How hard will you fight, in order to rest? Most of us have jobs that pay us money we use to survive, to keep food on the table, a roof over our heads, cars running on the road. The “bosses” we report to set priorities they believe are extremely important, can impact the company’s success, and “need” to be done on time … or else. So many Americans are reluctant, at best, to take the full vacation time they are allotted any given year. We fear that our absence from work might remind them that they can get along without us. We fear that should we take time away, another co-worker who chooses not to, will get that promotion because of their “dedication” and our “carefree” attitude towards the priorities of our jobs. We fear the results of our decision to take time away and rest. And if that fear exists for vacations which only happen seldom in a given year, it can apply to weekends, nights, and pretty much every other day of the year as well.
Now given the insecurities we all wrestle with, with respect to our own balance of “home” vs. “work” needs; imagine the incongruity of attempting to dictate to someone else, exactly “how” and exactly “when” they must rest. I am not talking about telling someone they need a break. I am talking about telling someone exactly when that break should occur, and exactly what they will do on that break, and exactly how they will do it (down to the number of breaths to take during the supposed “break”). It makes no sense. If I dictate to you that you “must” rest, how can you rest? If I dictate to you “how” you should rest, am I not inherently imposing restrictions that will keep you from “resting” whether you are doing something different than you were or not?
The Pharisees (or church leaders in the days of Christ), have a lot in common with many of my Seventh Day Adventist friends. Convicted of the “truth” of the Sabbath doctrine, and certain of its prominence within the Law of God, they studied to insure “we” would all understand “how” to keep it holy. There were already some guidelines within the Law itself, the prohibition of “work” for example. There also exists in the same passages the prohibition to have others “work” for us. So the true students of the Law began to examine - what does it mean to “work”. If I do an activity in exchange for compensation, is that the definition of work? But what if I am already an unpaid “employee” such as a housewife or househusband, whose work is to cook, clean, and serve the household? Should I then refrain from any “chores” on Sabbath? There is the example of daily manna in Israel that allowed for a double portion collection and preservation on Friday’s, in order to not have to do this chore on Sabbath, that would seem to support the idea that God cares about “household” workers on His Sabbath as well.
But if I extend this same thinking about work prohibitions for myself and my family, to all those who might be considered as serving me … what could I do that would not require someone else to do “work”. Oh sure it’s easy to say that walking into a restaurant, or theme park on Sabbath will surely require someone else do perform services directly for me. But when I turn on the water, or electricity, in my home, or use the Internet; I am aware that somewhere there are employees in utility companies who monitor the systems of plumbing, pipes, wires, cables, routers, and infrastructure that deliver “services” to my home. Am I not also requiring them to work for me on Sabbath as well? If I drive, the police, and city traffic monitors, are also sort of “required” to do their jobs to keep me safe on the road. Even if all I do is go to church; even in that action, am I not requiring the often paid music team to perform, the paid pastor to preach, and all the household people who perform “services” for me at church to do their respective “chores”?
Depending on how we define the term “work”, and who we apply that definition to, we could easily get as proscriptive as did our spiritual forefathers about the difference between walking 1,000 steps per day (deemed as recreational) and walking 1,001 steps per day (deemed as crossing the line between re-creation and working). Of course the problem in this entire line of thinking is that inevitably we will be “working” harder to keep Sabbath holy than any other day, and in so doing completely miss the idea of rest in the first place. When we consider the entire point of Sabbath rest was to be able to spend time with Dad, and “remember” that Dad takes His time off, in order to be with us on this special day in a special way, it might flip our ideas and notions about Sabbath observance on their heads. The Sabbath was supposed to be a cornerstone of our relationship with God. It was time set aside for us to literally be with Him. In the Garden of Eden, that meant God physically coming to our world to “hang out” with Adam and Eve. Yes, God heard their prayers during the rest of the week, and liked walking through the garden in the evenings with them. But on Sabbath, it was a full day to hang out with God, a day that “HE” took time off of HIS work, in order to be with us. Time HE set aside as holy to be with us. And how do we respond?
When the rules no longer govern the time, but the anticipation to literally be with Dad takes over, the number of steps we take, breaths we take, or venues we find ourselves in matter a whole lot less than the fact that we are literally hanging out with God. That is what Sabbath was like for Peter and the other disciples. They were not just “observing” a day of rest with Christ along for the ride, they were literally with GOD and HE was with them on this special day. This was how Sabbath was intended to be honored and remembered. Whatever you find yourself doing literally “with Jesus” on Sabbath day is more than just OK, it is awesome! The same feeling you get when you are eating a romantic dinner with your spouse, away on a vacation from work, away from the stress of the everyday needs, and able to enjoy time alone in a special way. Whether in Paris, or Rome, or Fiji, that feeling of getting away from your home, away from your routines, and rediscover the intimacy of the person you have loved for so many years … this is what Sabbath was intended to be like between us and our God. And God gave us this gift of HIS time, in such a special way, but only every seven days.
He will be there for us all the time, but on this time, it is going to be AWESOME! Neither of us are going to allow the routine distractions we “have to do” to get in the way of what both of us know we WANT to do. We will free our time and our minds up, so we can really get to know each other, and find pleasure in the small things, in the time away, in the intimacy we offer each other. The reason why vacation recharges and re-energizes us when we get back to work, is the same effect the Sabbath can have on us every week. When we allow ourselves to put away distractions, and find Christ intimately, learning to love others like He loves others, what we do changes and why we do it changes. Anything that would get in our way of intimacy with Christ gets put aside, because intimacy with God and the specialness with which He treats this time, is just too important for us to treat it any differently. And so it was with Peter.
The Pharisees however, did not recognize Christ as God, so the beauty of hanging out with Dad, had never entered their minds. All they had was the Law. So the Law governed their thinking. Peter recalls how the war to restore Sabbath began in the gospel of John Mark in chapter two and verse 23 saying … “And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. [verse 24] And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?” So Peter is hanging out with Christ, walking through a corn field. In those days (and since Israel emerged as a nation), farmers would reflect the love of God to others in the form of leaving corn on the stalks for the poor to come and glean. God had instructed the farmers NOT to be so greedy as to harvest every single ear of corn or grain of wheat from the fields they borrowed from Him. They left some of it, so the poor, and those who did not “own” land could come and “work” to feed themselves due to the mercy of the “landowner”. How interesting that today we would see this as irresponsible waste, yet God saw this practice for what it was, charity and love for others.
None the less, to “glean” in the fields was still considered “work”, therefore for Peter and the others to be picking corn on Sabbath was decidedly against the Law of God from the perspective of the Pharisees. And they were quick to point this out to Jesus, a Rabbi who should know better than to allow His followers to do these unlawful acts. Peter recounts Jesus’ response for John Mark to chronicle in verse 25 … “And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? [verse 26] How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?” If it is a matter of Law alone, Jesus will challenge them on this basis.
To enter the temple itself, in the holy place was a privilege reserved for the priests alone. To eat the showbread was a part of sacred ceremonies again reserved for the priests alone. To defy these rules, and defy God, was to risk sure, certain, and immediate death. The high priest wore bells on the bottom of his robes and a rope tied to his ankle when entering the most holy place on the Day of Atonement. For should he be judged unworthy by God, he would be struck dead, and no one could enter to retrieve his body, or they would be struck dead (thus the bells to let folks know he was still moving, the rope to get him back if they ceased ringing). Messing with the rules of the temple in days past saw an immediate consequence to breaking them, handed out by God Himself. So Jesus points out to the Pharisees that there is something beyond their understanding of the rules, there is an intimacy with God that David is acquainted with that these rulers are not.
John Mark continues in verse 27 … “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: [verse 28] Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” The Sabbath was made for Man. It was a gift to us. It was our Dad setting aside His time and His work to be with us. He makes the rules, we don’t. He alone can make “time” itself holy, we can’t. It is through His presence that a thing can move from what it was, to being holy. The ground Moses was walking on near the burning bush was not inherently holy, it was holy ONLY because God was standing on it as well. Any given day is not holy on its own, it is only made holy because God is doing something on that day, making His presence known in a special way, hanging out with us that makes Saturday into Sabbath. Otherwise it is just another day at work. We are NOT holy on our own, but when He dwells within us, His presence can take what was profane and make it Holy when He is in us, when we love like He loves. It is His presence alone that makes a thing holy.
Whether you pluck corn on Sabbath or not, does nothing to make the Sabbath holy or not. It is not the activity of plucking corn that is in question here, it is the context of the story. Peter and the others were “with Jesus” literally. They found themselves walking through a field with Christ, and they picked corn due to the charity of the landowner to enjoy with their Lord. The gift of the time of the Sabbath with Christ, in combination with the gift of the charity of the landowner, where love was being shown from everyone to everyone. Only the Pharisees missed all the love for their focus on the Law. Only the Pharisees were so obsessed with the accuracy of their scriptural interpretations, that they missed the love of being with God on His holy day. What a loss!! They could have spent Sabbath with God on earth, but they were too busy reciting their ideas of the rules to God. Are we any different?
We rationalize what we do on Sabbath to ourselves. We make distinctions between turning on a light switch, driving to church, listening to a sermon … and causing someone else to work to feed us afterwards. We excuse shopping on Sabbath because clerks and cashiers would be there whether we were or not. The one key theme that emerges in our all focus on the adherence to the law, is a focus on what it means in practical terms to “me”. I am obsessed with my own convenience and activities on MY day that I call Sabbath. Sabbath is MY day off. Sabbath is MINE and therefore what I do on it, is up to me. But in this thinking I have lost the time and special intimacy that comes with hanging out with Dad, appreciating His gift of His time with me. I ignore what is possible with Him, and instead focus on what I might do, that might bring joy to me. Jesus did not say that “we” were the Lord of the Sabbath, He said He was. The Sabbath is only the Sabbath because He made it that way, blessed it, and gave it to us. It was supposed to be about spending intimate time with us. We enjoy Sabbath, when we spend it hanging out with Dad, on vacation from our everyday lives. If we treat Sabbath like we do every other day of the week, focusing on what makes me happy, or the concerns of my survival, we “lose” the beauty of what it was intended to be. The punishment for this loss, is the loss of what was possible.
The lesson Christ was trying to teach us was a restoration of how we should “think about” Sabbath. He was not abandoning the rules, but was trying to put them in context. Time out with Dad was the most important thing. Sharing in the joy of loving each other was the most important thing. We will “guard” the Sabbath properly, when we visualize Sabbath properly in our own minds and priorities. We will treat the gift of Sabbath like so much used toilet paper when we do not. Going to church does not make Sabbath holy. Hanging out with Christ does. When we so long to be with Him, we would not find ourselves anywhere else but in His presence we will come to know the JOY of being with Christ. When we treat Sabbath like a vacation from our routines, we will come to experience the joy of loving others, like He experiences that joy. Shopping and eating out on Sabbath are hardly the point, being distracted by something other than spending real intimate time with Dad is. I don’t have time to shop on Sabbath, my Dad is making time to be with me, and I don’t want to miss a minute of it, to do something as menial as shopping. I am not interested in dining out on Sabbath, because I love you enough to not be the reason you are missing your time with our Dad. If I find myself in church it is my privilege to serve you in any capacity I occupy because in this way I share the joy of loving others with Dad, I cannot consider this privilege a “chore”. I don’t want to be paid to play music at church, or to speak, or minister … I do not want to come to think of the gift of my service as being a mere “job”.
A different perspective on Sabbath and the gift it is to us, is what Jesus Christ was beginning to teach us in a simple corn field long ago. But this challenge to the current ideology, and leadership of the church, could not go unanswered, lest anarchy arise. So having been put to silence on matters of the Law, the religious leaders of the day (His, and ours) set out to look for the next “signs” that this upstart Rabbi was not “really” a member of this church. If Jesus dared to challenge conventional ideas about the observance of the Law, then He could not be God (i.e. if Jesus disagrees with us, He is the wrong one). Has anything changed? Adventists are so certain that the fourth commandment will become the ultimate test of loyalty to God in the end of days. We are so certain, we have begun to rationalize how we keep the other nine commandments. We are so certain, we have lost sight of how to keep a thing holy, but maintain that it must be kept that way lest our salvation be lost. We espouse the need to keep Sabbath holy, but like our spiritual forefathers, we have no clue what that really means in practical terms. So like them, we rely on traditions, habits, and our scriptural interpretations of the Law. We lose sight of the beauty of time out with Dad, we lose sight of what it means to share in the joy of loving others, and instead we focus on the facts, the rules, and our rigid ideas of right and wrong. We make the papacy the enemy of our delusions. And in so doing, we find false comfort that our real enemy is not found in the mirror, when in truth, that is only place the real enemy can be found.
To see where this line of thinking will end, we need only continue to look at what happens next …
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