Vacation...Undone (part 3)

Sabbath, like most prominent biblical themes, blossoms even more fully by the time we enter the New Testament.  The commanded action flowers into a principle; a heart posture even.  The invitation by Jesus at the end of Matthew 11 to “Come…and I will give you rest” is certainly more than a breather on the bench near the sidelines of life.  But further, His invitation indicates there is more to Sabbath than a summons to reflect on and cultivate joy in the LORD Creator and Redeemer.  Jesus is suggesting a heart posture required for Sabbath; a whole centered being founded on the grace and peace that only Jesus Christ Himself offers through His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

 

At the start of Matthew 12 Jesus presses the point.  Ticked off by Jesus’ disciples casually munching down some grains on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees decide to take issue with Jesus about his motley crowd of lawbreakers.  Jesus patiently reminds these smooth tongued accusers that David, their infamous King of ages past, pulled off the unthinkable without repercussion – he ate the bread of the Presence from the Tabernacle!  “And of course there are your priests who work for you on the Sabbath, but they don’t seem to hear it from you…or the LORD God for that matter.”

 

I’m guessing Jesus’ subtle comparison between himself and King David, and his slight suggestion toward the priesthood of all believers flew right over the Pharisees’ head’s.  But doubtless they missed his proposal that the commanded action of taking Sabbath was all along intended to serve humankind rather than the other way around.  When Mark recounted this occasion in his Gospel account, he remembers Jesus’ words:  “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27).  You’ve got this whole Sabbath thing backwards, not to mention much of the rest of the law.  (I wonder sometimes if we have also.)

 

Jesus says to everyone standing around listening, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matt. 12:7).  If the Pharisees had any biblical sense, they would have heard an echo of the Prophets in what Jesus quotes.  Basically, it is to say all their – or our – observances of religious rituals for rituals’ sake are meaningless.  Take all the days you want to reflect and supposedly cultivate joy in the LORD Creator and Redeemer, but if you’re just trying to keep up with a religious requirement, you’ll miss it!  And they were missing it.  The rhythm of reflection and joy found in remembering the LORD Creator and Redeemer was lost amidst the routine of “doing the day!”  (I wonder sometimes if it does for us also.)

 

What God is really pining for, even requiring at particular points, is a steady heart-born rhythm of mercy.  This word springs out of Hebrew Scripture with rich meaning, characteristic of the LORD Himself:  Hesed.  To pronounce it, you have to start way in the back of your throat like your hocking a loogey.  Hĕ-said.  It means steadfast love or a deep abiding goodness and adoration essential to God and given to man at the heart level, but only by faith in His promise of Messiah, and of course, on this side of the cross, we know Him to be the resurrected Christ Jesus.

 

Do you see it?  Do you see that Sabbath is more than just a day to take a break or escape from the daily-ness of life?  Do you see there is more to it even than a time and space to reflect on and find joy in the LORD Creator and Redeemer, though it is certainly that?  Do you see that Sabbath requires a particular posture of the heart?

 

Jesus has torn back the curtain of merely “doing the day” and our succumbing to the assumptions associated with taking Sabbath that have loaded it down with much of what we have come to know as vacation.  He has revealed a heart condition required for entering the day.  He has removed our…I mean their…DO-attitudes that weight down the day with anything but stopping and resting, replacing it with the lightened load of a BE-attitude.

 

In entering a time and space of Sabbath, we find all our dreaming and planning and preparing, all our reservations and baggage and held tickets, they are all laid down.  Instead, what we take up is the freedom to stop and rest; to establish a rhythm in our days that generates reflection and joy in remembering the LORD Creator and Redeemer.  And more yet, that it all is born from a heart beating to the rhythm of God’s mercy and founded in the grace and peace of the resurrected Christ Jesus.

 

Indeed, we may know what we want, but God knows what we need.  And what we need isn’t vacation.  What we need is Sabbath.  For the Weeda family, that meant staying home for a week; remaining in the midst of familiarity, yet stopping in the midst of routine to do just what has been suggested above.  For you or your family, that may mean getting away…for a day or a month.  However, for us all, lest we become lost on a point driven by location or day(s) and find our hearts in precisely the same posture as that of Jesus’ indictors, wherever we go and however long we take, we do well and rightly to stop and rest; to Shabbat.