The Sabbath for Us!
The Sabbath for us!
(Mark 2:23-28)
The Lost purpose and joy in our lives today and in the Bible
“How are you?” I am going to ask you in the Wesleyan way. John Wesley asked this question during his weekly class meetings. “How is it with your soul?” “Do you have purpose and joy in your life?” Lily Tomlin said our lives are like a rat race. Even though we have won the rat race, we are still rats who live in a spiritual wasteland, beyond His divine order.[1] That was me. I was too busy making schedules for my children, doing church ministries, and writing papers. I was in the middle of so many blessings. I am a mother of five, the most precious gifts from God. I am a lay supply of two beautiful churches. I am a student of LPLS. I have been waiting to do this for a long time, but I lost my purpose and joy. Have you ever had this feeling? How can we bring purpose and joy back into our lives? The Pharisees lost the purpose of their job, too. They were supposed to know the purpose of the law. They should have felt overwhelming joy as they were with Jesus. He was the one they had been waiting for. He was the reason why they observed the laws, but they lost purpose and joy in their lives. In this scripture, Jesus encouraged them to have purpose and joy in their lives again by keeping the Sabbath. Today Jesus tells us the same messages. Jesus encourages us to keep the Sabbath for us, to have purpose and joy in our lives again. There are three reasons why he said “The Sabbath is for us”
The purpose of the law, God’s love
The first reason is that the purpose of all law is God’s love. The Sabbath is called Shabbat(שַׁבָּת) in Hebrew, the verb for “cease,” or “rest.” Jews observe it from Friday evening to Saturday evening as the fourth commandment. The Pharisees who observed the law made lots of strict laws beyond the commandments, as the Scriptures were not clear on exactly what they could and could not do. There are 39 classes of work prohibited in the Mishnah, the first written oral Torah.
There is a comedy Korean movie entitled “Extreme job.” Drug detectives work undercover in a chicken shop to catch a gang of criminals. Once they started to create new recipes, the run-down diner turned into the hottest restaurant in town. One of the detectives spotted the leader of the gang, and quickly called the others. Nobody answered the phone, and nobody showed up to help. He had just missed the opportunity to capture the boss of the criminals. He complained to the other co-workers working in the chicken shop and asked them why they did not answer the phone. Do you know what they said? They said, “We were too busy frying chicken!!” They lost sight of the real purpose and instead became too focused on the wrong thing. That was the Pharisees. They lost the original purpose of their extreme job, and lost their purpose and joy, too.
As we see in the scripture, the Pharisees rebuked Jesus’ disciples who did not break the commandment but broke the Pharisees’ regulations as they had rubbed grain in their hands.[2] It was considered harvesting. They accused Jesus when He healed the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, rather than being amazed by His miracle and praising the Lord. For them, the Sabbath regulations, and prohibitions of the Sabbath were more important than the Sabbath rest. They lost their purpose and joy of keeping the Sabbath. Then Jesus told them David’s story. When David was hungry, he and his companions ate the priest’s bread; it looked like it was breaking the law, but it did not break the purpose of the law, which was God’s love, God’s compassion. John Wesley said in his sermon, all that laws came from God’s heart. The Law reveals who God is, who we are, and why we need Jesus, God’s amazing grace. Jesus did not come to break the law, but to fulfill the law with God’s love. To keep the Sabbath means to dwell in God’s love. God’s love gives us purpose and joy in our lives. The Sabbath is for us!
Our Creator gives us the Sabbath
The second reason why the Sabbath was made for us is so that we can meet our Creator and get to know him better through the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a gift for creation from our Creator. God created the world in the beginning, then created the Sabbath as His last act of creation, and the humans’ first act on Earth. He gave us a divine order.[3] Almighty God rested not for Himself, but to let all creation rest first before starting work. After the fall of Adam and Eve, not only did we start to live in a sinful world, but also God’s prevenient grace started. As Abraham Heschel said in his book “The Sabbath,” even though we needed to work for life in the world, our soul could belong to God, our Creator, again by the Sabbath. Talmud also said we can be a partner with God, our Creator by the Sabbath. We can be restored to our image of God as we were made in the creation. Our Creator gives us purpose and joy in our lives. “The Sabbath is for us!”
Our Messiah will give us the eternal Sabbath
The third reason why the Sabbath was made for us is that our lives started on God’s Sabbath and will end on the eternal Sabbath. Jesus reveals His identity by saying “so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The Son of Man is mentioned in Daniel 7 first when he prophesied the Messiah. Jesus talked about himself as the Son of Man 14 times in Mark. Jesus is the creator, and as the Son of God, He is also the Messiah who will lead us to the eternal Sabbath. Abraham Heschel said, “the purpose of creating the Sabbath is a foretaste of paradise” To keep the Sabbath is not a burden, regulation, or religious obligation. To keep the Sabbath is our attitude toward our Creator, our lifestyle that distinguishes us as His children, a privilege as a gift from our Abba Father, and preparation for entering the eternal Sabbath. After we practice resting in His arms every week in this world, we will rest in His arms forever at the end of the world. Our Messiah gives us purpose and joy in our lives. “The Sabbath is for us!”
The Sabbath for us
Now back to my story. When I found out that I lost the purpose and joy of my life, I stopped all work that I had to do and kept my Sabbath day again even more serious. My Sabbath begins on Sunday afternoon and on Monday afternoon. As Eugene Peterson had written in his book “Sabbath as praying and playing,” I spent quality time with God by reading the Bible, praying, and writing poems and journals. I spent time with my husband and my family by watching movies, playing board games, and taking walks in the beautiful Northern Maine wonderland. When the Sabbath became the priority at the beginning of each week, God’s love, my Creator and Messiah restored my purpose and joy in my life!
When we take off our heavy burdens onto Jesus and take Jesus’ easy and light yoke to keep the Sabbath, we can feel love in our Creator’s eyes[4], the warmth of our shepherd’s arms[5], and peace under His wings[6]. We can rest in His gentle and humble heart.[7] He lets us know why He created us, why He died for us, why He rose again, why He will come again, and why He prepares us for our new heavenly home, while we keep the Sabbath holy with God and with His people. God’s love, Our Creator, our Messiah restores purpose and joy in our lives through the Sabbath. “The Sabbath is for us!”[8]
Sermon Vide: https://youtu.be/4JIdiSKPH9A
[1] David E. Garland, p. 124
[2] Luke 6:1 “One Sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of gran, rubbed them in their hands and ate them.”
[3] Genesis 2:2-3 2 On the sixth[a] day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
[5] Isaiah 40:11 “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom” and gently lead the mother sheep.
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