My favourite ever film is called ‘The Frisco Kid’. It’s the story of a Polish rabbi and a cowboy travelling together and their hilarious adventures. At one stage the cowboy robs a bank, and the duo have to run away from a posse who are out the capture them. The problem is that they need to run away on a Saturday, and according to the rabbi, Jews don’t ride on Saturday. The cowboy says, “What do you mean you won’t ride today?” The rabbi says, “Why should this Saturday be any different to any other Saturday?”
The resulting journey mellows the rabbi, and he moves from religious legalism to a genuine faith, but the underlying principal remains. If something is specifically for God, our foolishness shouldn’t get in the way.
In the bible, Jesus and his followers are walking on the sabbath and his disciples pick wheat and eat it – working on the sabbath. The religious leaders picked up on it and started interrogating them. Jesus replies, “the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”
The idea of a sabbath, or a day specifically for God, is for the benefit of mankind. We weren’t made wired for a sabbath, it wasn’t written into our DNA that a sabbath was essential to us. We weren’t meant to worship the sabbath – keeping the sabbath should not be like a law. The sabbath was created because we need rest. The sabbath is a time to realign ourselves with God. At times, its tempting to skip a sabbath, or a day of rest. There’s so much work to be done and deadlines are looming, or there are things we don’t want to miss out on. Those are exactly the time that we need a sabbath. As tempting as skipping it would be, making sure to take a day to recover has longer term benefits.
It’s not a legalistic stick to beat yourself with, if you miss one you don’t need to feel guilty for ages. But a sabbath is meant for your good, trust in the Father that created it because he knows what you need.
Why do I write this today? In addition ti my normal working week, I have had 2 amazing days of hard work and immense satisfaction. I’ve got another one tomorrow. Lots of fun has led to extreme tiredness and I’ve not finished yet. But I do have a day off to recover. I know that with that day off, my work will be better when I go back.
Why is this Saturday different from any other Saturday? Because I’m busy – I still need rest, I still need God and I still need space. How about you? Are you good at making space for a sabbath? Or do you let life convince you that this time is different and you don’t need the rest?
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