24 Aug 2025, Luke 13:10-17, Exodus 20:1-11, "The Lord's Day: A Restoration of Freedom and Joy"

When I was a little boy, I loved going to church. I loved the Bible stories my Sunday school teachers told, and I loved singing with my friends and running around in the churchyard. It’s no exaggeration to say that those days shaped my character and my life. It may sound a little strange, but to be honest, I didn’t really like Sundays. Now, don’t get me wrong I loved church. But Sunday itself? Not so much. And the reason was my grandma.

She was strict, traditional, and very conservative in her faith. For her, Sunday was the Sabbath. That meant no TV, no games, no buying food, no spending money. As a child, I found it really hard to understand. So while I loved being at church, Sundays were not always my favorite.

Every Saturday afternoon she had what I used to call “her ironing time.” It was her cherished, holy time. She would iron shirts, pants, and skirts for the whole family, and prepare all the food for Sunday in advance. But the most important task was the offering. If she could, she would go to the bank to get crisp, new notes. If not, she would literally iron the money herself, just for the Sunday offering. As far as I can remember, she never once gave old notes to God. With great care, she put the carefully pressed notes into envelopes, writing each family member’s name, and sometimes filling the envelope with long notes of thanksgiving.

As a child, it looked extreme, almost like fundamentalism. I thought it was too much. But looking back now, I see it differently. It wasn’t about rules. It was her way of loving God with all her heart. She believed, “We must give God our very best and come before Him in the most respectable way.” Of course, as a child, I often complained. It felt like there were too many things to do. But today, those memories have become precious, and they still uphold my faith even now.

Today I may know more of the Bible than she did. I’ve studied theology, earned higher degrees, and have access to all kinds of knowledge. But there is still something I cannot surpass in my grandma: the purity of her heart toward God. In that, I am still her student. She showed me how to love God and how to prepare for Sunday. By Saturday evening, once everything was prepared, she would be filled with joy, almost as if she couldn’t wait for Sunday to come.

So, what is the Lord’s Day for us? What is the Sabbath?

At first, my grandma’s way of preparing for Sunday might have looked like being tied up in rules and regulations—maybe even a little extreme. But it wasn’t that at all. There were no instructions about what temperature the iron should be set at, or what color the envelopes had to be. None of that. She simply did it with joy, with her heart set on God. It wasn’t about rules. It was about love and gratitude. And that, my friends, is the key to understanding the Sabbath.

In our gospel reading from Luke 13, we meet people who had turned the Sabbath into a list of rules: “This you can do… that you cannot do.” For them, it became all about restrictions. But for Jesus, the Sabbath was always about freedom. It was always about life.

That’s when He met a woman, a woman who had been bent over for eighteen long years, unable to stand up straight. As I pictured her, a thought came to me: she must have longed so deeply just to look up at the sky. Everyone in the village knew her because the synagogue was the center of the town.

Jesus saw her. He called her and said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then He placed His hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and began to praise God!

The atmosphere must have shifted. People were gasping, whispering, and rejoicing. Some were filled with joy and wonder. Others thought, “This doesn’t feel right…”

And then here comes the synagogue leader. He jumps up, waving his arms, raising his voice: “Not today! There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath!”

It’s strange. He didn’t dare yell at Jesus, so instead he shouted at the crowd, blaming the people when the real problem was with Jesus. What should he have said? Something like: “Jesus! How dare you heal on the Sabbath! You could have done this on any other day, but not today!” But he didn’t say that. Why? Perhaps because he was afraid of Jesus. Or maybe because he felt a deep sense of awe in His presence.

Jesus replied: “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you untie your ox or donkey on the Sabbath and lead it to water? Then shouldn’t this woman, a true daughter of Abraham, who has been chained by Satan for eighteen years, be set free on the Sabbath?” Jesus uses the same word again and again: untie… set free… untie… set free. Animals are untied. A woman is untied. One is for thirst. The other is for life. It’s as if He were saying, “Your cow gets untied. But she can’t? Really?” What a divine twist! Jesus completely turned their logic upside down.

But let’s be clear, Jesus wasn’t just silencing the synagogue leader. There was something much deeper behind His choice of words. This word "untie" or "set free" is, in fact, the very heart of the Sabbath.

Let's look at our second reading today, from Exodus. When God gave the Ten Commandments, He began with these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Before giving the law, God wanted His people to remember that He had already given them freedom, deliverance, and new life. Before the Ten Commandments were spoken, salvation had already been given. This shows us that God’s love and grace always come first, before the commandments. The law itself is a gift. And that is the heart of it.

Think about it: if they were still slaves, the Ten Commandments would have been nothing but oppression—just another kind of bondage. But as free people, the commandments became guidelines for a better life. It’s like parents teaching their children basic safety rules not to restrict them, but to protect them and help them flourish.

The Sabbath commandment is exactly the same. It was never just a rule about stopping work for one day. God was saying: “Do you remember what it was like to be slaves? In Egypt, you worked without rest, without relief, without hope. But now you are free. So rest in my love, in my blessing. Worship me with joy. And cherish the gift of life with your family.”

Can you imagine that very first Sabbath? After four hundred years of slavery—bricks and straw, dawn to dusk, under the whip—and then suddenly to be told: “Rest! For a whole day! Do nothing!” It must have been unbelievable. For us today, taking a day off may not feel like much. But for them, one single day of rest must have felt like freedom itself. It's that little sigh of relief, that deep breath of rest you feel on a public holiday, but multiplied beyond measure.

And God said: “Now, one day in every week—stop everything. Worship me. Rest together with your whole community. Breathe in the freedom I have given you.”

I believe we can now understand: the Sabbath was never meant to be about oppression, or rules, or fear. It was always about freedom. It was always about love. It was always about God’s invitation to rest and rejoice in Him.

But sadly, over time, this beautiful commandment began to change. What was once a day of freedom and joy slowly became a day of restrictions and endless rules. The heart of love was replaced by the weight of law. The gift of freedom was buried under human traditions and power. In the end, they cared more about keeping their rules than setting free a woman who had been bound for so long.

This is exactly why Jesus came into the world. Because simply keeping the law perfectly could never give us the hope of heaven. Jesus opened for us a new way, beyond the law. He gave us the hope of resurrection, something the law itself could never provide. That’s why we no longer keep the Sabbath in the old way. From the very beginning, after the resurrection, Christians gathered on Sunday—the day Jesus rose from the dead. That’s why we call it the Lord’s Day. Every Sunday is a celebration of resurrection. Every Sunday is a reminder that we are Easter people.

And here’s the key: whether it’s the Sabbath or the Lord’s Day, the heart is the same. Both are about rest, freedom, worship, and life in God. What has changed is not the heart, but the direction. The Sabbath looked back—to creation and the Exodus. But the Sunday looks forward—to the new creation, and to the new life we now share in the risen Christ.

So I wonder, brothers and sisters, how might the Sabbath come alive for us in a fresh way today?

It was always meant to be a day of joy and thanksgiving. A day to pause after a week of working hard, of loving and forgiving one another, and of striving to understand each other. And yet, we come to it carrying the aches and struggles of life. Sometimes we’ve been hurt. Sometimes we’ve hurt others. Sometimes we simply feel bent low under the weight of it all. And in those moments, we’re not so different from that woman in the synagogue—bent low, unable to lift our heads, longing just to look up at the sky.

But listen to the good news: Just as Israel was set free from slavery in Egypt, just as the woman bent over for eighteen years was set free and able to look up at the sky, just as a thirsty animal is untied and led to water—so we too are set free. Set free from the heavy burdens of life, from everything that binds us.

That is why Sunday is not just another day off. It is the day when our bodies and our hearts, weighed down and bent low through the week, are lifted up again! It is the day when our eyes are turned to heaven. Like the woman who could finally lift her eyes to the sky, may our eyes be lifted to God, and may we give our praise and prayers with joy.

Let Sunday be the day when broken hearts are restored and joy is renewed. If we have reasons to give thanks, let Sunday be the day we share our gratitude and lift up songs of praise to God. And if there is something we cannot break free from on our own, then let Sunday be the day we remember: Jesus is the one who sets us free.

For this is the blessing of the Sabbath. Even now He speaks to us: “Isn’t it right that you should be set free?” This is the true Lord’s Day. We are Easter people, set free to live in the joy of resurrection.

So let us be a church overflowing with joy in the Lord. Let us rejoice freely, as much as we are able, for this day is meant to be a day like that.

May the freedom and joy of the Sabbath be restored in Christ… and may every burden be loosed and set free. Amen.