Does the Torah allow healing on Shabbat or not?” 4 But they said nothing. So, taking hold of him, he healed him and sent him away. 5 To them he said, “Which of you, if a son or an ox falls into a well, will hesitate to haul him out on Shabbat?” 6 And to these things they could give no answer.
Here it is again. He’s eating in the house of the leading Pharisee. How can He possibly secure such premier dinner invitations?
“Does the Torah allow healing on Shabbat or not?”
Well, does it?
And why would this question even be raised? Let me ask a more direct question, was healing even done by anyone in those days? Not much evidence says there was (but there may be some evidence that deliverance was taking place on some level by the religious establishment).
As we’ve discussed in times past, healing is reversing decay. Something was good, then it got bad, then it’s made good again. Entropy says this is highly improbable which is why we call it a miracle. Decay should result in complete death, which it does most of the time.
Suppose healing is possible -- is healing considered work? Let’s see…
What does rest do?
It allows you to heal. Work stresses our body and our lives, and having a day off allows our bodies to reset.
Exodus 23:12 “For six days, you are to work. But on the seventh day, you are to rest, so that your ox and donkey can rest, and your slave-girl’s son and the foreigner be renewed.”
Creating all week adds but it also takes away. We’ve all spent weeks where we labored vigorously and produced a great amount. But the toll it took on our bodies and minds was severe. If we didn't get a day off we would ultimately die. Having that day off allows our bodies to heal themselves.
Is this just a mental exercise or is there evidence that says it is more?
Professional athletes need recovery days in order for their bodies to rebound from the intense pressure associated with their sport. When a player is struggling, coaches give the athlete a day off so they can get their mind reset. Bodybuilders need to take days off for their muscles to be able to repair themselves. Even you know it doesn’t work to lift weights every single day. When you’re sick, you're told to rest. After surgery, again, rest.
Research is pretty clear these days when it comes to the role rest plays in our ability to heal.
I think we can all agree that without rest, our bodies and minds will break down and die. The punchline here is that, by design, the Sabbath was created for healing. Maybe partially, maybe fully.
If our bodies and minds (the physical and mental/emotional part of our being) need a rest, how much more do we need spiritual recovery? Left on our own, we’d forget about God. In fact, we may even struggle with this over the 6 days we’re working. Just imagine the decay in 30 days, 6 months, a few years.
Connecting with Him each and every week keeps us from spiraling. It not only stops the decay but reverses it.
Which means healing undoes work.
Physical, emotional, spiritual healing. This is what we get on the Sabbath.
Some people are just too busy to rest. They can’t afford to take a day off because their work is too important. And I'm not talking about their jobs.
As people mature, they realize the value in taking time off from physical work so they don’t experience burnout.
Most people that choose to enter into the grind 24/7 are doing so for very selfish reasons (or fear of man reasons). These people tend to suffer with physical ailments on a regular basis because their body can’t keep up with the perpetual decay.
We’ve kind of covered this already and I think we can all plainly see the value (and necessity) in regular rest for the sake of our bodies.
This one we also know a great deal about because church happens on the weekends. But casual observance can be just as devastating as working all day. Showing up because that’s what we do is not a good enough reason.
We are supposed to be very deliberate in our engagement with Abba on this day and, again, as you mature you begin to really see its value. The world’s vacuum effect on your spiritual life never lets up so you really have to push to get into this place.
Some weeks we may struggle getting into that state of worship and if we don't, we know how hard things get for us as a result. We may encounter warfare along the way but we understand the importance of pushing through. Without spiritual connectivity and renewal, our faith and dedication dies. Give it long enough and you will be the grumpy old person that shows up each week to bully the kids into being reverent. I don’t think this is what any of us wants, right? If you’re like me, you’d rather those people just stay home but that isn’t very Christian, is it.
This is where we rarely quit working.
Our hurts and wounds that have cut deeply into our heart tend to stay. We struggle with showing weakness so we harden our heart to protect it -- because no one else will, right?
What does this look like?
You show up each and every week to get your spiritual renewal then go home and relax so your body can get recharged also. You feel like you’ve made some progress but the burden is still there. “Real life” we call it. As you are tossed back and forth in your heart, you begin to become disheartened. You're doing all the right things but that weight just won’t go away. So you pack it in deeper. If you can forget about it, you will be better. If you lie to people and tell them it isn’t there, you will be better. If you can overcompensate your spirituality, you will be better.
And yet…
Why can’t we shake this? We can (sort of) help our bodies out and we know we’re supposed to connect with God, but for some reason we can’t let our heart rest.
This kind of jives with what we’ve seen throughout the miracles we’ve seen: physical healing and spiritual healing (deliverance). But the mental/emotional healing seems to be a bit absent from what Yeshua was doing. Does that mean this whole idea of mental/emotional healing doesn’t really exist and I’m making stuff up?
Maybe. But I’d argue He is starting to really ramp up this type of healing -- and it isn’t what you’d expect.
What is the root of the mental/emotional issues in our lives?
Lies.
We believe a lie and it settles so deeply within us that we don’t even know it’s there. Keep it there long enough and it becomes part of who we are. “Behavioral characteristics” we call them.
Have you ever had some revelation about your own personal behaviors and you finally acknowledge it to someone you trust? Instead of being amazed at your insight, the person hearing about it is more surprised that you didn’t know that it was there. We become so blind to our own little quirks and issues that we have no idea they even exist within us -- but everyone else has always seen it plainly.
It’s much like when you can look at someone else and can see every single fault and problem in their life. It seems so ridiculously obvious it’s almost perplexing they can’t see it themselves.
This is the nature of lies. It’s also why they are so powerful.
Let’s go back to the healing of the mental/emotional part of people’s lives. With this understanding, were there examples of Yeshua uprooting lies and replacing them with truth on the Sabbath?
Yes!
It was on the Shabbat that Yeshua was healing the Pharisees and religious leaders. The lies that had pushed so far down inside of them were confronted in hopes they would receive healing, i.e., replacing lies with truth.
You would expect someone getting healed would rejoice but they don’t. Notice what happens when this type of healing comes. People get defiant. They get angry. They want to kill you.
With physical healing, the people were incredibly grateful. With spiritual deliverance, a newfound joy enters in. But touch those lies and you see the other side of healing -- and it’s ugly. It’s embarrassing. Our pride wants to come out and fight because identity is being challenged. Remember? Those lies nestle in so deep that they become a part of us.
When who we are gets tested, we get angry. Get angry long enough and even those that care about us the most won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole. Everyone around you knows better than to poke the bear. So they all live in quiet desperation.
Can you see it? We create a world of lies around us and we threaten to destroy ANYONE that comes close to uprooting them. We put a bubble of people around us that are weak and agreeable. They feed the lies we believe and we love it. These are our “real” friends, right?
No!
This is where boldness comes in clutch. If you force others to be in an artificial relationship with you then it’s no relationship at all. And you need to be called out. You need people around you that choose to have you live a life worthy of the Messiah over a life of being liked through fear. Trying to get you to lay down the lies so those under your influence (kids, family, friends, etc) will not live a burden-filled life. It isn’t just about you being free but also freeing those that look up to you.
We hate these people, though. Always getting on our nerves calling us into the light. So aggravating, huh?
This is exactly what Yeshua did. The result? These people chose to be murderers instead of victors. It’s very easy for us to sit on the sidelines and hold them in judgment for their poor choices, though. But that’s because we can see everyone else’s issues easily, remember?
Do you want physical healing? Of course! We want our bodies to be perfect so we can show them off to everyone else -- especially at the pool where it is socially acceptable to be 95% nude. And we want to live forever and what better way than to have a perfectly running machine of a body.
Do you want spiritual deliverance? No. We like the idea of spiritual healing but familiar spirits are way too comforting. Manipulation is far easier than repentance.
Do you want to be mentally and emotionally healed? Not just no, but heck no. Being confronted on your lies is an embarrassment we just can’t handle.
“Sad but true” - James Hetfield
But enough running around your delicate existence, let’s get back to the original question:
“Does the Torah allow healing on Shabbat or not?”
The Torah not only allows healing on the Shabbat, it commands it. This is a primary purpose of the Shabbat -- going back to its intended state. The condition the world (and man) was in on that very first 7th day is the pinnacle of healing. All of creation was good and man was very good.
(note: this is precisely what happens during the Millenial Reign -- the earth is put back in its original form, it is healed.)
On the Shabbat:
Let your body rest so it can reverse the decay placed on it through your work.
Let your spirit get recharged through an intimate engagement with Abba’s Spirit.
Let your mind get healed through the confrontation and dismantling of lies.
How is this done each and every week?
The next time you decide to take a Shabbat, feel free to grab some of that healing that’s on offer. It’s free. But the cost? Your life.
Besides, if your gold bar fell into the well on Shabbat you’d jump in and grab it, right? And how much more valuable is your restoration than gold?