GOD’S COMMAND TO WORSHIP HIM
Dear fellow redeemed sinners, purchased with the precious blood of Jesus:
When did God give commands about the Sabbath? You’d think it would be the 3rd commandment, “You shall keep the day of rest holy” – as some of us grew up learning it, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” But that’s in Exodus 20.
Actually, it comes four chapters earlier, when God gave manna from heaven to feed the Israelites. At that time, God told Moses to say: “Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Ex 16: 23, 29).
So the first time God gave a Sabbath law, it was in conjunction with providing and caring for them, giving them food. He even says the Sabbath rest was a gift!
We see the same truth for worship in general. The divinely instituted worship in the books of Moses consists of commands. However, in the very first instances of worshipping God it’s so different! The commands don’t come first. God didn’t command Cain and Abel to give offerings, but they did. God didn’t tell Noah, after they came out of the ark, to build an altar, make sacrifices as a thank-offering, and lead his family in worship – but he did. So commands to worship came later.
This is important as we see the Pharisees – who were obsessed with laws of fasting and the Sabbath – confronting Jesus, who teaches that worshipping God is something different than simply following rules and commands.
Sermon Text, St. Mark 2:18-28. The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to [Jesus], “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” 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 showbread, 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 Lord of the Sabbath.”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lead us on the way of truth to our Sabbath rest in heaven. Amen.
The first complaint the Pharisees make is about what Jesus’ disciples are not doing: “Why do Your disciples not fast?” The second complaint is about what His disciples are doing: “As they went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, His disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ ”
These two accusations are tied together as aspects of worshipping God. The Pharisees were accusing Jesus’ disciples, first in the case of fasting, of failing to do things God commanded them to do; and second in the case of the Sabbath, being guilty of doing things that God commanded them not to do. However, both these accusations involved laws that were not simply handed down by God to Moses, but developed over time in so-called “human traditions.”
First, let’s look at fasting. In the Old Testament, this was actually only commanded once a year. It could be done voluntarily on other days, but eventually the Pharisees had set aside two days a week for mandatory fasting.
Martin Luther says that fasting is a good spiritual practice, it is fine outward preparation for receiving the Lord’s Supper. But it’s to be left free, to do or not do, not to be a have-to. The Pharisees were making it a have-to. Fasting actually is about preparing to unburden yourself of sins. But they’re making it a burden.
Jesus answers this with two parables, one about new patches ripping a bigger tear in the old garment, and one about new wine making old wineskins burst. He’s saying that the Law and the Gospel can’t co-exist together. It can’t be faith plus works. You can’t hold onto the Law as a burden that you must carry, as something you must fulfill, and just add Jesus onto it. No, Jesus has to take the burden and take away all the sins Himself for it to work.
This is the heart of true worship: that we receive forgiveness of sins. The Law and Gospel work together in our worship, but in this way: the Gospel wipes out the sins that the Law exposes. Once the Gospel is spoken, condemning Law must be silent. When you come to the Lord’s Supper, the Law is silent; it’s all Gospel.
Second, the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath. God did command them in the Old Testament to rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath. The Sabbath law was part of the “ceremonial law,” the religious ceremonies they had to observe, which were only for Israel and only in force until Christ came.
But the Pharisees had added 39 man-made regulations to what God said. For example, God’s Law said that reaping and threshing of grain was forbidden on the Sabbath. The disciples obviously had no harvesting equipment. But the Pharisees defined plucking the grain – what the disciples were doing – as “reaping,” and rubbing it in your hands – which they were doing – as “threshing.”
Jesus answers this by using the example of a time when David was starving, and ate the showbread in the holy place, which (Jesus says) was “not lawful [for him] to eat,” and yet he had the high priest’s permission to do so. In other words, the holiness law was to serve for David’s benefit, not the other way around. So Jesus says: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
The point is that the Pharisees treated the Sabbath rest as something for you to do. But Jesus shows: the Sabbath rest is something God gives you. You don’t do the Sabbath rest, you receive it. It’s not Law, but Gospel. There is a Law part, obeying to do – that they were to refrain from working, in our case that we go to church – but the goal and purpose of it is Gospel: that you hear God’s Word, and through it God does the forgiving, gives you gifts, gives you faith that saves you.
So what about God’s command to worship Him? It’s true that worship is not simply following God’s rules and commands. God did command His people to observe the seventh day as the Sabbath and to rest by refraining from all labor, but this only lasted until Christ came. He fulfilled the Law completely. There’s no longer a command to worship on a certain day; Christians – in freedom – chose Sunday, since it’s the day Jesus rose from the dead. It’s “the Lord’s Day” (Rev 1:10).
But there’s still a command to worship. The commandment, “You shall keep the day of rest holy,” sanctifies the Lord’s Day as a day devoted to hearing God’s Word. We do so by going to church, gathering together. But the point, as our catechism teaches, is that it’s about hearing the Word. Faith can’t survive apart from the Word. The point of the commandment is to “gladly hear and learn His Word,” which happens primarily and most easily in church.
But still it’s true, worshipping God isn’t about following commands. It’s about Jesus! God wants you to obey the command to worship so you’ll receive what He gives – which is Gospel. He wants to give you what Jesus won for you on the cross. The risen Jesus wants to meet you and say: “Rejoice!” and “Peace to you!”
It’s about rest. Sabbath means “rest.” Jesus said: “Come to Me and I will give you rest.” That’s what worship really is: you come with turmoil, with burdens, with a troubled conscience, with hurts, with worry, and Jesus is here in His Word and His Supper, and what happens? He. Gives. You. Rest. That’s how you “Sabbath.”
Coming to church is coming where Jesus has promised to be, where He gives Himself to you. Even the liturgy – yes, it’s true there isn’t a command for this order of worship – but it’s all ordered to deliver Jesus to you.
So we stop with questions like: “Is it a sin against the commandment to miss church for this or that?” All we ask is: “Where is He? I need Him.” He’s here for you in His Word and His Sacraments. He is here to give you rest. When you come to church, you’re coming to see Jesus and receive rest for your weary soul. Amen!