Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 2:27 (New Living Translation)

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a gift from God (note, I didn’t write WAS a gift from God). God granted man rest one-seventh of the time. God made man; God knows man can only function in a healthy manner six-sevenths of the time. God asked that we rest our resources (land, animals, persons in our employ, etc.) one-seventh of the time.

The Sabbath is not a chore from God.

We tend to do this. We take something with an original purpose and one little dotting-of-the-i and crossing-of-the-t at a time we change it the other way around. The Sabbath had become a chore. There was long list of things that could not be done on the Sabbath. Hence, people worked extra hard on the day before the Sabbath to be able to get through the Sabbath. People worked extra hard on the day after the Sabbath for the same reason. Sigh. We turned a gift into a chore. Rest became extra work.

This was all done with the best of intentions by the best people. Sigh.

God, help me to understand the original intent. Help me to understand what you want for me. Help me to accept Your gift and not work on my own to make it MY thing. Help me to accept You as God…and me as me.