A Christian Shabbat pt. 1

I’ve been thinking and observing for quite some time and only now begin to feel as though I have something to say concerning a rather confusing topic.  As long as there has been a church there have been debates about its relationship with the traditions of Israel.  In coming to Israel I hoped to find answers, at least for myself, to some of these questions.  In particular, what is the Christian understanding of Shabbat and how does it relate to Sunday?

Shabbat is part of the everlasting covenant between God and His people.  Although it has been misrepresented as an unfortunate and burdensome requirement, I think it can be clearly seen from the passages (Ex.20:8-11, Deut 5:12-15 and others) that it was considered a great gift of God to His people.  A day to celebrate their special relationship to God, to remember His care in the past and to expect it in the future by leaving one day a week entirely to his provision.  It reminds me of manna in the wilderness and God’s request through Moses to Pharaoh: “let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me (Ex 5:1).”  God offered His people a day of freedom from that day forward to throw off all other cares and enjoy God’s good provision.  It is true that today in Judaism this gift has been often perverted by a over-concern for finding the right way of observing it rather than enjoying it as a gift.  Shabbat is not a day to worry about the rights and wrongs of flipping a light switch or turning off the gas.  As Jesus said, “Shabbat was made for man, not man for Shabbat (Mark 2:27).”

Now, for the Christian, we know from the Gospels that Jesus does not come to destroy the Law, but fulfill it (Mt. 5:17).  This phrase has been much abused by Christians through the ages to justify a teaching that says once fulfilled, that law is put away for good.  But I would point out that the rest of the 10 commandments we still find very applicable, so the logic is flawed at best.  It also reveals a historic Christian polemic against its Jewish “big brother” that typifies all that looks Jewish as legalistic and part of a system that denies grace.  Rather, it would be more accurate to translate what Jesus said in this famous passage as filling the law or even, rightly interpreting it.  With this reading, we understand that Jesus is 1) realigning our understanding of the purpose of Shabbat (as a gift for man, not a work done to please God), and 2) He Himself will be our perfect example as to its true meaning.  Jesus celebrates Shabbat.  True, not as the Pharisees would have Him celebrate it, but in His life we see a respect for it that should not be lost on us.  Jesus also IS our Shabbat.  Shabbat points to Him, to a life united with God, a life of freedom.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all these Old Testament promises and pictures and more.  

Why then should we celebrate a tradition that is now fulfilled daily as we walk in faith with Christ?  What is there to be gained in practicing a promise fulfilled?  Indeed, why do we celebrate Christmas or Easter?  We do these things “in remembrance” of Him (Lk 22:19, Deut 16:1-3).  As Christians, we have for too long been violently uprooted from our past.  By God’s good grace, we have been grafted into the rich root of faith, begun in whom we may now call (thanks be to God!) OUR father Abraham (Rom. 11:17, Rom. 4:16).  Knowing this past, being connected to the most ancient history of God’s interaction with mankind, should give us a deeper gratitude and faith, a richer knowledge of the God whom we worship.  All of the festivals of ancient Israel are designed for this single purpose: to remember.  Too often the Christian faith is now presented as a nebulous code of morality rooted in 20th (and 21st) century American culture.  We have no depth.  We do not know the half of what our faith entails.  We do not know from where we have come.  ”Look to the rock from which you have been hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” (Is. 51:1)

And so, as you can see, there is most certainly not only a place in the Christian life for Shabbat, but I believe there is an everlasting commandment from God that now encompasses Christians in its sphere.  A sphere we have avoided to our detriment.  But, is there anything different about a Christian and a Jewish Shabbat?  Where does Sunday fall in this discussion?  Once again, I believe if you look to the Bible and also to the earliest history of the Church, you will discover that the day of Shabbat has always been Saturday.  It is the 7th day of creation and this has never changed.  In more recent history, the Church has attempted to reinvent Sunday as a Christian Shabbat, and in doing so has lost a very powerful theological understanding of what was once called “The Lord’s Day”.

 The Early Church is understood to have worshiped as a community on Sunday in honor of the Resurrection, calling it The Lord’s Day.  In Rome, there were no weekends as we know them.  Every day was a work day.  Jews were allowed to take Shabbat as a day of rest from work only because it was part of their ancestral religion (a loophole in Roman law).  Most of the first Christians were Jews and in spite of this, they would rise early on Sunday morning to gather before work and worship the risen Christ on the day of His resurrection.  It was not until a polemic relationship began between Jews and Christians that the Church began to ignore Shabbat in favor of The Lord’s Day.  

By maintaining a true understanding of Shabbat as unique from the imagery and purpose of The Lord’s Day, I believe we can clarify some confusion as to the concept of salvation itself.  It is sadly common in the church of late to dumb down the concept of salvation to simply meaning the achievement of eternal paradise upon death.  (It honestly sounds rather Islamic to me.)  We have lost all understanding of a resurrected life NOW.  I remember when the minister baptized me, he said I was “raised to walk in the newness of Life.”  What did that mean?  If Jesus lives in me and His kingdom has COME (for he says so in the Gospels), then something is different NOW.  What is different?  Well, from what we read in the New Testament, everything.  The Kingdom of God is now, here.  We are ministers of this new peace treaty with mankind and as such, we are out doing the business of the kingdom at all times.  The Orthodox Church explains it in terms of our doing what we can to create heaven on earth where it is in our power.  It means caring for the earth as well as its inhabitants.  It is acting as the stewards we were intended to be when Adam and Eve were given a job to do in the Garden.  God loves order, not chaos.  Beauty and light, not destruction and darkness.  Life, TRUE Life, and not death.  This is the business of the Kingdom and it is the business of the resurrected ones.  With this new understanding of our Glorious Salvation, The Lord’s Day takes on a whole new meaning.  It is a day of work!!!  (This will come as no surprise to anyone who has actually served in a church.)  We worship the resurrected Lord and then we enter LIFE!  We rejoice in our own resurrection by performing the acts of one who is resurrected.  It is a purposefulness our generation desperately lacks and a meaning behind our worship that is all but forgotten.

So, I propose to maintain Shabbat as a day of remembrance and a day of rest which God in His wisdom has said we need.  It is holy to the Lord!  Holy means set apart.  It is set apart for YOU.  You will certainly praise your God when you have the rest you need, the perspective and distance from the cares of the world to think right again and love your family and your life and love your God who gives good gifts.  Then, on Sunday, celebrate the resurrection and enter into Life.  Let it be the launch into your week that reminds you of your purpose, to see God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

~ by eikonministries on November 14, 2008.