there's no starting over, no new beginnings, time races on

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A Sermon on the Sabbath Commandment:

As is the case with most adages, the old saying is true; ‘there’s no rest for the wicked.’

There’s the law you’ve always got to stay a step ahead of. Then, there’s the constant looking over your shoulder to make sure your past doesn’t find you. 

Nope, once the wicked go on the lamb, their guard can never come down. You’ve always got to be looking ahead and watching behind. It’s exhausting sure, but there’s no alternative. 

You can’t just stop and catch your breath, lest the sins of your past catch up to you. 

It’s true. There is no rest for the wicked…

Which is probably why this Third Commandment is so notorious. Think about it, it’s one of only two commandments that aren’t prohibitions. Yet, this positive command seems impossible for the wicked like us to actually obey.

To stop and rest. Not once in a while. Not when we think we have the time. But every seventh day! 

You know, for Jewish folks, once that sun hits the horizon, everything stops. It’s sabbath. If the food wasn’t ready or the table unmade, too bad. The sabbath had arrived. Everything else stops.

And of course, that’s the rub isn’t it?

That this call to rest is no mere suggestion. It isn’t a nice idea, either. No, that this is a command. And, a command from God, no less. 

Ready or not, when the sabbath rolls around, everything must halt. Which is all the root of that word, “sabbath,” means, simply “to cease” or “to stop.”

Every seventh days, it all comes to a standstill. Like it or not, ready or not, come the sabbath, we stop and face this one who would place such an unreasonable commandment upon us.

Sure, you may be able to outrun your past, but you can’t outrun the one who makes this command. Every seven days, this God says stop trying to run. Every sabbath, this God interrupts our regularly scheduled programing…

No wonder this commands doesn’t come naturally…

Think about it, it’s strange we’d need this commandment at all! We’re used to commands. Most of them have to do with labor, too. We’re always being commanded to work; work harder and work more.
We’re so worn out by those commands. Yet, when we hear this command, to actually rest, it sounds like a threat. As something we can’t afford. 

That’s how strong our proclivity is to run. Our fear that our sins would catch us if we actually just stopped to catch our breath.

For six days our business is our own. But on that seventh day, God insists on interrupting. On confronting us. 

Word to the wise here, that’s exactly what’s happening now. 

Don’t think you get to sit back and merely hear about what God does. I’m telling you what God is doing. Right now! God is cornering you. Commanding you to stop. 

I know, you’ve got a lot to do. In fact, you’re not sure what I just said while you were going over your grocery list. You can’t get away from the one who utters this Word to rest, though; God…

It’s true, these is no rest for the wicked. We can never get far enough from our sins.

But, no one can outrun this God either, though. So stop trying. Just stop.

Our excuses, our anxieties, will hold no truck with this God. 

Whether we like it or not, whether we’re ready or not, every seventh day,  right now, all our pursuits come to a screeching halt. 

And that’s still the rub, isn’t it?

That’s why we try to get a little R&R, only to return worse for the wear!

This is no mere call to take a much needed break, a holiday. This is a command. A command from God, no less. Stop.

In the preamble to these Ten Commandments. You know, the part we usually skip, God makes a bold claim. God lays out exactly why this God gets to be the one making commands: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…”

It’s God who freed the Israelites from serving the taskmaster named Pharaoh. Now this Lord is their God instead of Pharaoh. So this God has some commands. 

Once every seven days, the Israelites must stop. Must remember they’re delivered. They have different lord than Pharaoh. A Lord who doesn’t demand more and more, but instead grants freedom. 

That’s all the Ten Commandments are, sisters and brothers. How to live as if the Lord is your God… 

Now in the Gospel today, Jesus makes some pretty bold claims too. Not that the sabbath was made for humankind and not the other way ‘round. Although that’s bold. The real shocker comes next. 

When Jesus looks around and says some as audacious as, he —the son of man— is lord even of the sabbath!

That he, Jesus, is what God is up to in the sabbath. That he, Jesus, is the full revelation of what God’s sabbath means. 

When God calls us to rest, we’re not dealing with just any God. We are dealing with the God Jesus calls “Father.” The God who raises Jesus from the dead.
And us along with him! That’s what baptism means, to be buried and raised with Jesus. That’s why there’s commands in that baptismal liturgy.

Every seventh day, we contend with the God who would command a people like us to rest. Today, Jesus shows up and shows us what this rest is. What God is up to with this commandment we would never come up with on our own. 

There is no rest for the wicked. And that’s not what the sabbath is. God isn’t interested in a mere break from your running. God has determined to do more than give you one day off. 

God has decided to deliver you. All the way. Deliver you from the sin of your past. Deliver you from the future they’re driving you to. 

That’s what the sabbath is; being delivered. Delivered by the God who freed the Israelites. The God who raises Jesus, and all those who are baptized in his name, from the dead.

This is no mere break from the taskmaster’s demands, be they Pharaoh’s or Sin and Death’s. Rather this is deliverance from the taskmasters themselves! An end to their reign of terror. 

The one no one can outrun has shown up; God. And not just any god, but the God who insists on deliverance. The God of the Exodus and the Empty Tomb.

There is no rest for the wicked. Believe me, I know. 

The one who makes these commands, the one who is lord even of the sabbath, though; is the one who says ‘stop.’ The one who can say something like that. The one who has freed us from all those other false gods and their demands.

This is the kind of lord you have, folks. That’s what this command is all about. Not that you can rest, or even get to. But that you have a lord who has delivered you. Delivered you from ceaseless toil to freedom. 

And that’s why this rest is no mere suggestion or nice idea, but a  commandment. A commandment from God, no less. That’s why week after week, we stop and remember that this one who is the lord of the sabbath has done. 

Let’s end with Martin Luther’s words. In the Large Catechism he says, “…(W)hen you are asked what ‘you are to hallow the day of rest’ means, answer: ‘hallowing the day of rest means to keep it holy.’ What is meant by keeping it holy’? Nothing else than devoting it to holy words, holy works, and holy living. The day itself does not need to be made holy, for it was created holy. But God wants it to be holy for you.”

That’s sabbath, isn’t it?

Not that God has made a day holy. Not that God, once upon a time, delivered a people. Not that God raised one man from the dead. But rather that God wants to raise you with the Son of Man. That God wants deliver you. That God wants this holy day, to be holy for you.

So let this day be holy, here, have sabbath: 

In the name of the lord of the sabbath, you are free. Stop. Jesus has delivered you from the power of Sin, which is Death. The one Jesus called “father,” not only raised him from the dead, but right now sends the Holy Spirit to deliver his’ resurrection to you.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit your sins, every single one of them, is forgiven. You are delivered.
Amen.