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Writer's picturePastor David Mommens

Honor the Sabbath Day

June 2, 2024 Deuteronomy 5:12–15 Series B


Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen. 


A couple weeks ago, I sat upstairs with one of our elders, with Mike, and we quizzed the confirmation students to see if they were ready to be confirmed. Remember those days? Going through questioning? Like the pastor would point at you and say, “What’s the meaning of the 7th commandment?”  And you had to, like, say it, out loud? There was so much anxiety, so much fear on that day. 


The kids did great, they were confirmed a couple weeks back. It was awesome. But there still this, like, dread or maybe battle scars of going through this process. I always see the parents with that twinkle in their eyes, like they are telling a story of triumph, “I had to do that too back in my day!” 


I think some of that anxiety has to do with the nature of the commandments. We teach the three uses of the commandments: curb, mirror, and guide. So the curb, that’s the sword as the apostles call it. It’s the punishment for crossing the line. You speed, you get a ticket. You steal - you go to jail. You disobey your parents, you lose screen time, or you miss out on a Taylor Swift concert or something. 


The second is the mirror, and we will certainly talk more about this later, the mirror reflects back to us our black eye. When we look at God’s law we see just how much we don’t keep it. The law says don’t covet. And as soon as you look at that commandment, you realize just how much you covet. To covet is to desire something that God hasn’t given to you, but instead he gave to someone else. Like a promotion, or a new side by side. In confirmation class we usually talk about video games. But it doesn’t have to be a thing, it could be a person, “I wish my mom was like yours” or “You have the best husband, why can’t mine be thoughtful like yours?” Coveting.


The third use is the guide. It gives us principles to help us structure and live our lives, like a user manual. Only instead of for a new wifi router, its for your personal life. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God above all things. Serve your neighbor, sacrifice your desires, care for those around you. Do these things and you will have a pretty decent life. A peaceful and quiet life. Right? If you don’t speed, you don’t have to worry about speed traps and you can just enjoy the drive, one less anxiety to have.


Today’s passage from the Old Testament is the Third Commandment. Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy. This commandment isn’t a “thou shalt not.” The rest are. This one is a, “you must do this.” Honor the Sabbath Day. But what’s that mean? How do we honor the Sabbath day? Luther in the small catechism puts it like this, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise teaching and His word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear it and learn it.” 


But pastor, you say, doesn’t our text today talk about not working? Isn’t the sabbath day about rest? Why doesn’t Luther talk about rest in his explanation to the 3rd commandment? Good question, thank you for asking it.


To answer this question, we have to first ask ourselves a deeper question: What does it mean to rest? 

Last weekend was Memorial Day. A day our nation sets aside for remembrance of those who gave their lives in service of our country. And most people include in this remembrance a time of rest and relaxation, from fishing, to backyard bbq’s to gatherings with friends and family. Even the local Memorial Day services often have these things, meals shared with friends, a time to tell stories of those we remember. 


Some of us think of rest like, not working. Like you put in 50 hours a week in the office, 70 hours on the farm, or whatever, and you just want to sit back in the comfy chair and put your feet up. Sometimes rest looks like getting to spend time on a hobby, working on the project you’ve been putting off for forever. Maybe rest for you is playing a video game, or going for  walk. Camping. Lots of things, lots of things we think of as rest.


But in scripture, when it talks about the sabbath day and sabbath rest, yes you are not to work, but that doesn’t mean it’s a day of naps and pajamas. A sabbath rest is meant as a day, a full day spent with your family, where you learn about God and talk about what he has done. Where you don’t despise God’s word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear it and learn it. In the Bible, Sabbath means more than just going to church on Sunday. It absolutely means you need to be in church, and bible study. More than that, on top of that, it means you need to talk about God in your home, with your family. 


And our sinfulness doesn’t like that, and too often in our laziness, we use rest as an excuse to miss out on the sabbath. “I’m too tired, I’m not going to church.” Such irony. The only true rest, the sabbath rest is found where God’s word is. Staying home to rest exactly misses the point of the sabbath. It’s the same with personal devotions, “I’m too tired.” We use the need of rest to prevent ourselves from getting rest. I’m not immune to this. I know the struggle, how much easier it us to turn on the game, to put your feet up on the couch after a hard day instead of open your bible. It is hard. 


And part of the difficulty for us to overcome, the sinfulness that doesn’t want us to read God’s word, is seeing God’s word as rest. Getting back to memorial day. Is it hard to grill out? Well, yeah. There is a lot to prepare, food to make, beverages to chill, picnic tables to set, and so on. It’s a lot of work just to rest. But we do it. We crave this time. Time to stand on the deck with family swapping stories. To sit at the table with the grandkids and listen to the wonders of their imaginations. It’s a lot of work to get there, but it’s worth it.


So it is with God’s word. It can be a lot of work to get ready to rest, to calm all the distractions that call at you and pull at you. But once you do it, once you spend the time, it’s so worth it. To hear your kids talk about Jesus, to see your parents, your spouse tell you a story from the Bible sharing how God used people to save us from sin. And there you find the rest.


So how do we do this? Well, we look to Jesus. Jesus went and took Sabbath rest. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is going off to a quiet place to pray, to spend time in God’s word. He goes to church every week and shows us what it’s like to find Sabbath. One of the things he says is, “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” The purpose of the Sabbath isn’t to burden us with more regulations that we need to follow, but it’s for our benefit. Like having a picnic on memorial day. Sabbath is the time where we gather as a family to enjoy each other’s company and to share what God has done for us.   


Which is exactly what God has prepared for us. Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus has prepared rest for you. Eternal Sabbath at his side, in his kingdom. Until we get there, he is giving us a sneak peak, each and every week of what it means to rest. So let us find our lasting and true rest in Christ. Amen. 



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