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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Some people might work five eight-hour days. Other people might work four ten-hour days. Still other people might work some hours every day, or they may work no days at all. But, a 40-hour work‑week has been something of a standard in the United States since the Fair Labor Standards Act of 19‑38 (Wikipedia). Earlier this year, U-S Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent and self‑described “democratic socialist”, along with other lawmakers, introduced to the U‑S Congress legislation that would reduce that standard to four eight-hour days, in a sense following France, which presently has a standard work‑week of 35‑hours but is also considering reducing its standard to 32-hours (News8, New York Post). A four-day work‑week contrasts sharply with God’s command through Moses in today’s Old Testament Reading (Deuteronomy 5:12-15), that “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.” Every person and every animal was to rest, as God Himself rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done in creation, blessing the seventh day and making it holy (Genesis 2:2-3). Passages such as today’s Old Testament Reading are important background for today’s Gospel Reading, in which Jesus essentially has two different run-ins with Jewish leaders regarding the Sabbath. Due to Jesus, we no longer observe the seventh day, Saturday, but we observe what might be regarded as the eighth day, Sunday, and so, considering today’s Gospel Reading, we realize that “A holy day with its bread and healing is for you”.
Failing to keep God’s commandment regarding the Sabbath had gotten the people of Israel in trouble almost since the beginning. Perhaps thinking that adding restrictions would help prevent future disaster, the Jewish leaders themselves forbade various activities on the Sabbath, which got Jesus in trouble with them. As we heard the Divinely-inspired St. Mark report, first the Jewish leaders got upset that Jesus’s disciples were plucking heads of grain as they made their way through a grainfield on a Sabbath, which activity God’s law arguably allowed (Deuteronomy 23:26). Jesus responded with the Old Testament example of David and those with him who, presumably on a Sabbath and in mortal need, ate consecrated bread that God otherwise would not have let them eat (1 Samuel 21:1-7; confer Lohse, TDNT 7:22, and Leviticus 24:8), and Jesus said both that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath, and that He was lord even of the Sabbath. Second, the Jewish leaders were watching Jesus to see if He would heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, which kind of healing at least some of them considered un‑lawful (confer Luke 13:14 and Marcus, ad loc Mark 3:4, p.248). And, when they would not answer Jesus’s question whether it was lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill, Jesus looked at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and then had the man stretch out his hand, and the man’s hand was restored.
In one way, even Jesus’s releasing us from the Jewish Sabbath restrictions does not help us much. Anyone can take a day off, but taking a day off is not by itself observing a holy day (confer Large Catechism I:90). With the Small Catechism, we believe, teach, and confess that keeping a day holy is not to despise preaching and God’s Word but to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it (Small Catechism I:6). And, with the Large Catechism, we believe, teach, and confess that we abuse the holy day when we listen to God’s Word “without serious concern”, being concerned “only about hearing the Word” and not “also about learning and retaining it” (Large Catechism I:97-98). Even if we are concerned about learning and retaining God’s Word, we still sin against the Third Commandment, not to mention all the other Commandments, by failing to live according to God’s Word (Large Catechism I:87-88, 90). Our countless actual sins and our sinful nature justly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment, apart from repentance and faith, such as that repentance and faith that Jesus wanted the hard-hearted Jewish leaders to have, and the repentance and faith that the Holy Spirit enables us to have. Truly, when we are sorry for our sins and trust God to forgive us, then God does forgive us, for Jesus’s sake.
Notably in today’s Old Testament Reading, observing the Sabbath day to keep it holy is connected not only with the Israelites’ physical rest but also with their remembering that, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, the Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt, where they were slaves and worked every day. And, today’s Psalm is an example of how the people did remember that exodus and its redemption (Psalm 81:1-10; antiphon v.13; confer Mueller, CPR 34:3, p.19). Likewise for us, our observing a holy day is connected not only with our physical rest but also with our remembering that Jesus has redeemed us from our slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death (Small Catechism II:4; confer 1 Peter 1:18-19). In the first Sabbath controversy of today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus essentially identifies Himself as the Lord, and, in the second Sabbath controversy of today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus demonstrates His Divinity and anticipates both His showing mercy (Mueller, CPR 34:3, p.19) and doing good to the man with the withered hand and the Jewish leaders’ going out and immediately on the Sabbath doing harm, holding counsel against Him to destroy Him. Whatever their motivation, Jesus, out of His great love, died on the cross for us in our place. And, after a Sabbath rest in the tomb, He rose from the grave on what might be regarded as the eighth day of the week, Sunday, making it the day of re‑creation, rest, and restoration (confer Exodus 23:12).
“A holy day with its bread and healing is for you”. That observing a holy day, plucking grain, eating bread, restoring bodies, and saving souls all come together in today’s Gospel Reading seems far more than mere coincidence. And, wine was discussed in the verse right before today’s Gospel Reading, too! For the Israelites in the wilderness, God had miraculously provided life-sustaining bread from heaven uniquely for the Sabbath so that the people could rest (Exodus 16:5, 22-30), and God also does for us, in the wilderness of this world. In, with, and under the bread and wine of the Holy Supper He miraculously provides Jesus’s Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins and so also for life and salvation. Thus, we have peace with God and the true joy of salvation! The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther is right in his Catechisms that we observe a holy day rightly when we let God work in us through His Word and Sacraments, which also include Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution. These come to us through the Office of the Holy Ministry, which, as St. Paul described in today’s Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 4:5-12), proclaims not itself but Jesus Christ as Lord, with the ministers as your servants for Jesus’s sake.
As it has come down to us, today’s Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 906) traces out well why the New Testament Church, with good New Testament support (for examples, Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10), primarily observes as a holy day not Saturday but Sunday: for example, the hymn lists as taking place on Sundays the Father’s creation of light, the Son’s resurrection, and the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost. Truly this day is, as the hymn says, a day of rest and gladness, a day of joy and light, a balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright! And that rest and restoration is offered in every Divine Service, whether on a Sunday morning or on a Friday or Tuesday evening. Thus, already now, we in some sense have rest, though there is also a greater rest to come, that of eternal life in heaven. Whatever afflictions you and I may be experiencing here and now will come to an end sooner or later. With the Divinely-inspired author of Hebrews, I exhort you to strive to enter the rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 3:7-4:13).
Proponents and critics are already in various ways debating Congress’s 32‑hour work‑week proposal: its potential effects on the economy, business, workers, and their families. The Good Lord graciously gave His people a six-day work‑week, with the seventh day for rest and restoration. In today’s Gospel Reading we heard St. Mark uniquely report Jesus’s saying that “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”, and we have understood that “A holy day with its bread and healing is for you”. To paraphrase today’s Psalm, we open wide our mouths, and the Lord fill them.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +