Sabbath treasure

“Sabbath” is by now an antiquated term, a relic from the past. We have work to do, places to go, deals to strike, houses to build, families to rear. Sabbath contributes nothing to this highly charged life pattern now engrained in the texture of our mind and life. Therefore, it has become obsolete.

This is very much the way people think these days. When I tried to teach the relationship between work and Sabbath in a course, the students simply could not see the sense of actually practicing a Sabbath principle in their lifestyle. Sabbath does not produce any results in essays being written, assignments getting done, or social relationships being formed and fostered.

Of course, they know they should do something other than their routine work, such as going to a big game on Sunday, or watching a good movie now and then. Some did think they should also go to an up-beat church service for an hour. Beyond these brief moments of entertainment they had little sense of need for re-creation, self-reflection, or spiritual discipline.

My religious setting as a child was Presbyterian. The Presbyterians back then were strong on Sabbath keeping. It meant setting one day of the week apart from other days of work. My father, an elder in the Presbyterian church, would not even let us talk about work on Sunday. Shoes had to be polished on Saturday evening. The roast had to be cooked on Saturday evening for Sunday dinner. Only those necessary activities, such as milking the cows, could be undertaken on the Sabbath Day.

As we grew up we began to look on that Sabbath regimen as senseless religious dogma with no real bearing on modern life in the world. I am now convinced, however, that we shuffled off the Sabbath coil of childhood without giving the idea of Sabbath due consideration. I now see Sabbath as a divine principle designed as a gift for the human family. It is a treasure I have been trying to relocate and reconstitute in my own life.

Divine plan and purpose

Let me begin this short exploration of Sabbath with Genesis 2:2–4 of the creation text. The word translated “rest/rested” comes from the Hebrew word shabath, and, it is said, God exercised shabath on the seventh day of creation.

On the surface it seems strange that God would have to rest after the creative work of the six days. Surely God is tireless, not subject to the same fatigue as our mortal bodies. Yet God celebrates shabath: God “rested.”

The idea in shabath is more that of ceasing from the work of creation to reflect on what stands finished, to rejoice in its goodness, to delight in its grandeur. The work of creation for God is not merely a utilitarian activity. It carries a glory in itself, a glory worth celebrating. The “rest” of God, moreover, is more cessation to celebrate than stopping to recharge for the next round of activity. It looks back more than forward.

There’s a principle of one-in-seven here in the work of creation. The good is not all found in the creating, but also in ceasing from creating. There comes a time to finish and reflect, of completing the work and stopping to celebrate. And human beings, created in the image of God, have in them this original pattern that stands in constant need of authentic restoration.

A good social contract

The Sabbath principle is built into the core-law gift, found in both Exodus 20:8–11 and Deuteronomy 5:12–15. The two texts read alike on the character and extent of shabath. Work is to cease completely after six days of activity.

The utilitarian motive to rejuvenate the body is not part of the injunction. The Exodus motive stems from the creation text noted above. The Deuteronomy motive stems from the redemption of slaves from bondage. Israel should remember its past deliverance from oppression, and celebrate God’s triumph over the forces of oppression by setting one day aside to celebrate.

In putting the two texts together then, we find the shabath principle carrying the weight of glory found in both creation and redemption. To celebrate shabath means to come into communion with God, with one’s self, and with the community of other kindred souls. The result is wholeness.

Did Jesus break the rule?

We have been given the impression from some church circles that the Sabbath of ancient Israel is all but absent from the New Testament. After all, Jesus is pictured in the gospels as regularly in conflict with the Sabbath observants.

I suggest we have sold Jesus short with this scenario. Sabbath keeping at the time had become a mark of distinction for the Jewish people. It set them apart from their ungodly Gentile neighbours. The observance itself mattered above all, not the underlying reason for keeping Sabbath.

Jesus did observe the Sabbath, but in a life-giving way. Mark 1 makes clear that Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath to cease what He was doing to celebrate the great acts of God.

Was He abandoning the work–rest continuum when He let his disciples rub some heads of grain in their hands for food? Not at all. In the first place, the law allowed the poor to pluck heads of grain for themselves from fields owned by others.

But was their beneficial activity considered work? According to one view, rubbing the heads to separate the chaff was considered threshing, and threshing was counted as work. As far as Jesus was concerned, it was a harmless gathering of a few grains for a Sabbath afternoon snack. It was a little life-giving moment.

In the Mark 3 story of Jesus healing the man with the withered hand, the point is that Sabbath celebrates life and work that supports life in the created world. The man with hand restored could now work, and as a worker in the social network could join his comrades after six days of working for a living in celebrating shabath. He could now rejoice in the God who creates and delivers.

The well-known pronouncement of Jesus that “Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27) reminds us that the work–Sabbath principle is meant to serve the human family for good, not just the Israelite family, or the Jewish family, or the Mennonite family. Sabbath is not a chore, not a meaningless ritual, not a mark of distinction for one group over another. Sabbath was and is God’s idea for the human family.

On that one day in seven we can reflect on our work. We can rejoice in the life that God provides from the Creation. We can revel in the joy of sins forgiven and peace with God. We can take stock of our lives as we lived them during the six days past. And we can make amends in our minds and with our neighbours.

When I think of Sabbath “rest” I think of restoration of heart and mind and body. I think of reflection on the work accomplished, my own, but more so God’s work on my behalf. I think of relationships rekindled.

Sabbath is part of the good news of Jesus Christ.

V. George Shillington is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies and Theology at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg. This article is excerpted from his latest book, On a Journey with God (Springfield Publishers). Used by permission.