Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Psalm 81:1-10; 2 Corinthians 4:5-12; Mark 2:23-3:6
The Rev. Drew Brislin
In the name of the one Holy and Undivided Trinity, Amen.
“So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he done in creation.” Genesis 2:3
“Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8
“Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a sabbath to the Lord throughout your settlements.” Leviticus 23:3
These are just a few of the verses found in our Old Testament scripture regarding the sabbath and how God’s people should approach their behavior regarding it. In our Gospel lesson this morning Jesus seems to be acting counter to what we, what the people of Israel have been taught about how to reverence this special day…. or is he? As I was thinking about this reading from Mark and Jesus’ interactions with the pharisees, I could not help but recollect back to my days in elementary school. I remembered that sometimes our teacher would leave the classroom for one reason or another and when they would do this, they would place a student in charge or as the monitor so to say. We were instructed to remain at our desk and remain silent. This class monitor, I will call them, was in charge of taking the names of anyone who would talk or move. The monitor would take a seat at the chalk board and if you moved or spoke your name was promptly written on the board and for each subsequent offense a mark would be placed next to your name so that the teacher upon their return would know who had behaved and who did not. While at the time it felt as though the teacher was appointing a tattle tell so to speak of it is in hindsight that I realize behaving, not acting up was a way of keeping us safe from doing things that we might not realize could cause us harm. When we read and hear these stories in our scripture like the one, we hear in Mark this morning, it is easy for us to look at the pharisees as legalistic, as the enemy of Jesus and this can lead us down a path of anti-Judaism and antisemitism if we are not careful. In the days of Jesus’ physical life here on earth, the pharisees were a respected class within society. They were lay leaders within the Jewish community that studied Torah and spent a lot of time in prayer. Some scholars believe that Jesus may at one time have been a member of the pharisees himself as he was considered a lay leader within the community. I am sure that many of us can think of people in our lives who have fit this description. If Jesus and the pharisees both have the same intentions regarding sabbath, that is to make it a holy, then why do they seem to be at loggerheads this morning?
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes in his book The Sabbath, “The idea of the sabbath as a queen or bride is not a personification of the sabbath but an exemplification of a Divine attribute, an illustration of God’s need for human love; it does not represent a substance but the presence of God, His relationship to man.” I think Rabbi Heschel is personifying the sabbath in giving it feminine attributes as it embodies the way that God wants to be in relationship with humanity. The word sabbath itself means in essence to sanctify time. That is to say that God is setting this time apart as special and not as a time to worship but to do as he did in the creation story as God used this time to rest. At the heart of sabbath, I think, is the restoration of life. This is what I think Jesus is telling us in the healing of the man’s hand that this is a time for healing, refreshing and renewal. Jesus is telling us that sabbath is a gift to be enjoyed and not an idol that governs our behavior. For one reason or another humanity finds it difficult to accept gifts, at least, it seems, without feeling that we must offer something of equal or greater value in return. Maybe we feel like in accepting gifts we become indebted somehow. God is offering us the sabbath not as a time to worship but as a time to abide and rest in a special relationship with him as wants us to know how much he wants our love. God wants us to be reminded that he is ever present with us and not distanced from us up in the clouds. In Jesus, God is reminding us that our lives are meant for relationship with the Divine which threatens a lot of what we think we know and our relationship with material things. Humanity is threatened by and yet longs for Jesus at the same time. In sabbath we are reminded that our journey in life goes through the cross and that resurrection awaits. Sabbath, true sabbath, reminds us that life, true life, is available to us in a greater and more abundant way than we ever could have imagined on our own.
Earlier, I mentioned that at the heart of sabbath is the restoration of life. The pharisees, I believe, were following God’s instructions as best they could understand God’s instructions. They knew that sabbath was a time to rest from labor. Maybe they just didn’t know what was supposed to happen. In saying that the sabbath was made for man, Jesus is not saying anything new. When he compares the actions of the disciples plucking grain on the sabbath to David and his companions eating of the bread of presence, he declares himself Lord of the sabbath and this confronts those in position of authority and egos come into play. My elementary school teachers placed other students in a sort of position of authority as they were to take names of those who misbehaved. While the teacher, I believe intended this for the safety and instruction of the us, I’m sure that the one taking names to a certain degree felt a sense pride in being selected. We are human and it’s impossible for us not to have an ego and take pride in certain achievements. I cannot imagine that the pharisees did not take pride in their achievements among the community. There is nothing wrong with finding joy in those accomplishments, but it is when we let our relationships with those accomplishments interfere with our relationship with God and with each other that we move from a place of joy to a place of control and place a greater value on our relationships with material things. The sabbath is a gift that gives us the opportunity to reevaluate relationships. Jesus is not saying anything new this morning, he is just challenging us to reevaluate our relationships. How do we feel when Jesus runs roughshod over those things we find in our lives that we thought were definitive of how Christians are supposed to act?” I find it challenging at first but in the end, I find myself loved up to a place of joy filled grace that leaves my heart full, and my soul refreshed.
Amen