W. Robert Godfrey

You can't help people on the Sabbath.

You can't heal people on the Sabbath.

You can't feed people on the Sabbath.

Jesus is saying that was never what the Sabbath was about.

The Sabbath is not about an endless list of do's and don'ts.

Rather, I think Jesus is resurrecting for us what the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 58 talked about.

Call the Sabbath a delight.

Think what a blessing it is that God has given you a day when you can rest from your ordinary work, when you're called to rest from your ordinary work, and you can delight in Him.

You can fellowship with His people.

You can do good for people in need.

You can gather with His people to worship.

You can put aside the cares of this world, to some extent at least, for a day.

What a blessed gift that is.

a gift that we needed in the way in which we were created, and a gift that we need even more as we are a sinful, fallen people.

I can remember seeing or reading history books about cultures where there was never a day off.

People worked seven days a week, year in and year out.

And I thought, what a horrible thing, never to have relief.

never have a time set apart for something different.

And that's what the Scripture, I believe, calls us to.

I believe it's what apostolic practice models for us, and I believe it's what will be a blessing for us.