Trusting the Ten #4: Saving Sunday

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”—Exodus 20:8-11

We are busy people. With all of the advances in technology and transportation, we have more time to do the things we want to do. Or do we? For all of the advances we have made to save time, it seems we have less time than ever before. The sacred and the secular have bled together, and the common has trumped the holy. All of life is swallowed up in the blob of time. Time has become so precious that we have had to import terms of commodity or finance to describe it. We “spend” time, we “waste” time, and we “invest” time. We say, “It’s not worth our time.” Bygone generations viewed time as a stream that flowed on effortlessly, connected and moving. But not today. We have tried to bottle up time, to keep it, to hold on to it and spend it selfishly for ourselves. We are trying to capture and hold on to that which is moving, but we can’t. Time has become so precious that in many ways it’s the most valued thing we have. Which is where the concept of the Sabbath comes in. Sabbath is the day that God set forth for His people—a day separate from all others, a day of rest from work, set apart for the worship of God.

And while many of us have ceased from work on Sunday, others of us have made it a day of entertainment and leisure, perverting our understanding of what Jesus said about the Sabbath. The Jews of old had become so legalistic in their observance of the Sabbath that they had made it a means to righteousness, promoting a legalism through its observance. Jesus corrected their misunderstanding when He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath”—Mark 2:27-28. The point was not that we were freed from the Sabbath, but that we might have a proper understanding of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, a day provided for us to rest, worship, and reflect on who He is and what He has done for us. Observing the Sabbath is a tangible and visible reminder that God is in charge of our lives, and that time is not a commodity that can be invested and traded, divvied up to be spent on our comforts and concerns. It is the reminder that we are not our own, that God is the Lord of life, and it is because of Him that we have breath and being. The Sabbath keeps us from taking ourselves and our time too seriously. It’s a discipline whereby we acknowledge His Lordship. He is in control, not us, and we are directed to rest, reflect, and depend upon Him. His is the example that we are to follow, and He is the principle reason we exist. When we observe the Sabbath, we are showing that God is to be desired above all things, and obedience to Him is a renewing and refreshing task.

God made the Sabbath for our benefit, but not so that we waste it on frivolous pursuits of petty pleasure. Family is important and so are such things as leisurely activities for our families. But what are we communicating to our families when we pursue sports and other good things over the corporate worship service? What message are we sending by laboring for leisure over pursuing the person of Christ? If you have children, then they are the ministry God has set before you, and as has been said many times before, truths are not so much taught as they are caught. Our example of the passionate pursuit of God is clearly communicated to our kids. Observing the Sabbath day is one way of communicating to the next generation what God means to us. He is the reason we live. He is our heart’s desire, and we keep the Sabbath day holy by focusing on Him. So, if you have made the holy common, take heart! Sunday can be saved again! Radically reorient your life to the plan and pursuit of God, and He will honor and bless you in ways not necessarily seen, but surely experienced. Our obedience results in the joy of knowing that we are doing what God delights in…us resting in Him. Amen.