Why was the Lord particularly concerned with the bearing of
burdens on the Sabbath? Typically, it
indicates that people are carrying out the work of business. Work of any sort is prohibited on the Sabbath
but the carrying of burdens is singled out here and in other prophetic writings
the people are condemned for the carrying out of business on the Sabbath,
money, profit, business, were more important than keeping the Lord’s day. Sabbath is an important concept, established
right at the beginning of creation, and what it says is that our lives are not
our own, we need a day’s rest from our labors but we need more than that, we
need a day to contemplate and celebrate His goodness. What would it look like if Christians began
choosing to keep a Sabbath? What would
that witness look like? Chick-Fil-A does
it and they don’t seem to be suffering. The
picture the Lord paints here is that if they keep Sabbath they will see
prosperity, blessing and peace and if they do not, they will see
destruction. Is that incentive
enough? Apparently it wasn’t.
If I were out on the sea in rough weather and a friend came
walking across the water and said, “It is I; do not be afraid”, I am not sure I
would be comforted and less fearful. I might,
in fact, be even more afraid. They were
glad to take Jesus in and when they did, they immediately came to land. Jesus’ response to the peoples’ query about
when he had crossed the lake was certainly less than inviting, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate
your fill of the loaves.” These were the
ones on whom He had shown compassion the prior day and now His attitude is
quite cynical, challenging. Working for
the food that perishes is a reference to Isaiah 55, “Why do you spend your
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not
satisfy?” It is an invitation to come
and listen, to hear the word of the Lord.
Jesus is saying their motives are no longer the same as yesterday. Before, they followed because of what they
saw Him do for others, the sick, now it is what He can do for them.
What should have been obvious to me, what constitutes sin,
is reinforced by the Law. It makes it
more sinful to know that God says it is wrong.
When we talk about things like murder, adultery, bearing false witness
and theft, we are all in agreement that these things are wrong, whether we know
the commandments or not. Knowing that
there are few things that are specified in the law as sinful should tell us
even more about those things, it should amplify them, that they might become “sinful
beyond measure” as Paul says. We don’t
just think they’re wrong, we know it.
Our flesh is corrupted by original sin and yet we know, both
instinctively and because of the law, what sin is and yet we find it
tempting. The struggle between spirit
and flesh calls for us to do as Cain was instructed, “sin is crouching at the
door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” He gave us the Holy
Spirit to enable us to do so, let us live by the power of the Spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment