Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity AD 2023

Today’s Gospel speaks of the healing of a man with dropsy. It is significant that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, incurring the wrath of the Pharisees, who accused Him of disobeying God’s commandment. In answering them, Jesus showed that in fact He had done the exact opposite: by freeing the man from the disease that tormented him, He did not break the commandment to keep the Sabbath, but fulfilled it.

God himself explains the meaning of the Sabbath commandment: “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out then through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:15) The liberation of the people of Israel from slavery was a foreshadowing of the redemption accomplished in Jesus. The healing of the man with dropsy on the Sabbath was a sign of what Jesus has come to give us all.

Dropsy is mainly caused by failure of the heart and kidneys. In the Bible, the heart represents the inner nature of a person: his self-consciousness, mind and will. The kidneys symbolize our desires and affections. We know that the heart and kidneys of fallen, sinful man have failed – not so much physically, but morally and spiritually. Jesus has come to heal us. Even more: Jesus has come to make us new and to give us the freedom of a true and eternal Sabbath.