June 2, 2024 Series B
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The third commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. What does it mean? Luther tells us in his small catechism, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise teaching and his word but hold it sacred and gladly hear it and learn it.”
Of all the commandments given by God this one seems to be the most overlooked. I think there is a lot of confusions and bad information about the Sabbath Day. What is it? Why is it important? How do we follow this command today? What does Jesus say about it? I want to spend some time today talking about. The pharisees in our text from Mark are confused about it, and quite frankly so are we. Understanding the third commandment is important for us, even today, especially as we enter the season of summer, and I’ll talk about why that is a bit later on in today’s sermon.
The Sabbath day has a rich history dating back to the very first days of creation. In Genesis chapter 1 we learn that God took 6 days to make everything, from the creepiest of creepy things that creep on the earth to the largest of the big things that walk on the earth, to the monstrous creatures that swim in the seas. In 6 days God made everything, people too! On the 7th day, God did something very important, he rested.
God took a break, he stopped creating. He used this day to survey everything that he had done and he saw that it was very good. God’s actions during this week continue to be foundational for our lives in many important ways. God’s creative work the reason that our weeks are 7 days. It’s the reason that we go to work for most of it, and it’s the reason that we rest.
From the very beginning Sabbath is about rest. God establishes Sabbath as a formal law for his people, his chosen covenant community to follow at Mt. Sinai. This is what our Old Testament lesson picks up. The 10 commandments are given in Exodus 20, and restated in our text today from Deuteronomy. Here God lays out specific instructions for what is not to be done on Sabbath, and that involves work.
No one is to work on the Sabbath. Absolutely no one. Not you, not your spouse, not your children or your friends, not your hired servants, not even your animals. Literally everyone is to take the day off and rest.
This is something the people took very seriously. There are examples of punishments that look harsh to our eyes for those who broke the sabbath, who worked on their required, mandated by God, day off. And following Israel’s return from exile, as Jews, they took the Sabbath law even more seriously, if that we possible. Scholars estimate that there are some 30 additional regulations placed around the sabbath, rules to help keep the Sabbath.
So when Jesus and his disciples walk around in our text today from Mark the Pharisees are very concerned that he, rather his disciples are breaking the sabbath. How were they doing that? Well, the sabbath means no work. Harvesting and threshing grain is definitely work, ask any farmer. So when the disciples picked heads of grain, rubbed their hands together to thresh it, and ate the seeds, they were technically working on the sabbath. The were harvesting and threshing as they walked.
And as with so many other instances, Jesus uses this opportunity to teach. He stops walking, turns around and he sees his people who are lost, who are confused, he sees people who are trying to justify themselves with their actions so Jesus proclaims to them a message of good news. Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; So that the Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath.” The Pharisees had gotten the order backwards. For them, the Sabbath had become just another item to check of the list of things they did well. Another rule to follow and obey. So Jesus takes them back to creation, back to the first 7 days of history, back to when it all began. Who was created first, man or the Sabbath? Well, man was created first, so sabbath was created to benefit, not burden mankind.
So to people who are so burdened by the Law, Jesus brings the Gospel. “Sabbath is for man.” Or to say it a different way, “I created this to be a day of rest for humanity. A day to recompose, to recover, a day to focus on your relationships, with your animals, your servants, your friends, your children, and most importantly, with the Lord of the Sabbath, with God.
And we are just like the pharisees. We really are. We take the gift of Sabbath, and it becomes a tremendous burden to us. And the big danger of this is it makes going to church a chore rather than a blessing. Yes, it is a command to worship God, but why did God command it?
Does God need you? No. Does God need your prayers? No. Does God need your praise, your thanksgiving, your offerings, your sacrifices? No, no, no and no. God does not need any of the things that we do on the Sabbath. Everything is already God’s. All the creation, all the praise, laud, and honor. Everything is God’s already. So coming to church to give God more of those things cannot be the only reason God commanded it.
Sabbath is made for Man, not man for the Sabbath. God wants you hear, commands that you observe this day, because God wants to bless you. 6 days a week you are living your daily lives as Christians. All actions you live are lived as the church, serving God by serving others, from answering phone calls at work, to preparing meals for your family, to cutting the grass. Everything, even the most mundane stuff, is done in service to God.
But today, on the Sabbath, God comes and serves you. The Holy Spirit gathers you into this place so God can serve you, give you the good stuff that refreshes and restores, strengthens your faith. Here, the word of God is read and proclaimed. Here you learn of the deeds of God in history for your benefit. How God sent his son to redeem you.
Here you receive the forgiveness of sins. Each day we are reminded of how sinful we are, how corrupt we are. Each day when we look in the mirror we see all of our flaws and shortcomings. At night, we often wrestle with mistakes that we made during the day, or even 10 years ago. But here, in this place, we see those sins forgiven. We make confession before God and receive the amazing gift of forgiveness, and with it life and salvation. And here we receive the sacraments, where God comes to us in a way we can touch, a way that strengthens us to life everlasting.
And so, unsurprisingly, Sabbath is ultimately about Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. What happened on the 7th day of creation? God rested, and so it is that in God we find rest. Sabbath was given to us as a day of rest from labors, as a foretaste of what the new creation will be like, a day of worship, of dwelling on what God has done. A day of family, a time to spend with loved ones, and a day of rest, a chance to recover. Jesus comes to us today with a true Gospel and with a true rest.
This summer, many of us, myself included, are going to take time to go somewhere to rest. You might go camping, or fishing, or you might travel to see family, or even take a stay-cation. And the purpose of these activities is to find rest. In the midst of your rest seeking adventures, don’t forget the Sabbath, for the Sabbath offers what a vacation can’t, true rest. A rest from labor, a rest for the soul. A rest in Christ, for the Sabbath was made for man, and the Son of Man, Jesus, is lord, even of the Sabbath. Amen.
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