On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. (Luke 6:1-17)
Honoring God through the Discipline of Sabbath
Luke 6:1-17
Yesterday we discussed how Luke strings these stories together intentionally to teach us something about the Sabbath. Sabbath means “to stop” and “cease productivity.” Sabbath was something God modeled when He created everything that was created in six days and rested on the seventh. Sabbath for human beings was prescribed by God in the beginning and commanded by God on Mt. Sinai. Evidently people are hardwired to need regular periods of rest, renewal, re-creation, and worship. By the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Jewish religious establishment had made a mess of the Sabbath and transformed it from a good, God-honoring discipline into a prideful, legalistic, life-denying ritual. In passages like this chapter form Luke’s gospel, Jesus modeled a return to God’s original intention in Sabbath. Jesus’ example shows us that in order to honor God through the discipline of Sabbath, our priorities ought to be grounded in a prayerful desire to do good.
When I think about the discipline of Sabbath keeping or the lack thereof in today’s world, it seems that we are still pretty guilty of corrupting God’s intention for this prayerful discipline. Far too often we can be guilty of either making an idol out of sabbath keeping by turning it into a legalistic, prideful ritual or making idols out of ourselves or our work and productivity by denying our own need for regular rest, worship, and renewal.
As we commit ourselves to the discipline of Jesus-honoring Sabbath keeping by turning away from legalism or the idolatry of workaholism, let’s reflect on these words from Bishop William Willimon:
Sabbath keeping is a publicly enacted sign of our trust that God keeps the world, therefore we do not have to. God welcomes our labors, but our contributions to the world have their limits. If even God trusted creation enough to be confident that the world would continue while God rested, so should we. Unlike the Greek god Atlas, we need not bear the world on our shoulders. Like the God of Israel, we can stay away from the office for a day of rest in the conviction that neither our business nor the church will go to hell simply because we are not there to run it. (Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry p. 329)
May God bless us as we live into a renewed commitment to regular, prayerful, God-honoring rest and worship that seeks to prioritize doing good in Jesus’ name and spirit.
§ What is Sabbath? Why do you think God invented, prescribed, and commanded Sabbath?
§ What are some of the ways we can corrupt God’s intention for Sabbath?
§ How can we recapture a Jesus-honoring practice of the discipline of Sabbath?