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The Shape of the Sabbath
Text: Mark 2:23- 3:5
Proposition: The Sabbath ultimately is the eternal safe haven of being in Christ, signaling to all that it truly is finished.
Introduction: I like the story about the African bushman that was carrying a heavy pack of skins and carvings to market. He was walking along a dusty road when a missionary with his wife and family came along in their truck. He stopped and asked the man if he would like to ride in the pickup box and the bushman was grateful for the ride and quickly climbed in. A few minutes later the missionary glanced in the rear view mirror to see how his passenger was doing and to his surprise he saw the African trying to stand and keep balance while still carrying the pack. He pulled over and asked the bushman why he didn’t just put the pack down and rest. The reply was memorable, “I stand because I did not think that your truck could carry both me and my pack.” This morning we are going to look at the meaning of the Sabbath, we are going to see Jesus encounter the Pharisees on two separate occasions and both are in regard to the meaning of the Sabbath. We are going to see that Sunday is not the Sabbath and we are also going to discover that Saturday is not the Sabbath either. Turn with me to Mark 2:23.
I. The Sabbaths’ Importance of Not Just Resting but Finishing.
It was this command to rest that originates in Genesis 2 that Jesus and His disciples were being accused of violating. As in most conflicts with God, it begins from a misunderstanding of the Word of God. The Pharisees point to His disciples and say, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” The graciousness of Jesus is seen in the fact that He does not quote Deuteronomy 23:25 to them, “When you come into your neighbors standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbors standing grain.” The rabbis had taken this several steps further as an attempt at righteousness and had taught the leaders like the scribes and Pharisees that even to take the heads of grain was a violation. It wasn’t theft that was being prohibited, it was work. The rabbis and Pharisees had missed the heart of the Law which was to help the hungry, not to legislate them.
The Sabbath is all about the importance of finishing our work, which is the key concept in the term ‘rest’. If I were to ask Keith to set up 80 chairs for this mornings’ service and then he sets them out, it would be that as he puts up the 80th chair that Keith rested. He was finished the job at hand. It wasn’t that he was too tired to continue, it was that he now rested from putting up the chairs… the task was finished. This is the way that God rested on the 7th day, not as an act of exhaustion but as an act of completion and it cues us to the purpose and ultimate meaning of the term Sabbath. Jesus responds to the Pharisees by pointing out the sensitivity of God to the needs of man. He now reminds them of Scripture, the example of David taking the Show Bread from the temple when it was in Shiloh points out an even greater infraction of the law than what His disciples were doing and yet because of need it was justified. Man needs what the Sabbath provides. Look at what Jesus says next, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Basically Jesus was saying, “Which was created first, man or the Sabbath? If man was created on the 6th day and the Sabbath is the 7th day then recognize that the purpose of the Sabbath follows after the creation of man.” If we were to turn in our Bibles to Genesis 2 we’d see that this 7th day that God rested after finishing creation has no description at its’ end as the others do. All the others have the phrase, “and it was evening and morning” as a definition of the time of that literal day. The Sabbath is the only one that doesn’t have that. Is it possible that this implies that the Sabbath has a lasting aspect to it? Is it possible that this is why it’s included in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8? So for years the 7th day of the week, the day of worship, is a Saturday, not a Sunday. It was not till the Lord’s resurrection on the first day of the week, a Sunday, that the church shifted to having this as its day of meeting. But even so, Sunday has never been the Sabbath for that is clearly the 7th day. But what if even the strict observance to end work on Friday and to be at rest or be finished work all day Saturday was not the ultimate purpose of the Sabbath? What if God was using the Sabbath to point to an even greater rest, an even greater time when something was finished and no more work was necessary or allowed? When you consider the words of the Paul, it would seem that this is exactly what he was getting at in Col. 2, “And you, who were dead in trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. 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 only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” It is why Jesus makes the statement to the Pharisees, “Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”, since the Sabbath was given for the benefit of man and the Lord is in authority over mankind, then it stands to reason that Jesus is also the One to have authority over the way man is to rest. That way of rest was the cross, it would ultimately be in Jesus that we rest not just from our work for righteousness but from our sin which can never be overcome in our own effort. The Sabbath, as it was in Genesis 2, was meant to be a lasting rest for man because of what another had prepared for us. We are to rest in the provision of the cross even today as we enter into it through faith and thankfulness. So what does the second encounter reveal about the Sabbath? Let’s read Mark 3:1-5.
II. The Sabbaths Purpose of Being a Blessing to Man.
Jesus enters the synagogue a second time and again encounters the Pharisees as they seek to test and thus trap Him. It’s strange that every effort of the Pharisees only produced more and more revelation as to the truth of Who Jesus is, it worked in exactly the opposite direction of what they intended. In Matthew’s gospel and in Luke’s they record the other details of this event, Matthew actually says that it was the Pharisees who point out the man with the withered hand to Jesus and ask Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Luke adds the detail that it is the man’s right hand that is withered, which in near eastern culture meant a lot as the left was used for the aspects of personal hygiene and the right for food and fellowship. This man had only the left hand to use for both and it would have caused considerable difficulty both socially and personally. But the point here is the Sabbath, and whether it was lawful to heal, to do good on the Sabbath. The answer to this is given directly by Jesus in Matthew’s account but we can also discover it in the Genesis account. On the 7th day, or Sabbath (which actually means ‘rest’) God blessed it and sanctified it. Author Ray Stedman says, “God said to man, "Be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over all the earth." That is what blessing means, to make possible both fruitfulness and dominion. When God "hallowed," or "sanctified" the Sabbath, He assigned it a specific function to perform. That is what sanctification always is -- to put to a proper or intended purpose. Thus God designated the true Sabbath to the function of producing blessing (fruitfulness and dominion) for man.” Holding onto that thought we return to the man with the withered hand in the synagogue. Jesus calls the man forward so that all could see, and then calls the scribes and Pharisees to agree with Him (to confess) that the Sabbath is a time for man to be blessed and in this case a withered hand is restored. So what are to conclude? Consider these observations:
1.The Sabbath pictures the finished work of God, in creation and ultimately in Christ’s death on the cross.
2. The Sabbath is the place where we are to rest in the work of another, in the work of Christ’s resurrection and its redemption.
3. The Sabbath is what God invites us to enter, not on Sundays or Saturdays but every day in Christ. Heb. 4:9-10 “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.”
4. The Sabbath is meant to be both a present blessing of rest (it is finished in Christ) and a future place of blessing. It is set a part by God for the unique purpose man’s fruitfulness and dominion, both now and for all eternity.
The shape of the Sabbath is the shape of the person of Jesus Christ, He is our rest.