Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 25-minute message. Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts 22 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

Genesis 2:2-3 institutes the Sabbath (or Shabbat or Shabbos). Most Christians celebrate this on Sunday, while Jews and some Christians (e.g., Seventh Day Adventists) observe it on Saturday (or from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday). Muslims have a holy day on Friday, called Jumu’ah, and will pray at noon at the mosque (or wherever they are, if there is no accessible mosque), though it is not a day of rest. For Christians, then, the Sabbath is intended to be a day of rest. And it is traditionally when we spend time in God’s house with God’s people.

In the evangelical Bible church where I came to faith in my teens, the Sabbath was a very holy day. We were expected to come to both the morning and evening services (which I routinely did), and also the early morning Bible study (which I did). And we were not allowed to work (no home work or office work, no shopping, no parties, etc.), which I also conformed to. In my family, Sunday was also the day we all relaxed. Dad would do a braai (barbecue), always burning the outside of the meat to charcoal! We’d have ice cream for pudding, play in the pool, watch Dad watching motor racing on the TV, reading the Sunday paper, sleeping. Although I am not fixed on Sabbath prohibitions anymore, I still feel guilty stopping at the shops on the way home from church – sometimes I’ll take off my dog collar and put on a t-shirt, to go incognito – a guilty remnant of my rule-based Christian formation.

In today’s Gospel reading (Mark 2:23-3:6), Jesus flaunts the strict Jewish Sabbath laws of his time: he and his disciples (1) travel, (2) harvest, and (3) eat, and in the following passage, Jesus (4) heals a man with a shrivelled hand. This behaviour of Jesus – to flaunt Jewish laws in favour of human relationships and well-being – is typical of Jesus’ ministry, and contributed to his murder.

Jesus, however, challenges the Sabbath laws. He draws on a story from Samuel (not actually about the Sabbath) to argue that Jesus, like David, broke rules about giving food to his companions. It is as if Jesus is saying, “Chill! It’s not that important. Relax. My disciples were hungry, so I’m fine with them reaping and eating some grain.” He says to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Jesus always prioritises people over rules, even when this is deeply offensive to other people who prioritise rules over people.

Jesus does the same in the following healing story. Here he juxtaposes goodness with evil, and saving life with murder – which is lawful on the Sabbath? Perhaps the correct answer was that none of these were lawful, but the Pharisees remain silent. They were not willing to recognise that there is a continuum between evil to good, between dying and healing. They applied their rules rigidly. This angers Jesus: “He looked around at them in anger, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts” (Mark 3:5).

This wordless response of Jesus is vital to our faith – Jesus always prioritises people over rules. Rules are important for civilisation and harmony, but when rules dehumanise people, they must be challenged. And so Jesus provocatively and flagrantly heals the man in front of the Pharisees, who immediately start plotting his death.

The Sabbath, then, is God’s gift to humankind. In the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11, God says via Moses:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

God knows us. God created us. God knows what we need. God knows we need down-time. Psalm 139 reveals this intimate knowledge that God has for each of us:

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. … 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

2 Corinthians 4:7 also has important insight for us: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” We are the jars of clay – fragile vessels, easily shattered. God is the treasure, the surpassing power, the light, the life, the potential, the very Spirit of God. God chooses to dwell in these fragile vessels that we are.

All of this brings us back to the Sabbath. Without getting legalistic about Sabbath rules, can we agree that spending time with God is good for us? Can we agree that prayer, both personal and collective, is good for us? That singing together is good for us? That hearing the Word of God read in public is good for us? Can we agree that hearing the Word of God explained and applied to our lives is good for us? That spending a little time chatting with other Christians over a cup of tea of coffee is good for us? That leaving the dishes in the sink for another 15 minutes to spend time in fellowship is good for us? Can we agree that being at church as a family is good for us? That participating in the Eucharist – receiving the signs of Christ’s exceptional love for us – is good for us? That being reminded every week that Christ dwells within us and wants us to walk in step with him is good for us?

Surely the answer to all these questions must be YES?!

Come to church! Even if you are tired. Even if you don’t like your minister. Even if you don’t like some people at church. Even if there are things you disagree with. Even if you have other work that needs to be done. Even if you come without your family because they are not interested.

Put yourself into a place where God can bless you. Come with an expectant heart. Open your heart to God’s Spirit. Look for the good in your church. Forgive your church for its lacks and failures. Come to church!

Featured image from https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/church-congregation-christian-gospel-singers-raising-praise-lord-jesus-christ_829699-356.jpg