Sabbath Kingdom Demonstration

In the gospels much of the argument that takes place between Jesus and the Pharisees appears to stem from Jesus healing on the Sabbath. For example in John 9 Jesus enables sight for a man born blind, but all the Pharisees could focus on was that this was done on the Sabbath.

Scanning the gospels reveals other healings that took place the Sabbath - John chapter 5 has the disabled person by the pool as another incidence. Although the gospel authors don't appear to directly attribute much significance to these occurring on the Sabbath (apart from it generating opposition), there is an aspect that makes perfect sense 'in the big picture': Healing on the Sabbath is another aspect to demonstrating the Kingdom.

For in the eternal Kingdom all creation will be released into its perfection, all measures of needed healing will be completed for all people who inherit its blessing (Revelation 'no more crying' imagery). This can be coupled with the fact that the eternal Kingdom also represents the ultimate Sabbath rest, to which the original 7-period creation story of Genesis leads.

Therefore healing (Kingdom demonstrating) on the Sabbath represents a kind of double-whammy demonstration: the demonstrating the Kingdom on the very day that represents (and week by week points us towards) the ultimate Sabbath rest Kingdom eternity!

The healing is the Kingdom breaking into the now, and doing it on the Sabbath reminds us that one day all creation will enjoy the perfection of the Kingdom/Sabbath rest.

So it's quite a demo! But for the Pharisees, they couldn't see it. They were focussed on minutiae rule-keeping, forgetting why we have the Sabbath in the first place, totally losing sight of the ultimate rest to which it points every week. Their blind ways keep people locked up in misery - the very opposite of Kingdom release.

To heal on the Sabbath wasn't just an arbitrary event, happening by one-in-seven chance on a particular day of the week. No - it was a double Kingdom demonstrating: the Kingdom and the Sabbath uniting, and each healing a wonderful foretaste of a destiny to be inherited.