The feasts of the Lord : the Sabbath (1)

Tuesday 8 June 2021

The feasts of the Lord : the Sabbath (1)

These are my feasts : Six days will be worked, but the seventh day is the Sabbath, the day of rest ; there will be a holy assembly. You shall do no work ; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your houses. Leviticus 23:1-3

Before instituting the seven feasts that his people were to celebrate, the Lord recalls that the culmination of his plan of love is to involve them in their own rest. The Sabbath is a beautiful figure of this rest. The feasts of the Lord described in this chapter symbolically tell the story of God’s action on earth to bring His people to this rest. It is the rest that follows a completed, perfectly finished work.

At the time of creation, God rested seeing his perfection. But sin enters the world through the disobedience of our first parents. Therefore, more rest for God. After the work of creation, a new one begins : that of redemption which frees mankind from the domination of the devil and from sin. This is why, when Jesus is accused of breaking the Sabbath, he answers : My Father works until now, and I too work (John 5:17).

Every Saturday, therefore, the pious Israelites could remember that their often difficult lives included hope and, better than hope, the certainty that there is a rest from God they will enter when the Messiah establishes his reign.

And for us Christians ? This world corrupted by sin brings us no rest. Moreover, our vocation is not to seek rest here below, since our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). But, by faith, we can rest on the work of redemption accomplished on the cross, a finished work, perfect in the sight of God. Thus we now enjoy the rest of the conscience and the rest of the heart (Hebrews 4:3).

We do not therefore celebrate the seventh-day Sabbath, but every Sunday we celebrate the work of the Lord and look to the rest into which he will introduce us forever into the house of his Father.

Next Tuesday

Source (Pleasing the Lord)