What About the Sabbath?

Today in church I heard a sermon from a guest pastor speaking about God’s commandment to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. He recounted growing up under what were known as Blue Laws, which required local businesses to be closed on Sundays. He then asserted that although the civil laws have changed, God’s command still applies to us today. He then explained that he prefers to be the only person “working” near the altar during a service to prevent the lay people from sinning by working  on the Sabbath; they are supposed to be resting during the service. Of course, then he had to acknowledge that we had lay people reading the scriptures and assisting with communion in our service!

When the  service ended, I found myself uneasy in the wake of this law-heavy sermon. Was he right? Was I (and our church) taking the matter of the Sabbath too lightly? What does the Bible teach about the Sabbath and what we are to do to observe it rightly?

First of all, I also grew up where there were either Blue Laws or at least the custom of everything being closed on Sundays. I remember when a new store came in and announced Sunday hours; a group of pastors led a protest in front of the store. The protestors failed to dissuade the store, however, when it was obvious the crowds in the store were greater than those outside protesting.

I also remember asking my dad, who was a devout Christian man, why he often went to work on Sundays at the YMCA. He explained that as Christ healed on the Sabbath, he too was doing the Lord’s work when he went in. I accepted that distinction – which helped a lot later when my own primary work day (some would say only work day) would become Sundays!

So, what about the Sabbath for Christians?

1. We note the Sabbath was ordained by God at the beginning of creation. We read in Genesis 1 and 2, that the Lord created the earth and all things in six days, and then rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2 tells us:

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. 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.

The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew Shin-Beit-Tav (שַׁבָּת) and means “to cease, to end, to rest.” Thus, Sabbath means to rest.

2. God commanded the Israelites to observe the Sabbath as part of the Ten Commandments he gave at Sinai (Deuteronomy 5:12-15):

“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 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 or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall 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.”

3. The day designated the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, known to us as Saturday. Observant Jews keep Saturday as their Sabbath, and so do various Christian sects, most notably, the Seventh Day Adventists. They are right: Saturday is the Sabbath. If we are going to be strict about God’s commandment, we should observe Saturday as our Sabbath. So, Sunday Blue Laws or the practice of keeping lay people from assisting worship become irrelevant if Sunday is not the Sabbath.

4. And yet, we Christians do worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, and consider it to be our Sabbath. In a sense we are treating it as a day of rest, so in a sense we are working six days and treating Sunday as our Sabbath. But how did Sunday become our day of worship and rest?

• • • Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Sunday. “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb” (John 20:1). This is why we call it the Lord’s Day.
    • Jesus first appeared to the disciples on two consecutive Sundays. “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”” (John 20:19) and “Eight days later [one week in Jewish reckoning], his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”²(John 20:26).
    • The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples on a Sunday, birthing the Christian Church: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).
    • The Apostle John received his revelation on a Sunday. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book . . .'” (Revelation 1:10-11a).
    • Paul addressed the church in Corinth to gather a collection for other needy Christians on Sundays. He said, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” This showed the church was gathering each week on that day.

Certainly, these passages show that Sundays became the important day of the week for Christians. But if Sunday is our Sabbath, does that mean the Old Testament laws just shift one day for Christians?

No, there is a difference, and that is Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, has fulfilled the Sabbath rest and therefore, those who are in him, through faith, now perfectly observe the Lord’s Sabbath command.

Many times was Jesus confronted by the Pharisees, who complained that Jesus and his disciples violated the Sabbath laws. They complained when one Sabbath the disciples began to pluck heads of grain. “And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Again, the Pharisees complained when Jesus healed on the Sabbath. They complained that he healed a man with a withered hand  on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:10), cast out an unclean spirit from a man (Mark 1:21), cast out a woman’s disabling spirit (Luke 13:14), and healed a crippled man (John 5:9) – all on Sabbaths. Jesus’s reply to their criticisms:

• • He did these things anyway, without apology.
  • He showed that acts of mercy triumphed over the rules of men. “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?” (Luke 13:15). Again, he said, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?” (Matthew 12:11).
  • He gave us the proper context for the Sabbath. “And he said to them, ‘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 Sabbath commandment is the only Ten Commandment not repeated in the New Testament. It has been fulfilled in Christ, who is our Sabbath rest.

Therefore, if we serve the Lord on the Lord’s Day, worshiping him as we ought, in spirit and in truth, whether clergy or lay, as Christians we are in Christ, and are therefore we are not sinning in any way.

Should you still wonder about this matter, consider Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where he wrote: “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” The true Sabbath is Christ, in whom we live and move and have our being.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make hi face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Mark 2:23-28.