Sermon Seeds: A Sabbath

May 25, 2025
Sixth Sunday of Easter | Year C
(Liturgical Color: White)

Lectionary Citations
Acts 16:9-15 • Psalm 67 • Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 • John 14:23-29 or John 5:1-9
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=s&d=48&y=384

Focus Scripture: John 5:1-9
Focus Theme: A Sabbath
Series: Building Up a New World (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

What is sabbath? Is it simply a day off from work? Is the point to have a day to do nothing or a day to run errands and catch up on the non-compensated and unfinished tasks for the week? Some look toward the first creation narrative as a source of direction, inspiration, and clarity as Creator rested on the seventh and last day of the week and declared everything good. Adele Reinhartz notes, “Jews who observe the Sabbath experience it as the sanctification of time, as a foretaste of the world to come, a day of spiritual and physical renewal (Heschel). The restrictions on work, travel, and other activities are what make that experience possible.”

Does it count as sabbath if we do not rest or have not sufficiently rested? Strict observers of the custom may refrain from using technology and even flipping a light switch may count as an infraction. Others equate sabbath with worship and insist that is the day for communal gathering of the people of God to praise, give thanks, and honor the Sovereign One. What is sabbath?

The gospel reading provides an episode in the life of Jesus on a sabbath day. Nothing within the account suggests it was a typical or atypical sabbath observance for Jesus, and the fact that it occurred on the sabbath is only noted at the end of the passage. Yet, the story of healing that takes place on a sabbath day may inform how the kindom of God may be understood.

The sign takes place on an unnamed Jewish pilgrimage festival and displays a detailed knowledge of the temple area, corroborated by the modern discovery of a second-century healing sanctuary and pool with five porticoes in this approximate location (Freund, Arav, and Bethsaida Excavations Project). The explanation of how healing took place at the pool—an angel of the Lord used to come down in the pool, the water was stirred up, and the first to enter would be healed (5:3)—was known to Tertullian (160–225) and to Chrysostom, but because it is absent from the earliest manuscripts, it is not considered original to the Gospel.
Adele Reinhartz

Textual criticism aside, the narrative features Jesus interacting with someone living on the margins. Even as the disabled person comes to the location promising healing, obstacles to wholeness meet them. Jesus asks a seemingly unnecessary question, “Do you want to be made well?” Perhaps, the question is spiritual or metaphorical. Perhaps, it was perfunctory and a way to facilitate his intervention. Or, perhaps, Jesus recognized the agency of the person living with a disability and refused to move forward without permission.

Jesus saw him and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time. The Synoptics also introduce accounts of Jesus’ miracles by referring to Jesus “seeing” a person (Luke 7:13; 13:12). The Greek term rendered “realized” (γνούς, gnous; TNIV: “learned”) could just as well refer to supernatural knowledge as to knowledge gained through diligent inquiry. Jesus’ conversation with the invalid possibly was occasioned by the man’s request for alms (cf. Acts 3:1–5). In contrast to the paralytic in Mark 2:1–12, whose four friends carried him to Jesus by lowering his mat through a roof, this man had no one to help him.
Andreas J. Köstenberger

This unnamed man who has gone unseen or ignored by others at the pool receives attention from Jesus. His illness has lasted a typical male lifespan for that time, presumably he has a disability or chronic illness that he has lived with from a very young age. How long he has been at the side of the pool is unknown as is the nature of his illness, although the text positions him alongside the blind, lame, and paralyzed. Jesus’ directive to walk could suggest an impairment impacting his legs, but the omission of specificity in the text suggests that the nature of the illness is unimportant. The possibility of wellness takes priority.

Unlike other miracle stories, there is no mention of faith. The man does not seek Jesus. The audience does not hear him crying out for salvation or assistance. He seems to be passive, or perhaps, he was resting from whatever was required of him to reach this position. If his physical condition limited his movement, how did he even get there? Again, that does not seem to be the point. Jesus does not interrogate the man regarding his past actions or life circumstances. He does not create a litmus test to determine if the man is worthy of his attention or intervention. Jesus recognizes that all is not well with this man and is prepared to change that if the man desires it.

Following the way of Jesus requires eschewing cultural norms that suggest that people have to be worthy of receiving help. There’s no checklist to ensure that the person did not cause or contribute to their current condition. There’s no set of actions the man must commit to undertake in order to be deserving of assistance. Further, the man has struggled for a long time, and Jesus does not determine that it is too late to make a difference or imply that the man should be used to it.

At the same time, the question does not speak directly of or to the man’s affliction. Wellness and healing may seem synonymous, yet I suspect members of the disability community would challenge that simplistic assumption. It is possible to attain a measure of wellness and wholeness while living with a disability or chronic disease. For the man by the pool, wellness may have been satisfied by being acknowledged, known, and integrated into the community. Jesus does not tell the man that his faith has healed him. Healing isn’t the word that is used and may not have been the goal.

Ignoring the pool and its supposed healing powers, he tells the man, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.” The setting of the incident, so elaborately introduced (vv. 2–3), is virtually forgotten. Jesus and the sick man are still at the pool, but it no longer matters. They could be anywhere…. A natural question to ask in both stories is, Why mention the “mat”? Why not just say “Get up and walk?” In Mark the answer is fairly clear. The paralytic was brought in to Jesus on a “mat,” but now he no longer needs it. Carrying his mat signals his newfound independence and marks his departure from the scene. He does not walk simply to demonstrate his ability to walk, but he goes home, and because the mat is his property he takes it with him (see Mk 2:11, 12). In John’s Gospel, although the mat has not been mentioned before, the reader can infer something similar. In telling the sick man, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk,” Jesus is not saying, “Get up and walk around to prove to everyone that you are healed.” He is saying, “Get up, leave this place and take your mat with you, because you aren’t coming back. You don’t need to stay here any longer.”
J. Ramsey Michaels

This all happened on a sabbath day. Perhaps, sabbath is not solely about activity, or the lack thereof, as much as outcome and realized hopes. Sabbath may be about returning, reorienting, and renewing toward the status of that seventh day of creation. All was well. All was good.

Perhaps sabbath is not an escape or retreat from the world around us. Rather, sabbath demonstrates an immersion in the world that is possible–the kindom of God realized. Our small way of participating in sabbath rejects productivity as a sign of our worth and output as a measure of our value. When we engage in sabbath, we repudiate the notion that our being needs justification or that our needs should not be accommodated and met with generosity and joy. Real sabbath does not allow for silence, inaction, or apathy under the guise of sanctimonious adherence to an ascribed set of practices or restrictions. True sabbath pursues shalom—everything as Creator intended it to be.

Sabbath may be a day or an extended period of time. It may also be found, cultivated, and nurtured in moments when we recognize those who live in obscurity, acknowledge their person and their agency, ask a simple yet profound question, “Do you want to be made well,” and then use our Creator endowed power to make it so.

A Sabbath.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“The Rest Is Resistance framework also does not believe in the toxic idea that we are resting to recharge and rejuvenate so we can be prepared to give more output to capitalism. What we have internalized as productivity has been informed by a capitalist, ableist, patriarchal system. Our drive and obsession to always be in a state of “productivity” leads us to the path of exhaustion, guilt, and shame. We falsely believe we are not doing enough and that we must always be guiding our lives toward more labor. The distinction that must be repeated as many times as necessary is this: We are not resting to be productive. We are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so.”
― Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

Building Up a New World Liturgical Resources
Book Chapter: “Healing Sustains Our Organizing”
Scripture: Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
Book Quote:
“Healing is a journey of stitching back together what was fragmented by the suffering of trauma – in mind, body, and spirit. It is mending the soul by way of learning how to be in healthy relationship with self and others…Social justice organizing is actually healing work. We are healing ourselves as we are healing the systems that harm…Integrated, layered healing in movement is an opportunity to receive and reciprocate healing as we heal these harmful systems, not just reaching for healing after we are specifically impacted and realize we need healing. We always need healing and healing should always be available” (119, 124, 127).
Theme Notes:
The resurrection vision of a future of flourishing for all offered in Revelation literally has healing at its center. In some ways, all of our work for justice and organizing for transformation has healing at its root. What would it look like for us to intentionally put healing practices at the center of our work, like the tree of life at the center of the new city Revelation invites us to imagine, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
Building Up a New World Liturgical Resources written by Dr. Sharon R. Fennema, who serves as Join the Movement toward Racial Justice Curator with UCC National Ministries.

For Further Reflection
“Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week. ” — Alice Walker
“Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life.” — Marilynne Robinson
“My body needed me to love it all the way.” ― Sarah Griffith Lund

Works Cited
Köstenberger, Andreas J.. John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2013.
Michaels, J. Ramsey. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
Reinhartz, Adele. “John.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
During the season of Easter, the suggested congregational response will come from the All Church Read Group Engagement Guide found on Frontline Faith.
Discover more tools for your justice-making journey with the Economic Justice Ministries of the UCC at https://www.ucc.org/fillthejar/

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/easter-6c-may-25/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.