Yesterday, my pastor and I had a lengthy discussion regarding Sabbath observance. The subject was brought up, in part, because Bill will be preaching this Sunday on a passage which includes “So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (MK 2:28) What does it mean for Jesus to lord over the Sabbath? How does Sabbath observance encourage and mature God’s people week after week? While Bill gave a number of deeply satisfying answers, I found myself only able to offer a few relatively shallow tips: “avoid TV” I said at my peeking moment. Coming home, I picked up Stuart Bryan’s The Taste of Sabbath: How to Delight in God’s Rest and finished it before dinner. Exegetically careful, pastorally wise, and deeply convicting, Bryan paints a picture of the Sabbath which is as beautiful as it is compelling. On the Sabbath itself, Bryan says:
“…the Sabbath expressed God’s desire for man’s rest and refreshment: for liberty, joy, health, fullness, happiness, growth. Consequently, the things done on the Sabbath should be thing that promote life, promote well being, and advance the joy and happiness of men while upholding the honor and worship of God. The Sabbath was created for the benefit of man and, consequently, served a subservient role to man’s wellbeing.[i]”
Perhaps the most helpful chapter in the book is the last, which gets into more practical matters. Now, you’d expect the “practical” chapter in a book on Sabbath to include list of “don’ts.” At least that’s where my mind immediately goes: “what can’t I do on Sundays?” Actually, Bryan begins by listing what one “gets” to do on the Sabbath; namely, rest, feast, and celebrate. While I encourage you to purchase and read the whole book (which won’t take more than an hour or two), the passage below gets to the heart of Bryan’s argument:
“This orientation of joy and gratitude helps us face the Lord’s Day aright. Rather than focus on what we cannot do on the Lord’s Day—which was one of the distortions of the Pharisees—Jesus’ conduct focuses on what we get to do. ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ We get to rest, we get to worship, we get to fellowship, we get to show mercy, we get to study the Word, we get to refresh our souls. Glory to God.
Look around at our culture. Look how harried and distracted people are. Look how busy and hamster-like people are. Look at who benefits the most from violating the Lord’s Day, from unceasing labor—business owners and tax collectors. And in observing all this, observe the glory of Sabbath, the glory of the Lord’s Day. The Lord’s Day teaches us to rest; teaches us where prosperity comes from; teaches us where sanctification comes from. All these things come from the hand of God. So let us rest and watch Him work on our behalf. Remember Isaiah’s promise to those who call the Sabbath a delight:
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. (Is. 58:14)
Our fundamental attitude individually toward the Lord’s Day must be one of feasting, delight, liberation, and joy. And this is where our focus as communities should be as well. What should the Lord’s Day look like? Again, what did the life of our Lord look like on this day? Prioritization of worship, devotion to teaching and fellowship with the people of God, participation in feasting and assisting others—the very things that the institution of the Sabbath was given to cultivate and protect from the beginning. So these are the types of things that should characterize us. And so what should our Lord’s Day look like? Rest, worship, instruction, feasting, fellowship, mercy. These are our priorities; these are the things that characterize a typical Sabbath day.
Once we get this right, we’re in a position to answer other related questions—should I work on the Lord’s Day? If so, under what circumstances? Should I engage in organized sports? Should I patronize businesses? These are all important questions that need answers. But if we jump to these types of questions without getting the heart of the Lord’s Day first—feasting, delight, liberation, worship, joy—then we will become nothing more than modern day Pharisees. The Lord’s Day should be the best day of the week. ‘Huh?’ Run myself ragged on the Lord’s Day? No thanks—I’d rather drive my clunker, feast with my family, and study God’s Word.’ And so, in our families, let us consider how to make the Lord’s Day the best day of the week. Let us break out the fine china; fix the best food; drag out the sweets; open a bottle of good wine; invite friends and family; read and study and enjoy the Word of God together; and pray corporately with joy. The Lord’s Day should be the best day of the week. So we should consider how to make it so given the ages of our children and the opportunities the Lord has placed before us. And when we face some decision about what to do on the Lord’s Day, we need to ask ourselves, is this thing that we are considering accentuating the feast or pulling us away from it?[ii]”
You talk about two different things here: Sabbath and Sunday. These are two very different things. The biblical evidence does not conflate them. Indeed, the passage you cite (Mark 2) shows this clearly: Jesus is master of the Sabbath, and so He is free to transcend it and not stop His disciples from breaking it. It really was not lawful to pluck grain on the Sabbath. You can argue that it’s really not “reaping,” but I point to the provision of manna, where even picking up food from the ground was not possible on the Sabbath. Jesus doesn’t merely say that the Sabbath was given for the good of men (which is how most people seem to read it); He says that the original Sabbath (where God rested, not Adam) was “on account of” (not “for the benefit of”) the man: God rested in satisfaction and celebration. (No evidence that Adam rested, incidentally.) He then declares Himself to be the Son of Man with mastery over the Sabbath.
Similarly, Jesus implicitly identifies Himself as David’s Son, who strictly speaking ate bread that was not allowed to non-priests. There is thus a parallel between the Sabbath and the priestly law.
If you want to talk about wisdom for Lord’s Day activities, that’s all well and good, but it really needs to come from quite other grounds, and also take into account the relevant data on the actual use of the Lord’s Day terminology as well as mandated Christian practice in the New Testament.
To follow up: If Sunday really *were* the Sabbath, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with jumping straight to questions such as whether one may work or patronize businesses, any more than there is something wrong with jumping to questions of sexual morality and so on. The Sabbath clearly forbade such practices, and while that was in the context of God’s gracious covenant, there was absolutely nothing wrong with speaking to such issues directly. The fact that almost no one is ready *really* to treat Sunday as the Sabbath indicates that we are aware that they in fact are not the same thing.
Agreed, they are indeed two different things as shown in the Bible. People are not meant to work or to buy and sell on the true Sabbath (Saturday).
Thanks for interacting, guys! As I intimated, I’m still working through these issues, so I’m very glad to hear viewpoints outside of my own confessional tradition. I firmly believe a doctrine’s pedagre, no matter how “Reformed,” can never give it priority over Scripture. Again, thank you both.