Over the past 5 years I have heard a repeated refrain, “RD, you NEED to take a day off each week”. I hear it from our wardens, from the Parish Council, from our Futures Group, from my bishop and even from my wife. Please believe me – I try.
The problem is that my weeks are packed solid. From Monday to Saturday with church, meetings, people, ministry, study and travel. When I carve out a day and block it off in my iCal an ‘emergency’ will invariably pop up. I am starting to think that the ‘day off’ is fiction, like fairies and unicorns.
Then, my friends and people I trust become belligerent. “RD TAKE A DAY OFF!”. And the ‘day off’ becomes one more thing I need to do. Rest turns into another thing on my to do list and I feel guilty because I can never seem to ‘get it done’.
“At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12 (ESV).
Jesus, the ‘Son of Man’, is the Lord of the sabbath. That means that without Jesus I can not participate in a Sabbath – the real issue behind the ‘day off’. Cutting the other way, it also means that Sabbath is one of the things Jesus provides for those who are in Him. An interesting conundrum …
Sabbath has its roots in the creation account in Genesis 1. God creates everything that is in one massive creative act. Then He spends 6 days differentiating His created mass. On the seventh day He rested. Did you ever think about this? God rested …? Was He tired?
The key to understanding God’s 7th day rest is found at the end of each of the other 6 days. God created and then declared, “it is good.” After the 6th day, when His creative work was finished He said, “It is VERY good” and then he rested. Maybe the Sabbath reality has less to do with a ‘day off’ and more to do with taking time to reflect.
Workaholism is a real problem for many people (myself included). For some it is rooted in identity issues. Many people in Southern Ontario work too much because they are defining themselves by their work. “If I just get that next promotion, that next sale, that next pay increase … then everyone will know I am good enough.” For some of us, we work too much simply because there is too much work and we lack the discipline to say ‘no’.
But what if Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath had set us free from all of that? What if Sabbath didn’t mean legalistically taking a day off every week but instead finding meaning and peace in reflecting on what Jesus has accomplished.
So, I ask myself — have I made time to reflect on what Jesus has done in my life? Have I made time to sit back, take inventory and say, “It is very good”?
The Lord of the Sabbath has purchased my peace, my Shalom – reconciling this sinner to his Father. I am in Christ and it is very good. Everything else is just stuff.
