Why Sabbath?!?!?!

I don’t know about you but I love to run. Yes, I said it – I love to run, but I have to say that running sucks at times. This is something I do about 3-5 times a week, all depending on what my week looks like and also depending on whether or not I have a race coming up. While doing some studying about recovery in running, I found something interesting about the human body – more specifically, the muscles. Proper rest and recovery is necessary to the performance of a runner, in fact, it is necessary for anyone who exercises. A human muscle gets stronger through rest of the muscle itself. When you work out, your muscles get micro-tears in them as they are stretched and released, but through the healing of these tears, the muscles grow stronger than before. Wow! What a lesson.

This stretching, releasing and resting is necessary in order for me to be as great a runner as I would like, but even more so as a Christian. I must also rest from the tears of life so that I might be as fresh as I can be as I follow Jesus the best I can. It is very interesting what Holy Scripture says about Sabbath and the need for it. It’s a subject and discipline that is not taken lightly by God, nor should it be by his people. Let me expound on what I mean by all this.

Jesus said, “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). I don’t see this as optional, but mandatory for a holistic lifestyle, a strong faith and continual repentance within the finished work of Jesus our Lord. Let us take, for instance, the creation account that tells us when God finished His work He, “blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all His work that He had done in creation” (Genesis 2:3). Yes, God finished his work and rested – the God who is able to create the world rested. I don’t see this as God having been tired, but see Him setting for us, His creation, an example to follow and to keep His work holy. Since the Genesis text was previous to the fall of man into disobedience, it then becomes a need for man to be complete through Sabbath as being in God’s image and likeness. We’ll revisit this last sentence in a minute.

I’d like to step back and look at two words from the Genesis text, and eventually we can look briefly at why Jesus says what he says about Sabbath in the gospels. Let us look at the words Sabbath and Holy. The Hebrew word for Sabbath means to cease or stop and the Hebrew word for holy means set-apart which gives us the denotation of separation from something and toward something. Not only are we to stop working, but we are to make a very definite separation from that work, for along with this we should be focusing forward in preparation. If we as Christians are redeemed, reconciled, a new creation, born again and all that scripture says we are, what does this separation from work look like within the people of God? What does this look like as a people on mission for God and His kingdom?

These questions are good and I believe necessary to truly live for God in the capacity to which we are called, but I want to close with some thoughts regarding two earlier statements I made. I said that running sucks – and there are days it does. Just as an example, this morning I told my friend who I run with, “…I just don’t want to run today, I’m not with it…” Today was a day in which running sucks, but I pushed though and actually had a great run and very good times in my run. The other statement was about Sabbath bringing us to the place of wholeness into the likeness and image for which we were created. To be a strong runner I MUST rest; otherwise, I will crash and burn, as I learned the hard way. The completion of who we are in God is an essential part of our faith as we become more like Christ our Lord (Romans 8:28-30) who often withdrew to be with the Father and made a regular practice of Sabbath. Jesus was on a mission to make disciples, but was still obedient to the call of Sabbath and time with the Father. I also see that Jesus was never in a rush to get going where he was going. He walked in his calling and the Father’s will. Hummmm???? Some food for thought!

Jesus was being intentional toward rest and separation – not due to a lack of love for people, but because he had an even greater love for the Father, obedience to His commands and the mission the Father sent Him on. This can be spoken of in greater length, but not today. Just think on these things as I have and look for another blog soon continuing this train of thought.

God’s grace, peace and love to you all!