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All of us agree about the observance of Sabbath. In my previous post I said, I would write my views about the day (which day?) later.
Jesus observed Sabbath on the day prescribed. But Jesus was challenged about his deeds and actions on the Sabbath. He was challenged not by common man. he was challenged by the educated and knowledgeable people, he was challenged by the teachers of the law who had studied the laws in and out.
The answer Jesus gave was quoted earlier in this forum. He also said',
I am the master of Sabbath.
The Old Testament and the New Testament narrates the story of creation, story of God's people, story of Jesus. All these are things happened in Israel, Palestine and few neighbouring places. not in other parts of the world.
It was after the death and resurrection of Jesus, that the apostles and desciples were sent all over the world to preach the Good News. That is how Christianity was spread to the world. I was born and brought up in India which is a Hindu country. I was born in a christian (catholic) family. We observed Sabbath on Sundays and I still continue that. I don't see anything to argue about if some people observe the Sabbath on Saturday and some others on Sunday.
If God rested on the 7th day, and if His purpose was to get all the family together at the same time, then Sabbath should be observed simultaneously all over the world- which means it is Friday, or Saturday or Sunday depending on where in the world you live. OR did God want the Sabbath on the day which is called Saturday. The law of Sabbath was given to His People who lived in Israel. In Jesus's time, there was no occurrence of Sabbath observance in different countries, or continents and on different days. So this question did not arise in Jesus's time.
If Jesus were to live with us as a man again, would He say "You are all like children in the market place arguing...." about Sabbath but miss the true meaning of Sabbath.
Sabbath has two parts: 1) Which day to observe? 2) How to observe? We tend to be rigid and strict about the day while extremely flexible about the way we observe the Sabbath. Every time the topic Sabbath comes up, we, law-abiding people discuss just one aspect only. We ignore the second part. We spend all the time having debate between Sunday worshippers and Saturday worshippers and do not spend a tenth of that time teaching people how to observe Sabbath. We leave this to people 's conscience and judgement. Jesus specified few things like healing, saving, rescuing etc. We get married on Sabbath, day, have friends and family together for celebration on Sabbaath day, have celebration of my Soccer Team' win, Go to the movies, Go to the restaurants, go sailing ... These are things we usually do. Are these urgent? Do they fall in the type of emergency or nature of compassion? We also keep aside some mundane jobs to be done on Sabbath day.
I do sometimes wonder-
Is God going to ask me,
"Did'nt you observe the Sabbath 24 hours late which is against my commandment?"
OR is He going to ask me "Did you observe the Sabbath the way Iasked you to observe?"
Isaiah 58:13,14 Leviticus 30:32
Jim, back to you.
Lissa
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