A Year of Sabbaths (Week 35): Training Wheels

(Photo from www.freeimages.com # 9894421)

Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

(Mark 2:27)

I find these words of Jesus interesting, freeing, and challenging.  

Jesus and His disciples had just been rebuked for picking grain by the Pharisees...on the Sabbath no less! The Pharisees were very concerned with keeping the law and picking grain was simply not an acceptable Sabbath activity.  However, Jesus reminds them, the goal is not keeping the law but rather the law keeping us.  

....sort of like training wheels.

I remember when our youngest son first started riding a bike.  It was a very little bike and the training wheels kept him upright, but they also kept him slow. His bigger brothers were whizzing by and whooping it up.  He kept at it. His legs got stronger. Then, one day when he was still much too small in my opinion, he asked me to take them off.  I had a hard time arguing with him.  After all, I knew that riding a bike with training wheels was not the goal.  

So, I took the training wheels off and steadied the bike as he got in position. With feet on the pedals, I gave him a push.  He was off! I ran along side of him for a while and then rebuked him for taking off the pedals.

No. I didn't rebuke him...I cheered wildly as he whizzed by and whooped.

He needed the training wheels for a season.  They served their purpose.  But on this day, he needed them off. And on that day so long ago, Jesus and the disciples were hungry.  

I believe that the Sabbath, the twenty-four hour-Sabbath, is important.  It is like spiritual training wheels.  I also believe that we can take them off if we are hungry. 

No worries if we do because if we have practiced, if we have kept at it for a few weeks or for a few years, the legs of our Sabbath-keeping have become stronger.  We will find that we are seeking Sabbath moments throughout our week as well as on the weekend.  Furthermore, we will know if it is a twenty-four hour rest we need or a week-long vacation.  We will know if we need a nap or if we need to get up from the sofa and help our spouse build some bookshelves for the Lego room. 

It's okay to violate the law once in a while, we just don't make a habit of painting the barn or doing the laundry on the Sabbath. We try not to justify unfaithfulness.  After all, there are some things that can just wait. 

Stopping isn't the goal of the Sabbath, it is the start.  Renewing our relationship with the Lord of the Sabbath and celebrating our relationship with Him and those in our part of His kingdom is the goal...with wild whizzing and whooping.  And it all starts by stopping.

Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.