I must start this with a sincere apology. I meant to write this post a week or so after the previous. Now, four months later, I am actually doing so. Though I doubt there are too many of you who have been waiting on the edge of your seats for this, I am sorry for the delay. I have had my reasons, but as to the why, well that would be violating my anti-personal information stance. Besides, for those of you who have been keeping up with this, you probably just want me to get on with it.
To give a quick recap of the previous two Sabbath posts: the first one dealt with what Sabbath is. In other words, what is the meaning and purpose of Sabbath; what makes it special. The second post spoke about what not to do on Sabbath. We discussed what the Bible means when it says "Do no work on the Sabbath day." This post is about the opposite: what to do on the Sabbath.
One of the things that immediately jumps out at us when we read about the Sabbath, especially in the most commonly thought of passages (Creation and the Commandments), is the concept of rest. We read in Genesis that Yahveh rested on the Sabbath day. Now we know that of course Yahveh was not resting because he was tired, for he does not get tired, but really celebrating Creation and what he had done. However, it was also a cessation of activity on the part of Yahveh. When the seventh day came, he just stopped working and took a break from it. In doing so, he set a pattern and example for us.
Skip over a few books to Deuteronomy 5. We have been here before when discussing the Commandments, especially noting the difference between the Sabbath commandments in Exodus 20 and here. One unique difference is a specification that is made in verse 14. Yahveh talks about how the Sabbath is for the maidservant and manservant as well as the owner so that they "may rest, as you do." Rest is central to the Sabbath.
Let us be honest: life is exhausting. So with that in mind, Yahveh has given us a day to come away from the business of life; a day to recharge. Sabbath is a day for rest.
So what does this have to do with what to do on the Sabbath? Whatever is restful is something to do on the Sabbath. That is what it is there for. An example would be just yesterday. I have been painting my parent's house, which is a large house and it is quite exhausting. So yesterday, I was totally drained. What did I do? I took a nap and it recharged and refreshed me. That is an example of what to do on the Sabbath; just rest.
Rest ties directly into the next point, which is restoration. Leviticus 25 is a chapter that is devoted to discussing laws about something called "Sabbath years." The gist of the Sabbath year was that every seven years, the Israelites were to not plant their fields. Just let them lie and live of the previous year's crop. The purpose of these years was to give the land a rest, so that it could restore itself.
But Yahveh did not leave it at that; he took a step further. Every seven Sabbath years, or essentially 50 years, there was the year of Jubilee. This was a special year, a second consecutive Sabbath year that was a resetting of things. Debts were cancelled, slaves were freed, and lands were returned to their ancestral owners. It was a year of celebration, but also a year of restoration.
Let us look at Jesus life. There are about a half dozen miracles that Jesus performed on Sabbath that are specifically mentioned as happening on Sabbath. In fact, general when we here about something that Jesus did on Sabbath, he was healing people. Specifically, he was restoring people. For Jesus, restoration was an essential part of the Sabbath.
So what restores you? What resets and refocuses your life? Is it taking a hike in the woods? Or maybe it is spending special time with friends and/or family. Perhaps it is just being alone fore once. Whatever it is for you that restores your body and soul, do it. That is what the Sabbath is for.
Sabbath is also for reconnection with each other. It is for meeting with each other and being a blessing for one another. Think of what Jesus did on the Sabbath. In the above paragraphs, we see that Jesus would heal people on the Sabbath. Not only was he restoring them, he was reconnecting with them.
Also the gospel of Luke records that Jesus had a habit of going to the synagogue on Sabbath. Remember that Jesus was a Jew and the Jewish form of church was the synagogue. Jesus essentially had a habit of going to church on the Sabbath. Why? To meet with and reconnect with fellow believers.
The apostles in the New Testament Church did the same. Luke writes in Acts that the believers continued to meet together. Wherever Paul went, he sought out synagogues and met with the Jews on Sabbath (until he got kicked out). If there was not a synagogue, like at Philippi, he would find a place where Jews or Christians were meeting on Sabbath (Acts 16:11-15). The author of Hebrews exhorted his readers to not give up meeting with each other. Meeting together, especially on Sabbath, was important to the early church.
This is why we go to church on Sabbath. At church, we reconnect with each other to encourage and strength and support each other. Life is stressful, especially for the Christian. Church becomes a time and place to get away from it all and just hang out with each other. We do it on Sabbath because this is what Yahveh made the Sabbath for.
Ultimately, however, the Sabbath is all about Yahveh. In Hebrews 4, the author likens rest in Christ like a Sabbath rest. Matthew records Jesus saying that we should come to him and he will give us rest. The rest of Sabbath is resting in him.
We find our true restoration in Christ as well. When talking with Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus tells the rabbi that in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven, we must be born again. This is like having our lives restarted, reset, or restored. Paul takes this a step further in 2 Corinthians 5:17 when he says that in Christ, we are "new creations." Through Jesus, we are restored. Sabbath is a celebration of this restoration.
At the center of the Sabbath is reconnecting with Yahveh. The day is for us to meet with him. It was Adam and Eve did in the Garden. It is what we are to do now. After all, it is his day. Time and time again the Bible refers to the Sabbath as "his" day or the Lord's day. The Commandments call it his Sabbath. In Isaiah, Yahveh says "my hold day." It is not about us, but him. It is, as we have talked about before, the day we celebrate him.
So you want to keep the Sabbath holy? You want to do, as Jesus said, "good" on the Sabbath? What gives you rest, what gives you restoration, what reconnects with others and with Yahveh? Ultimately, what do you do to celebrate Yahveh. Whatever that is for you, do it. For that is what it means to keep the Sabbath day holy.
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