Shabbat
THE SHABBAT MORNING
After the Shabbat Morning prayer the Torah scroll brought out, and the one reads from the five books of Mose and the relevant portion from the prophets. The weekly portion called Parasha from the Thora was apportioned into 54 Readings. At the time of Jesus they used a three-yearly reading cycle and not like today an annual one. In our family we have made to a rule, to speak on Shabbat during the day with children about the current reading. It’s a real blessing for the whole family!
THE END OF SHABBAT
After the outgoing of Shabbat and the Havdala (ceremony at termination of Sabbath stressed on the distinction between Holy and Profane), meet Messianic Jews for Service in their kehilot (congregations). One is now “well refuelled” for a new week – for a blessed good week, then one wishes one another: Shavua tov / good week!
CHRISTIANS AND THE SHABBAT
Who says, that Shabbat is no more for the Bible believers today – Christian or Jew - valid?
Perhaps we should rather ask: What would Jesus have done on Shabbat? Would He have gone with us to a grill party or walked down to the beach? Or would He have hallowed/sanctified Shabbat in a Synagogue and read from the Thora? “When the Sabbath came, He (Yeshua) began to teach in the synagogue…” Mark 6:2 is only one scripture, that gives a clear answer to it, but also the Apostle Paul it says in Acts 18:4: “And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Paul (Shaul in Hebrew) did the same, although he was on mission outside of Israel!
God repeated in the five books of Moses again and again the request: “Shabbtotai tishmeru” – You shall keep My Shabbats!” So also in Leviticus 19:3 and 30. Almost always the question is repeated: “What? Shall I as a Christian keep the Shabbat?” However if the Bible is holy to the Christians, even holier than all later Church traditions, then naturally, Yes! For it is biblical! Without a doubt! Nowhere do we read in the Bible, that we should sanctify Jom Rischon, the Sunday, the first day of the week. For it would only be reasoned because Sunday is the Resurrection Day. The disciples, the Apostles and the first-Christians continue to keep the Shabbat. With Sunday they introduced a new holyday, the Resurrection day, the day, on which they broke the communion bread at their homes. But it did not replace the resting day of Shabbat!
Certainly: Jesus says in Mark 2:27-28: “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” (see also Matt. 12:8 and Luke 6:5). But it is false to say: “Man is Lord over the Shabbat, not the Shabbat over Man”. Rather it is written here: “BEN-HaADAM HU ADON Ha-SHABBAT” - “The Son of Man is LORD of the Shabbat“. So it was not meant, that man (like us) are Lord over the Shabbat, as it is unfortunately often preached. With this statement it is rather meant, proved by all tree scriptures in the Gospels, the “Son of Man - the Ben-HaAdam” is it, who stands over the Shabbat. The term “Son of Man” we find also in the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel points to the Messiah. Jesus is the Lord over the Shabbat and not us!
How the Shabbat-command is to be understood, makes Jesus clear towards the Pharisees: It is permitted “to do good”. In Hebrew it says here “Lehativ”. That means life saving actions like healing and saving, for “the Shabbat has been made for mans sake”. But never has Jesus, who was totally submitted and obedient to His Father in Heaven, thus permitted working on Shabbat! It is about saving lives and doing mercies, and not to look for a justification of work on Shabbat.
In this sense one must also understand the report of Peter in Acts 10. There it speaks about his vision, in which he was asked, to eat unclean animals. Peter had this vision before his meeting with the heathen centurion Cornelius in Caesarea. We can with certainty assume that Peter after this vision continued to eat “kosher”. The kitchen of Peter (Simon) in Joppa remained kosher! Much later in Acts 15 it tells, that it pleased the Holy Spirit and the Apostles, only the non-Jewish Christians, apart from four injunctions, to free from the food laws - but not the Jewish Christians. Here we have rather an exception that God showed him. The matter was, that Peter at his visit of Cornelius, thus in fellowship with a Non-Jew, permitted was, to eat non-kosher foods. This did not mean an abolition of the regulations for kosher food. God‘s commandments are holy and eternal.
