Sermon for Pentecost 2: "Jesus is Our Sabbath"

 + 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost – June 2^nd, 2024 +

Series B: Deuteronomy 5:12-15; 2 Corinthians 4:5-12; Mark 2:23-28, 3:1-6

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirt. Amen.

 

In 6 days, God created the heavens and the earth. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

 

Ever wonder why God rested? He wasn’t tired, worn out, or weary. God rested from his work of creation to provide a place and time for his people to rest in Him. In his word. In his promises. In his gracious providing. To give rest in body and soul. To preserve life. God didn’t need the rest but he knows we do. Sabbath was a blessing, a gift. 

 

That’s the Sabbath day before Genesis 3 and sin, devil, and death creep into God’s very good creation. But even then, after Genesis 3, Sabbath was God’s gift, made for man to rest in his promises, provision, and peace – to point forward to the Sabbath rest won by Jesus crucified on the 6^th day and rested on the 7^th day for you. God’s gift of Sabbath in the Scriptures was a day where the Lord calls us to himself to receive his gifts and to give you rest in Jesus. 

 

And yet, even after Genesis 3, we see fallen, sinful man always finds a way to ruin God’s good gifts. To take and twist God’s blessing – and turning them into burdens. 

 

That’s what’s happening in Mark 2 and 3 this morning. A Sabbath Day showdown between Jesus and the Pharisees. Round one …the Pharisees spied Jesus’ disciples walking through the fields, plucking and eating grain. According to Deuteronomy, the poor were allowed to pick grain left on the edges of the field. For the Pharisees, however, it wasn’t what the disciples were doing, it was when that was the problem. Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?  

 

You get the idea that the Pharisees would not have been all that fun to hang out with. Always score-keeping, measuring their holiness, walking around with their legal notepads taking making sure no one steps out of line; it’s all very self-righteous. And harvesting grain was just one of the 39 types of work forbidden on the Sabbath day. But of course whenever we point the finger at the Pharisees, we point out our own sinful, self-righteous ways too. There’s a little Pharisee in each of us that Jesus is constantly calling to repentance and restoring in forgiveness as well. 

 

Jesus, being a good teacher, replies with a question of his own. Haven’t you guys read your Old Testament? Don’t you remember how David ate the bread of the presence in the tabernacle when he was on the run from Saul? You guys got it all wrong. The Sabbath wasn’t about regulations and rule-keeping, but rest and restoration in my word. It’s supposed to be a blessing, not a burden. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

 

If David did not violate the Law when he ate the bread of the presence, certainly, then neither Jesus nor his disciples are violating the Law as God gave it. Rather, the Son of Man who is David’s Son and David’s Lord is the one who decides what the Sabbath day is and what it means: it is for man; a day of rest for God’s people. Don’t tell me what the Sabbath is; I’m the one who wrote it! It’s me, God in the flesh. I am here and so is my kingdom. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. And Jesus gives the Sabbath for resting in and receiving his good gifts.

 

Round two…Jesus is in the synagogue. On the Sabbath. There’s a man with a withered hand. And the Pharisees? They don’t care for the man. No compassion. They’re perched like a kettle of holier than thou hawks watching Jesus. Waiting to see what he’ll do. Their accusations knocked like arrows.

 

Jesus knows their game, so he plays one of his own. He invites the man with the withered hand. Publicly. Loudly, I imagine. Come here! 

What do you guys think? Is it lawful to do good or harm, save or kill on the Sabbath (to love the neighbor by healing on the Sabbath) or not? 

 

Silence. They couldn’t answer. Wouldn’t answer. That would mean Jesus was right about the Sabbath and all their self-righteousness was wrong. Notice Jesus’ response. Anger and grief. Why? Their hard-heartedness. Their lack of compassion. They’d exchanged God’s gift of righteousness for self-righteousness. in trying to keep God’s Law they fell into legalism. In trying to measure their own righteousness they neglected God’s mercy. They turned the Sabbath day blessing into a burden. A time of resting in God’s word to a time of recounting their own righteousness. A gift into a grind.

 

Jesus healed the man. The Lord of the Sabbath rest brought a Sabbath restoration. A down payment of what he had come to do in his own great Sabbath rest in the tomb after his death and before his resurrection on the third day. 

 

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. This whole scene is drenched in irony. The Pharisees – champions of the Law – actually miss the whole point of God’s Law. The Sabbath day blessing became a burden. They’re concerned about Jesus healing and preserving life on the Sabbath while they begin to plot to kill Jesus on that very Sabbath.  

 

This Sabbath day showdown leads us to Calvary. To the cross and grave and risen Jesus. On the 6^th day of the week. A Friday. Good Friday. God finished His labors for man. On Good Friday, God, who this time took on our image, took on our humanity, completed His great work of Salvation. And by His blood, He paid the price for our sin. And bore in his body on the cross all our pride, self-righteousness, and sin. All the guilt and shame heaped on others and on ourselves. All heaped on him who knew no sin and yet was made sin for you. 

 

And then on the 7^th day, the Sabbath day, the Son of God rested. They laid Him in the tomb just before evening fell. Jesus did no work on that day. Because the work of love was already done. He had loved His Father with heart, soul, and mind. He had loved His neighbor as Himself. Jesus had sacrificed everything for you. That day right there. That day between Good Friday and Easter. That’s why God gave the Sabbath. That’s why God gave us rest. Because now, we rest from our sin. Now, we rest from our death. Now we rest from our war against God. It is finished. 

 

And for you, people loved by God, there is an eternal Sabbath rest that awaits. A day when burdens will be gone, and only blessing. A day of eternal gift. A day of rest and restoration in the resurrection of the body and  the new creation.

 

Until that Day, Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, gives us days and times and spaces and moments of rest here in this life: 

 

As you read God’s word daily He gives you Sabbath rest in his promises

As you confess your sins and receive absolution, he gives you Sabbath rest for in forgiveness.

As you live each day in your Baptism, he gives you Sabbath rest 

As you kneel at his table, he gives you Sabbath rest in his body and blood.

Here in his house, in his word, in water, bread and wine, he gives you Sabbath rest in his gifts.

 

Today, and every day, Jesus is your Sabbath rest.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Jesus Is Our Sabbath

3rd Sunday after Pentecost – July 3rd, 2011
Text: Matthew 11:25-30; Zechariah 9:9-12; Romans 7:14-25

  
In the Name of Jesus + Amen.

    In a country that prides itself on rugged individualism, independence, self-sufficiency, and autonomy, infants appear to be lazy. All they do is eat, sleep, poop and repeat. Infants are utterly and completely dependent upon their parents. When was the last time you saw an infant change their own diaper? Dress? Bathe? Feed? Rock themselves to sleep?

    Christianity is full of similar paradoxes: sinner and saint. Church militant and triumphant. God is three and yet one. Jesus reveals his teaching to infants; it's little children who inherit the kingdom of heaven – even when they sleep through their Baptism.
    “I praise you heavenly Father, Lord of heaven and earth that you have kept these things from the wise and understanding and given them to infants.”
    According to Jesus, infants are the wise ones. “But they don’t do anything,” you say. Exactly. That’s His point. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. For unless you become like little children – like infants - you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. But in Christ that’s who you are – born again by water and the Spirit: Jesus takes your sinful, excrement filled garments and washes, cleanses and restores you. In Baptism you are bathed in forgiveness. Clothed in Christ.  Once you are bathed and clothed, you are fed in His Supper. Blessed are you, saints of God, His infants, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
    Individual liberty, hard work and autonomy may work well to govern and order sinners in secular society, but these are lousy words for describing the Christian faith. Not just lousy – false. You simply cannot find the words individualism and self sufficiency, do-it-yourself or autonomy in the Scriptures. The Bible is not a choose-your-own adventure book.  The Christian faith – and our Triune God – is opposed to this kind of self-centered vocabulary. Where secular society cries out: “I am my own person; it’s all about me.” The Scriptures and our Christian faith cry out: “you are not your own you are bought with a price.”
    The fact that you have a belly button proves that you are not self-sufficient (and don’t bother asking me about whether or not Adam and Eve had them). And as children we often say, “We know better. No! I can do it myself.”
    Really? How’s that 10 commandment to-do list going? Doesn’t the cost of discipleship ever weigh on you? Have you kept the Sabbath by listening and hearing the Word daily? What about showing mercy and care the neighbors you don’t love? Care to post your daily life on a live video feed in Time’s Square? I sure wouldn’t. 
    We think we are so wise and understanding, don’t we? And yet we are fools. The yoke of Moses is far too heavy. The burden of Sinai is oppressive and overwhelming. We’re worse than misbehaving children in need of a timeout or a naughty chair; we deserve everlasting punishment. We are guilty.
    What’s wrong with the world these days? Me. “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want – that is what I keep doing. For I delight in the law, the teaching of God, but I see in my members another law waging war against my mind making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in me. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

    Lo and behold an infant comes to your rescue. Jesus: your deliverer in diapers; your swaddling Savior in a shepherd’s stall. Jesus knows this dependent life – your life. He lived it, suffered it, was crucified and buried because of it, all for you. He who is eternally begotten of the Father before all worlds, was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate.
    It is He who declares to you this day: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, Jesus says. “For you are not learning from me how to refashion the fabric of the world, nor to create all things visible and invisible, nor to work miracles and raise the dead. Rather, you are simply learning of me: “That I am meek and lowly in heart.” If you wish to reach high, then begin at the lowest level. [Begin at the manger and go to the cross]. If you are trying to construct some mighty edifice in height, you will begin at the lowest foundation. This is humility.” (Augustine)
    Christ humbled Himself by being made man – that’s why your pastors bow at that part of the Creed - he was made man. For it is through our humanity that Christ redeems all humanity from sin, death and hell. By flesh and blood He comes with life for your flesh and blood.
    It is for you who are you heavy laden with sin, guilt and shame. You who struggle daily – or fear that you’ve given up the struggle - with that Old Adam clinging tightly around your neck. For you, the sinner, the outcast, the doubter, the fearful, the burdened - Christ comes for you.
    Jesus pulls a reverse Tom Sawyer: you stand and watch while He does all the work for you. Christ labors under your burden and He gives you His easy yoke of salvation.  Jesus straps our yoke of sin and death around His neck, His arms, His feet and you receive all His benefits.

    Christ shows us pity where we deserved punishment. Victory to the defeated. Life for utterly dependent children. Christ releases us from bondage to sin, death and the devil with words of consolation: Come to Me all you who are laboring and heavy laden, for my yoke is good for you and my burden is light, free. Free life. Free forgiveness.
    “Oh, what a very pleasing weight that strengthens even more those who carry it. For the weight of earthly masters gradually destroys the strength of their servants, but the weight of Christ rather helps the one who bears it; because we do not bear grace; grace bears us. It is not for us to help grace, but rather grace is given for our desperate aid” (anonymous church father: homily on Matthew).
    Our infant song of praise echoes Zechariah. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Rejoice, O sons and daughters of Redeemer. Behold your King has come, righteous and having salvation is He. In humility He rode into Jerusalem for you. Humbled and mounted on the cross; He died for you and now He lives for you. His saving work complete. Accomplished. Fulfilled.
    After Jesus had finished his work, He rested from His labors on the Sabbath day, only to rise again on the first day of the week. The 8th day. The new day. And this will be for you a holy day for all generations: an eternal Sabbath day of rest in Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus is Lord, even of the Sabbath. And He has made this Sabbath day – a proclamation of His sacrifice and forgiveness – His mercy and love – for you.
    Sabbath was made for man. Which is why Jesus’ eternal Sabbath rest comes to you whenever you inwardly digest His Word, whenever you come to His table to eat and drink, as you live daily in your Baptism. You are changed. Bathed and clothed. Fed and folded into Christ’s pierced arms forever.
    Sabbath is just another way of saying Jesus leads you to Himself. Jesus is your Sabbath, your rest. Come to me all who are laboring and heavy laden for I give you myself.

In the Name of Jesus + Amen.