Scripture: Mark 2:23–28
Our guest preacher this morning is Rev. John Williams.
Mark 2:23–28 (NRSVUE)
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, 26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?”27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Last week we heard a powerful sermon on Mark 11 about taking Jesus’ yoke upon us. In it, we heard Jesus call us to “Walk with [Him] and work with [Him]—watch how [He does] it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”
I have been captured by that phrase. I want to learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Since the beginning of organized religion, I suspect rhythms of grace have been pretty harsh, not unforced, but rigorous, onerous, near impossible to follow, and burdensome.
In Genesis, before laws were instituted or commandments inscribed on stone, God did something special. God extended blessings. God blessed the wildlife God had created. God blessed the humans God put upon the earth. And finally God blessed the Sabbath, made it holy and set it apart, for man to rest, find pleasure and connect with God.
It was simple, straightforward, and available…an unforced rhythm of grace made available to humankind on the first full day of our existence.
But then, in the forming of the Hebrew nation, it became a part of the law.
Have you ever wondered why those particular 10 commandments were given to the Hebrew people?
- No other Gods before God
- No images of God
- Do not misuse the name of God
- Remember the sabbath, to keep it holy
- Honor your father and mother
- Don’t murder
- Don’t commit adultery
- Don’t steal
- Don’t give a false testimony
- Don’t covet
The last six make perfect sense. They are part of the moral code of many different cultures around the world. This is how we act with one another and make for a decent society.
But the first four are different. The first three refer to God, outlining a plan to make certain that God is first in our lives. But the fourth one is different altogether, perhaps necessary for a people coming out of generations of slavery. They had worked seven days a week. No time off. No vacations. No pleasure. But now they are given a rule to rest, find pleasure, and reconnect with God on a regular basis.
But then what happens almost immediately? Rules are created to govern the laws God has established. And the unforced rhythms of grace get hidden under rule after rule after rule about how all this works.
By Jesus’ day, the Pharisees had identified 39 separate categories of work that were prohibited in order to keep the Sabbath holy:
1. Carrying; 2. Burning; 3. Extinguishing; 4. Finishing; 5. Writing; 6. Erasing; 7. Cooking; 8. Washing; 9. Sewing; 10. Tearing; 11. Knotting; 12. Untying; 13. Shaping; 14. Plowing; 15. Planting; 16. Reaping; 17. Harvesting; 18. Threshing; 19. Winnowing; 20. Selecting; 21. Sifting; 22. Grinding; 23. Kneading; 24. Combing; 25. Spinning; 26. Dyeing; 27. Chain-stitching; 28. Warping; 29. Weaving; 30. Unraveling; 31. Building; 32. Demolishing; 33. Trapping; 34. Shearing; 35. Slaughtering; 36. Skinning; 37. Tanning; 38. Smoothing; 39. Marking
Is it no wonder Jesus spoke up to teach us a very old truth, the sabbath was made for humankind and not the other way around!
Made for You
God created humankind on the 6th day and thus the new first day of our existence was given as a day of rest. Rest is the starting place for humankind, not the end. It is the place of renewal, pleasure, and connection with God.
My entire life I have struggled with this understanding. I had rested at the end of the day. I rested when I was worn out. I rested because I could do nothing else…and in all my rest, I have felt guilty. I think that is mostly due to how I have understood rest. It was a law. It was something I did because I had to.
All the Sabbath rules taught me that I had a duty to sabbath, not that sabbath had a duty to me. And yet, Jesus’s observations and reflections on the sabbath tell a different story. Sabbath was made for me; I wasn’t made for sabbath.
What does it mean for the sabbath to be created for humankind? If God could take joy in sabbath, why not those created in God’s image?
Did God need to rest? Did God need to let tired flesh and bones recuperate from strenuous labor? No, because sabbath for God is not the same as sabbath for you and me.
I think, for me, sabbath is not so much about rest as it is about connecting with God. Or perhaps, through rest, I am better able to connect.
- Stress leaves me disconnected
- Weariness leaves me disconnected
- Self-importance leaves me disconnected
- Over-busy-ness leaves me disconnected
When I retired, I made a promise to Connie. In reality, I made a promise to myself. I said I would say “no” to everything for the first year of retirement. No speaking engagements, no interim pastorates, no special jobs, no anything. My goal was to take that first year of retirement to figure out what retirement was to be.
There were some discoveries along the way. One was the discovery that after spending a year saying “no” to everything, it was hard to find a reason to say “yes” to anything. I have been very selective about the things I commit to do in this phase of my life.
One of the other discoveries happened about six months into retirement. I woke up one morning and found myself thinking, “Is this what ‘no stress’ feels like?” I had not considered my working life as stressful; but apparently it was. In my stressed-out state, I had become weary, self-absorbed, and over-busy. But in my resting, I discovered the world is not all about me. I am not the essential one in the room. Someone else can do my job; it doesn’t require me. Additionally, any job I do does not require all my time. And most importantly, in my resting, I found myself reconnecting with God.
I thought I understood sabbath.
I talked like I understood sabbath.
I taught like I understood sabbath, but I didn’t. It had not become the transformative part of my life God created it to be.
Even now, I’m still a novice. I so easily fall back into the trap of thinking I have a responsibility to sabbath—a responsibility to cease from labor; a responsibility to isolate myself from the everyday experiences of life and step into some deeply spiritual place…
And while some of those things may be good, they are meaningless if I do not grasp that sabbath was made for me. It is the gift God has given to help me reconnect with the holy again and again and again. That’s what sabbath owes me. That’s what sabbath was made to do for me.
And I think that’s what sabbath was made to do for you as well.
When the Pharisees jumped all over Jesus and His disciples because they were walking along, picking grain, rubbing it together, and then chewing on it, they were doing what they had always done. They were trying to force others into the mindset that sabbath owned them. There were no unforced rhythms of grace available in their lives. There could be no connecting with God outside the very narrow teachings of their rules and regulations.
But Jesus says something different. “I am Lord of the Sabbath!”
You and I don’t belong to the sabbath; the sabbath belongs to us…because Jesus says so.
And you and I belong to Jesus.
And God gave us sabbath to keep us connected to the Holy One.
When your stress causes disconnection… When your weariness causes disconnection… When your self-importance causes disconnection… When your busy-ness causes disconnection… Jesus reminds you that sabbath was made for you. Rest, and re-connect with your God.
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