Intellectual Defenestration

Give it a rest

My (rough) notes for the bible study on the 4th commandment tomorrow night:

If there is one commandment in the Decalogue that has caused more debate and fights than any others, it is easily the fourth. What do we do with the Sabbath? Do we keep it? If so, how thoroughly? What can we do and what can we not? Can we watch sports? What about the Superbowl? Why do we now celebrate it on Sunday and not Saturday? These are the questions that have consumed Christians since Christianity came about (especially the Superbowl issue) ? and there have been godly men on both sides of the debate.

Although I'm sure everyone would prefer to jump straight into the practical questions, it is foolish to try to understand what we are or are not to do without first understanding the nature of the command. So we'll begin with trying to learn more about the Sabbath and how it is used in Scripture. We'll examine the Sabbath in the context of creation, in the context of redemption, and in relationship to Christ. (We could also probably talk about the Sabbath in the context of glorification, but that might be too much for one time.) We'll then try to conclude with some practical observations.

First: the Sabbath and creation. As everyone knows, the Sabbath first appeared in Genesis 2. God worked 6 days and then he stopped on the 7th. Because he rested (a key word that will appear later) from his work, he made the 7th day holy. Thus we see the Sabbath appear at the very beginning of creation, established and sanctified by none other than God himself.

The next time we see the Sabbath is in Exodus 16, when Moses proscribes for the Israelites the manner in which they are to gather manna. It is possible that this situation was merely preparation for the giving of the law of the Sabbath four chapters later. If that is true, though, it is surprising that Moses is so matter-of-fact about this (Turretin 13.9) If this was a brand new thing, one would think that a bigger deal would be made about this. Consequently, a better interpretation of this would be that Moses was acting to strengthen or possibly restore the tradition of the Sabbath. If that is so, then it is evidence for Sabbath observance from the time of creation to the time of Moses.

Lastly, the reason God gives for observing the Sabbath in Ex. 20 is because of the creational pattern. The command is explicit: work six days and rest, because God worked six days and rested.

From this it appears that the Sabbath is engrained into creation, on the same level as the knowledge that murder is wrong. It is part of the "moral fiber" of the world. This is remarkable because it shows that there is a built-in mechanism within creation for the worship of its creator.

But the Bible does not just portray the Sabbath in the context of creation. Scripture also places it in relationship to redemption. While Ex. 20 gives creation as the basis for the Sabbath, the reiteration of the Decalogue in Dt. 5.5 gives redemption as the basis for the Sabbath. God tells Israel to rest on the seventh day because "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."

Another example of the redemptive aspect of the Sabbath is in Ps. 95. In this Psalm, the judgment upon Israel for her failure to apprehend the promises of God is that they would not enter God's rest. Israel was judged by means of prevention from participation in the Sabbath. Thus, part of the purpose of the Sabbath is redemptive; participation in the Sabbath is participation in communion with God himself.

This also shows that, while the Sabbath has a broader meaning for all of creation, it has a particular meaning for the people of God. Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in The Truth About God speak of the Sabbath as "retaking time" for the glory of God (p. 57):

Sabbath keeping is a sign of trust that God governs this world, therefore we don't have to work to make things come out right. God welcomes our labors, but our contributions to creation have their limits. Even God trusted all that God had created enough to be confident that the world would continue while God rested. So should we. Unlike the Greek god Atlas, we need not bear the world on our shoulders. Like God we can stay away from the office for a day of rest in the conviction that the world will not go to hell simply because we are at rest.

The Sabbath, then, to the people of God is a mark of separation, of holiness, to show that the we are different. The people of God are not ruled by the cares and needs of work, but by the worship of God Almighty.

The ultimate fulfillment of redemption in the Sabbath, though, is found in Christ. In Mt 12, Jesus replies to the Pharisees criticisms of his disciples actions by stating that

Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus makes some incredibly bold claims. He answers the attack on his disciples by first reminding the Pharisees that works of necessity were permitted on the Sabbath. But then he goes on to assert his lordship over the Sabbath. He was holier than the temple itself, the place where God met with Israel. He both fulfilled and ruled over the Sabbath.

Also noteworthy is the number of times that the gospels specifically record Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Jesus heals the man with the withered hand in Mt 12 (cf. Mk 3; Lk 6), the lame man in Jn 5, and the blind man in Jn 9. Through this, Jesus reveals both the redemptive aspects of his work as healer and his work to undo the effects of the fall in creation.

The clearest passage that speaks of Jesus in relation to the Sabbath is Heb 3.1-4.11. The author, as he encourages the believers to persevere in Christ, speaks first of the superiority of Jesus over Moses and second of Jesus as the fulfillment of the "rest" in Ps. 95. To be in Jesus by faith, then, is to be in the "rest" of God. The Sabbath is salvation; the "rest" is covenantal communion with God.

This is some of the raw material in the Bible concerning the Sabbath. Now, to try to tie it all together: because of what we have seen, I believe that the Sabbath is morally binding, but that aspects of it have changed through Jesus.

That the Sabbath is morally binding comes from the Scriptural presentation of the Sabbath as rooted in creation. I don't think a convincing argument can be made (although Michael Horton in The Law of Perfect Freedom tries) that the Sabbath was primarily a Mosaic, ceremonial law. The fact that the Sabbath was instituted at creation and that God gave creation as the reason for the fourth commandment indicates that there is something broader and more eternal than the Mosaic laws concerning animal sacrifices and priestly vestments.

At the same time, something has changed. In the coming of Christ, all that was ceremonial was done away with because what it was pointing to had arrived. And while the Sabbath was ordained increation, there were aspects of it that were ceremonial and particular to the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Turretin 13.21). Specifically, since Christ has come, first, the day of observance has been moved to Sunday and, second, the restrictions for Sabbath keeping have eased. No longer is the death penalty required for Sabbath-breaking, for example (Turretin also argues that we no longer need to be as scrupulous, either).

So, what do we do? The first and fundamental thing is and must be worship. To quote Hauerwas and Willimon again (p. 65):

Political holiness is not simply obeying this or that law. Christian politics is constituted by the worship of the true God found in Jesus Christ. It is politics that assumes we have all the time in the world, eternity, in a world of deep injustice and pain, to take time to worship. In an unjust world, we either want anxiously to take time into our hands and right the wrong on our terms or, worse, to acquiesce to the injustice, giving it sovereignty, assuming that God cannot or will not work in time to do a new thing. Sunday worship is thus a radical protest from the world's time, a time when we literally take time to rejoice that in Jesus Christ God has made our time his own. We are given on the Sabbath a glimpse of eternity, an experience of what God means for all time where God has "blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" (Revelation 5:13).

The Sabbath is what centers our life, focus, and priorities upon the person and work of Christ. Our first and chief priority in the Sabbath should be to glorify and enjoy God through both public and private worship. All other tasks should be secondary. Jobs are important, but they are only temporary; God is eternal.

But this worship is not just an ethereal, abstract worship. Worship is not primarily a personal, individualistic exercise; it happens within a community. The fourth commandment explicitly encourages us to not prevent others from worshipping. We can see in the allowances that Jesus gives for works of mercy and the own miracles that he performed, that a result of proper Sabbath keeping is the encouragement and blessing of those around us, particularly those who are needy. Thus, as Christians demonstrate charity and kindness to those who are needy, a small part of the redemptive nature of the Sabbath is practically demonstrated.

This does mean, I think, that a certain amount of "do's" and "don'ts" should accompany one's observance of the Sabbath. Some "do's" are universal, such as church attendance. Others may be individualistic, such as whether or not to turn the TV on or to read a novel. Many of the particulars, I think, depend on what one's own conception of work is and what demarcates rest from work and what will or will not help one to enjoy rest in Christ.

But if we only look at the Sabbath in terms of "what can I get away with?" we have missed the boat. The point of the Sabbath is the worship of God on the basis of redemption through and communion with Christ. Any time we have lost focus on that, we are transgressing this commandment.

July 17, 2004 01:37 PM