For many of us, Sunday is the day we get up and automatically go to church. It’s Sunday, and therefore we go to church. This morning, I want to talk a little bit about why we do what we do on Sundays. Sunday is the day most Christians observe as the Sabbath.
The concept of a Sabbath goes back to the very beginning of the Bible. In the beginning of Genesis is the story of God creating the world and everything in it. Then, after six days of creating, do you remember what God did? He rested. It says in Genesis 2:2-3, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
God himself gave the example for us of six days of work followed by a day of rest. Then, in the Ten Commandments, a day of Sabbath rest became part of the Law. The fourth commandment says “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work…”
The Sabbath was to be a day that was set aside as different from the rest of the week—a day for rest and refreshment. It was a gift from God to humans.
Of course, being human, the religious leaders took this gift and made it into something legalistic. If we are to rest, they asked, what exactly does that mean? So they came up with a long list of rules—and even today some Orthodox Jews actually count how many steps they are allowed to take on the Sabbath.
In our text for this morning, Jesus encounters the negative part of Sabbath—Sabbath turned legalistic.
Luke 13:
10On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." 13Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Isn’t this a beautiful story of Jesus’ compassion? The woman asked for nothing, but Jesus saw her—he noticed her and he had compassion on her, and he did not want her to suffer any more. So he called her forward and put his hands on her and healed her right then and there.
Well, you can imagine that the people were amazed and thrilled to see this woman, who had been suffering for eighteen years, instantly healed. At least some of them must have felt that way. But there were others who were not so pleased.
14Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
The irony here is abundant. Jesus has healed someone right there in the Synagogue, where the people have gathered to worship God. But the religious leaders are furious because he has done it on the Sabbath. The synagogue ruler is more concerned with the legalistic observance of the law than he is with the miraculous healing of this woman. The very person who ought to care about this suffering woman is more concerned about what day it is when the healing takes place.
This religious leader is not against healing, he just wants things to be done properly. He tells the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
And what does Jesus say about this?
15The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
17When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
Was Jesus a lawbreaker? Did he think it was okay to ignore the Ten Commandments? I don’t think so. But Jesus understood that there was a greater purpose in the Sabbath than simply following a list of rules.
Notice first where Jesus was and what he was doing on the Sabbath. He was in the synagogue teaching. But when he saw this woman who was suffering, his heart went out to her and he chose to heal her right then. What better way to worship and glorify God?
If we want to be like Jesus, we must remember how important it is that we have compassion towards others first. Our love for one another—both within the church and in the world—is far more important than our obedience to rules.
It is good to observe the Sabbath by coming to church; by setting aside a day to worship God. But we must never become so legalistic that we think we are better than others because of our observance of the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is a gift to us. God has determined that we were not meant to work every single day without rest.
We live in a busy, stressful, 24/7 world. Twenty four hours of the day, seven days of the week our world keeps going. When we are not working, we are still surrounded by the noise of radios, television, cell phones ringing.
I believe that to honor God’s concept of Sabbath means to come away from the noise of our lives and find time and space to simply be quiet in God’s presence.
In her book, Soul Feast, Marjorie Thompson says,
“The Sabbath command is especially relevant to contemporary life. How difficult it is for people in our achievement- and production-obsessed culture to rest. Keeping the Sabbath means trusting God to be God, recognizing that we are not indispensable. When we refuse to take a single day a week for genuine refreshment and rest, we try to outdo even God! In the light of God’s rest, our anxious, compulsive activities may be exposed as little more than efforts to stay in control, or to fabricate life’s meaning out of constant activity.
The purpose of Sabbath rest is to free us inwardly for full-hearted worship. Genuine worship flows from a heart that trusts God to uphold the universe.”
There are two parts to truly observing the Sabbath. It’s really much more than showing up at church every Sunday. Sabbath means, first of all, a conscious, deliberate rest from what we do the rest of the week. Second, Sabbath means consciously putting yourself in God’s presence for the purpose of worshipping God.
Observing the Sabbath by coming to church doesn’t make us better than other people. Observing the Sabbath by coming to church is a gift God gives to us. God did not come up with the concept of Sabbath in order to make us suffer! God knows and understands us, and he tells us to observe the Sabbath because he know how much we need it!
When we refuse, we’re a bit like an over-tired two-year-old, refusing to take a nap. We’ve all heard a little one crying from exhaustion and protesting, “I’m not tired! I don’t want to take a nap!”
God calls us to Sabbath. He calls us to times of rest and spiritual refreshment. Sabbath is a gift.
Prayer:
Gracious and loving God, we thank you for the way you have provided for all of our needs. You call us to rest because you know us inside and out, and you know what we need.
Help us to trust you enough to rest—to understand that we can afford to take one day each week to give to you. And as we give that day to you, you in turn give back to us, giving us much more than we could possibly give to you.
Lord God, this morning, as part of our Sabbath worship, we praise you and we worship you. We acknowledge that you are God, and we are not. We place our lives in your hands, trusting you to care for us, and to lead us and guide us in the way we should go.
We ask that you would heal our hearts and our bodies. Refresh us in body and spirit so that we might live our lives abundantly and well. Thank you for the gift of Sabbath. Amen
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