Having looked at the origin and roots of Sabbath in the OT, we now want to turn our attention to its ongoing development in the NT, looking specifically at the three main references to Sabbath in the teaching of Jesus; the first coming at the start of his ministry, the second as he debates with the Pharisees about its primary purpose, and the last as he addresses Israel just days before his death and resurrection.
Firstly, we need to ask the question, “How did Jesus see his mission to Israel? What were the parameters round which he structured and developed his missionary consciousness?” It was none other than the very reading of Isaiah 61 that we looked at earlier, Isaiah’s most fully-developed prophetic statement of true Jubilee..
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed.
To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say
to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:16-30)
Jesus was making a staggering and profound statement to Israel in that he was appropriating to himself the long-awaited Jubilee promises. There can be no doubt as to his intention, “Today” he says, “this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jubilee, rest, redemption, freedom and healing are found in me alone.
As Jesus continues his ministry to Israel, we notice a strange thing; the other 9 commandments listed in the moral law of Exodus 20 are, in various ways, not just reaffirmed but heightened by Jesus in their moral reach, primarily in his Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5-7, but this is not the case with the fourth commandment. What’s more, Jesus appears to have gone out of his way to challenge the traditional Sabbath observance of those around him. “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8), says Jesus as he confronts the Pharisees in their strictured understanding of suitable Sabbath behaviour; and again, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27) as he repeatedly heals on the Sabbath day. When arguing the point with the ruling Pharisees who have come to confront him about his law-breaking behaviour, Jesus offers two Old Testament examples of permitted Sabbath breaking, one ordinary and one extraordinary, showing that breaking the Sabbath was not unknown in the OT period. In the first, David, king not yet crowned and on the run for his life, takes the bread of the presence in the Tabernacle and offers it to his hungry companions; in the second, ordained priests follow God’s instructions when they renew the weekly bread of the presence every Sabbath, placing fresh loaves on the Table in the Temple Sanctuary. If guiltless under the Old Covenant temple law, how much more guiltless under the New Covenant temple practice, especially when we consider that Jesus was, like David, God’s true but yet uncrowned King and the true High Priest of Israel? Whatever else Jesus may be saying here, he is surely saying that the Pharisees had got it badly wrong and that their emphasis on minute externals was out of place with the true meaning of Sabbath, both in the Old Testament and in the New.
Finally, Jesus speaks to the crowds offering them rest. “Come to me and I will give you rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:28) For the Jews present in the crowd, this specific promise of rest would have had immediate Sabbath overtones. They would have heard Jesus offering them a Sabbath rest that extended beyond the physical to their very inner being, a rest that was attainable only in and through him. For those well versed in the Old Testament scriptures, they would also have recalled the words God spoke to Moses as he faced the arduous ask of leading a fractious Israelite nation away from Sinai towards the Promised Land. These words are worth repeating here for they are heavy with New Testament meaning:
“Moses said to the Lord, ’See, you say to me, ’Bring up this people,’ But you have not
let me know whom you will send with me..Yet you have said, ’I know you by name
and you have also found favour in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favour
in your sight, please show me your ways, that I may know you in order to find favour
in your sight. Consider too this nation that is your people.’ And he said,’ My presence
will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
Exodus 33:12-14
Here Jesus draws his hearers into a deeper, re-visioned understanding of what true rest would look like, rest that wasn’t limited to one day in seven, but was found in relationship with a leader who, like Moses of old, would lead his followers through troubled times by the calm of his presence until they reached the Promised Land. And how would it be known that such a presence went with them? “Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct…from every other people on the face of the earth?” (Ex 33:16)
Where is this Commandment Fulfilled?
Now we come to the crux of the argument. It has been a long journey to get this far, but journeys are essential for a mature and nuanced understanding of the biblical text. Jesus invites us to journey with him. All too often the Bible is used as an AK47; accessible, cheap and loaded with proof texts ready to fire. It is not, contrary to popular opinion, to be used this way, which incidentally was exactly the point Jesus was making when he challenged the Pharisees in their rule-orientated understanding of the scriptures. It is, essentially, a story -the narrative of God’s salvation history to the world- which we are invited to understand and participate in.
Jesus did this supremely as he approached the cross. His actions that day brought to completion several thousand years of Old Testament history, shining the light of recognition and understanding on the journey thus far. “Under Construction” cautioned much of the Old Testament. Here, at last, as Jesus approached his own crucifixion, the sign was taken down and history revealed its true intent.
Now we come to the crux of understanding. Jesus is crucified on a Friday, the 6th day of the Jewish week and the day before the Jewish Sabbath. Now, connecting, connecting, connecting, we are asked to think back to the original creation narrative, for it was also on the 6th day that God created man in his image. This man was called “adam.” Adam in Hebrew is correctly translated as both a proper noun Adam, as a common noun “man,” or as a generic noun denoting both male and female human beings, as in “man and woman”. As Jesus is presented to the crowd, Pilate cries out, “Behold the man!” (John 19:50) highlighting Jesus’ identity as the truly perfect man, the truly perfect adam. As he takes his last breaths on the cross, Jesus himself spoke “It is finished!” (John 19:30) his words not only proclaiming to all the world that the work his father had sent him to do was accomplished, but also carrying significant echoes of the creation account, when, after the work of day 6, comes God’s 7th day Sabbath rest. The parallel continues as Jesus’ body is removed from the cross on the evening of the 6th day, after which, significantly, it “rests” in the tomb on day 7, the Jewish Sabbath, showing that the work of creation carries significant parallels with the work of re-creation that Jesus accomplishes on the cross, available to all those who will take hold of it and put their trust in him. This is why Paul is able to refer to Jesus as the New Adam and to his people as New Creations in Christ, concepts that would hold no metaphysical sense or epistemological meaning if they didn’t directly find their origin in the creation narrative.
Where is the commandment mentioned in the rise of the early church?
It is equally striking that when we come to the start of the early church and the controversies that embroiled it, there appears to be no mention whatsoever of Sabbath observance. Suddenly it all seems to have gone strangely silent. Paul, in his earliest letter to the Galatians, writes that “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law.” (Gal 4:4) Since these were the first Christians privileged to know the Messiah in the fullness of time, they no longer needed to depend on the OT markers, or signposts that had played their part in pointing the way to Jesus, but which were no longer required. This new way of knowing God came about because these early Christians had rested from their works and trusted instead in the death and resurrection of Jesus, been liberated and redeemed by the greatest freedom fighter of all time, the one who consciously identified himself as the fulfilment of Isaiah 61. What has been fulfilled no longer needs to be signposted as Jesus himself said, “I have come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it”
This connection is made explicitly in Hebrews which envisages the entire new age inaugurated by Jesus as a great “Sabbath rest”, and speaks of those who enter that rest by ceasing from their works. The whole sequence of 3:7-4:11 provides an exegesis of Psalm 95:7-11 in which the story of the wilderness wanderings and of Joshua leading the people into the Promised Land is evoked in terms of a promised “rest”. The whole point here is that Joshua clearly had not provided that promised rest, for if he had, the psalmist would have no need to look forward to it in the future. Moreover, it is well known that the early church was made up of both Jews and Gentiles; this was the cause of many of the early controversies in the rapidly growing church, yet Sabbath observance doesn’t seem to have been one of them. If Sabbath observance was still an issue for them, it’s very strange that there is no mention of controversy over the actual day, since Jews would not have lightly transferred their Sabbath to the first day of the Christian week. Yet we find no such controversy. Moreover, the first day of the week was a normal working day in all parts of the ancient world. If the early church had tried to transfer the basic principle of Jewish Sabbath onto the first day of the week, its actions would have been seen as nothing short of staggeringly culturally subversive, for many of its members were 1st C slaves. For these men and women, resting on Sunday could only have been achieved by open rebellion and insurrection against both their owners and the Roman Empire. (This, incidentally, is why Pliny the Younger records Christians meeting at sunrise to worship; they had work to go to.) If such a revolt had taken place we would expect to find non-biblical archaeological records referring to this; yet there are none. It doesn’t appear to have even crossed the minds of the early church to transfer Jewish Sabbath to Christian Sunday. That thought came much later on in church history, as we have seen, when Constantine came to power in the 4th C.
Where Does This Leave Us?
What can we say in conclusion then? Are we, as Christians, still called to refrain from all work on Sunday and to keep the day holy? The answer I would suggest is no. To do so is to take a huge hermeneutical step that cannot, I believe, be justified by close inspection of the relevant scriptures. Yes, there will always be those who resort easily to fire power, launching proof texts at the argument and believing they have made their case, but to do so is to miss the richness, wonder and glory of the person and work of Christ Jesus. Every day should be a Sabbath, as we rest in his finished work. How we choose to use Sunday, is up to us.
*I am indebted in writing this article to Tom Wright for his excellent work, “Case study: Sabbath” found in his book, “Scripture and the Authority of God” (London, SPCK, 2013)