Reflections on Sabbath
In her book Receiving the Day, historian Dorothy Bass recalls lamenting that while she’d really like to take a Sabbath – which I’ll define as a day set aside for worship and rest – she had so much work to do that she simply couldn’t. It occurred to her later that had it been any of the other Ten Commandments, making an excuse for disobedience would hardly be acceptable. Imagine finishing the sentence, “I’d love not to commit adultery, but I’m simply too . . .”
While on sabbatical I read and reflected quite a bit on the nature of Sabbath, and I’d like to share a couple of reflections with you all as we seek to live in sync with God’s creative and redemptive intentions for us.
First, as Bass illustrates, observing the Sabbath is, for many in our churches, the only one of the Ten Commandments that we don’t mind violating. In fact, there is often pride associated with its violation. Being busy is seen as equivalent to being important, while intentionally ceasing from work is easily perceived as laziness. These attitudes, however, seem to betray an assumption that our value as human beings is entirely bound up in both the amount of work we have to do and the amount of time we spend doing it. Ironically, in this light, failing to keep the Sabbath becomes a violation of the first commandment as well.
Second, the command to keep the Sabbath is rooted in both creation and redemption. There are two accounts of the Ten Commandments in Scripture, one in Exodus 20 and another in Deuteronomy 5. Interestingly, each account explains the command to observe the Sabbath differently. In Exodus 20 we read, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it” (Exodus 20:11). Thus, God’s people observe the Sabbath to follow God’s example in his creation of the world. Or, as Mark Buchanan writes in his book The Rest of God, “we mimic God in order to remember that we are not God.”
In Deuteronomy 5, however, we read, “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” (Deuteronomy 5:15). Now, rather than being called to follow God’s example, God’s people are called to remember that, while they were once slaves, God acted decisively to bring them out of that slavery in Egypt into a land of freedom. Keeping the Sabbath is an act of a free people, and, because of God’s action, his people are free.
Third, in seeking to obey any command of God, there is always the possibility of legalism, self-righteousness, and judgment. By the time of Jesus’ ministry, all of these destructive realities had attached themselves to Sabbath observance. It is important to note, however, that Jesus didn’t abolish Sabbath observance; he refocused it. In healing on the Sabbath, Jesus demonstrated that bringing life and wholeness was always acceptable, and, after being criticized for gathering food on the Sabbath, he memorably declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27, KJV).
Finally, the New Testament does teach us that observing the Sabbath day points forward to something greater. As the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes, “a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). One of the main purposes of the letter is demonstrating that the New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant, and, in chapter four, the author argues that the command to God’s people to observe the Sabbath in the Old Covenant points forward to this deep, Sabbath rest into which God is bringing his people in the New Covenant.
In a brilliant sermon on worship, Tim Keller suggests that one requirement of faithful worship is “gospel Sabbath rest.” By this he means that in order to experience the Sabbath as a day of true rest and worship, rather than simply a religious obligation, one must be deeply rooted in the work of Jesus, who, according to Hebrews, is the “great high priest” who made atonement for our sins. Therefore, we can rest, knowing that through Jesus Christ we are radically accepted by God, and the rest we experience on earth becomes a foretaste of our eternal rest when God’s kingdom comes “on earth as it is in heaven.”
When we keep the Sabbath, we follow God’s example, living in sync with God’s creative intention for us. We also announce our status as free people, no longer bound by masters that keep us from rest, whether performance, wealth, or a need to please God with our activity. Finally, the Sabbath under the New Covenant transcends physical rest (although it includes physical rest), allowing us to live in God’s presence without fear, anticipating the fullness of that city, again in the words of the author of the Epistle of the Hebrews, “whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).
Image: Detail of the cover of “The Sabbath” by Abraham Joshua Heschel (source)