Exploring a Christian Sabbath practice in a deeper way
I have a pastor friend who once shared with his supervisory board that he struggled with keeping Sabbath. “Oh, that’s no big deal,” he was told. “None of us do that.” Figuring this was one of the Ten Commandments, he assumed he might get a different reaction. After all, if he confessed to struggling with keeping the one about murder, he was sure he’d be arrested.
Our world doesn't know what to do with Sabbath. We live in a workaholic culture, a culture of grind and hustle, of productivity and life-hacks. At the same time, we live in a culture of loneliness, exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout. Those things are probably related. Sabbath has something to say about this.
Sabbath isn’t about having a day off or a crash day. Sabbath is about engaging life in all of its fullness. This is bigger than a day to do nothing. It’s a day to do the very best somethings. Practicing Sabbath together forms us into a people on this mission. We do this in community together for the sake of the healing of the whole world.
The story of Sabbath from Scripture
Near the end of Matthew 11, Jesus declares, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” And then he says, “You will find rest for your souls.” All of this “rest” talk is Sabbath language, calling back to an old story. In that last phrase, Jesus is riffing on the prophet Jeremiah. This is something like a thesis statement for the writer of Matthew, because what follows immediately in the next chapter are two Sabbath stories that provoke the conflict and crisis in Matthew's gospel.
First, Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees because the disciples are picking grain on the Sabbath. Apparently, whoever was on snack duty for the disciples that day dropped the ball. Jesus then challenges the Torah teachers on their knowledge of the Scriptures, referencing a story of David, the work of the priests in the tabernacle, before he quotes the prophet Hosea and drops the mic by saying that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Whoa.
It’s important for us to remember that Sabbath is the climax of the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2. Sabbath is rooted in a story. Sabbath in the creation story anchors everything in Time. It gives us an orientation and a rhythm. Six days plus one day. Nearly all the created things are called “good.” Human beings are called “very good.” Only Sabbath is called “holy.” With Sabbath, all things hold together. Humans are made to be friends with Time. But as Sin and Death enter the world, human beings are wrenched out of sync with this relationship to Time.
Back to Jesus in Matthew 12. He then enters a synagogue where again he’s challenged by the Pharisees about healing. There’s a man with a withered hand who has now been dehumanized as a theological argument. Jesus sees through the ruse. He answers the question, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath,” with a you’re-missing-the-point answer, “The law permits you to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he heals the man. And then he heals all of the sick in the community. In these stories, Sabbath restores the dignity of humans and makes them whole. Sabbath makes humans human again. And, as Matthew tells the story, because of this, the Pharisees determine that Jesus needs to die. Sabbath has really big stakes.
Sabbath is a key way we imitate God
It’s not just Time. Sabbath, as it’s included in the Ten Commandments, invites us to be like God in having a healed relationship with work. The Ten Commandments invite us to learn the character of God and then imitate it. Sabbath is right in the center of the list. It’s given more words than any other command. It’s the only one given a lengthy explanation. We Sabbath because God did at Creation.
“That divine rest on the seventh day of creation has made clear (a) that YHWH is not a workaholic, (b) that YHWH is not anxious about the full functioning of creation, and (c) that the well-being of creation does not depend on endless work.” Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance
As Brueggemann reminds us, the Torah and the Ten Commandments are like a film negative, an opposite contrast way of being in the world from what Pharaoh and Egypt represented. The machine of Pharaoh made people, Image Bearers of the Almighty, into commodities, things whose only value was how many bricks they could make in a day. Work is not intended to rob humans of their dignity. When we Sabbath, we are declaring our allegiance to a God who made human beings for work and not the other way around. Sabbath heals our relationship with work.
There’s nothing personal or individual in the Sinai command. There is no “my Sabbath” in Scripture. Sabbath is something for the whole community, young and old, rich and poor, those in ministry and those with normal jobs, those with kids and those who live alone, all together.
Why Sabbath matters today
The machine of Pharaoh still exists. It exists in the ways we feel stress about getting the bills paid. It exists in the ways we feel anxious about never getting enough done. It exists in our games of comparison. It exists in the little plastic box of algorithms we keep in our pocket that we call a phone.
“Most of the time, your phone holds you hostage to corporations, assorted acquaintances and large social networks. They’ve hired it to put you to work for them. You’re not the customer, you’re the product. Your attention and your anxiety is getting sold, cheap. When your phone grabs your attention, when it makes you feel inadequate, when it pushes you to catch up, to consume and to fret... it’s not really working for you, is it?” Seth Godin, “When Your Phone Uses You”
The machine of Pharaoh exists in the unpleasant emotions we experience when we feel like we can’t put work down.
“All of culture is working in collaboration for us not to rest, and when we do listen to our bodies and take rest, we may feel extreme guilt and shame. Embrace knowing that you have been manipulated and scammed by a violent system as powerful evidence.” Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance
It’s in this world, right now, that Sabbath is a wrench in the machine of hustle and grind. Sabbath sabotages the machine. It undermines the tyranny of the urgent. It holds us safe from the flood of busyness.
Giving imagination for a Christian Sabbath practice
That the Sabbath is “holy” means that it is different. We do things differently on the Sabbath. So we don’t work, as we do on the weekdays, but it’s more than a day off. We cease from work so that we can engage the world around us in a different way. In her book on Sabbath, Marva Dawn reminds us that there is ceasing and resting on Sabbath. There is also embracing and feasting.
One thing I’ve come to find helpful to reframe Sabbath to myself is “Opposite Day.” It’s a 24-hour period to say “yes” to all the things I’ve said “no” to throughout the week. If during the week I said no to playing with the kids because another email needed to be written, then on Sabbath, I said yes to the kids and no to the work. If there were life-giving creative projects that constantly got squeezed out of the week, I said yes to those on Sabbath.
We want to say no to anything related to our professional job. So no checking or writing emails. No trying to “get ahead” on the coming week. We also want to say no to things around the house that feel like work. For some of us, cleaning, organizing, and yard work are life-giving, in part, because they get squeezed out by the busyness of the rest of the week.
Our feelings about work like this are subjective. For some of us, work like this can be drudgery. If the laundry, dishes, and meal-planning drain you, plan ahead so that those tasks can be wrapped up in such a way that you can lay them down for 24 hours and think about them as little as possible.
We can also say no to spending money. The commandment in Exodus 20 also includes refraining from causing others to work. At the very least, we can be more intentional and mindful about money on Sabbath.
We can say no to the ways we engage technology. I’ve known people who make it a no-screens day. As a family, you might negotiate together what phone usage looks like. You might activate settings that temporarily shut down apps that you give yourself to the most during the week.
We want to say yes to things that fill us up and make us feel alive—connecting with friends and family, being in nature, and creative pursuits like art and writing. Wendell Berry would write a single poem as a Sabbath practice.
Curiously, the Bible never details what we should do on Sabbath. I think this is, in part, because what feels like work is different for each one of us. The point is not in the mastery, but rather in living life to the fullest.
The practical invitation
Practicing a Sabbath rhythm heals our relationship with Time and our relationship with work.
“Because you slowly but surely improve your life on your Sabbath break, observing the Sabbath leads to better behavior throughout the rest of the week. The positive changes in your life build cumulatively over time.” Aaron Edelheit, The Hard Break
I once heard a ministry leader tell a crowd of people we should spend ourselves and spend ourselves because we had all of heaven to relax. I’m beginning to think that’s a rather unhealthy way of living, much less practicing ministry.
The rhythm of six-plus-one teaches us that each week has its own finish line. What’s done in six days is enough, and it’s worth having a party about. Anticipation breeds excitement and hope, and this is what practicing Sabbath each week can bring.
If all of this is sounding overwhelming, there is always grace. The world around us is neither kind nor convenient to Sabbath-keeping. God knows this, and God knows the details and rhythms of your life and what you have to offer.
We don’t want to fall into the trap of making Sabbath a legalistic rule or a lazy routine. We want to remember that Sabbath plays a vital role in the story of how God is bringing healing to us and to the whole world.
Some final words...
Our practice of Sabbath has to be more than checking a box on a rule of life. It’s not simply one among many spiritual disciplines to try out now and again. Sabbath is essential because it is defiant allegiance to another set of rules, another kingdom. It’s a way of welcoming heaven into our here and now.
“Unless one learns how to relish the taste of Sabbath while still in this world, unless one is initiated in the appreciation of eternal life, one will be unable to enjoy the taste of entity in the world to come.” Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath
We should resist the temptation to make it just a rejuvenation day. If it feels backwards, that’s because it is. For the people in the Bible, taking one day in every seven to set aside work was counter-cultural and revolutionary. It was weird. It still is. But it invites us to take on the very character of God.
And in our current times, where the idols include productivity, hustle, and efficiency, and where workaholics are made heroes, observing the Sabbath, even simply, can turn the world upside-down. It’s one more practice that reminds us that there’s a center to the universe, and it’s not us.
