eFollowingJesusFeb13 - Sabbath (read Matthew 12:1-14)

   For Jews, the Sabbath mattered.  God wired us, taking into account our need for Sabbath:  a day of reflection, rest, focused devotion to God - a day of equality.  We've ruined the Sabbath by our secular lifestyle preferences, our frenetic pace.  Time is never sacred.  Little wonder we are so stressed and fatigued.

   Jesus, of all people, was upbraided for failure to observe the Sabbath.  But he didn't open his carpentry shop, or catch up on shopping.  He let the hungry eat; he healed a man.  His critics, so adamant about God's will, misconstrued the heart of the Sabbath.  Jesus' Father "desires mercy, not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6).  The Sabbath is not a harsh demand from a divine despot.  The Sabbath is mercy:  we need rest, worship, a day to remember it's in God's hands.

   Jesus never said "Treat the Sabbath like every other day."  To him it was sacred - so sacred you couldn't let the hungry languish, so holy you couldn't let suffering linger.  If we do anything other than rest on the Sabbath, does it qualify as mercy? Feeding the hungry? Healing those in agony?

   Lord, I will rethink observing the Sabbath; I need a day to discover Your mercy.

James

james@mpumc.org

Here is the full text of Matthew 12:1-21 -   1: At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2: But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath." 3: He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4: 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? 5: Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are guiltless? 6: I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7: And if you had known what this means, `I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8: For the Son of man is lord of the sabbath." 9: And he went on from there, and entered their synagogue. 10: And behold, there was a man with a withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?" so that they might accuse him. 11: He said to them, "What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12: Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath." 13: Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, whole like the other. 14: But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how to destroy him. 15: Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all, 16: and ordered them not to make him known. 17: This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18: "Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19: He will not wrangle or cry aloud, nor will any one hear his voice in the streets; 20: he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick, till he brings justice to victory; 21: and in his name will the Gentiles hope."   

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