The Gift of Sabbath
The practice of Sabbath is a great gift because it disrupts our cultural story and reshapes us around God’s story.
Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word that means, “to cease working.” Sabbath is a 24 hour period in which we stop doing any work, paid or unpaid, in order to delight in and re-orient ourselves around God.
Euguene Peterson describes it this way, “Sabbath: Uncluttered time and space to distance ourselves from the frenzy of our own activities so we can see what God has been and is doing.”
Creation was designed for both hard work and real rest. We were made to be fruitful and multiply. The Scriptures tell us to work hard, to strive for the goal, to make disciples. All of this require effort. But in reality it is God alone–––not us––who accomplishes anything meaningful in the world. Colossians 1:17 says that “in Jesus all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
We labor, but God provides the growth — a farmer who plants seeds and goes to sleep. Our lives begin to break down when we ignore this reality and live as if the world relies on us. Here are some of the symptoms of living without Sabbath:
Anxiety
Sleeplessness
Exhaustion
Overworking
We lack a daily awareness of God’s presence.
We aren’t present to those around us.
We engage in addictive behavior; from alcohol to Netflix
When we do rest, we crash.
We regularly miss parts of life that are deeply held values like church or family gatherings.
We’re busy almost every night of the week.
If this list describes you, welcome to the club; we’re ordering t-shirts. Our our frantic lives make it incredibly difficult to grow in a deep awareness of God’s presence and to listen to his voice.
That’s why Sabbath is such a gift to us. Think about the context of Sabbath when it was first introduced to the Israelites. They had just come out of 400 years of slavery to Egypt, and they had worked every single one of those day. There are no days off for Egyptians slaves. Their whole existence for generations was about producing and performing, producing and performing, producing and performing.
So when God delivers them from Egypt and gives them the Sabbath, he disrupts their cultural story. He says, “you’re not just producers. You’re not slaves, you’re my children. You have value and worth outside of what you do. You’re created in my image, you’re my special people. I love you and I will take care of you.”
But as the story continues we see that it’s easier to take the Israelites out of Egypt, then Egypt out of the Israelite. They were not used to depending on God as their sustainer. It took forty years of wrestling with God for the people to trust Him enough to enter into the Promised Land.
Every week God gave them a powerful rhythm to reorient their lives away from their old story as slaves and toward their new story as God’s precious, chosen people. In this rhythm of life a radical deprogramming takes place. God teaches them how to receive his blessing, so that they can take his blessing to the nations.
We also need radical deprogramming. We need the gift of Sabbath. While not literal slaves, our culture is also based around production and performance. We need to hear a better word from Jesus that calms our fears. We need to hear Jesus say, “you’re not just producers. You’re not slaves, you are children. You have value and worth outside of what you do. You’re created in my image, you’re my special people. I love you and I will take care of you.”
Jesus has accomplished the work that we couldn’t do. He ushered in the Kingdom. He fulfilled all righteousness. He made atonement for sins. He defeated death. He gave us his Spirit. He called us. He sanctifies us. He will glorify us.
Our work is to simply receive the gift of rest.
Here are some questions to reflect on:
How does Sabbath confront the idols of our culture?
What are you tempted to strive for?
Why is it so hard for even the church to practice Sabbath?
How does failing to practice a regular Sabbath affect our children?