Sabbath – Mark 2:27-28
What do we do about our never-ending pressure to have more, to work more, and to be defined by our work? In the Christian tradition, our response is Sabbath, a practice that frees us.
Practicing Resurrection:
Our God defeated death.
Easter changes everything.
We practice resurrection.
“The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life, a life out of death, a life that trumps death, a life that is the last word, Jesus-life.” -Eugene Peterson
“26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth…”28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it… 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good… 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” - Genesis 1:26-2:3
Things we learn from the creation account:
Work is not bad.
God rested.
We were meant for rest- it is part of our identity.
Egyptian economy of work found in Exodus 5:
v. 4 Pharaoh says, “[W]hy are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!”
v. 7-8 “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy.”
v. 9 “Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.”
v. 10-11 “I will not give you straw. Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least.”
v. 14 “Why did you not finish the required quantity of bricks yesterday and today, as you did before?”
v. 17-19 “You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now, and work; for no straw will be given you but you shall still deliver the same number of bricks.”
God’s economy:
“8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 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. 11 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
“There are limits to how much and how long slaves must produce bricks! There are limits to how much food Pharaoh can store and consume and administer. The limit is set by the weekly work pause that breaks the production cycle. And those who participate in it break the anxiety cycle. They are invited to awareness that life does not consist in frantic production and consumption that reduces everyone else to threat and competitor. And as the work stoppage permits a waning of anxiety, so energy is redeployed to the neighborhood. The odd insistence of the God of Sinai is to counter anxious productivity with committed neighborliness. The latter practice does not produce so much; but it creates an environment of security and respect and dignity that redefines the human project.” - Walter Brueggemann
“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 brilliance of sabbath is not so much in sabbath keeping but in sabbath keeping us.” -Rich Villodas
“Sabbath is not primarily about us or how it benefits us. It is about God and how God forms us. It is not, in the first place, about what we do or don’t do. It’s about God completing and resting and blessing and sanctifying. These are all things that we don’t know much about. They are beyond us, but they are not beyond our recognition and participation. Sabbath does, however, mean stopping and being quiet long enough to see, open-eyed with wonder—resurrection wonder.” - Eugene Peterson
Sabbath: a 24 hour period every week to stop, delight, and worship.
“Sabbath moves us from production to presence. Sabbath is not just a rest from making things; it is rest from making something of ourselves.” - Rich VIllodas
“People who keep Sabbath live all seven days differently.” - Walter Brueggemann
“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.” -Hebrews 4:9-11
