This is the story of the first Sabbath: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
God hallowing the Sabbath led to its importance being enshrined in the Top Ten legal requirements of the Law of Moses: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work dash you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”
According to Exodus 31:14, to intentionally break (profane) Sabbath was a capital offense. To accidently break (work) on the Sabbath was grounds from exile from the community. God tells the people “You shall keep my sabbaths, for this a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.”
How often did Jesus heal and do other things on the Sabbath to which the leadership objected? It was a reminder that Sabbath was made for humanity and not humanity for the Sabbath. I wonder if Jesus did it sometimes just to annoy them.
Now, about another Sabbath… The bible records that Jesus was dead for three days. This is NOT 72 hours as our Popular Culture would measure time. Day one was those few hours on Good Friday, the day of his death (he was dead before sundown). Day three was the first day of the week, where in the early morning the women came down and Mary Magdalene was the first to see him.
Day Two was the Sabbath, in particular, the Passover Sabbath. This is the day that the Lord blessed and hallowed and Jesus, the Son of God, was dead through this entire day. This is the day the people were commanded to keep holy, on pain of death. And Jesus, the Son of God, was dead through this entire day. This is the day that is a sign of the covenant between God and the people through all their generations, this Sabbath that the people are to keep. Jesus was dead through the day that is the sign of the covenant between God and ourselves. This is the day that Jesus would repeatedly come into conflict with the leaders over, as Jesus redeemed the true nature of this day of the Lord as a day of Healing and Celebration. And it is the one full day of the cycle where Jesus is dead.
His words on the cross were “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” His death extended through a complete cycle of the day the Lord had blessed and hallowed, the day the Lord commanded to be holy, the day important to the very lives of the people, the day that marked God’s covenant with the people, the day Jesus repeatedly redeemed and renewed, the day that illustrates a full and complete separation, the day of the Lord where the life of Jesus was forsaken.
Until he rose again.
Pastor Peter
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