Sabbath and our Responsibilities
Gospel of St. Mark 2: 23-28
Third Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Cross
“Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?” And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also the Lord of the Sabbath.”
Exodus 16:23 says, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’” The Sabbath refers to us resting from our daily duties and dedicating the day to the Lord. We cannot use the Sabbath as an excuse not to do any work. We have to spend the day with our Lord, and thank Him for all that He has blessed us with. We have certain expectations that are required of us, and before we take rest in the Lord’s Sabbath, we have to make sure we complete our tasks and jobs. We cannot take ‘the Sabbath’ in a literal sense. We can only take rest after we do all that God wants us to accomplish. We cannot be like the Pharisees and Sadducees, who took the meaning of the Sabbath in a literal sense.
The Pharisees and Sadducees always questioned Jesus. They tried to see if He would say anything wrong. During the time of Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees were high on the political and social ladder. Pharisees and Sadducees did not have an interest in helping people. We have to be careful of the acts and deeds of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They represent people that praise God with their mouths, but turn their heads away from God. The Gospel of St. Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.” We cannot be like them, we cannot be hypocrites, who say one thing and then end up doing something else. We want to praise God with our mouths, and also turn our hearts toward God. We cannot only be people that praise God with our mouths, but we also have to praise God with our actions and deeds. Our faith should be rooted in our deeds. St. James 2:17 says, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” The people that we come into contact with on a daily basis, and the people who are around us should see what we do, and follow our actions in worshipping God.
We should always avoid procrastination at all costs. Whatever we can do now, we should finish because we do not know if we are going to get a chance to do the task tomorrow. God is the only one who knows what is going to happen in the next second. We, as God’s children, have an abundant amount of responsibilities to accomplish here on this Earth. However, in everything that we do, we should never forget God, and we should never think that we can do anything on our own. Everything that we do is due to the power and strength of the Almighty God.
Questions for Meditation:
- What does the commandment “keep holy the Sabbath” require of us?
- What are our responsibilities as a Christian?
- “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” What does this mean to you?
Author’s Information:
Mrs. Anu Peter
New York
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