I was reflecting recently on the two encounters Jesus had with the Pharisees over the Sabbath rules in Mark 2.23-36.
If we read back in Scripture, we find that God originally meant the Sabbath as a gift for his people. The Hebrews were slaves in Egypt, building Pharaoh’s cities. When Moses called on Pharaoh to let God’s people go, Pharaoh’s response was the opposite. He commanded that now they would no longer be given any more straw to make the bricks they used, they had to collect the necessary straw themselves! Of course, there would be no decrease in the number of bricks they had to make, they like so many of us today were being asked to do more with less! To work harder and harder to attain the same outcome! Sound familiar?
So God commands that when they are released from Slavery they will make sure that they take regular time out. It’s there in Deuteronomy Chapter 5,
“Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy as the LORD your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work – you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave…or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day”
“Remember that you were slaves”, you were not made for that. God did not make you to be a machine that produces and produces! This hasn’t changed. Paul writes in his letter to the Hebrew Church, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.”
But something had happened to the Sabbath by the time of Jesus. It had ceased to be a gift and had become a law. And not just a law it its own right, the Priests had built laws around the Sabbath. By the time of Jesus, there were thirty-seven different categories of work that were specifically forbidden on the Sabbath day! The Sabbath had ceased to be a blessing, and had become a burden. Jesus wasn’t challenging the sabbath itself, quite the opposite! Jesus was challenging what the religious authorities had turned the Sabbath into. A time to be still, to be with God and to love our neighbours.
Dana Arcuri wrote, “Truly, sacred rest is soul care. We honour quiet time alone with God. We intentionally step away from the chaos of life. We unplug from noise and distractions. We relish moments of tranquility.”
The Sabbath is a gift from God. It was given as a blessing for us, to bring us refreshment, rest, and reconnection with God and the people we love.
Walter Brueggemann writes, “Sabbath is not simply a pause. It is an occasion for reimagining all social life away from coercion and competition to compassionate solidarity. Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms. Sabbath is an invitation to receptivity, an acknowledgment that what is needed is given.”
Sabbath isn’t just a day off - it’s about living by a different set of values, not rules but relationship. It is a call to walk humbly with God amongst our neighbours, to make time to reflect and notice God all around us and to let Jesus be Lord of the way we live our lives.