Sabbath Do-Gooders
Notes
Transcript
Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, is the ultimate boss of what it means to be a “Sabbath-keeper.” He corrects a gross misunderstanding and mispractice on the Sabbath. Jesus regularly and intentionally “does good” on the Sabbath, and brings healing, rest and restoration to others. Sabbath “keeping” is more than Saturday church attendance or a nice afternoon nap. It is right and especially appropriate to seek out opportunities to do good on the Sabbath.
What does your Sabbath-keeping look like?
What Does Sabbath-Keeping Mean To You?
What Does Sabbath-Keeping Mean To You?
If I could put a picture up here I would.
The immediate thing that comes to mind:
In my elementary school years, our church in LA split into 5 new regional church plants, and ours met in our living room for several years. So there was a ton of setup and then cleanup… and when everyone had finally gone home my parents cherished… nap time.
Sabbath afternoon nap.
And, well, we didn’t want to nap. We wanted to play. So my brother and I, usually, would sneak out of our rooms and go play as far away from my parents’ room as we could get.
But… if we got too loud, or maybe my parents wondered if it was too quiet… here comes my Dad marching down the hallway, dressed in all his “napping” finery.
That is the picture of Sabbath-keeping that jumps to mind. Naps, and Lord-have-mercy on anyone who interrupts!
No TV, that was a rule.
No Sports.
What is this Sabbath thing all about?
And is it even important?
13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
So… that sounds important. “Above all?” That comes after stuff about the tabernacle and the ark and the mercy seat and the Holy Place. “Above all” that… and the penalty for profaning it? Death!
That’s a different picture of my Dad marching down the hallway… to bring Death to us naughty Sabbath profaners!
And Jesus says:
Rest
Rest
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
How do we put this all together?
The penalty for Sabbath profaning is death… and Jesus paid that death. He took all sin and death, took it the cross, and we are free and free forever. Amen!
Nothing we will or ever will say should add or subtract from that fundamental and foundational truth. If you start to forget this peace… throw it all away and start over with that.
This is rest for your souls.
In the freedom of Christ, we are invited into the Righteousness He has Made for Us. To live in it, to walk in it.
And the Sabbath is ABSOLUTELY part of that. A gift of God for human flourishing. Rest first practiced by God then given to man.
And he had to teach it to the people of Israel.
He first taught it to them in the desert of Egypt. These are people who have been in slavery for a generation.
How many days a week did they work? All the days! All the days and then some! In fact, everyone worked all the days. Because no one knew about weekends yet.
Do you know where the weekend comes from? God made it up! Created it with Sabbath.
Our 2-day weekend is a modern invention. Henry Ford being one of the first.
And God had to show, had to teach how important it was… because taking a whole day off seems costly and unreasonable and unprofitable...
But he blessed it. And he made it holy. And he wanted a day where we stopped “work” and “toil” to
But you and I are going to actually make plans on Sabbath. What will we actually allow to be part of those plans and what will we wait until sundown for?
It’s one of the most common questions I get. How do I keep Sabbath? Can I watch TV? Go out to eat? Light a candle? Play sports?
And the church has no “rules,” and we want to be led by the Holy Spirit, to study the Scriptures and seek conviction.
So let’s all agree that legalism is off the table. And we aren’t going to earn anything by keeping the Sabbath. And Jesus is “Lord of the Sabbath” and we want to figure out what that exactly means.
The first command God gives here is to “cease” work and labor. So, we ask the questions of the Pharisees, really, what is “work” and “labor?”
What are “work” and “labor”?
What are “work” and “labor”?
If you are going to be killed if you get this wrong… totally understand why you would draw the line as FAR away from messing this up as possible. But in so doing, you get in some ridiculous situations.
For example, climbing a tree was forbidden, because you could break limbs, and that could be confused with reaping.
Here’s a few modern ones from outorah.org. I’m not making fun, this is an earnest attempt to take God’s law very seriously
It is forbidden to rip toilet paper on Shabbat, and doing so may be a violation of several melachot. This is true whether one cuts the toilet paper along the perforated lines or in between them. Most authorities classify tearing toilet paper (or attached tissues) under the melachot of koraya (tearing), mechatech (measured cutting), and/or makeh b’patish (finishing touches).As such, one must be sure to cut toilet paper before Shabbat or use tissues that are dispensed one-by-one.
There is some discussion, however, whether it is permissible to flush a toilet that is equipped with a disinfectant device that colors the water as it is flushed. It is virtually unanimous among halachic authorities that one should not flush such a toilet on Shabbat.
Is this what God intended with His “Sabbath made for man?”
The uses of “work” and “labor” in the Bible leading up to the giving of the law, so Genesis and Exodus, is ALL about farming, working and toiling to raise crops from the ground… and working/laboring as slaves to the Egyptians. Working for the boss-man.
Even prohibitions like Moses to “not light fires” is in the context of the great construction project to build the Tabernacle, these are blacksmith fires, fires of work more than warmth and comfort.
So the immediate and most obvious application is simply this: what you do for a living. What puts food on the table, quite literally.
And to underscore that, how did God teach them Sabbath? Literally through how they put food on the table. No manna on Sabbath… and the manna from Friday morning lasts supernaturally long just for Sabbath.
So I think this is the beautiful thing God created: a week-end, one day off from your job. You are required on pain of death to give even your slaves a day off.
And they, and you, everyone, can keep that day “holy.” Sacred. Special. Set apart for a purpose. To remember God as Creator, and Creator of Sabbath, and worthy of all glory and honor and worship.
One day to remember you are more than a machine.
So… how do we “keep” the Sabbath?
Last week I said the disciples had a great clarifying question: “where is Jesus?” If they were with Jesus, doing what they saw Jesus doing, they knew they were “keeping Sabbath” because they were with the Lord of the Sabbath.
So… how else did Jesus “keep” the Sabbath?
What did he actually do? How did Jesus “keep” the Sabbath?
Jesus Goes to Church
Jesus Goes to Church
9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue.
Picture the synagogue.
On the Sabbath.
Jesus went to church.
Now the synagogue was open every day for prayer three times a day, morning, noon, and evening.
It was open for gatherings on Monday, Thursday and Sabbath. But almost every time synagogue is mentioned in the New Testament, it is on the Sabbath. As if Jesus and the early church made a special point, a “custom” of going to church on Sabbath.
Jesus custom was to go to synagogue on Sabbath (Luke 4:16)
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
And the early church did this as well, the apostles did this. For example Paul: (Acts 17:2 )
2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
So… where is the command to go to church on Sabbath? There isn’t one.
Is it good to go to church on Sabbath, does it help us keep it holy, and is it in the footsteps of Jesus, the apostles, and the early church?
Absolutely!
But that isn’t all. There’s another principle here:
10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him.
It’s a TRAP!
Is it urgent? Couldn’t he wait until sundown, or catch the guy another day?
How long had this man’s hand been “withered?” That’s such a graphic description, like a dried up dead branch… or the sunflower stalks in my backyard now that winter is here… they’ve “withered.”
There is absolutely no indication that this is in ANY WAY urgent.
11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
(In Luke he gives a similar example of a “child or an ox” in the well. Why do we remember this as the “ox”???)
Is the sheep “urgent”? It’s fine in the pit, right? Make sure it has water, maybe a bit of food, come back tomorrow. What’s the big deal?
But even that is more urgent than the withered hand situation. And yet, the value of a man is infinitely greater than sheep. And that’s saying something, because Jesus loves sheep! He is the Lamb of God.
It is “lawful” - right, authorized, proper. Not just “permissible.” It is right, authorized and appropriate. Proper to do good.
This is the Giver of the Law, the Logos Himself, the Lord of the Sabbath.
And, he puts it into action. He doesn’t just say it, he does it. In the teeth of the trap, in the middle of synagogue, in the middle of the “church service,” with all the leaders watching...
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
Mark captures Jesus’ passion in this moment:
4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Jesus isn’t passive or taciturn in this. He is passionate! He is grieved!
If you can’t even answer that question, how RADICALLY you have missed the heart of the Sabbath… and the heart of God!
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this moment as the turning point for the Pharisees:
14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
Can you imagine being so mad about someone getting healed that you seek to kill or destroy someone?
Their real hearts are exposed here. Instead of anything like joy or praising God for the good… they only see the threat to how they’ve always done things… the ritual-gone-wrong. That isn’t the “right way.”
How many times do you think Jesus healed on the Sabbath?
Jesus - the Sabbath Do-Gooder!
Jesus - the Sabbath Do-Gooder!
This is not a one-time thing for Jesus.
31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath,
35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.
38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf.
39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.
Before the sun was setting, because the next verse:
40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
Is that Sabbath or not? It’s Sabbath until it’s all the way down, at least in Jewish practice. So if it is “while” the sun was setting… the first ones are likely still Sabbath.
All over the place in Luke 4, Jesus is healing, delivering, doing good on the Sabbath.
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”
13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?
16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
Love that. what better day to be free, to be healed, than the Sabbath?
At LEAST 7 miracles on the Sabbath, and arguably quite a few more!
This is intentional. These miracles are all intentional. They aren’t urgent… and Jesus in that last one notes how WONDERFUL for the woman to be “loosed” on the Sabbath!
This is beautiful, this is rest, this is freedom.
Come unto me, Jesus says, I will give rest. Rest for your souls!
How do We Keep the Sabbath?
How do We Keep the Sabbath?
Don’t work. Keep it Holy. Do good.
It is good, it is righteous, it is the Law of the 10 Commandments, written on stone by the finger of God, to “keep” the Seventh Day, the Sabbath Day, holy. To rest from work and labor.
It is good, it is custom, it is in the footsteps of Jesus and the early apostles to gather with the people of God as part of that.
It is good, it is righteous, it is “appropriate” to look for and find opportunity to “do good” on the Sabbath.
To heal the hurting.
To set loose the captive.
To cast out demons and send the enemy fleeing.
So let’s think bigger than just “what is the most restful” thing we can do on the Sabbath… to what is the most holy thing, the most pleasing thing… and make opportunity to do good on the Sabbath.
Not just “rest” for ourselves… but offering this beautiful “rest”, extending the Rest of Jesus to those Jesus brings to us.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
