Keep the Sabbath Holy

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Mark 2:23--3:5.

            As I’m sure you noticed, our Bible readings are about times when Jesus did things on the Sabbath.  In doing so, of course, He violated Jewish law and got the religious authorities upset with Him.  And we’ll talk about that, but first, there’s a more fundamental question we need to talk about.  What, exactly, is the Sabbath?  When we talk about the Sabbath–when the Bible talks about the Sabbath–what, exactly, are we talking about?

            The first thing we probably think of is that, well, it’s Sunday.  And that’s true, as far as it goes.  Of course, it was not Sunday in Jesus’ time.  For Jesus, the Sabbath was Saturday, the seventh day.  It comes from the creation story in Genesis, where God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day.  The seventh day of the week was Saturday, so that’s when Jewish people would celebrate the Sabbath, and Jesus was Jewish.  Christians changed it to Sunday to commemorate the day when people found out Jesus had been raised from the dead.  That day, of course, was Sunday–Easter Sunday.

            So that tells us what day the Sabbath is on.  But it does not really answer the question.  What is the Sabbath?  Why was it important to people in Jesus’ time?  Why is it important now?  Or is it?  Is the Sabbath still important, or is it just a relic of a bygone time?  Something that people made a big deal of when Jesus was around, but something that really does not have anything to do with our lives today?

            When we look at society, we don’t seem to be considering the Sabbath to be very important, do we?  What do most people do on the Sabbath day?  They go to the river.  Or they go camping.  Or they go golfing.  Or they watch a ball game.  Or they sleep in.  Or they have a family day.  Or, some people work.  

            Now, none of those things is an inherently bad thing to do.  I like to watch ball games myself.  And it’s good to have family time.  And there are some jobs that need to be done, whether it’s the Sabbath day or not.  But none of it has much to do with keeping the Sabbath, does it?

            In Jesus’ time, they did take the Sabbath day seriously.  It was, first and foremost, a day of rest.  It was a day on which no work was to be done.

            Now, there were some exceptions made, out of necessity.  For example, the cattle did not understand that it was the Sabbath day, and they needed to be fed and watered on that day just like they did on any other day.  But even within the exceptions, there were rules about what you could and could not do.  You could do what was absolutely necessary, but that was all you could do.  Any more than that put you in violation of the Sabbath law.

            That, of course, is what got Jesus in trouble.  He was doing things that were not, in the view of the religious leaders, absolutely necessary.  He was doing things that were considered work on the Sabbath day, and that was not supposed to be done.  The Sabbath day was a day of rest.  Period.

            And to the extent we recognize the Sabbath day at all anymore, that’s how we recognize it.  As a day of rest.  Now, of course, we think of “rest” and “work” differently from the way the religious leaders of Jesus’ time did.  When we think of “a day of rest”, what we really mean is a day when you don’t do your normal job.  Going fishing, going camping, going tubing, going golfing–all those things would’ve been considered “work” in Jesus’ time.  Not that people played golf in Jesus’ time, but you know what I mean.  None of those things would’ve been permitted under the Sabbath law of Jesus’ time.  They would all have been considered work.

            But even looking at the Sabbath as a day of rest really does not cover what the Sabbath is supposed to be.  I said the idea of the Sabbath comes from the creation story, and that’s true.  But the Sabbath law had its root in the Ten Commandments.  It’s the fourth commandment, and it does say a lot of stuff about not doing work on the Sabbath day.  But here’s the part the religious leaders of Jesus’ time left out.  To the extent that we think about the Sabbath today, it’s the part that we leave out, too.  The fourth commandment starts with the words, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

            Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Not remember the Sabbath day by having a fun day.  Not even remember the Sabbath day by not doing any work.  After all, if I stayed in bed all day, I would not be doing any work.  If I sat in front of the TV all day and watched ball games, I would not be doing any work.  But I would not be obeying the fourth commandment.  We are not supposed to just sit around doing nothing on the Sabbath day.  We are to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

            The purpose of the Sabbath day is not just to give people a day off.  The purpose of the Sabbath day is to give people a chance to connect with God.  The purpose of the Sabbath day is to help people feel God’s holy presence more strongly.  The purpose of the Sabbath day is to help us stay faithful to God and serve God.  The purpose of the Sabbath day is to help us feel love for God and to demonstrate that love by showing love to others.

            That’s what Jesus was talking about when he said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  God did not tell us to remember the Sabbath day as a punishment.  God did not tell us to remember the Sabbath day so that we’d have to follow a bunch of rules, and to get us into trouble if we broke one of the rules.  And God certainly did not tell us to remember the Sabbath day to prevent us from helping people and showing love to people.  

            That’s why Jesus was so distressed, as our reading says, at the hearts of the religious leaders when He healed a man on the Sabbath day.  The religious leaders had so completely misunderstood the purpose of the Sabbath day that they thought that helping someone in need, showing love to someone who needed love, should be forbidden.  And they had somehow convinced themselves that God would want that to be forbidden.

            So, what are we doing today–what do we do most Sundays–to keep the Sabbath day holy?  Now, in asking that question, I don’t mean to imply that no one does anything.  In fact, just the fact that you’re here in church, or that you’re watching the livestream, is a good start.  Not that sitting in a church pew is the automatic ticket to heaven, but I know you well enough to know there is no one here who just came here to impress people.  There’s no one here who came here because they think they’re better than everyone else.  You came here this morning to worship God.  You came here to make that connection with God that we talked about.  You came here to feel God’s holy presence more strongly.  You came here to have your faith in God strengthened, so that you can better serve God and show love to God and show love to others.

            It’s a good start.  But of course, that’s all it is–a start.  If we walk out of the church today and we don’t think about God again until next Sunday, nothing will have happened here.  We will not have kept the Sabbath day holy.  All we’ll have done is make ourselves feel good for forty-five minutes to an hour.

            “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  What Jesus was saying is that the Sabbath day is a gift to us.  It’s a gift from God.  It’s not a gift because we get a day off from work.  It’s a gift because it gives us a chance to get closer to God.  It gives us a chance to feel God’s Holy Spirit at work in our lives.  It’s a gift because it allows us to feel God leading us and guiding us through our lives.  The Sabbath day is a gift to us, given out of God’s great love for us.

            I don’t know what you plan to do the rest of the day.  I don’t know what you plan to do next Sunday, or the Sunday after that.  But whatever we do, let’s be sure to make God part of it.  Let’s accept God’s gift of the Sabbath.  Let’s make that connection with God, and let’s keep that connection strong all week.  Then, we’ll be able to stay faithful to God.  We’ll be able to serve God, and love God, and show love to others.  And we truly will be keeping the Sabbath day holy, the way God wants us to.