Luke 14:3

THE SPIRIT OF SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

‘Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?’

Luke 14:3

It was at Capernaum that the controversy with our Lord about the Sabbath took place. What do we learn from our Lord’s teaching?

I. All the ceremonial prescription must give way to necessity.—When the disciples of the Lord were hungry, and plucked the ears of corn and rubbed them in their hands, and so broke the law from necessity, He commended what they did. And so, we know, then, that when there is a case of necessity, the ceremonial law may be broken. And it comes into our lives in this way—some one says: ‘If I do not keep my little shop open on Sunday, I shall starve.’ Very well, if it is a case of starvation, I won’t say a word against it. If a man were to say, ‘It is absolutely necessary for me to go right away on the Sunday’—if it is absolutely necessary, you may cover yourselves under your Master. But the question is, Is it absolutely necessary? The Lord certainly did tell us all prescriptive ceremonial must give way to necessity.

II. Prescriptive ceremonial must give way to service—God’s service.—And if this first law of the Lord was for the people, this is for God’s ministers, ‘The priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless.’ They kept the law by breaking it. Their work was very arduous. So arduous was the priest’s work, that, month by month, he had to go and rest. And that covers God’s ministry. In most cases, the clergy have the hardest work to do upon the Sunday. We can cover ourselves under the law of our God and Master, and say, the priests who did God’s service were blameless.

III. All ceremonial observance must give way to mercy.—If you are coming to church, and, in some necessity of life, some poor soul calls you away, needing your help, you must not say: ‘If I help that poor chap, I shall miss church’; or, ‘I shall be late for church’ You must say: ‘No; mercy is greater than sacrifice.’ You had much better stop and do a little work of mercy, and miss church, even on Sunday.

IV. ‘The Sabbath was made for man.’—It was made, first of all, for the family; it was made for the nation, and now it is made for the whole world. He, the Son of Man, is Lord of the Day that He hath made, and that is the only reason why we have from our Lord the authority for keeping the Lord’s Day, His day.

We ought to be on the Sunday the Lord’s Day observers. That is as the Bible has indicated to us and the Church, and I tell you our one duty is to go to the Lord’s service on the Lord’s Day.

Rev. A. H. Stanton.

Illustration

‘In the French Revolution they wished to abolish it altogether, and the men in the time of the Revolution said: “Let us have seven days’ work and seven days’ pay,” and they had it; and now they have seven days’ work, but only six days’ pay. They have lost their day of rest, and long to get it back. It was made for them, and they destroyed it.’