Still Working
John 5: 1-18

May 16, 2004

The Lectionary does not always fit neatly into the calendar of civil holidays. Today’s reading from John should land on Labour Day weekend, because it’s all about work, and when work should take place.

The climax of the story comes at the end of a back and forth investigation of the religious legality of Jesus’ healing. “Why were you working when you shouldn’t have?” they demanded. Not a matter of fair labour union practices, but for the Pharisees and others this was a really hot button anyway.

Jesus had tried to avoid talking about it, but now he had had enough. “My Father is working straight through, he’s still working, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”

Nobody liked that kind of talk. Jesus was breaking all the rules: working on the Sabbath and calling God his equal. No one gets away with that. And as far as the religious leaders of first century Palestine were concerned, Jesus didn’t get away with it.

In a world that had few boundaries for human beings, work was seldom a matter of vocation, it was the necessity of survival. Depending upon where you were on the economic and social ladder you were either a lord, lording it over others, or a servant at the beck and whim of your lord. In the ancient world where one worked from sunrise to sunset at least, every day, and holidays were an extremely rare event, the Israelites were unique. They felt compelled to imitate God and take a regular day of rest, and throw in a few feasts and holy days as well. They were geniuses, for they figured out that to be holy the first step is to do nothing. “Taking care of business, I’ve been working hard at nothing all day” goes the song.

The day of rest was meant to refresh and rejuvenate people, feeling the pleasure of God, but human beings have the genius also to wrench every bit of enjoyment out of the best of things. The rabbis examined and defined minutely the nature and situations of work. Before long fun was banned as imitating work too closely.

Many remember the blue laws and restrictions laid upon us for the Sabbath day which became Sunday for Christians. I grew up in a good relaxed Methodist household, in which such matters were not carried to extreme. Whenever we did something that broke the old Sabbath laws of Prince Edward Island, we still went ahead, but my mother felt guilty about it for all of us.

Still, there were virtually no stores open on Sunday, except a few dairy stores where the essentials of bread and milk could be bought. My father - who went to church twice every Sunday, once to drop us off and twice to pick us up - came up with his own ingenious way around the blue laws. After church, he would drive us over to the east part of town to a little group of Jewish delicatessens which were very open and thriving on Sunday - no Sabbath for them! - and we would buy some corned beef and rye and pumpernickel bread, and some milk too.

Just how does God get tired and rest? And what does God do when Muslims have Friday as their holy day, the Jews go Friday night to Saturday night, and Christians have cordoned off Sunday? If you listen to everyone, God has to take off long weekends every weekend. “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath, and so am I.” Are four days enough to accomplish the ongoing work of creation?

Soon another feast came around, and Jesus was always there. The healing pool of Bethesda just inside one of the gates found sick and crippled people flooding the place where according to the legend an angel would create a current in the underground waters that would heal those standing in the right place. One man had come there for 38 years and could never get in the right place at the right time, the Jewish counterpart to Sisyphus pushing the huge boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down to the bottom.

“Do you want to get well?” Not a silly question, but there is no more important one. The paralyzed man detailed his nowhere journey, never getting anywhere except that he remained paralyzed.

Jesus, however, had seen enough of this phony nonsensical stuff. Nobody gets healed by the Moose Jaw Spa or in Watrous. Even if it is faith in a false god, this man has shown how much he wants to be healed, how much faith he has. Just get up, pick up your bedroll and start walking. Jesus didn’t touch the man, so technically didn’t heal him, but the man walked.

The religious guys were offended for a bunch of reasons. People who can really heal by the power of their personalities are always dangerous to those who can’t. Moreover, since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ real sin was not healing, but telling the man to break the law by carrying his bedroll. That is nonsense, but after all, the only real power these religious guys had was the authority to tell people what they can’t do. What gets your dander up more, being told exactly what to do, or being told what you cannot do? Well, the worst thing in the world is to tell the guys whose job it is to tell people what they can’t do that people after all can do it.

Jesus just melted into the crowded throng, so it took a while to figure out who had helped this man walk again. Jesus ran into the fellow in the temple and congratulated him while cautioning him not to sin any more. Usually, Jesus is trying to get rid of that ancient idea we are still stuck with - that physical disease and handicap is a result of one’s errors and sins. Certainly, the religious guys believed it worked that way, and counted on it, because it conveniently eliminated a lot of people from compassion and concern. Anybody with any kind of defect or illness was considered ineligible to be in a position of leadership. You had to be physically perfect to be among the elite. No matter exactly what Jesus said, what he did mean was that you are now among the elite of God’s realm. Act like it. Walk like it. Deal compassionately with all those other less than perfect and blemished folk who the leaders want to throw away. God wants you to get up and start walking.

And God doesn’t stop working. I don’t know how to explain it, but I do believe God finds a way to rest, but God’s rest doesn’t fit neatly into our categories. Yet God’s work, the work of healing, the work of compassion, the work of helping someone fallen to the ground to get up again, honours no particular Sabbath. God’s work finds its own Sabbath, but on God’s terms, not strictly according to human standards and schedules.

If you don’t imitate what has happened, nothing here makes sense. I know there are too many lawyers and judges sitting here, but when it comes to suffering people, you’ve got to break the rules. Or else, you’ve broken God’s rule, which is love God with all you’ve got and to love your neighbour as yourself - and a neighbour is someone, anyone, who is in need. God keeps working, thank God. Jesus keeps working; you and I have got to keep working. We do have to rest, like God, but real rest doesn’t always follow human directions. There is no Sabbath from healing the sick and lame and diseased, from loving those lonely and injured and unloved. God’s work is fun, even on the Sabbath.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan