With | Sabbath Month
- Stony Plain Alliance Church
- Jun 1
- 2 min read
In Mark 2, Jesus ends up in debate with some religious leaders because his disciples, while walking through a wheat field on the Sabbath, broke off some of the heads of grain to eat. A seemingly simple action to satiate hunger pangs while out and about. But for the Pharisees that were watching, this was not something to be tolerated or pardoned. The disciples of Jesus had violated the law by harvesting on the Sabbath. God had commanded rest and yet here’s the followers of Jesus ‘working in the fields’ on the one day when they weren’t allowed to.
How does Jesus respond to this accusation? What does he say to those that had centered rule keeping as the primary way to please God? Jesus began by telling a story from their shared history. He calls their attention back to a time when King David and his men ate consecrated bread and didn’t face punishment. And then Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
Sabbath is for meeting our needs. And our deepest needs are relational. We were made for relationship, and it is relationship that has been most deeply marred by sin and darkness. Our relationship with God. Others, Self. Creation. Sabbath comes to us as a gift of God to renew and restore relational intimacy.
How? By creating the space, time and attentiveness that is needed to truly stop, rest, delight, and worship. Instead of one more obligation of religion that demands performance and perfection, Sabbath invites us into a way of being that reminds that Jesus is Lord. Because of Jesus, Sabbath becomes about being with instead of doing for.
As we walk together through our Sabbath month, we are choosing to be with Jesus in his way of healing that touches every relationship in our lives. Sabbath is how we surrender all into the loving hands of that one who made us, knows us, and is inviting us into fullness of life through reconciled and redeemed relationship.
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