Day 14 - Issue 43
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Mark 2:27-28
Jesus said to them: “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!”
Some years ago, I spent a couple of months living in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, which is home to a very large number of ultra-orthodox Jews. I very soon learnt, to my surprise, that the Sabbath begins late afternoon on Friday. It begins when the first star is seen in the sky and, from that moment, the shops shut and people go home to begin the rituals that mark the start of the Sabbath. There is something incredibly special about setting aside one day in seven as a day of rest. This was the example that God set when he created the world, and the law of Moses protected the day with a penalty of death for anyone who worked on the Sabbath.
Over the centuries, the laws of the Sabbath were developed extensively. By the time of Jesus, there were scores of laws which regulated people’s activities on the day. There were, essentially, 39 forms of work which ranged from burning, writing and erasing to washing, sewing and cooking. The Pharisees were strict observers of the Sabbath and, in their eagerness to trip Jesus up, they carefully observed the activities of Jesus and his disciples. When they spotted them walking through a field and breaking off the heads of grain to eat, they had their moment. The disciples were caught red-handed, and were guilty of a number of Sabbath violations, including walking and reaping.
Jesus’ response was to indicate that they had completely missed the point. God had given the gift of the Sabbath in order to be a blessing to people, not to tie them up in legal tangles. In a society that is busy seven days a week, we have a real challenge to keep the Sabbath special but, in doing so, we will receive many blessings. We need to work hard at ensuring that it doesn’t get squeezed into the mould of the other six days.
Question: What more could you do to make your Sabbath special?
Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for the gift of the Sabbath. Help me to use it in order to get to know you better. Amen
Released on 14 Oct 2022
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