Jesus is a Jew who clearly observes the Sabbath, but he heals on the Sabbath and says to those who accuse him and his followers of violating Sabbath regulations, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” What strikes me most about this line is not Jesus' lordship over the Sabbath, but his insistence that the Sabbath was made for us.
When I was growing up in North and South Carolina, notions of Sabbath were still strong enough that it was extremely unusual to hear a lawn mower on a Sunday. Such reluctance to "work" on Sunday has largely disappeared, but if the Sabbath was made for us, then it stands to reason that we still need Sabbath in some way.
Sabbath keeping has often degenerated into petty rule keeping, both in Jesus' day and in the days of my youth. But freedom from petty rules does not change our need for Sabbath, for rest, for acknowledging that the world will not fall apart if we cease our activities, for trusting that things are safe in God's hands, allowing us to stop.
I've told the story many times of a colleague who was at an ecumenical pastors' lunch. At her table, a discussion ensued about what day the different pastors took off, with Friday and Monday being the favorites. But one fellow got a little perturbed at the talk of days off and exclaimed, "I never take a day off. The devil never takes a day off!"
To which my fried replied, "God does."
God surely has much more to worry about than we do. But God is able to stop, to rest, to be free from anxiety and worry, to simply enjoy the wondrous Creation God has made. And such rest was made for us as well.
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