Healing comes with the sabbath

The Scriptures record that Jesus healed on the sabbath on seven occasions. Why did he do so? Was it simply to counter the legalism of the Jewish religious leaders? Perhaps, but I believe something more significant is at work in these episodes, as explained in an article just published in Cateclesia Forum: Healing Comes with the Sabbath. An excerpt:

God has built into his creation an eschatological destiny to be accomplished at Christ’s return when he establishes his kingdom in a new heaven and new earth. This is when the biblical sixth day, referred to in Genesis 1:24–31, yields to the seventh day when God rests from his work and his elect enter with him into that rest. The entire redemptive story laid out in Scripture points to this as our ultimate hope. At that hour, in the fulness of God’s time, our work in his creation will find its fulfilment and commendation, much as the law itself will be fulfilled.

If we look at Jesus’ miracles in light of this sabbatarian reading of Scripture, they come to appear less like protests against legalism and more like an affirmation of the centrality of sabbath to the biblical story.

Read the entire article here.