Remember the Sabbath: A Meditation on Deuteronomy 5 for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it,

as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.

Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God:

in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son,

nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,

nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle,

nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;

 that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

 

And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt,

and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence

through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:

 therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

 

Moses’ recap of the Ten Commandments near the end of his life in Deuteronomy 5 echoed the first giving of that Law in Exodus 20, and there are minor variations in the two sections, as in the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.  In Exodus 20, Moses declared the keeping of the Sabbath as a remembrance of God’s work in Creation, having worked 6 days and rested on the 7^th.  In Deuteronomy 5, Moses also noted that since God delivered the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt, they should keep the Sabbath which God commanded them.  The two are not in conflict, but harmony:  keeping the Sabbath is a physical reminder and confession of the truth that there is only One True God, that He is the Creator, and that we are His creation; likewise, we are called to keep the Sabbath because the God who commands it is also the Savior of His people.  Thus the keeping of the Sabbath by the people of God becomes a confession of both Law and Gospel—of God as both Sovereign Lord and gracious Savior.  The Church continues this confession into the present day, though the forms and rituals have changed since Moses’ era.

 

1500 years or so after Moses, when Jesus walked with His disciples, the keeping of the Sabbath had become wrapped in a multitude of additional requirements.  The rabbinical tradition from around the time of the Babylonian captivity and afterward, added measures and tests and refinements to many of the Laws of Moses that would prevent anyone from coming anywhere near breaking the original commandment… or at least look more pious in the keeping of those additional laws.  Instead of the simple Mosaic commandment to keep the day holy (set apart) and to rest (do no labor), the Pharisees made it such that the poor couldn’t even seek their own sustenance on the Sabbath, while the wealthy could freely work to protect their investments in livestock; i.e., the disciples of Jesus were castigated for plucking a few ears of corn to eat when they were hungry on the Sabbath, but everyone agreed it was ok to rescue a distressed sheep who fell into a pit.  The hypocrisy was ridiculous, and Jesus pointed it out in our Gospel reading from Mark 2 and 3:  that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Jesus taught that it is not unlawful to do good on the Sabbath, as He often healed the sick and deformed on that day, and that He was in fact the Lord of the Sabbath.  This infuriated the Pharisees, and they added it to their motives to kill Him.

 

There are several errors Christians can fall into regarding the Sabbath.  One is to discard it completely as meaningless in the Christian era, somehow obliviating the Word of God which makes of it an ancient proclamation of God’s Creative and Saving works among mankind.  Another is to force upon the Christian the Talmudic intricacies of human law upon divine Law, seeking to make oneself righteous by the keeping of them.  It’s worth noting that the Apostles did not put the Hebrew Sabbath observances upon the Gentile Christians, but rather seem to affirm that this commandment is refined into the Lord’s Day where they come together in remembrance of His Easter Resurrection on the 1^st day of the week.  With Jesus having fulfilled the Law of Moses in Himself, the Sabbath declaration of Law and Gospel was fulfilled in His Cross and Resurrection from the dead:  that Jesus was the Lord God Almighty, both Judge of all things, and Savior of all who put their trust in Him.  Thus the 1^st Day of the Week, or as some of the old theologians considered it the 8^th Day (the 1^st Day of the New Creation) the saints of God would gather around Jesus in His Word and Sacraments to proclaim and to receive His Law and Gospel.  Thus the Sabbath of Moses was made perfect and full in Jesus Christ, whose Easter victory became His people’s new day of remembrance and celebration.

 

But of course, in the New Testament era, there was not just one day of the week to hallow, for the whole life of the Christian is baptized into Jesus’ death, and raised into His eternal life.  The Law of God to the Christian is not just to hallow the Sabbath Day, but to be holy as God Himself is Holy, without any dalliance into darkness, selfishness, or evil.  The Christiann is not called to give one day in seven back to God, but rather to yield their whole life as a living sacrifice to the Living God who has done all things necessary to save them.  After the inauguration of God’s Kingdom come in Jesus Christ, all days are made holy unto God, and it is God who seeks those who will worship Him in Spirit and Truth.  The Law of the Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and the celebration of His Gospel is made with the proclamation of His Word and reception of His Sacraments as He gave them to His disciples, who have handed them down to our very day.  In this way, Christians are not called to abandon the commandment of the Sabbath, but to live into its fullness:  we hallow all our days in the Faith and Repentance which receives Forgiveness and Grace unto eternal life, even as we set the Lord’s Day aside as a Holy of Holies to remember and confess Him as Creator and Savior of the world.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you today, both from the thunderings of Mount Sinai and the marvels of Mount Calvary.  The Lord our God is Creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen; it is He alone who shall judge the whole cosmos, and every soul shall stand before Him one day to give account of the life they have lived.  Yet the Lord our God has also dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, to accomplish our salvation by His Cross, and to declare our eternal life by His resurrection.  It is the Lord our God who now moves among His people through His Word and Sacraments, enlivening all to faith and repentance that all might live forever in His mercy and grace.  The Lord our God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has given to us His Sabbath rest that we might be refreshed and nourished in it, even as by it we make confession to the world of His majesty and salvation.  Go forth, therefore, a hallowed soul, that by the power of the Lord God Almighty, you might hallow all your days in Jesus Christ, both in this world and the next, neither forsaking the assembly of the saints, nor seeking justification by your own works of the Law.  For it is the Lord God Almighty who alone is King, and who alone is Savior of us all.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.