I Desire Mercy, Not Sacrifice

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (NIV Genesis 2:2-3)

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

The sabbath is defined as “a day of religious observance and abstinence from work.” It is the fourth commandment handed down to Christians and Jews by their common creator. It is a rule that many of Christians forget to follow on a weekly basis.

Many Christians see the sabbath as Sunday, but they are truly mistaken. We worship on Sunday because in worship we are celebrating our life and birth. We are celebrating the birth of the universe. Look very closely to the word Sun-day.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (NIV Genesis 1:1-5)

Therefore, the sabbath would actually be on Saturday, as Sunday is the day that the Sun was created. Some faiths, including Christian faiths, do worship on Saturday. In their way of worship, they are keeping the day Holy. In Judaism, the sabbath is a sacred day, which they do not work, nor do they drive on Saturday. Many Catholic churches also worship on the sabbath, for that is when they often hold evening mass.

I do believe that there are many American Christians that overlook the "Keep it holy" part of our fourth commandment. Many Christians spend the wee hours of their Saturday mornings and late Saturday evenings partying it up. I have seen these same Christians in church, looking worse for wear, and fighting major headaches due to hangovers on Sunday mornings. This is the type of hypocrisy in Christian Americans that many critics of Christianity speak of.

As Christians, though, do we rest on the sabbath? Not always. Now there are certain professions where it is not possible to rest on each and every Saturday. These professions are law enforcement agencies, medical professions, and other similar civil service agencies. But in those professions, though the person is not resting, are they keeping the day Holy?

I am convinced that sacrificing your day of rest to be one of the body is Holy. If we sacrifice our day of rest to ensure the safety and welfare of others, are we not being the Lord's hands and feet in the world?

With that being said, I have seen many, many changes for American Christians in my lifetime. As a child there was one store in town that was open on Sundays, and most others were closed for the majority of the day on Saturdays. There were no restaurants opened on Sunday, and going downtown on Sunday meant walking through a ghost town. Today, most business excluding offices and such are opened on both Saturday and Sunday. Due to the economy, many Christians must work on the sabbath, as they need to on Sunday as well. However, I am not convinced that they are breaking God's law. Again, to sacrifice your day of rest in order to ensure the welfare and safety of others is a Christian act.

Jesus has taught us that one who has sacrificed for the sake of another is still keeping the sabbath.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:1-12)

Do you believe that working for income on a Saturday and Sunday is keeping the sabbath? I do. I feel that a person who does such in order to provide food, shelter, and clothing to their families. I feel that the economy makes working on the sabbath necessary. We need to remember, as Christians, that the Bible was written for a different time and circumstances. Keeping the sabbath does not come before caring for your brothers and sisters, whether they be family or strangers.