Mess Up The Sabbath Rules For Sabbath Rest

It didn’t happen often, but I remember a few times my parents let me stay up late to watch Johnny Carson. Watching television didn’t ruin me, although as a kid on a Saturday morning watching my fill of the Road Runner, my parents told me to turn down the volume because it might have been killing them.

You often hear parents talking about sheltering their children from the world.  I would say my parents showed me the world. My dad took me to the symphony and my mom to piano lessons. But, then we trekked across the country to Salt Lake City and California, and in the Fall to the beaches of South Padre Island. They taught me not to be afraid to have a little adventure.  I guess it worked since I lived 10 years in Japan.

I suppose my own kids know their parents are not afraid. If anyone turned their iphone to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” I would guess there would be one lady here that I’m married to that just might break out some dance moves. I think our kids have figured out that their mom isn’t afraid.  I don’t mean she jumps out of airplanes or fights crime in the streets, but in her own way their mom is not afraid to look crazy or be vulnerable. The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes when parents let their guards down, to let people see them for who they really are, this is what builds connections to people.

Maybe you know someone who fits this description. They could talk to a tree trump and in an hour know its life’s story. Some people are just relentlessly interested in other people because they genuinely care about other people. Compare that to the general rule of, “Don’t talk to strangers” and you’ll see my point. Every person is worthy of our time and interest because every person has a story and Jesus died for every person we meet.

Sometimes we mess up the rules in order to have a little extra fun.  Maybe it’s the pillow fight with mom, or wrestling with dad in the room where there isn’t supposed to be any horseplay. Or maybe jumping on the beds in the hotel room on vacation. Maybe it’s the LPS geometry professor who tosses away his lesson plan for the day in order to talk to the class about dating, or the Sunday School teacher that lets the class go outside on that perfect day the Lord has made. The risks from straying from what parents and teachers are supposed to do are real, but the rewards in helping children to grow beyond the rules of rigid requirements make it worth the risk.  How do it know?  Because

Jesus Messed Up the Sabbath Rules

For the Sake of God’s People

This was the Sabbath Rule: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” And this rigid rule has its place. For those who work hard and never take time to rest it is a good rule for them so they don’t kill themselves working. For those who spend all their time concentrating on the things God created (nature, family, marriage, golf, fishing) and spend no time concentrating on God’s plan of salvation, it is a good rule for them so that their rebellion and unbelief, their offending the Lord God who created them, their sin of despising God and his Word of Salvation is exposed. This is the point. Rigid rules have their place, mostly in the immature years of training children, or with high volumes of people in the military, or when filling out government tax forms. God knew the necessity of rigid rules for his people of the Old Testament. Although they already had the natural law of God written in their hearts, sin and rebellion had clouded that law of God so that new it was given clearly in written form. Through this law God was setting apart his chosen people, using his covenant of law and gospel to put a fence around them in order that they might serve to some day bring forth the promised Savior. This law laid out the moral code in the 10 Commandments, and also God gave local laws for the time and place in history for the Israelites. Listen: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, …For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

This seems so practical and so wonderful a Commandment!  God wants us to rest for our bodies and he wants us to have rest for our souls! But, Satan and sin has ruined it all!  That’s why Jesus messed up the Sabbath Rules for the sake of God’s people.  Here’s what I mean. I try to remove distractions that keep me from connecting more closely with God.  For instance, when I’m listening to a sermon I usually have my own Bible out in order to take notes.  This helps keep my mind from drifting, or even falling asleep because I stayed up too late Saturday night. But, then while I’m listening and writing I may notice someone else not paying attention and am tempted to think how much better a person I am because at least I’m paying attention and they aren’t! Then my Sabbath rule that used to help me has actually become a hindrance for my spiritual rest. However, Jesus messed up the Sabbath when it came to behavioral expectations. That’s because Jesus did not come to rearrange the outside of our lives so that they look pretty and conform to what the church rules say. No, Jesus came to resurrect the inside of our lives, saving us from sinful selves, from our own pity parties, our own depression, our own lost hope and raising us to new life and hope every day as a new person in him. And when we are in Christ, then our souls and minds have real rest, a real Sabbath!

For the Sake of Real Sabbath Rest

I know what I said is redundant, so please hear me clearly! Outward, rule-abiding behavior can help us, and is even necessary if our life is not a reflection of God’s expectations from us. If someone says, “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian!” they are living under the messed up rules of the Sabbath, but not the joy of Sabbath rest! Yes, rules can help, such as folding our hands and closing our eyes during prayers  so we aren’t fidgeting with our smart phones instead of talking to God. But, the rule-abiding outward behavior isn’t the ultimate goal of God’s law, church membership or worship life. That would line right up with the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.  So, Jesus came to mess up the Sabbath Rules so we might have Sabbath Rest!

Last week I enjoyed going fishing with my nephew on his salmon fishing boat on Lake Michigan. I can show you pictures after while of the salmon we caught. But, what if we promised to provide a fish fry for the family that evening and hadn’t caught any fish at all?  What an embarrassment, right? So, on the drive home what if we would stop at the grocery store and find the “fresh fish” laying filleted on the ice under the glass counter? Then say to the clerk, “Let me have 6 of those salmon fillets.  I need to tell my family I caught these fish!”  Someone needs to pull me aside and break my Salmon Rules so I could have Salmon rest! But, this is what it looks like when our goal is to follow the letter of the law in church behavior only for the sake of the external behavior! Meanwhile, we become failures on the inside! Jesus said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matt 15:8). We can keep the rigid rites of Lutheran worship and repeated liturgy as an external behavior, but inside the joy of faith might be dim. We might have the structure of a personal Bible Reading Schedule and maybe it has become your discipline (and if it hasn’t, it should), but what to do if it’s merely an external discipline more than an internal maturing in Christ that makes a daily difference? So, what’s more important?: An identity on the church roster or the internal identity of our daily walk with Jesus Christ who so loves his people?

Yes, be turned to Jesus. Dear Jesus come often and mess up the Sabbath Rules so we might all have Sabbath rest!  Did you get what Jesus meant in the Gospel reading for today when he said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Jesus did not yell at his disciples for getting something to eat, even though it was against the Pharisee’s Sabbath Rule Book, because it meant internally loving people. Jesus healed people on the Sabbath and picked grain to feed his hungry disciples on the Sabbath. Jesus wanted people to enjoy rest on the Sabbath, not live under a host of rules on the Sabbath that ruined their day! Jesus really messed up the Sabbath by resting in a tomb so that we might have real rest for our souls on the day he rose from the dead—no longer the Sabbath, but the first day of the week! Ironic, isn’t it? Jesus did his greatest work of love resting on the Sabbath in a tomb and doing more work to make us right with God than any of our work could ever do! Thank you Jesus, for really messing up the Sabbath, becoming spiritual rest for us so that we are here today worshiping you as our Lord, Savior and King!

I know, taking risks to allow children to watch late night TV, or showing them the world, or playing Bob Seger, or even talking to strangers can get messy. But breaking free from rigid rituals is just what Jesus did when they were getting in the way of their personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Hear me clearly, being free in Christ does not mean being free from Christ.  No!  Rather being free in Christ means that we get to take him with us wherever we go.  So, we can send a new graduate into summer activities with more relaxed restrictions and it might get messy, but that’s what parents do, because they realize true growth requires freedom—freedom to make choices. Not stupid choices, but freedom to perform creatively fueled by one’s gifts and passions.  Freedom to stumble a little bit while on a journey of grace following Jesus.  And what a great blessing it is to be on this journey with a family of believers and friends like we have right here at Divine Peace! We can serve together and develop our network of support, encouragement and guidance as brothers and sisters of the King of the Sabbath!

So now it’s time to joyfully obey the 3^rd Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  What does this mean?  We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and his word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it!  Now it’s time to get messy. Sometimes within the structures of faith and rites of church tradition, yet sometimes escaping them and growing and loving and enjoying God a little more—and getting messy, messy with Jesus so we might enjoy real rest. Amen!