1/10/65

Is a Sabbath Day's Journey Far Enough?

Scripture: Read Acts 1: 1-14.

There are principles that appear so universally true, and so generally applicable, that we call them “laws.” In physical nature, we speak of the “law of gravity.” Economists have spoken of the “law of diminishing returns.” Kagawa used to speak, in the field of religious ethics, about the “law” of love.

Now and then we refer to the “Divine Law.” Part of the Old Testament treasure is found in the “Law” as summarized in the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are “law,” in this sense, not only because some Old Testament writers believed that they were given from God to the Jewish people through Moses. They are validated by the experience of generations of people who have put them to the test -- both in obedience and in defiance. Sometimes we think of rules as law. And there is some tendency in the body politic to make rules into law. Some of this kind of law may be good, in its regulating effect on the common life. But it is not to be confused with the universal law. A good many of the leaders of Jesus’ day had allowed rules of living to become so important that they had the effect of “law.”

There is merit in the Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy” as a day of worship, of rest and renewal. But the rule-makers have had quite a field for activity in defining what is a holy observance of the Sabbath. We know of debate over whether the day to be observed should be the seventh day of the week, Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath) or the first day of the week, Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. Our history and our traditions tell us of those who have thought it permissible to read nothing but the Bible, and perhaps the “Pilgrim’s Progress” on Sunday. When I was a child, we felt, in our neighborhood, that people should rest from the farm work on Sunday, excepting for the chores that were deemed necessary, like milking the cows and feeding the horses. The attitude was such that some of us wondered how right it was to make a team of horses do the work of pulling the family buggy to church, five miles each way, on Sunday. Were not the creatures to have a Sabbath rest as well as we humans?

We kids salved our consciences on the matter with the assurance that maybe it was good for a horse to go to church too (waiting of course in the shed beyond the house of worship) rather than having to pull a plow or a grain wagon as on a week-day. And, or course, the horse could rest and relax in the barn or pasture all afternoon when the family returned home from worship. Our consciences brightened perceptibly when my Dad bought the first family automobile. It was probably just about as much work for him to crank and pilot the mechanical monster as it was to harness and drive the horses. But at least the horses had a Sunday rest!

Well, so much for a bit of childish foolishness. But it was no farther off the beam than many of the rules that have grown up as they did in Jesus’ day. Rules are funny things --- and sometimes quite stubborn in the social order.

Washing one’s hands before eating is a pretty good rule to follow in deference to some of the laws of health and hygiene. But the rules of washing have been known to go so far as to become quite a ceremony --- a sort of required ceremony, at that. You may recall a certain official named Pilate who tried to give the impression that, by washing his hands in public, he absolved himself of all responsibility for the blood and death of a man named Jesus whom the mob wanted to have crucified.

This matter of Sabbath observance is interesting to examine. As part of the rhythm of work and renewal, it has an importance that suggests a law of life. To make it effective, rules have been devised, and sometimes enforced. Jewish custom had evolved quite a few of these rules. One had better fast than do the work of meal preparation on the Sabbath. The work must be done in advance, or not at all. Any harvesting would, of course, be work --- to be done only on the other six days of the week, but not on the Sabbath. So it was not right (said the rule makers) for one to crush the kernels out of a few heads of wheat on the Sabbath in order to eat a bit of the grain. That was work, and was forbidden. It seems that Jesus and his disciples did not think that the rule was important; that they did take the grain from a few heads of wheat on the Sabbath; and so they were roundly criticized and condemned by the rule-enforcers. [Matthew 12: 1-8].

If one had an ox that was so foolish and clumsy as to fall into a ditch on the Sabbath, it might be a question as to whether he could be pulled out -- or whether he should be allowed to lie in his distress and misery until the Sabbath was ended before he could be pulled out.

And the matter of travel needed defining --- as a matter of fact, it was defined very carefully. One could, it was supposed, travel a certain short distance without transgressing the law of the Sabbath. But to travel beyond that distance was to transgress the law, and no good person would go farther than the prescribed distance. We might get to thinking about this prescribed distance, and how far it is, when we read about it in this morning’s Scripture selection. The Galilean disciples, after communing with the risen Christ, “returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.” How far is that? Apparently the “rule-book” of Jewish law prescribed a Sabbath traveling limit of 2,000 cubits, or about 3,000 feet. This seems to have been about the distance between the camp of the wandering Israelites (during the time of Moses) and their Tabernacle. You will recall that they were a nomadic people, after the escape from Egypt, wandering from place to place for a good many years before settling in the promised land. When camped, they would set up the Tabernacle in a large tent, and worship there. The distance that they must walk from camp to Tabernacle in order to worship on the Sabbath was regarded as necessary and permissible. It became a sort of standard rule.

How different it becomes in our time! To ask, “How far can you travel on Sunday?” seems like an irrelevant question. We seem to have no limit on Sunday travel. One can go as far as on any other day, for we feel bound by no distance to be called a “Sabbath Day’s journey.” But it may not be amiss to think of that old rule in different terms. Try to think of your travel not in linear feet, but in quality of character and depth of living. This is indeed a Christian concept, for Jesus seems to have done the same thing. When he was rebuked for the appearance of disregarding the Sabbath, he would draw attention away from the rule to the spirit of Sabbath observance. He even observed that “Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” [Mark 2: 27]. How far can a Christian go on the Sabbath? How deep into the Spirit of God’s goodness can you go? How much can we penetrate the depths and the significance of life?

Jesus was no superficial person. His words, his attitudes, his convictions came from deep within him; He loved deeply; his compassion for other people’s needs knew no limits; his faith in God’s goodness and power was boundless and unfaltering; his wisdom left the professional intelligence speechless. What he said not only came from great depths in his own life, but penetrated the depths of other lives. Jesus “traveled” far in his life, and encouraged his disciples to do likewise in the spirit.

By the time he began his ministry, it became clear that he intended to discuss sound living, justice, people and their troubles, prayer, the fatherhood of God, mercy, integrity. None of these matters is superficial. None of them is to be confined by any rule-book limitation. We could say that his attention to these matters is his answer to the question: “How far can a person travel in life?”

You might suppose that he would have received help from the religious rulers of his day, when discussing these things and pursuing and practicing them. If someone needed help and healing of body, mind, or spirit, he gave the help which he saw was needed. It was some of the trained scribes and Pharisees who could pick at him with the observation that these acts of assistance involved effort, that must be defined as work, and therefore forbidden on the Sabbath under religious rules.

How did it come about that these religious leaders, educated in the tradition of a godly people, were so limited by the rules? Were they not the very ones to be concerned with the deep issues of life? If the lot of young widows in their time was intolerably hard, should they have no concern or care about it? Did they have no perception of what is right or wrong, except as these are defined and prescribed under the rules? Didn’t they understand that much of the scripture they searched so expertly is burdened with these very concerns of the spirit? Is there only condemnation for a sinner? What about compassion, forgiveness, encouragement to do right? What about the helping hand in society and in personal relationship?

One would think that religious people would have been elated over Jesus’ emphasis, rather than carping critics of his handling of the rules. Many of these religious experts seem to have been the most superficial people Jesus faced. They had pledged themselves to preserve the traditions and appearances of their ancient religion. But they reveal themselves to be least concerned about spiritual travel.

Their understanding of God’s goodness was bound up in the meticulous preparation of the lamb for sacrifice upon the altar. They knew the step-by-step operation by heart. They were familiar with the definition of work on the Sabbath; with the kind of coins one must offer as an acceptable gift to God in the temple; with the necessity for careful examination of every animal brought for sacrifice so that only the absolutely unblemished might be offered.

Not only were they superficial in these concerns; they resented Jesus’ spiritual concerns, and plotted his death, so that his disturbing influence could be ended. Here are examples of the conflict:

1) Jesus sits down to eat among Judean people, as one might do in a restaurant in our time. Among those who were eating in the same room were people who were known to be hated tax collectors; people who were prostitutes; people who were sinners by definition of the rules, and even by commonly accepted moral standards. It was forbidden to eat in the company of such people. Who points the disapproving finger at Jesus? Religious scribes! [Matthew 9: 10-13].

2) Jesus and his disciples, moving about at their mission of help and healing and teaching, are hungry. But the day is the Sabbath, and the law forbids any harvesting on that day of the week. However, Jesus plucks a few heads of grain from a nearby field and gives the kernels to his disciples. It was not considered wrong to do this on any other day -- it was commonly accepted practice so long as no one was destructive about it. But to do it on the Sabbath was forbidden by law. Who reminded him about the rule? Religious Pharisees! [Luke 6: 1-2].

3) Jesus himself was accustomed to attend worship at synagogue or temple. As he mounts the steps to the synagogue on the Sabbath to worship God, he is confronted by a man with a withered hand. He offers his healing compassion. Who points out that healing is an effort forbidden as work on the Sabbath? Religious priests, who plot to kill him. In their eyes work is work, whether it is a harvester’s work or a doctor’s work; and it is forbidden on the Sabbath. [Matthew 12: 9-14].

4) Here is a man brought to Jesus on a stretcher. He is crippled and paralyzed. Jesus, once again, grants the healing of his ministry. And before he is finished, he also assures the crippled man of the forgiveness of his sins. The man gets up well and free and carries away his stretcher. Anyone present could see the wonder and the rightness of it. But who points out an error? Religious scribes who cry “Blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins.” [Matthew 9: 2-3].

5) Jesus and some of his disciples go to their great cathedral, the Temple in Jerusalem. There are set up in the outer court the tables for changing Roman coins stamped with the emperor’s image (and hence not acceptable for worship) into temple coins which are smooth-surfaced with no image. It was the rule that only smooth coins be given in the Temple offering. So it was a business of profit to the temple authorities, and a matter of convenience to the pilgrims, to provide for the exchange. There were also stalls filled with lowing and bleating animals, and cages with noisily cooing pigeons --- all properly certified to be without blemish --- for sale to pilgrims who might wish to buy them and offer them as sacrifices.

The noise, the shrewd commercialism, the oriental haggling over prices, the narrow limitation of the rules, the utter inappropriateness of the whole proceeding to the spirit of meditation and sincere worship so incensed Jesus that he pushed over some money-changing tables and drove the whole lot of traders out of the temple. Did the priests cheer and approve? They did not. It was not salesmen or money-changers or stock-handlers who raised the loudest objections to the wrath of the young man who told them they had made the Temple a “den of thieves.” It was High Priests and Scribes who agreed that this fellow was dangerous to religion and must be done away! [Matthew 21: 12-13].

In every one of these instances, Jesus was showing how deeply his life traveled and at what level, or to what spiritual distance, others should travel. He was concerned for the crippled paralytic, concerned for the outcast tax men, concerned for prostitutes, even concerned for traitors. He knew their need for repentance, for renewal, for forgiveness, for healing of body and spirit. He could sweep aside a rule or any man-made law when it stood in the way of meeting people’s needs. He knew that personality is more important than rules -- (that is, the law is made for the protection of mankind and not man for the protection of the law.) He could cleanse the Temple because God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. And who opposed him? Religious people who did not consider him to be properly religious.

It is easy to be more “religious” than Christian. Religion of some sort is part of practically every culture and ever generation. But it is easy to let it be a matter of ritual and rules, of custom and tradition. It is to religious people that Godsends his prophets -- His Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah; His Jesus in Nazareth and in Jerusalem and in Wisconsin Rapids, and at Delta.

We profess to know God. Do we understand what His love for us means? Do we recall and grasp how much it cost Him to make His love known to us in Christ? Can we be satisfied with short distances and shallowness when there is so much depth to explore and so much need to be met?

Religion has its ritual to be observed, so long as it brings comfort and courage and venture. Jesus was not out to change the essential law in any particular. He came to fulfill its spirit!

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The outward demands of a rules-conscious religion are numerous: regular attendance at church, sacrificial giving, public approval, participation in activity, especially at high seasons like Easter and Christmas. These are good! But are they deep? We can argue about matters of no great significance. Are candles necessary? Should women wear hats of gloves in church? What about smoking in some parts of the building? Should the silverware or chairs be loaned? Can Presbyterians and Episcopalians unite, when their rituals are different? Is the King James Version or the Revised Standard translation of the Bible the only word of God in English? Is it decent to wear slacks or Bermuda shorts to church? and so on. We may say that is superficial. And it was superficiality that killed Jesus. It was superficial people who could not stand his depth.

We hear it said that the churches should stick to preaching Christ. True! But the preaching, and heeding, of Christ leads one into the needs of people rather than away from them. Jesus’ spirit is surely concerned over the attitude of the Caucasians in America toward the Negroes’ needs and the attitude of the Negro toward the Caucasian, and the attitude of both toward the American Indian. Jesus is concerned over the loss of men’s jobs through automation and the need for new jobs. Jesus is concerned over liberty for enslaved people all over the earth. He is concerned for those who shoulder responsibility as well as for those who avoid it. And Christians must now be concerned.

When we build and set aside a house of worship and study and fellowship, let its use be dedicated not to rules-bound religion, but the Cause of Christ here in Wisconsin Rapids and all over the world. Let our worship be pure in heart, but let it send us out to serve and help. Let us look as much for courage as for comfort in the Lord. If we seek for comfort, let us grapple, nonetheless, with the uncomfortable issues of living. Let us live so deeply and so venturesomely that our service shall far outstrip any conventional Sabbath Day’s journey. Let us begin with Jesus, and let Him become our life.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, January 10, 1965.

Also at Waioli church, February 1, 1976.

And at Delta (WI) church, September 18, 1977.