+INJ Pentecost
2B June 14 & 15th 2009
+
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has
commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any
work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or
maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien
within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember
that you were slaves in
Get Some Rest in the Lord!
- His commandment blesses you
- His arm has saved you
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. Jude 2
The Guinness Book of World
Records records the longest time a person has gone voluntarily without sleep:
18 days. Can’t even imagine it. Just think of the last time you stayed awake
all night. You can do it, but it hurts. Try it for more than a few nights and
the consequences get a lot worse: memory loss, hallucination, and more. The
Guinness book has since discontinued that category because of health risks. We
just need our rest. If our bodies need rest, our souls need rest, too, even
more. Our gracious, loving Savior wants us to bless us with that rest for our
souls with his Word of forgiveness. So he gives us a commandment about it. And
though we’ve failed to keep that commandment, our Savior also forgives us. We
don’t find rest by our works, but by his work for us. The Lord’s mighty arm has
saved us, and has brought us eternal rest. Our text for today speaks to our
weary souls, burdened with sin, weighed down with guilt, tired from the
struggles of a sinful world, and it says to us: get some rest in the Lord! We want to get some rest in the Lord, because
his commandment is there to bless us; and his mighty arm has saved us.
God’s people were perched on
the threshhold of the Promised Land of Canaan. Moses was reviewing the Ten
Commandments, and giving the people his Spirit-inspired commentary. Our text is
his teaching on the 3rd Commandment: Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has
commanded you. The Sabbath day was a big deal for God’s people. It wasn’t
just a tradition. It wasn’t suggested, recommended, or preferable. It was not
optional. The Lord commanded them to observe the Sabbath Day as part of their
weekly schedule. But why? Why did God require that the 7th day of
the week, Saturday, be set apart as a Sabbath?
Back when the Lord commanded
it 40 years earlier on Mount Sinai, he explained his rationale: For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD
blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:11). On that first Sabbath day, God rested. That’s
what the word Sabbath means: rest. Adam and Eve enjoyed that rest-time
together with their heavenly Father. After the Fall into sin, man’s relationship
with God was broken, and Adam and Eve burdened themselves with sin and guilt.
There was all the more need for God’s people to spend time with their God, and
to find rest for their souls in his loving forgiveness.
So God commanded the Sabbath
to make sure that his people got the spiritual rest they needed. Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not
do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or
maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien
within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do.
God leaves nothing up for grabs about the Sabbath: he
forbids regular work and requires a day of rest. His command is given to “you,”
singular, yet it also covers the whole household and the whole community, even
the work-animals. Everyone was going to rest on the Sabbath day.
But the point of God’s commandment
for the Sabbath day was to bless his people. Listen to Jesus in today’s gospel:
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” The point of God’s
command was to ensure that his Old Testament people took a break from their
regular occupation, rested their bodies, and especially took time to gather for
spiritual rest in worship.
As God’s New Testament
people, we are no longer bound by the ceremonial law. God no longer dictates
what we eat, what we wear, or the days or times we gather for worship. There is
no more Sabbath Day for New Testament Christians. Colossians 2 says: Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or
with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is
found in Christ. (Colossians
2:16-17). The OT Sabbath was fulfilled in Christ, when he brought
spiritual rest for us in the forgiveness of sins. Now, God does not require us to set
aside any specific day for him. We are free to worship on Sunday or Monday
evening instead of Saturday. We are not banned from mowing our lawn or doing work
on Sundays.
But God’s commandment still
applies to us. And God’s commandment is still for our blessing. God still does require
that we set aside time to gather for worship. When? doesn’t say. How much time?
doesn’t say. How often? doesn’t say. The intent of God’s commandment is that we
gather around his Word and sacrament to have our sins forgiven, to have our
burden of guilt lifted, to find rest for our souls in Christ.
So sad, though. God wants to
bless us with his commandment. But because of our sin, we don’t keep his
commandment, and so we miss out on his blessing. Instead, we focus on keeping
the outward requirement of God’s commandment. “Just get to church. I’m here,
aren’t I? Ok, well, that’s done. Time to go. Get on with other things.”
Or instead, we finaigle the
commandment: well, it’s not like we have to go to church, like it’s a
requirement to get to heaven or something; while that’s true, but what does it
reveal about the heart? As soon as you ask, do I have to? how many times? how
often? is your heart really in it?
So often and in so many ways
we break and reject God’s commandment. In doing so, we not only deprive
ourselves of the spiritual blessing he wants to give us, but we reject that
spiritual rest. Don’t want it, don’t need it.
Because of our sin, God’s
commandment doesn’t only bless us; it also condemns us for our failure to love
God and yearn for the spiritual rest he gives. But God doesn’t simply command
us to get rest in him and condemn us for our failures. He also lovingly
provides rest and peace to our weary souls through his gospel. He forgives our
failures and takes away our burden of sin and guilt. With that gospel, God also
empowers us to seek him for more of that rest. Get some some rest in the Lord
because he loves you and forgives you!
That’s the gospel motivation
that Moses provided for the people of
God’s people were entering a new
land, their land. God was giving it to them. They would live free in
it. They would work their own fields, keep their own cattle and sheep, and pick
their own grapes and figs. What a difference from their life in the wilderness,
from their life of slavery in
So Moses told the people what the Sabbath was for: Remember that you were slaves in
Egypt – use the Sabbath to take a rest from your work, and
remember where you came from, what that was like: hard, back-breaking work,
with no rest; it seemed like God had forgotten you. 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 –
that’s why – the Lord your God has
commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. That’s what the Sabbath was for:
rest from your work to remember his work! Remember how God saved you! Remember
how in the middle of your hard, back-breaking labor, God rolled up his sleeves,
flexed his muscles, reached out his arm, and with his mighty hand rescued you
from Egypt. He plucked you out of your slavery in Egypt, through the Red Sea,
away from Pharoah’s army, across the desert wasteland, and into a land of rest.
And that’s why God commands you to observe the Sabbath Day: to remember how his
arm saved you!
If rescue from Egypt was
something to remember, our rescue from sin and death and the devil is
definitely worth remembering. We were slaves, once, too, to sin and death and
Satan. We were burdened with sin and weighed down with guilt. No matter how
much we worked and worked, we could never have found any rest or peace for
ourselves. It was God’s work alone that rescued us and brought us rest for our
souls. God rolled up his sleeves, flexed his muscles, and got to work. He sent
his Son to become a servant for us, to bear the burden of our sins, to endure
the crushing weight of our guilt on the cross. By Christ’s perfect record of
Sabbath-keeping and love for God and his Word, we are free from condemnation. By
Christ’s labor of love, his suffering and death on the cross, God has given us
perfect rest and peace from sin and guilt. By Christ’s resurrection, we are
assured a place in God’s land of eternal rest.
It’s that perfect rest and
peace for our souls that we find in the Word and in the sacraments. It’s that
perfect peace and rest for our souls that leads us to gather together with
fellow Christians for worship. It’s that perfect peace and rest for our souls
that leads us to keep coming back for more.
Just like our bodies need
rest, not just once in awhile, but every night, our souls need rest all the
time, too. So when you think of God’s Word, and the opportunities you have to
hear God’s Word, picture Christ inviting you: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Amen.
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in
every way. The Lord be with all of you. (2 Thessalonians 3:16)
