Rest In Jesus

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you hear that you ought to keep the Sabbath Day holy,

what does it mean to you?

I know for many

the first response is

we ought to go to church.

Sunday is the Lord’s Day

so let that be a day dedicated to the Lord

and go to a worship service.

And while going to church on Sundays is a good habit,

it’s not the strict answer to following the third commandment.

Are you ready for the answer?

The simplest correct answer to honor the Sabbath Day

and keeping it holy unto the Lord

is to rest.

Sabbath Day equals rest.

God made the heavens and earth in six days

and on the seventh day

he rested.

If God can rest we can rest.

And God fed the Israelites manna and quail in the desert for forty years,

but on the Sabbath day

on Saturday

the seventh day

they were to rest.

They were to not collect any manna or quail for that day.

They were to eat Friday’s leftovers

or else bad things would happen.

If God can take a day off from working

then so can his people.

Do you see this habit in the followers of God today?

Maybe some.

There are several reasons why this has changed.

One obvious change that we now see

is a worship service to God on Sundays

and not Saturdays.

Why is that?

Well, imagine you are a second-century Christian

and Easter celebration is coming.

What day are you going to celebrate the day of the Resurrection of Jesus?

Jesus didn’t rise from the grave on Saturday.

He rested on that day.

He rose on Sunday,

the following day.

So why not celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday?

And if every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus defeating death once and for all

then why not celebrate this exciting thing Jesus has done for us

every Sunday.

It is believed that by the end of the second century

Christians have begun setting aside Sunday as their one day of the week

to dedicate to the Lord.

Even the book of Revelation celebrates Sunday

by calling it the Lord’s Day.

But back before Jesus has risen from the grave,

Saturday was still known as the day of rest.

And so in our Gospel lesson

during Jesus’ ministry

the followers of God were making a good effort

to make Saturday the day of rest

--especially the most excellent Jews.

Those who were desiring to honor God

showing the world just how great their God was

that God would still take care of them even if they had a day off

they would do whatever they could

to make Saturday as their day of rest.

And so when the Pharisees see Jesus’ disciples harvesting grain from the fields,

they ask

“Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

meaning,

what kind of leading Jews are these?

Jesus,

hearing the Pharisees’ remark

challenges them

with a story that is written about their beloved King David

when he ate the bread of the Presence.

You’ll find this story in 1 Samuel chapter 21.

Why is this story important?

This bread was to only be eaten by the priests

and not for the general public

--in this case

David and his army.

But despite what was supposed to happen

the priest made sure that the men who ate this bread

were living in a godly manner.

And they made sure that the bread that was eaten

was replaced before the next Sabbath day.

In the end,

no one from this moment had been condemned.

God did not punish anyone for improper bread handling.

Now,

this wasn’t supposed to be the norm for handling the bread of the Presence,

but in terms of being good stewards with the situation at hand

the decisions that were made were for the better of everyone.

Those that were hungry

were fed.

And in this moment with Jesus

those that were hungry

were on their way to being fed.

One other thing that is fascinating about Jesus’ answer

is the order of authority being used in this lesson.

Jesus is teaching this understanding to the Pharisees

about what King David had done.

So then what is Jesus saying about himself and who he is?

Jesus is saying he is greater than King David,

and he is also saying that he is greater that the Pharisees,

--as Jesus says about himself in third person,

“The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

How do you imagine the pious and prudent Pharisees taking Jesus’ answer?

“How dare this man from Nazareth place himself greater than us religious experts.”

But Jesus held to his authority