Sabbath Practice

Introduction: Don’t do that. Don’t touch that. ETC. OK…so what can I do?

Review: Jesus invitation to Rest, Rest as the Rhythm of Creation, Rest as Resistance.

Maybe you’re like OKAY, OKAY, I’ll stop doing all this stuff. I’ll stop working, I’ll stop getting caught up in a culture of productivity, of efficiency, of doing and getting MORE. I’ll stop.

Now, what?

I think this was one of the problems with the Jewish people in Jesus’ time. The people of Israel, throughout their history, they didn’t want to stop, they didn’t want to Sabbath, they didn’t want to obey God, so they would stop work, but then just find a different way to work. Well, I’m not working in the field, so I’ll just clean up the house a little bit. Well, I’m not cleaning, I’m just “re-organizing”.

This happens to me with my phone sometimes too. A while ago, I decided that I wanted to spend less time on my phone, so I deleted all the games on my phones. Which was cool, but then I was spending more time on social media, so I set up a timer to block all my social media apps all day except for 7-9pm. The problem was, then I realized I was spending all my time on the ESPN app, so I blocked that too, and then I was wasting time on IMDB trying to find movies I want to watch. I realized that I could keep going like that forever, and eventually, I’d end up spending hours everyday on the weather app. Because I set up rules to stop doing something, but I didn’t deal with the internal temptation toward distraction. So it just kept coming back in a different form.

And that’s what the Israelites did with the Sabbath. They were trying to use rules and regulations to play whack-a-mole with people’s natural desire to work more, do more, get more. But what is really interesting is that, eventually, the way the Pharisees operated in Jesus’ time, they had actually begun to use the rules to obscure the purpose of the day. They got so distracted by NOT doing stuff that they forgot about what they were supposed to do.

And that’s why Jesus often got into trouble with the Pharisees. Because to them, it was just a day of rules, a day for them to show off how good they were at not doing things, and Jesus was far more interested in their hearts.

We’re going to look at a pair of stories in Mark today where Jesus gets into it with the Pharisees

Mark 2:23–3:6 NLT

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.

In this story, we see Jesus challenging the Pharisees understanding of Sabbath. Because the Pharisees had figured out how to Stop, but they missed the point of stopping. It was a way for them to view themselves as superior to those who didn’t follow the Sabbath laws perfectly. Jesus challenged their assumptions about Sabbath and re-defined what it means to truly practice Sabbath, because Sabbath is not just about what we don’t do, but it’s about the good that we do.

Sabbath Practices are for our Good

I want to start with the second part of the story about Jesus healing the man’s hand. The Pharisees were looking for any reason to accuse him, so they wanted to catch him breaking Sabbath laws. It’s strange that this would be considered “work”, and I was trying to figure that out this week. My best guess is that there was a prohibition against repairing

The point Jesus makes is what is the point of Sabbath: “Is it a day to save life or destroy it?” It is a day for good, for wholeness, for

Jesus Defines Sabbath Practices

He never says don’t do it.

Sabbath for man, not man for Sabbath

So, it’s not about the rules—it’s about what’s good for me.

But I don’t define what’s good for me: Jesus does (The Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath)

How does Jesus practice Rest?

Stop (Mark 6:31)

-Remove yourself from the situation

Rest (Matthew 8:24, Matthew 14:13)

-Trust God

-Practice Silence & Solitude

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Delight (Luke 5:33-35, Psalm 37:4)

-Enjoy the gift (but recognize it as a gift)

-Enjoy God

Worship (Luke 5:16, Mark 3:4)

-Spend time in Prayer

-Connect