The Purpose of the Sabbath
Mark 2:27-3:5 : Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come forward." Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The institution of the Sabbath was already around 1300 years old, when Jesus had to defend the original establishment of the Sabbath from the rigorous and mere ritualistic interpretation.
According to the Scriptures the observation of the Sabbath Day happened on the Mount Sinai experience when Israel, in behalf of the whole humanity, received the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments in details can be found in the two Books, in the Exodus and the Deuteronomy. This should be not too much of a surprise, as the very Greek word of the Deuteronomy means the repetition of the Law.
If were are looking for some hints to try to understand the purpose of the Sabbath, both Books give an explanation as well, why God ordered the observation of the Sabbath. The Book of the Genesis is very straight forwardly saying, that people of God, you shall remember every single week, that God created the Universe and the people under the skies on Earth, as it is written in chapter 20:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.”
The commandment in the Scriptures is really, a bit longer than the abbreviated Sunday School version of it, and the explanation is that God rested on the seventh day of the creation, that is why sanctified and blessed the seventh day. It means, that by the observance, we commemorate God, as the Creator of the World, and everything in it, as he is the owner of the Creation, the King of the Universe.
However, the author of the Book of the Deuteronomy, who is by some researchers, Prophet Jeremiah, did not just copy the commandment from the list of the Book of Genesis, but gives a very different, though almost as important explanation regarding the question, why should the people keep observing the Sabbath day.
As it is written, in the Book of Deuteronomy, after the detailed commandment, that you shall observe the Sabbath day, in order to “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”
Thus, the people not only at the yearly Passover Holiday must remember the events of the Exodus from Egypt, but every single week they have the remember, that God delivered the people from the devastating bondage of slavery.
The Bible is also utterly against slavery, stating that whosoever is sold to slavery must be freed in every seven years without any excuse or reimbursement to the owner. The rule aims to prevent systematic slavery as it existed from Babylon through Egypt, Greece and Rome, everywhere, except in the Land of Israel.
It is pivotal to have divinely good laws, because otherwise everything goes south. When the laws are divinely good, we must abide the law, when the laws are humanly bad, we must resist the bad laws, and still do the right thing, despite the tyranny of the made up human law. What is right or wrong, what is the right thing, God tells us explicitly, as it is written in the Book of Deuteronomy:
“ Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.”
Around 2200 years ago, they took the Sabbath commandment so seriously, that the pious ones, the mighty warriors in Israel, were regularly massacred by the invading enemy, because they did not fight on Sabbath. An other group, whose Book is among the Biblical books, the Maccabees took up the fight in behalf of the pious ones, saying, that saving lives is allowed on Sabbath, and someone must fight for their lives in danger, even on Sabbath to save the God fearing people.
Although, work is prohibited on Sabbath, the very celebration of the family, of the community, the unitedness, the togetherness in praising God as the Creator, the Liberator, the Healer, the Redeemer is mandatory on Sabbath, prayers and the study of the Scriptures, as well.
However, one of the greatest purpose of the observance of the Sabbath is the visualization of the promised redemption of God, which is will be fully realized in the WORLD to COME, Olam HaBa in Hebrew.
Th Sabbath greeting is Shabbat Shalom, which means: have a peaceful Sabbath, as the observation of the Sabbath is equivalent with peace, where there is no war, no killing, no harm, but love and harmony. Just as it is written, that Jesus always greeted his disciples, that Peace be with You. Regarding the peace of the Sabbath, he said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 2:28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
May God be praised by the Holy Spirit in all souls. AMEN.
