Fun, Flexible, and Freedom: 3 Keys to Practicing the Sabbath
“Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;” Mark 2:27 NRSV
What a gift the Sabbath is! A glorious opportunity to be present in the moment with God, ourselves, and our community. But what does it look like to practice the Sabbath in the midst of our current culture? Before we answer that question, we need to look closer at Jesus's words to the Pharisees of His day regarding the true Spirit of the Sabbath.
In the Gospel of Mark, we read a story about how Jesus and his friends were walking through the grainfields on one particular Sabbath. As they went on their way, the disciples grew hungry and began to pick heads of grain. The Pharisees took offense to this and began questioning Jesus about why they were doing what was unlawful on the Sabbath. "Then he (Jesus) said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath (Mark 2:27 NRSV)." This profound statement is still as relevant today as it was to the Pharisees in Jesus' day.
However, to fully understand the application of Jesus's words for us today, we must first understand the stark contrast between the culture in which Jesus spoke these words and our current culture. Scholars tell us that in Jesus's day, there were more than 1,500 rules that a person had to follow on the Sabbath. Many boarded on the absurd. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had made a mockery of the Sabbath, stifling God's initial intent behind the command to remember the Sabbath. They needed to hear the second half of Jesus's statement - "not humankind for the Sabbath."
Fast-forward to today's church culture, where our problem is not extreme legalism surrounding the Sabbath. Instead, we are suffering from a lack of discipleship around what practicing the Sabbath even looks like. If the Pharisees of Jesus's day needed to hear the second half of Jesus's statement, we need to hear the first half of His statement - "The Sabbath was made for humankind." We need to be reminded that the Sabbath is a gift from our loving heavenly Father. A gift that shows up on our doorstep once every seven days, calling us to stop, rest, delight, and worship God.
Remembering that the Sabbath is a gift, the last thing that we want to do is to start adding dozens of rules to how we observe the Sabbath. Rules that only serve to make the day a heavy burden. However, it is crucial to understand that practicing the Sabbath today is quite possibly the most counter-cultural of all of the ways of Jesus. In our current culture, it is unlikely that you and I will unintentionally stumble into practicing the Sabbath. Why? Because, as a culture, we are driven by productivity, efficiency, accumulation of more and more stuff, and a craving for endless entertainment. And these desires have no interest in taking a day off once every seven days. Truth be told, sometimes practicing the sabbath can feel like you are a small fish who is trying to swim upstream against a raging current.
With that said, here are some suggestions to prayerfully consider as you begin to define your ideal Sabbath. First, consider avoiding work, buying and selling, and worry. In an effort to steer clear of these activities, consider unplugging from the technology in your life for some or all of your Sabbath. The technology we allow into our lives is often an open door to the desire for accomplishment, accumulation, and acceptance. Second, fill your Sabbath with activities that bring joy, cause you to delight in God's goodness, and provide an opening for communal worship. As the weeks go by, remember to keep it fun, remain flexible as you move through different seasons of life, and that there is great freedom in practicing the Sabbath - it is not a box that you check off on your to-do list to say that you are practicing the Sabbath. Instead, it is a gift from your heavenly Father, who created you in His image and knows your needs intimately.
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