What is Work?

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, ‘Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Luke 6:1-2 God gave some commandments to Moses of which one is, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” Exodus 20:8-10 Over the years, the teachers of the law spent many hours defining and refining their definitions of what work was. Picking grain had come under their definition of work and here were Jesus’ disciples picking off some heads of wheat to eat on the way through a field.

Most anything taken to its extreme becomes absurd and through the years, the Sabbath Laws had become just that. You can carry this many pounds, but not an ounce more. You can walk this far, but not a step further. They were trying to define what work was and it is a sticky thing to define. In the early 1900s, in the strictest homes, children were expected to sit and stare at their hands all day. Their definition of not working was also not playing and not talking loudly. There are some religious groups who do not allow people to cook on the Sabbath. They can ‘prepare’ a meal if it is things they can pull out of the refrigerator. They need to prepare the day before and serve their family and guests without cooking. And they won’t eat food that has been cooked on the Sabbath by someone else.

When I read the commandment as recorded by Moses, it seems we may have put the emphasis on the wrong part of the commandment. “…the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…” would indicate that we are to do something – not just not do something (work). So what is it we are to do? I believe that God knew from the beginning of time that since we were created in his image, we would have a ‘drive’ in us to be creative, to problem solve, to accomplish great things. He likely even saw our generation of busy, busy people. He knew we would always need something to do to be happy and he could see that we would run ourselves into the ground and forget all about him because we were so busy doing things. We’ve gotten so good at it, we can run ourselves into the ground playing and vacationing.

When my spouse takes on too many things (my opinion, of course) I sometimes feel neglected. And sometimes I even go to my spouse and say, “Hey, remember me?” I crave time with the person I love – focused time on us. I think God craves that time with us as well. And knowing that we would be driven and easily forget even something as important as our relationship with him, he showed us right from the beginning of time how to set aside a day to focus on our relationship with him – who he is, what he has done and where he wants to go with us. And he needs to slow us down so we can focus – so he said, “Don’t work on the Sabbath!” He also wants us to focus on our relationships with each other and when we put our work aside for a day, we are more likely to focus on those relationships as well.

The problems we have run into over the generations is that we get carried away with defining what work is rather than defining our relationship with God. I think God was saying, “Don’t work so that you can spend time with me.” And all we hear is the “Don’t work!”

Jesus tried to explain to the Pharisees questioning him that there are times when ‘breaking’ their refined Sabbath Laws is acceptable – like when David and his men ate consecrated bread in the house of God. He also informed them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Luke 6:5 In his own gentle way, Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, “I am the Messiah and I’m here to straighten out some of your misconceptions about this Sabbath Law.”

Right on top of the disciples picking wheat on the Sabbath, Jesus walks into the temple (a good place to go on the Sabbath) and walked up to a man with a shriveled hand and said, “’Get up and stand in front of everyone.’ So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’” Luke 6:8-9 Jesus was using their own definitions and refinements of their laws to prove his point that they had missed the point! He knew their hearts even as they stood there and knew that they were more worried about keeping their nuances of the laws than caring for their fellow human beings. “He looked around at them all, and then said, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.” Luke 6:10-11

I wonder why Jesus healing a man’s arm caused them to be furious. I don’t like being told (much less shown) that I am wrong. It is embarrassing! Especially in front of other people. Maybe that is where they found themselves. They couldn’t argue with Jesus and win – he was much too wise for them. And they had spent their whole lives learning and obeying the laws and refining them. And healing on the Sabbath just didn’t fit their laws as they had defined them. Jesus attacked at the heart of who they were. He wanted so much to help them see that they were caught in a trap of self-righteousness and that they were missing all the good things God had in store for them if they could get out of their trap they had set for themselves. But like children getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar a few minutes before mealtime, they rant at the parent for catching them rather than saying thank you for the wisdom imparted to them.

Oh, how I want to seek relationship with God and follow his heart. God, help me set aside time for you. Don’t let me squeeze you out of my life with doing all kinds of good things and running hard trying to serve you. But rather, let me spend time with you and allow you to define for me what my work is and when it needs to be done. You are truly Lord of my life and Lord of my Sabbath. Don’t let me forget that.