Sunday Practices

I am sometimes asked if this or that activity is acceptable to do on Sunday. Setting aside the endless arguments about whether Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or not, the substantial concern is whether the person who asks wants to appear faithful or to actually be faithful. To be sure, if we attempt to sketch out a rigid list of do’s and don’t’s for Sundays, we risk falling into the Pharisees’ camp of hypocritical external conformance to rules. God prefers mercy over sacrifice. But this does not mean that the Sabbath is evacuated of meaning. Quite to the contrary, Jesus boldly claims that he is the Lord of the Sabbath and that his lordship over the Sabbath means that the Pharisees’ accusations launched from a completely incorrect starting point. They have applied their understanding of the Sabbath to find fault with Jesus, but that simply won’t do if Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. So, Herman Ridderbos comments, “That is why one may use the Sabbath commandment to do [Jesus] harm; the Sabbath may only be used as a medium to lead people to God and thus also to himself, who comes to humanity as God’s authoritative representative.”[1] Insofar as someone asks the question from a position of desiring to draw nearer to Christ, then a conversation can be had about how to organize one’s time and space on the first day of the week. If the question comes from a different place, then the conversation that ensues must be focused on what it means for God to desire mercy and not sacrifice (cf. Matt 12:7).

This does not mean that we have nothing to say about Sabbath keeping, especially since the focus of Matt 12:9-14 is on the positive side of what may be done on the Sabbath. It does mean, however, that when you evaluate whether to do this or that on a Sunday, you should evaluate it in light of Christ’s lordship over both the Sabbath and your life. That will free you to do more on Sunday in some respects, but it will also constrain you in others. After all, remember that there’s still a yoke and a burden involved in coming to Christ, even if they are easy and light. That is to say, Christ’s lordship over the Sabbath does not entail human autonomy on Sunday, because there is still a cost to discipleship. So, then, we need to be attentive to our consciences, not do anything against them, but also to train them on Christ’s lordship and his fulfillment of the promises of God.

Indeed, the point of Matt 12:9-14 is to frame properly what it means to place Jesus rather than self interest at the center of your Sunday. In short, Jesus says that it is proper to do good on the Sabbath. But we cannot derive principles for good Sunday practices apart from Jesus’ lordship of the Sabbath. The constant inclination of weak and sinful flesh is to define doing good according to our own good pleasure (cf. Isa 58:13-14). The challenge that Jesus presents is submitting to the definition of doing good that is illustrated by his own words and works. Jesus attended Sabbath services, and he healed. He brought life and joy through the good news of the coming of the kingdom, which fulfills the whole idea of Sabbath rest as Christ offers himself up for us. Whatever we end up doing or not doing on the Sabbath, if we allow God to define what is good and if we keep Jesus at the center of the day, then it will be far harder to go astray.

In all of this, let’s not forget a key idea: with Jesus at the center, we rest before we encounter the rest of the week. We go forth into the week with the truth that all of God’s promises are yes in Christ. Don’t forget that Sunday is the first day of the week; don’t think that Monday is the beginning of the week. With Jesus at the center of the first day of the week, a change that reflects the new wine of the gospel, you go into work and the world with the blessing of God preceding you. It may be a subtle shift in the way you approach your week, but I truly believe that it will make a difference. Practically speaking, that difference might look like a counter-cultural rejection of the case of the Mondays. Having been blessed by the Lord on the first day of the new week, you may go into the second day with hope and joy. This, of course, depends on you rightly appreciating Sunday, but if you do, the rest of your week is blessed.

[1] Herman N. Ridderbos, Het Evangelie Naar Mattheus, 2nd ed., Korte Verklaring Der Heilige Schrift (J. H. Kok, 1952), 1:231.