Sundays weren’t the most fun days for my mom. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, she recalls sets of strictly enforced approved and unapproved Sunday activities. She and her siblings could read Sunday school papers and the Bible but not other books, they could go for a walk but not ride their bikes, and they could sit and play quietly but not play active games or watch tv. With a bunch of extra rules to follow, Sunday became boring but certainly not restful. By the time I was growing up in the 2000s, many of those rules hadn’t carried over to our observance of the Lord’s Day, but there was still an implied list of things that weren’t appropriate for Sundays.
Although they are separate days, Christians often liken our weekly observance of Sundays with the Jewish observance of the Sabbath on the last day of each week. Observing Sabbath is not a requirement for Christians, as it is part of Jewish Law and the covenant agreement with Israel. However, since the early church times, Christians have voluntarily celebrated the Lord’s Day on the first day of the week to honor the day Jesus rose from the dead. Both days offer a chance to rest from regular work and to worship God. Unfortunately, human beings have often added problematic and unnecessary rules around both.
Breaking Sabbath laws was one of the things Jesus got in trouble for often with the religious leaders. In reality, He was breaking manmade laws, not God’s, and “the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28, NIV). However, they tried to use this against Him many times. Such as in Luke 13:10-17, when a synagogue leader was “indignant” that Jesus had just healed a crippled woman during a Sabbath synagogue service, which was considered “work.” Or in John 5, when Jewish leaders stopped a former invalid, walking for the first time after just experiencing miraculous healing at the hands of Jesus, with this objection: “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat” (John 5:10, NIV). They were blind to the miracles happening right in front of them because they placed too much importance on sticking to the myriad rules around what not to do on the Sabbath.
Or when the disciples, walking through a field, picked grain to munch on because they were hungry (Mark 2:23-28), which was forbidden on the Sabbath according to Talmudic law. When the Pharisees call Jesus out on this, He says to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27, NIV). In the scene from The Chosen’s Season 2 Episode 6, which is based on this passage, a disciple does this absentmindedly and is immediately met with horrified looks from the others. His own countenance drops a moment later as he spits out the grain and fearfully looks at Jesus, who gives them permission to pick and eat. Unfortunately, this same fear and restriction carried over into Christians’ observance of the Lord’s Day.
Neither the Sabbath nor the Lord’s Day was ever meant to be spent mired in burdensome inactivity. It’s intended to be a good thing—a gift of spiritual rest and time to spend in worship and fellowship. Collectively, we may have strayed away from the original purpose at times, but I’m glad we have this day set aside to change our pattern of life and encourage us to rest and spend time with God. We live in a hustle culture that prizes goal-focused ambition, efficient productivity, and a never-stops work ethic. Let’s be honest. If we didn’t deliberately set aside time to rest, reflect, and enjoy, would we ever do it?
The idea of Sabbath rest is rooted back in Genesis, in the creation of the world: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (Genesis 2:2-3, NIV). This holy day would later be codified in the Ten Commandments as part of God’s covenant with Israel (Exodus 20:8-11). For me, this isn’t just a mandate for what not to do on Saturdays or Sundays but a broader principle for life. Not every moment needs to be spent producing. There’s a time for work and a time for rest, and both are needed.
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