Meme Sunday

Blogging About the Sabbath

Someone recently asked me whether or not I've blogged about Jesus being our Sabbath rest. The answer is a resounding yes. I love the fact that Jesus Christ Himself is our 24/7 rest. Below are some of my blog posts on this subject:

Jesus is Our Sabbath. His Yoke is Easy and Light.

More Rest on Sundays Since It's Not the Sabbath

Acts 20:7 and the First Day of the Week

On Mowing My Lawn on Sunday

What Should We Do About the Sabbath?

Jesus is Our Sabbath. His Yoke is Easy and Light.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

The above verses are some of the most comforting in all of scripture. We all feel heavy laden from time to time. One beautiful aspect of life with Jesus is that his rest is not confined to a specific time or place. His yoke is easy and light all the time. He is, in fact, our Sabbath rest.

Much of life is full of busyness, stress, and toil. It's not all bad, but it does require a great deal of time and attention. We all need regular rest physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Life with Jesus provides all of these, but especially spiritual rest.

Rest in Christ, our Sabbath, is not designed to add more to our already busy plate. Rather, this rest is one that adds joy to our lives. Only true peace and rest come through Christ.

All man-made religions require work, work, and more work from their followers. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, desires that we simply rest in him. When this happens, we will also find that living according to his standards is pure joy.

More Rest on Sundays Since It's Not the Sabbath

Please forgive me if I've written about this previously, but I just cannot get over the irony. Simply put, now that I no longer view Sundays as the Sabbath I get more rest on Sundays.

For most of my life, as a kid and later as an adult, Sundays were busy. We got up, put on our "Sunday best," and "went to church." This included both Sunday School and Worship Service. Then we would usually do the same thing again at night, except this time we didn't have to dress up (not sure why). We were busy for God - or so we thought - on what we considered to be the Sabbath. On what we believed was God's ordained day of rest for us we kept busy all day.

I now realize that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest. How freeing this is! We are no longer under Old Covenant regulations and practices. Jesus fulfilled the law so we don't have to. He has also freed us from sin to live restfully in his great grace. Christ is our 24/7 Sabbath rest.

Now Sundays are actually restful. Sometimes we get together with friends, but sometimes we don't. We relax a lot. We don't dress up. We read. We take naps. We watch movies. We play games. Sometimes we stroll around Savannah's historic district or go to the beach. We don't worry about being busy for God. Because of this, we actually rest.

I thank the Lord that his rest is not limited to one day per week. Since the Sabbath never ends, we can truly rest in Christ at all times - even on Sundays.

Acts 20:7 and the First Day of the Week

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.” Acts 20:7 

The context of the above familiar verse is Paul’s third missionary journey. Paul and his companions have arrived in Troas, where they stayed for seven days. 

In 20:7-12 we read about a gathering of the church in Troas. We’re told that they came together on the first day of the week (Sunday). The gathering was for the purpose of sharing the Lord’s Supper meal together. During this occasion, Paul talked with them for quite a while.

What we see here is a church coming together to eat together. Paul was in town, and they wanted to spend a lot of time with him. They ate, talked, ate, and talked. Eventually someone fell asleep, fell, died, and was raised. That makes for quite a memorable evening together no doubt. I love the fact that after the miracle, they went back to doing what they were doing before: eating and conversing.

Here’s what struck me as I read through this passage today: there is no indication that the church in Troas made a normal pattern of getting together on Sundays. All Luke tells us is that on this one occasion they assembled on a Sunday. It could just have easily been a Tuesday or Friday. However, as Paul was going to be departing soon, they wanted to get together as a body to eat and talk. Sunday happened to be the day. 

Luke describes for us what occurred on a particular day in Troas. There is not even a hint that this is a pattern that they followed or that we should have to follow. We’ve all heard it said that we should get together as the church on Sundays because that’s what the early church did. I’m not convinced. Additionally, since we’re no longer bound by the O. T. Sabbath (Jesus is our Sabbath), there is no reason to make Sunday into one.

We are free to gather when we want and whenever we want. No one day is any holier than any other. The reality is that due to job schedules, Sundays are normally the easiest day to gather with church families (this is what we normally do). However, we don’t have to.

What we can learn from Acts 20:7 is that it is good to gather together to eat and talk. We see in other passages that this should happen for mutual edification. However, it does not matter at all on what day or days this occurs.

Sunday is just another day. All days are holy in Christ.

Assemble whenever and wherever, but by all means do assemble.

On Mowing My Lawn on Sunday

We arrived home on Sunday from our two-week vacation to find that our house was still in one piece but our yard was a mess. I expected this. A young man had done a nice job cutting the grass about a week ago, but at this time of year in south Georgia the grass grows very quickly.

I had a few options. I could let the grass grown until next weekend. I could cut it sometime this week. I could cut it on Sunday. The first option was a no-go because the yard would have looked putrid by Saturday. The second option was almost an impossibility because I'll be working all week in hot temperatures; by the time I get home I'll be too tired to cut grass. Option three seemed like the only option.

In light of the situation, I did something earthshaking: I cut my grass. On Sunday.

I'm having a bit of fun with this mainly at my own expense. Not too long ago I would not have mowed the lawn because I thought I was violating the Sabbath. I went so far as to look disgustedly at others who cut their grass on the first day of the week. In my head I'd think, "They treat Sunday just like Saturday." Many of them were probably lost people, so for me to think this about them at all was absurd.

I have no plans to start cutting my grass on Sundays - at least not on a routine basis. Normally on Sundays we gather with our church family, hang out together as a family, and rest. In that sense, we're generally treating Sunday as a sort of Sabbath. However, we're definitely not treating it like a strict O.T. Sabbath (not that many Christians keep it from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown anyway, but I digress).

As I study scripture, I see the Sabbath as a gift from God to man. We read this in Mark:

"And he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.'" Mark 2:27-28

By Jesus' time the religious leaders of the day had turned the Sabbath into a burden - the exact opposite of what it was intended to be. Jesus, as always, set them straight.

Sadly, some well-intentioned Christians still treat Sunday as if it is an O.T. type of Sabbath. I can still remember an angry old man yelling at me and my friends for playing baseball on Sunday afternoons on a local field; we were about eleven years old at the time and had been "in church" earlier in the day. That is a bit of an extreme example no doubt. Many very nice followers of Jesus still see Sunday as the Sabbath.

Interestingly, Sunday was simply not the Sabbath. It's just a day when some Christians met together. They may have done this because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. Despite this, we are never taught in the New Testament to keep the Sabbath or think of Sunday that way.

We see in the book of Hebrews in particular that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest. He has fulfilled any requirements from the O.T. Our rest is in Him. For example:

"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." Hebrews 4:9-10

We enter God's rest when we become Christ's.

The above two verses are interesting because they mention God resting from his works. The Sabbath, then, extends all the way back to creation and not simply to Sinai. Because of this, the concept of a Sabbath seems to have lasting importance. For this reason alone, the idea of taking a weekly rest of sorts appears wise. I know I always feel better after some rest on Sunday.

However, I don't have to rest on Sunday. Neither do you. Jesus is our rest. Just because we may gather with other believers on Sundays, this doesn't mean we are limited in our activities this day.

This can certainly be a thorny/sticky issue for Christians. How should we handle it? Paul helps us a great deal with this. In Colossians 2:16-17 the apostle writes, "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." (emphasis mine)

Paul makes it clear that his list, including the Sabbath, is a list of shadows. Jesus Christ is the reality. He has fulfilled the requirements for us to have eternal rest in Him.

In light of this, what should we do on Sundays? We should do whatever we believe the Holy Spirit is leading us to do. It's as simple as that. Some Sundays we might rest. On others we might mow the lawn. At other times the Spirit may tell us to serve others by cutting their grass.

In the end the Sabbath is a gift. It is ultimately Christ. We have rest in Him.

So I mowed my lawn on Sunday and despite what I used to believe, it really is O.K.

What Should We Do About the Sabbath?

(Warning: this will not be some sort of groundbreaking post with many new ideas. If you have thought through this issue, then feel free to stop reading right now.)

So, what should we do about the Sabbath mentioned in scripture? How ought we handle it as members of the New Covenant?

The following are two bible passages that can inform our thinking:

Romans 14:5-6, "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks."

Colossians 2:16-17, "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."

We can learn a few important things about the Sabbath which should help us make solid decisions about it:

- Followers of Christ will have different but valid views about the Sabbath.

- We must each be convinced about the significance of the Sabbath and then act on what we believe.

- Let us do whatever we do to please the Lord.

- The Sabbath is similar to other ceremonial aspects of O.T. law.

- The ceremonial aspects are shadows of Jesus Christ. Christ has fulfilled them all.

- We should not be judged by others or judge others about the Sabbath.

What then is the application for us today? I can see four key things:

1. We have freedom regarding the Sabbath (and let's be honest; none of us keeps the Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening anyway).

2. We should not judge anyone else or be judged by anyone else if we differ in beliefs regarding the Sabbath.

3. Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest.

4. Let us do all to please Christ.