Sunday is Our Sabbath Day
Easter is the annual festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most important feast of the Christian year. It is a time of great joy for all Christians as Christ defeated death by his own death. Easter is the primary act that fulfils the purpose of Christ’s ministry on earth - to defeat death by dying and to purify and exalt humanity by voluntarily assuming and overcoming human frailty. It also marks the end of forty (fifty - in the Malankara Catholic tradition) days of Lent, a period of fasting and prayer in preparation for this great feast.
The resurrection of our Lord on Sunday made the Christians of the first century celebrate Sunday as the day of worship instead of the Jewish Saturday. The noun shabbāt is derived from the root shavat which means “to cease or stop (work), rest.” This Easter Sunday I am trying to explain our need of separating one day for the worship of the Lord based on its original meaning.
It was not for any humanitarian reasons that people refrained from work, but Sabbath was a sign of God’s covenant with the people. We can see two versions in the Torah regarding the command of the Lord to keep the Sabbath: Exodus 20: 8- 11 and Deuteronomy 5: 12 -15. (You may have to read it from the Bible to understand the two accounts) Exodus 20: 11 grounds Sabbath in the creative work of God. People are asked to “remember” the Sabbath, to participate again in the creative work of God, and be created anew every week. It makes one to look back and pronounce that the week’s work was “very good,” just like after creating everything: “God saw how good it was.” It also reminds the people of the relationship God started even at the time of creation. The negative aspect of refraining from work also has a positive feature. This is with the intention of worshiping God as a people of covenantal relationship. Lev 23: 32 we read, “from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
Deuteronomy 5: 12- 15 brings the humanitarian aspect of the Sabbath celebration. The servants and animals are given the opportunity to rest from the labors. People are to remember their liberation from slavery to freedom. As they were slaves once, they have to show mercy to everyone under their care. Remembering the past will lead them to the future when God will abolish all social inequalities, creating a free people worshipping him. Thus, both God’s redemptive work in creation and creative work in redemption are expressed in the two traditions.
In celebrating the Easter mysteries every Sunday we are also participating in the creative and liberative act of Christ. “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5: 17). Every Sunday when we celebrate the Liturgy, we are being reminded of being created anew in Christ. It is our way of acknowledging God’s creation by praising God for making us a part in the creative work of God.
Easter is also a celebration of liberation - liberation from the power of death. It is the primary act that fulfils the purpose of Christ’s ministry on earth - to defeat death by dying and rising (and to purify and exalt humanity by voluntarily assuming and overcoming human frailty). Jesus says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8: 34) But who then can really free us from this slavery of sin? Jesus has the answer: “So if a son frees you, then you will truly be free” (v. 36). In order to appropriate the liberation achieved by Jesus, we need to follow his commands: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death” (v. 51).
Our negligence in avoiding the Sunday celebration is actually an avoidance of our participation in the creative and liberative work of God. Then we deliberately choose to be out of this great mission of God.
