Why do we celebrate the Sabbath or for Christians Sunday? Why is it a day set apart? We do it because it is one of the commandments that God gave us, “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” Exodus 20:8. God commanded us to set apart a day for rest, knowing that we need rest, physical rest from work but also emotional rest from the stresses of our jobs, mental rest from the busyness of our lives and spiritual rest from the constant pull of sin leading us away from the light of love of God.
When I was growing up, we were not allowed to do homework on Sundays. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized what a gift that was. To be able to not think about school or schoolwork and all the worry and anxiety that surrounded that gave us a real chance to ‘rest’ on Sundays.
This is what Jesus is showing the Pharisees in the healing of this woman who had been walking stooped over for many years and dealing with the pain, embarrassment, frustration, and limitation that this infirmity brought into her life. She was in need of rest, rest beyond just physical relief but rest for her mind and more importantly her soul. Sickness, physical disabilities and limitations do not just affect our bodies, they affect us mentally emotionally and spiritually. Jesus wanted to give this woman true rest from all of that and what better day to do that then on the Sabbath. The pharisees were focussing on the worship and traditional aspects of Sabbath, turning our minds and attentions to God to refocus our lives and that is an important element of how we keep Sabbath but being able to offer true rest for ourselves and those around us is also absolutely necessary.
When I was growing up, we were not allowed to do homework on Sundays. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized what a gift that was. To be able to not think about school or schoolwork and all the worry and anxiety that surrounded that gave us a real chance to ‘rest’ on Sundays. Sunday was a day to go to church, spend time with family and sometimes friends, to have a picnic, play games together, go for a walk, enjoy an afternoon at the beach. It was a day truly ‘set aside’, away from the stressors and busyness of the rest of the week. It allowed us to recharge our minds, bodies and our souls, It was one of the greatest gifts my parents gave us.
How do you ‘keep Sabbath’? How do you find rest on Sundays (or if your job requires you to work on Sundays another day of the week) for not just your body, but your mind and most importantly your soul? We live in a world that is constantly bombarding us with news, information, advertisements. That promotes busyness and demands that we do more and more in the limited hours of our days. God, who created us, knows that absolute need our bodies, minds and spirits need for rest. God did not set up Sabbaths for God’s own needs but ours, it is a gift. Recognize that it is, accept it and use it and remember, it’s a commandment!! Amen.