Elemental: S2 - Day 6

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27

Jesus was a deconstructionist. He reorganized culture, reinterpreted scripture, and broke the rules. Nowhere is this more evident than in the stories of His behavior on the Sabbath.

The Hebrews of Jesus' day had built their identity around rule-following. Under the direction of the Rabbis, the ten commandments slowly grew to 613, most with their own sub-commandments. The Sabbath received special attention, resulting in 39 different categories of prohibition with thousands of specific applications. The Hebrew culture painted a picture of God as austere and exacting. His disapproval was palpable as God’s people moved in slow motion, attempting to live up to expectations on His holy day.

Then Jesus enters our story.

Jesus’ observance of the Sabbath is a constant source of conflict with religious leaders as He reshapes our understanding of its purpose. Gone is the sense that Sabbath is a test to see how loyal we’ll be, whether we’ll measure up, or if we’ll trip and find ourselves excluded from the Kingdom.

Jesus heals on the Sabbath. Fail. Jesus eats from the goodness of the land on Sabbath. Wrong. Jesus claimed he was the Lord of the Sabbath. Blaspheme. Jesus drops a bomb in the middle of their Sabbath beliefs, not to destroy faith but to modify its focus.  

Notice, for all the destruction in Jesus' wake, He was quick to reconstruct. He would explain that the Sabbath was about doing good rather than prohibition. He reminded us that it was a part of God’s attempt to draw us near like a hen with her chicks rather than to drive us out or exclude us. Ultimately, He would tell us that the Sabbath was a gift given to humanity, made for us—not the other way around.

So if you feel paralyzed by conflicting spiritual thoughts or unanswerable questions, Jesus can relate. He knows what it is like to flip nicely organized tables of belief, sending security, even identity, clattering across the floor. Jesus knows. Jesus understands the confusion and the disorientation. He can relate to the desire to withdraw, to retreat. And, rather than disgust, He meets us with sympathy, crossing the divide between heaven and earth and patiently walking beside us. Then, when we are ready, He breaths the silent, simple truth, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  (Hebrews 13:5)

1. Name a rule you find frustrating.
2. Do you find it easy to be compliant, or do you easily rebel against authority?
3. What freedom do you wish you could experience today?