Wednesday: Serving Others Honors God’s Sabbath
In the New Testament world, the religious leaders had Sabbath keeping down to a fine art. There were dozens of prohibitions and rules established to help keep the Sabbath holy.
This included a prohibition against tying or untying anything, separating two threads, extinguishing a fire, transporting an object between a private domain and the public domain, or transporting something for more than a specific distance in the public domain.
What charge is brought against Jesus in John 5:7-16?
Image © Rolf Jansson from GoodSalt.com
Completely ignoring the wonderful miracle that Jesus had performed and the freedom from disease that He had given this man, the leaders were obsessed that the healed man was carrying his bed in public on Sabbath. Instead of seeing how the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28) utilized this special day, the leaders were intent on maintaining their own rules and regulations. We need to be careful that in our own way and in our own context we don’t make similar mistakes.
How does Isaiah 58:12-14 outline God’s agenda for Sabbath keeping?
God does not want empty worship or pious silence. He wants to see His people engaged with other people, especially the downtrodden and marginalized.
Isaiah makes this very plain in Isaiah 58.13-14: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken” ( Isaiah 58.13-14, NKJV).
Pursuing our “pleasure” (Isaiah 58:13, or our “own interests,” as the NRSV translates here) is equivalent to “trampling the Sabbath” (NRSV). Human agendas are not part of God’s Sabbath ideal. Rather, we are invited to look out for those who struggle, who are captives, who are hungry and naked, and walk in darkness and whose names no one seems to remember. More than any other day of the week, Sabbath should take us out of ourselves and our own selfishness and cause us to think more about others and others’ needs than only about ourselves and our needs.
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When my students submitted written assignments I would have to mark them on both content and presentation. Some students would present me with beautiful assignments with a colour title page, headings in the right place, bibliography at the end, and yet the content was as barren of detail as the desert sands. Still, others would latch on to some esoteric detail and write long essays concentrating on that, rather than presenting the important foundational information. What I really wanted was a paper that gave a good strong discussion of the basic facts and then be surprised at the end by something a little extra, showing that the student has some initiative. I used to tell me students that their essays should give me the bread and butter with a little jam on top. And I would make it very clear that just jam, or just pretty coloured title pages did not cut it with me.
Sabbath-keeping can become a bit like the jam on top, if we do not understand that it must be built on top of the foundation of human kindness. Only a few months ago we studied Isaiah. Remember what he wrote:
God was telling them, "Don't just bring me the jam, I wan't the bread and butter too!"
And what was the bread and butter:
Is it possible that as Seventh-day Adventists we have thought more about Sabbath-keeping than we have about relieving the oppressed and caring for those who are ignored and disenfranchised in society? Could it be that our Sabbath-keeping is wearying to God?
Maurice - may I share my reflections on your comment. Yes, God does not want empty actions, He wants our heart to turn to Him first, then, loving actions benefiting our fellow man will follow. Therefore, the true 'bread and butter' (Truth and Light in action)' can only come from a heart given to the Lord in loving response to His love for us.
It is only He who can generate in us His acts of kindness which benefit our fellow man. Through our gratitude, our body becomes His vessel, given to Him to express His love through us; we want to remember that it is HIS Love (should be) that motivates us and governs our actions from then on.
We received His Love, live by His Love and we pass His Love on - His ways are higher than our own.
Today's lesson concludes with:
In Romans 8:2 Paul notes that there are but two principles that people 'live' by: the law (principle) of the Spirit of life versus the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life is the principle of living life in harmony with self-giving love (beneficence) toward others - having their best interests at heart (as per Philippians 2:3-7; 1 John 2:10; 3:16). This principle is lies at the very core of the only form of life that is actually viable. By contrast, the law of sin and death is the principle of living in harmony with self-seeking and it is characterised by a willingness to use and abuse others in order to pursue self-interest. This principle steals, kills and destroys life (John 10:10) and therefore is actually non-viable.
Every person's heart is motivated at is most deepest by one of these two principles. On the one hand God, via the Holy Spirit, is working to awaken a desire within each person to embrace self-giving love as their deepest motivational desire. The outcome of living in accordance with this principle is abundant life for all. Satan, on the other hand, is also at work to seduce each person to embracing self-seeking at their core. The outcome of 'living' in habitual accordance with this principle is compromised 'life' for now (due to God's grace whereby the actual impacts of attempting to live this way are being temporarily restrained) and ultimately non-life (when God's restraint of the actual impacts is released).
Living in accordance with self-seeking - the principle/law of sin and death - is the bondage that God is seeking to deliver us from. Correspondingly, living in accordance with self-giving love/beneficence (via collaboration with the restorative work of the Holy Spirit) is the freedom that Sabbath is a sign/symbol of (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:1; Exodus 20:2,8).
Perhaps each Sabbath might be an opportunity to remind ourselves of the reality that there are two core principles that are "contending for supremacy" in every thought and act of our daily life and living (Ellen White: Education p 190) - and to reaffirm our choice to live each day of the upcoming week in accordance with the only option that is connected with life (Deuteronomy 30:15-19; John 10:10).
Working for others on the Sabbath is okay, but working for self is not. With that protocol, and/or interpretation, preparing a fruit basket on Sabbath with fruits bought on Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, or picked off the tree in the yard is in my opinion okay when planned for a shut in or neighbor in need. Or preparing a batch of cookies for a diabetic neighbor, using monk fruit sweater pulled from the pantry. Or taking a 2x6 out of your shop and repairing a hole in your neighbors porch so he or she does not fall and break a hip on the the way to Church the next day. Delightful Sabbath afternoon activities, in my opinion. As ye do to the least of these ye do it unto Me. Matthew 25:40. (Even on the Sabbath).
There is rest found in doing for others even though the biceps and triceps get a workout stirring the cookie batter or hammering nails in a 2x6 in my opinion. You might say well you could do it on my day off, not so I am laboring six days a week for me. I believe the Sabbath rest can be found working, or if you prefer doing for others.
Many years ago my brothers and I would take turns getting ice for mother from the ice house at camp meeting. One Friday I brought back to the tent two blocks of ice they fit the ice chest as we had an oversized one. Sabbath morning mother said get out your wagon an take the extra ice block seven tents down they are in need. I don’t remember saying, mother I parked the wagon to rest on the Sabbath, no I believed mother knew best.
One Sabbath morning early while in collage we climbed in a VW bus destined for San Francisco, CA. Our bus load hopped out at at one end of the Golden Gate Bridge with invitation signs held high, saying ‘Worship God 7pm, 79th St. And Grace Ave.’ Other VW buses stopped off at Sausalito, and Piccadilly Square, and handed out invitations of the same. By the time we arrived back on Pacific Union Collage campus we were exhausted, the delightful kind, doing for others all day, and woke up the next morning refreshed for another six days of labor.
I'd like to know how Isaiah was understood by those who composed all those Sabbath "rules" that were imposed upon the people. Jesus followed the counsel given by Isaiah, and met with great objection for doing so.