Luke 13:13-14:
And [Jesus] laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?”
Luke 14:2-3:
And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, have a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”
It’s interesting to me how the Sabbath has garnered a new reputation among Christians over the last several years—let’s say, 7-10 years. (Though it feels more recent.) I recall its beginning when pastors and leaders at conventions commanded us to honor the Sabbath and protect our days of rest religiously, pledging it would drive back “burnout” and “lost focus”.
The words started sifting down the Church body from there:
“This is my Sabbath.”
“I can’t do that; it’s my Sabbath.”
“Can’t take that call; it’s my Sabbath.”
“Have you taken your Sabbath this week?”
“You need a Sabbath.”
“Can’t help you tomorrow; it’s my Shabbat.”
Now, don’t get ahead of me. I can see your religious shoulders rising from here. I am not saying a Sabbath or day of rest is wrong. I’m merely pointing out that this lingo is a recent fad. And perhaps a dangerous one.
It’s true that some denominations like Seventh Day Adventist may have always revered the Sabbath, or spoken about it often. But there is no denying that until recently, most Christians didn’t talk about the Sabbath. They spoke about going to church—true. Or resting in the Lord—yes. But grabbing hold of a specific day with both fists and declaring it pertinent to honor it?
If you know me or what I write, you know I speak ill of the empathetic/soulish/therapeutic/love-yourself-more culture that has propagated in the Western Church over the last decade. I can’t help thinking this “can’t help, gotta take my Sabbath” verbiage is a product of it as well.
Now, again, I’m not advocating that we do not have days of rest or letting go of our troubles and trusting in the Lord. What I am advocating is the FACT that the Sabbath is part of the Old Covenant. Therefore, having been fulfilled, we no longer need to honor it, but instead, recognize, with the law written on our hearts, that EVERY DAY should be the Sabbath.
The Writer of Hebrews stated in chapter 4, the Rest spoken of in the Old Testament was not found after Moses’ law was written, or Joshua’s Promised Land conquered. Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
Christ’s death and resurrection, having fulfilled the law, is what delivered us unto the Rest. Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…”
Our rest—our Sabbath—does not come upon one day or a specific moment that we religiously adhere to, but instead springs from our everyday lives. Our every moment is to be a life, in action from a constant-Sabbath. We are to live as a living-sacrifice, upon the altar…never-ending. Not once a week, and surely not when we feel like it. But always.
That’s why our spiritual fathers and those who wrote the New Testament never spoke of the Sabbath.
They understood they had entered the Sabbath fully now. Works were dead, in a sense, because every day was worked out of love and obedience, rather than religion and fear. The Sabbath was dead, in a sense, because every day was in the Rest provided by the Messiah. Sacrifices were dead, in a sense, because now our lives were a living-sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).
Again, for the third time, this doesn’t mean resting is a bad thing. Nor am I suggesting that everyone just shuts up and gets to work—every day—forever. On the contrary, I’m implying that our lives should be borne from an act of rest—resting from the understanding of His victory—and doing the good work that He has commissioned us to do.
“So if you are saying the Sabbath is fulfilled, yet I should still rest, then what’s the point, Keith? Just let me have my special lingo that makes me sound so smart and like I understand the Lord more than others? All I’m doing is taking a day of rest to recoup from the long week,” said Someone reading this.
I find two distinct temptations with this new lingo of “honoring my Sabbath”. If the temptations are not affronting you, then by all means, ignore my reasoning for this dialogue. However, I believe they may sneak into your flesh more than you realize.
The first is because of the aforementioned therapeutic/love-yourself-more culture that has invaded Western Church, especially in the mega-church where iron is rarely sharpened, while everyone is taught Christ’s ultimate purpose for coming was for you to have a happy, rainbow-filled snowflake life. This “I can’t take that call right now…it’s my Sabbath…” dialogue is exactly what Christ was against when he rebuked the Pharisee who didn’t want to heal the sick, but thought it fine to pull his donkey from a pit.
It’s a cop-out; an excuse for more “me-time” when our lives are meant to be living-sacrifices. “Need to hit the green today and watch a movie, because I spent too much time praying for the sick and needy all week.” Give me a break! How many demons did you cast out this week? How many dead did you raise to life? How many souls did you snatch from Hell? How many did you make disciples?
I’m not saying you don’t need rest after a lot of hard work.
But! that’s indicative of you choosing not to live in a constant state of rest, rather than a sign you must say “no” to the Lord, helping others, or changing the world at the Holy-Spirit’s notice. Most likely, you need to give less of your time to your phone, social media, movies/entertainment, sports, making money, and all the rubbish you fill your life with in order to not feel empty inside. Then you would have plenty of margin to jump up and help when the need arises. Then you would say “yes” to Christ, because you had said “no” to so much distraction.
This idea that you must “love yourself more” flies in the face of everything Christ taught. We are meant to decrease, not increase. We are meant to love Him more; love ourselves less. We go to the end of the table, the lowly seat, and there He will lift us up. The first shall be last; the last shall be first. He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Ugh, guys…start reading your Bibles.
I’ve gotten on my soapbox again…
You can read plenty I have to say about all that in other musings. But I’d like to get to the other red flag I see with this Sabbath talk. And it’s again directly linked to the scriptures I mentioned earlier in Luke, chapters 13 and 14, when the Pharisees questioned Christ healing others on the Sabbath.
Christ was (is) perfect. He never sinned, nor did he break the Law. He came into a time during the Old Covenant, and fulfilled it perfectly. His death snapped the Law in half, having justly completed it, and thus began the New Covenant
When the Pharisees saw him, they saw no sin. But they hated him for it. To them, He was a threat to everything they held power with, and saw the end of their prideful authority. There’s so much more to it than needs to be expressed here, but let’s get down to it—they didn’t have anything on him…except, maybe let’s just point out “he heals on the Sabbath”.
(What’s funny is that He often alluded to His authority as Christ, and told those following Him who he was, and that alone should have given them cause to stone Him. But they wanted to turn the crowds against Him and thought the only way would be to put Him up against the Holy Day.)
I’m a farmer. And I try to take a family-rest day at least once a week when we all can play together and not need to get a lot done around the house. But I’m still a farmer. The animals need to be let out, fed, and taken care of. If one of them broke a gate during the night, I must fix it. If a tree fell down in a storm, I must mend the fence it fell on. Going on a vacation is nearly unthinkable, and a simple night away must be meticulously planned for months. You get the point. There aren’t many “rest” days like the average American.
That’s why when Christ asks the Pharisees, “Which of you, having a donkey for an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”, it hits home a little more now than it used to.
The only thing the religious could pin against Christ was something so stupid, asinine, and irrelevant as “breaking the Sabbath”. And they knew they “broke” it themselves every week to take care of such menial things. And here—the gall!—Christ is “breaking” it to change someone’s life forever.
It makes my heart weak when I consider how I am like the Pharisees. In what way am I judging Christ (or Christ’s messengers) in what He does because it doesn’t fit my religious perspective? What “Sabbath” (or let’s call it a golden calf) am I holding in high esteem that I misjudge others based upon? If someone is getting someone saved, am I excited…or disappointed with how it occurred?
And this ugly, ugly question is where all this ends. Have we let ourselves become so religious, fixated on what our denomination believes, or favorite preacher says, that we have lost our love for reaching the lost?
I stay silent on social media until I know the Lord is prompting me, because I’ve found it to be unprofitable and useless when I engage in foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law. However, when the Lord prompts, I speak, not because I want my voice heard, but because my heart longs for what the Lord longs for, and I never want to abandon His Bride. It burns in my bones like a fire. And erupts…
Why are we arguing with each other about the small foxes, instead of reaching the lost?
We all see it. This is the end of our time on Earth. The Lord is returning soon. So quit yourselves, awaken your souls, stir your spirits, and declare the “too-good-to-be-true” news of Jesus Christ. Our petty squabbles over mundane religious things are irrelevant to preaching the Gospel and saving the lost.
It doesn’t mean we don’t need the Truth, or to sharpen ourselves to the Word of God. I’m not suggesting we just “save people” as many as we can, even if we sin and blaspheme. That’s not true salvation.
But it does mean we need to stop publicly arguing with every Christian we disagree with.
“Well…actually the Word of God says…” says the nerd who hasn’t led anyone to Christ in his whole life.
Shut up! No one cares about your rubbish, except the blind following the blind. You’ve made yourself a whitened sepulcher. Look at the fields; the harvest is white. Go and reach the lost (outside of your computer chair!) and change the world. Be a living-sacrifice! Renew your mind to the Word of God. Don’t be taken in or misled by false doctrines or religious lies. They deceive even the elect! The chaff is being separated from the wheat! So make yourself and the Word one. Know it.
Something came to mind a few days ago, and I knew it was the Lord. It was a message for me, and not the world, so I didn’t feel inclined to share it. But now, writing this, I see my words have led me here. It’s something I am continuing to learn and work out in my faith through fear and trembling. Yet now, I find it pertinent to share.
It was a simple rebuke and redirection from the Lord.
Stop educating yourself about all that those against you may say or think. In other words, stop staring at counterfeit money.
Instead, know what the Truth says. Spend your life in the Word. Attach yourself to it;
talk about it; think about it; dream about it; read it; listen to it.
Then, when you are faced with any demonic force—be it a person, dispute, attack, or failure—it will be unable to confuse you or put words in your mouth; you will know the Truth and you will know what to say.
There is a promise from Heaven. A rest given from Jesus’ death and resurrection. And we must be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11-13)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. (Romans 12:1-3)
Somehow, I feel it must be said again. Your day of resting is not the problem. Your attitude toward it and others is.
