May the mumbling commence!
What is the purpose of the Law – you know the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words? Some people would have you think that the Law is meant to limit us. Limiting us is the furthest from the truth.
The Law is meant to help us be and grow and do far beyond anything we could think or imagine of ourselves. The Law completes us when we respect and follow the principles that it is based on. The Law is for our good. Read from Mark chapter two:
One day he happened to be going through the cornfields on the Sabbath day. And his disciples, as they made their way along, began to pick the ears of corn. The Pharisees said to him, "Look at that! Why should they do what is forbidden on the Sabbath day?"
Then he spoke to them. "Have you never read what David did, when he and his companions were hungry? Haven't you read how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was High Priest, and ate the presentation loaves, which nobody is allowed to eat, except the priests – and gave some of the bread to his companions? The Sabbath," he continued, "was made for man's sake; man was not made for the sake of the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath." (Verses 23-28)
The Sabbath was made for the sake of the good of humanity. The Sabbath serves humanity – not the other way around. The Sabbath day laws of the religious leadership had created a situation where the Sabbath was bad for some people – especially the vulnerable.
Jesus pointed them to the heart of the Law. The basic principle of the Law is to serve the good of humanity. Other laws that humanity may add to the Law of God, the Word of God, sometimes fly in the face of the Law’s principle.
In Jesus’ day, the Sabbath in particular was weighed down by rules that had escape clause for the wealthy. For example, one can walk only a certain distance on a Sabbath. There was a loophole for wealthy people. They could buy property at various Sabbath day intervals and be able to legally walk much further than the Sabbath’s day walk.
It was these types of rules, with their loopholes, that Jesus spoke against. The Law of God was meant to feed the people of God with the richness contained in justice and peace.
Today, we in America have a vastly different problem in regards to the Sabbath. Our culture norm is to go around the clock – 24/7. We give ourselves no time to rest.
We miss our need for rest that the Sabbath Law dictates for our own good. In missing this gift of the Law, we find ourselves gripped by fear and anxiety. Many people lapse into depression – one of the most common maladies of our day.
Sabbath calls us to slow down. Sabbath calls us to trust in the Lord. Sabbath calls us to trust in the abundance of the Lord. Sabbath calls us to focus on the Lord so that we might hear the Word of God in our crowded and over stimulated lives.
Sabbath is meant to benefit me by benefitting my relationship with God and with my fellow human beings. In fact, Sabbath rightly observed benefits all of creation. Sabbath is at the heart of guiding all creation to be what God created it to be.
And God calls us to relationship and to worship and to bringing ever-increasing glory to the Name.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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