God Gave Rest
by Jamey Bennett
Labor Day is a celebrated national holiday that has its origins in 19th century working class labor organizations. Just as Socialists and Communists celebrate the working man on May Day, so the US, Canada, and other industrialized nations rest from labor once a year to celebrate the common man on the first Monday of September. Often seen as a welcomed break from the West’s 24/7 lifestyle, Labor Day is a sign that our culture prefers its own customs to God’s.
Put simply, our culture requires a day of rest because it is decadent and disobedient to God.1
When God created the world, he rested on the seventh day, and requested -- no, commanded -- that we do likewise. When he addressed his people at Sinai with the Ten Big Ones (the non-negotiables), he made it clear that he wanted his people to continue this custom of resting one day in seven. And he added this bit of info: Don’t forget that you were a slave in Egypt -- and I set you free!
When Jesus came to earth, he ticked off various and sundry legalists who observed their own versions (or shall we say perversions?) of God’s Law. Why? Because he did good deeds on the Sabbath -- but you can bet your buns he made a big deal out of observing the Sabbath in accordance with God’s most holy, wise, and immutable Law.
Since then, the Sabbath has fallen on hard times. The Medieval church -- which was a pretty great church in so many respects -- added a whole host of feast days. And rightfully so! (The Church should be the coolest bunch of partiers. After all, it is our God that conquered sin and death!) But over time, feast days began to (among some) obscure the Sabbath, and even the Gospel. When the Reformers came along, my favorite, Martin Luther, proclaimed the Sabbath as finished and null in Christ. And maybe he’s right. But Luther never advised anyone to mess up the celebration of rest. In fact, Luther’s Small Catechism makes it clear that our observance of resting on Sunday should demonstrate that we “fear and love God.”
Many Protestants took it a step further than Luther and began to despise the Law of God. They said, No way will I observe any such Sabbath! That’s “Old Testament” and irrelevant! And to the chagrin of the entire Trinity, Christians beat themselves into the ground with frivolity, fast food, and work.
In essence, today, Christians have shunned God’s Law for their own petty pleasures.
For the sake of charity and Christian love, this is somewhat understandable when one considers how some Christians have used the Sabbath to beat up other believers with unbiblical nonsense. Driving through Alabama some time back a short trip to the Gulf Shores, I noticed at least two or three bold billboards declaring the seventh day (i.e., not Sunday) as God’s Sabbath -- and the application of the Mark of the Beast upon all Sunday worshipers. (This is the folly of the Seventh-Day Adventist church.) While misunderstanding the case for Sabbath transference from Saturday to Sunday, these well-meaning Christians have turned a blessing from God into a burning blaze of bastardized theology. They’ve made something wonderful into woeful tyranny. As Douglas Wilson has said, “[T]he Sabbath has often been wounded in the house of its friends.”2 And so scores of Christians, in reaction to this misuse of God’s Law, are known to frequent Starbucks on Sunday morning, and again in the afternoon (and do whatever is convenient).
But this “cranky sabbatarianism,” as Wilson calls it, is no excuse for breaking the Sabbath. Indeed, Wilson argues that cranky Sabbatarianism is a self-righteous way of “breaking the sabbath, and consequently [a] way of misrepresenting the gospel.”
How many of us, including me, have chosen to work on Sunday? How many of us have overwhelmed our Sunday with frivolous activities that would fit better another day? How many of us have turned over and slept instead of hopping in the shower for church? How many of us have made the Sabbath lame and boring? How many of us have chosen to disobey the Gospel by doing as we wish on Sunday -- be it in laziness or be it in over-exertion?
Doug Wilson brings it home for those of us who prefer playing to praying on Sunday when he says, “[I]f we say nothing about resurrection and rest, we are acting as if there is no gospel.”
The Sabbath is a day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and the rest and freedom we’ve been given when Christ set us free. It is a day to eat until stuffed, to drink wine until the cheeks are ruddy-red, and to laugh until the belly hurts. The Sabbath is a day to remember Christ crucifed and then leap for joy to remember Christ is risen. The Sabbath is a day to recognize that Jesus is King and he kicks and conquers all his enemies until they are under his feet -- in worshipful or woeful submission. As Wilson says, “The Lord’s Day is not a day of fasting. The gospel is to be heard in a spirit of joy, gladness, and feasting. … The gospel brings joy, and the weekly commemoration of that central event to the gospel should do the same thing.”
The early Church Father St. Ignatius said, “Let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days.” He’s right. This should be a day that every Christian, from newborn to elderly, looks forward to. It should be a day that we tell the nations we serve a King and Kingdom that is not of this world.
Let the pagans have their holidays. Let the pagans celebrate their heroes of travesty, their holidays of false gods, and their day of the common man. But let us not forget the day of rest that God has graciously granted us. Let us celebrate Sabbath! Let us proclaim the Lordship of Christ over all of our days! Let us proclaim his dominion now!
Let’s act like we really believe he is putting all his enemies under his feet -- and he’s starting on Sunday. Above all, let us remember the words of our Lord: “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28).
We should have Labor Day every Sunday. But we Christians have robbed ourselves -- myself included -- of one of the greatest blessings found in Christ. And that blessing is this: rest.
This originally appeared on the old Razormouth.com site.
Notes
1. I'm not saying that celebrating Labor Day is itself sinful and disobedient to God. I'm merely saying that what has brought about a need for Labor Day is sinful.
2. For quotations, see the Sabbath issue of Credenda/Agenda and Doug Wilson’s wonderful book, Mother Kirk: Essays and Forays in Practical Ecclessiology (Canon Press, 2001). Posted by Jamey W. Bennett - 9/3/2007 | Print this post
Rest? We don't need no stinkin' rest! Hmmm. We are all guilty of joining the cult of work, work, work. Of which much of the work is for nothing, nothing, nothing of any eternal significance.
Mr. Snodgrass - 9/4/2007
From G.K. Chesterton's Tremendous Trifles (my favorite Chesterton book read so far, BTW): "You may suppose me...sitting at lunch in one of those quick-lunch restaurants in the City where men take their food so fast that it has none of the quality of food, and take their half-hour's vacation so fast that it has none of the qualities of leisure: to hurry through one's leisure is the most unbusiness-like of actions. They all wore tall shiny hats as if they could not lose an instant even to hang them on a peg, and they all had one eye a little off, hypnotised by the huge eye of the clock. In short, they were the slaves of the modern bondage, you could hear their fetters clanking. Each was, in fact, bound by a chain; the heaviest chain ever tied to a man -- it is called a watch-chain." Sobering.
Jamey Bennett - 9/4/2007
Sobering indeed! These days we don't carry pocket watches but we do carry something else in our pockets that DOES have a watch built in and the chain is a wireless connection...
Mr. Snodgrass - 9/5/2007
You wrote:(This is the folly of the Seventh-Day Adventist church.) While misunderstanding the case for Sabbath transference from Saturday to Sunday...
I'm curious where Seventh-day Adventists have misunderstood the case for Sabbath transference from Saturday to Sunday?
David - 9/5/2007
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