Where would we be, if not for a break now and then from the work of staying alive, of loving, of trying to do good and to make things better? Our Jewish ancestors in faith were on to something! Realize the need for regular time off, and use God’s work of creation as its justification. Make a calendar with space just to be, every seven days. God rested. We rest. We need this.
It seems that we have forgotten this healthy rhythm. We run non-stop from activity to activity, from one all-absorbing doing to another all-absorbing doing. We collapse, get less than enough rest, get up and race off to the next busyness. What are we afraid of? What are we running from? Is our world any better because of our intense, foot-on-the-accelerator lives? What would happen if we stopped, if we gave ourselves a break, as God proposed?
While we seem to have Sabbath-amnesia, in Jesus’ day, there was often another kind of Sabbath distortion. The religious leaders among the Israelites back then, afraid that the people’s lax, or partial, following of the Law, would bring God’s disfavor again – to the point of losing even more of their religious privileges grudgingly conceded by their oppressors – insisted, demanded, strict compliance. The Sabbath was to be a day of complete rest from any and all work, or from anything that could possibly be viewed as work. It got to the point where ordinary people felt constrained from living their lives on the Sabbath. It was impossible for many to adhere to the various rules used to explain the Law, and they faced condemnation from the authorities.
Remember how many times the Sabbath was thrown in the face of Jesus, and used as concrete proof that Jesus could not be from God? One instance is found early in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 2:23-27). Jesus and his disciples are walking through a grain field on a Sabbath. The disciples are clearing a path as they pass through, and picking grains to munch on – to the leaders this equals trail-breaking and harvesting. They are working. When the authorities call Jesus on this, another egregious defiling of God’s holy day, Jesus reminds them that David, God’s chosen ruler, had taken the loaves of bread offered in the Temple, which were only for the priests, and ate them, and even shared them with his companions (literally bread-sharers).
Jesus finishes with the statement, “The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath.” Rules, even the Law, were intended to help us to live well, not to force us to jump through ever-tightening hoops. The Sabbath was a gift to humanity to help us to live more humanely. It is meant to give us space to rest, to remember God and our relationships, to savor creation, to do good, and to engender joy, not to stifle it. We need Sabbath, regular times and spaces of rest, awareness and appreciation, built into our lives, to be fully human.