Luke 6:9 –
Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?”
First HAPPY EASTER!! Second I am parking it here in chapter 6 for a few days since there is a bunch of cool stuff to cover.
The “Sabbath” and when to honor God and rest is a difficult subject in today’s church. You have arguments over when is the Sabbath should be celebrated. Some say it’s Saturday, some say Sunday and others like me have no idea. The Sabbath comes from Genesis 2 where God rested after his creation. In Exodus 20 it becomes part of the “Law” in the Ten Commandments. So God wants to make sure we honor him and rest at least once a week.
Now Hebraic Law had become very “legalistic” and that is what Jesus is trying to break here. The adherence to the “Law” was more important than following God. The people got to the point of focusing more on the nut and bolts of the “Law” and many missed God standing right before them! One could get into knots on the “legalities” of God’s intentions and we are still trying to figure the “Law” out and how it relates to our lives.
Bet you didn’t know that much of our legal system today is outlined in the Torah. So as a Christian nation we still model our system of justice off the Jewish “Law”. Today we are focusing on the Sabbath Laws and what they mean today. Think about it, the Sabbath is a “day of rest”, so why is the Church working on this day? What is work anyway? Most “Christians” take Sunday as a day to worship God and get caught up on yard work, house work … or go have fun and get very little rest. Is that what God intended?
We can run down a “rabbit hole” here with the “day of rest.” Should the government determine the Sabbath and force all to shut down? I don’t think so, you can’t force people into your beliefs just because you know them to be right. I think we really need to get to the intent of the “Law” on resting and not burning out. We need to take one day off each week to recharge and having worked two jobs and 7 days a week for a long time I know this is true. Now what day of the week is that, if you map our calendar back to the beginning of creation we have no idea what day of the week God “rested”, just that it was on the 7th. Now … the argument here is did Jesus not rest on the legal Sabbath or did He rest another day of the week?