Title How to Spend Sunday / Luke 6:1-11
How to spend the week
Bible Text: Luke 6:1-11
One of the sharpest conflicts between the religious leaders of Jesus' day and Jesus was the issue of keeping the Sabbath. The text introduces two events that took place on the Sabbath that started it. One is the case in which the disciples of Jesus were passing through wheat fields while they were feeling hungry, and they cut ears and rubbed them with their hands. The rabbis had so grandiose that this was an act of harvesting and threshing, so from their point of view, it was a violation of the Sabbath law that no work should be done on the Sabbath. Another was that Jesus healed a man with a withered right hand on the Sabbath, which he also accused of breaking the law. Jesus refuted this and taught the meaning of the Sabbath.
First, the Sabbath is a day for man.
The origin of the Sabbath comes from God's creation of the heavens and the earth. God created the heavens and the earth with His word for 6 days and rested on the 7th day. And when he gave the Ten Commandments, he set the command to “remember the sabbath day to keep it holy” as the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8). As God rested on this day, man was told to rest without doing anything.
To help us understand the Sabbath, Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). This means that God, who exists as a spirit, did not rest because he needed rest, but rather that the Creator rested for people to rest and gave the Sabbath commandment to give people rest. God knew in advance the short-sighted thoughts and greed of people. As long as the human body is not a machine, even when it needs rest, it works non-stop for a week with the thought of earning more money. I struggle with the book, staying up all night thinking that I will get good grades. While feeling the abnormality of his body, he works hard for a promotion, and one day he suddenly collapses. Isn't it said that Korea has the highest death rate for people in their 40s?
There should be breaks during the day, and there should be days off during the week. God commanded us to work six days and rest one day. The reason is that the God who created man has determined that this cycle is necessary to keep the human body in its best condition. In fact, even medical practitioners say that it is desirable to work for six days and take a day off because the body has a limit to maintaining constant tension.
And history proves that doing so is efficient. In France, after the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, on the impulse of atheists, a "10-day holiday" was implemented. Although this system was introduced in the name of industrial development of the country, the result ended in failure. On the contrary, occupational accidents surged during this period and production fell by 40%. In the end, the French government returned it to the "7-day holiday".
A similar attempt was made in the Soviet Union. Lenin, the atheist who started the Soviet communist revolution, adopted the "eight-day holiday" with the slogan "one should be added for the benefit of the workers". The result is a 30% reduction in productivity. Embarrassed by this, Lenin said, "We are more on the workers' side than Christians, so we will introduce a 'six-day vacation'.
A nation that ignores God's providence for the Sabbath is bound to end in ruin. In the past, the Japanese Empire declared war on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 8, 1939. And in order to get more work, he wrote and sang the songs of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday to the fullest. In the end, I was defeated. It was also a Sunday when North Korea provoked war. A society that tries to make people work no matter what they do has turned into the world's poorest country. Can you say this is just a coincidence? Business owners today never underestimate the impact of rest and holidays on productivity.
Second, the Sabbath is a day for God.
The Sabbath is not just for humans. This day is also a day for God. God called the seventh day “the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:10). This verse means that God is the Lord of the Sabbath. But Jesus also said, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5). In the end, Jesus asserts that He is God through these words as well.
What should we do to make the protagonist of this day be God? We should praise His glory, thank Him for His grace, and worship Him. It should be the same for other days, but especially this day should be recognized as a special day and spent centered on Him. We must think and do His will. Jesus asked, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” Of course, it is right to do good and save lives. That is the will of God. It is also the will of God to take physical rest.
Jesus made the crippled man who came to worship on the Sabbath into a normal person. In this event, we can discover the spiritual truth that the Lord energizes those who are exhausted after 6 days of hard work through worship and enables them to welcome a new week. Therefore, in reality, the meaning of a day for God includes the meaning of a day for men. Please believe that what you do for God is what you do for yourself.
Third, Christians keep Sunday instead of the Sabbath.
Christians in the New Testament age slowly and naturally gathered together on Sundays to worship. Jesus rose from the dead on the first day (Sunday) after the Sabbath. Jesus' disciples were gathered in one place on the first evening after the Sabbath, and the resurrected Jesus appeared. The apostle Paul and his companions and the Christians in Troas gathered for the Lord's Supper on the first day (Sunday, Sunday) after the Sabbath. The Apostle John heard the voice of the Lord on "the Lord's Day (Sunday)" (Revelation 1:10). Also, the fact that Sunday is the first day of the week also helped to establish itself as a day of worship for Christians.
While the Sabbath is a day to recall the completion of the old creation, Sunday is a day to recall the Lord's completed work and the new creation. The Sabbath refers to rest after work and is related to the law, whereas the Sabbath refers to rest before work and is related to grace.