"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
We tend to get things flipped. We think that we're made for the sabbath. We don't understand that the sabbath, along with all of God's laws, are given to us for our good. They are given to us so that we can flourish and prosper. The Office of Readings help us to remember this today with a reading from Deuteronomy 6.
The LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the LORD, our God, that we may always have as good a life as we have today.
The LORD gives us his laws because he loves us. It isn't as though it adds anything to his greatness or perfect happiness when we keep it or disobey it. We have the twisted pride which puts obedience first so that our own efforts seem more important. But we need to understand that love comes first. This is why "God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name". We don't earn his attention by success. But he delights to see our efforts at loving him. And these efforts delight him precisely because they make for our own blessedness and prosperity.
This helps us to better appreciate and be eager for the "fulfillment of hope until the end". It helps us "not become sluggish". When we are working hard to on our own strength we quickly become sluggish. In the first place we are not strong enough and our strength quickly runs dry. Not only that, we lose sight of the reason for our hope. We begin to think of ourselves as employees of a strict boss rather than children of a loving father. How great can our hope be if this is the case? At best, we might be promoted. But do we even want that in a situation of cold business relationships? It is much easier to give all that we are for God as Father than for God as a mean and arbitrary employer.
God really wants us to understand and base our lives on the hope he has in store for us.
God wanted to give the heirs of his promise
an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose
He desires that "we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us." He does all he can to shake us from our sluggishness. He doesn't want us to get bogged down in details like picking and eating grain on the sabbath. He gives us a firm anchor so that when we think through smaller issues like this we are unshaken:
This we have as an anchor of the soul,
sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil,
where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner
The love of Jesus "on our behalf" is permanently behind the veil in the presence of the Father. His love for us is exulted. It is enthroned where it cannot be shaken, cannot be questioned, and cannot be destroyed. When our doubts make us exult our own effort let us remember this encouragement. When we are too worried about our own efforts let us look to this anchor of the soul. When we are caught up in minutia and forget that all God does for us is out of love let us look to the unalterable evidence of that love.
He has won renown for his wondrous deeds;
gracious and merciful is the LORD.
Paradoxically, when we are anchored here with Jesus we are not sluggish!
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