We often talk about Christianity in these terms: “It’s a relationship, not a religion.” I know what we mean when we say that, but I think we are throwing the baby out with the bath water when we do. The command to “keep the Sabbath” is a good example of this. This coming Sunday we’ll be talking about a theology of work and about keeping the Sabbath. As I was going through a list of Bible verses that mention the Sabbath, one popped up that I had not encountered before. It was Isaiah 58:13-14. Here is what it says:
If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking you own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (NASB)
When I’m reading a Scripture passage, I always look at the context of the verses I’m reading because they help me understand what the writer is trying to say. This makes for good, solid Biblical exegesis. Here is what struck me about this passage: it seems to have been tagged on the end of a chapter about fasting with no apparent relevance. The first 12 verses of Isaiah 58 give a contrast between the fasting of wicked people and the fasting of godly people. When the “house of Jacob” asks in verse three why God has not heard their cries during the fast, his response is simple: they fast for “contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist.” In short, they are fasting for evil reasons. They are not seeking God. Later on in the chapter, God talks about an appropriate type of fast: one whose purpose is to loosen the chains of wickedness, to free the oppressed, to feed the hungry and house the homeless. If that kind of fasting occurs, God says that he will respond to their prayers and cries. And the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones…(Isaiah 58:11a, NASB) The immediate context of the mention of the Sabbath in Isaiah 58 is about the merits of godly people who are acting in accordance with God’s purpose.
But back to the Sabbath. So if our context here deals with the response of God to the fasting of both evil and godly people, then what the prophet is talking about is more than a relationship; he’s also talking about a religion. And here is where our cute, 10-second soundbite loses steam. And the Sabbath is a perfect example of this. Keeping the Sabbath has everything to do about religion and almost nothing to do about a relationship. The religion I’m referring to is what I (and a lot of theologians and preachers) call ethical religion. We are so quick to cry out “we are saved by grace through faith!” and forget that right after those words Paul says “for we are his (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” (Ephesians 2:10a, NASB) Keeping the Sabbath is about resting as God rested, but it’s much more than that. It’s about acknowledging the good work that God has called each one of us to do for him throughout the week, and then spend a day not working and instead reflecting upon the fact that our ability to do that work-and literally everything we have and are-comes from God! This is where the Sabbath becomes an ethical religious exercise: it’s not the keeping of it itself which saves us. Instead, it’s the keeping of it which becomes the ethical expression of our relationship with God. That’s why Isaiah talks about the Sabbath in the same breath as fasting. He’s saying that our hearts need to be right when we are practicing our religion-that is what God is pleased with. I pray that we never fall into the trap of easy grace-which is exactly what the phrase “it’s a relationship, not a religion” call fall into is we’re not careful. Christianity is a religion-because it calls us to respond to the love of God with a certain set of ethics. Keeping the Sabbath is one of them. Something to think about!
Recent Comments