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Then Jesus said to them, \u201cThe Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath\u2026I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?\u201d (Luke 6:5,9).

While I was growing up, determining which activities were not permitted on Sunday was of significant concern. I can still rattle off the list of forbidden pursuits. There was one complication: each family made their own list. This random application of Sabbath has contributed to Sundays becoming a free for all in our churches. What makes Sunday unique from the rest of the week is rarely discussed.

I find it fascinating that Luke moves from Jesus\u2019 announcement that his arrival is the dawning of a new era to stories about the Sabbath. Is Luke telling us that Sabbath keeping will look different in this new era? A new era meant new practices, including for the Sabbath.

He tells us what happened, \u201cOne Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels\u201d (1). The Pharisees accused them of violating the Sabbath because they reaped, threshed, winnowed, and prepared food. Four violations!

But Jesus will have none of this, he is Lord of the Sabbath, which is a sweet way of saying, \u201cI get to make the rules.\u201d He is not abolishing the Old Testament law, but he is knocking over the scaffolding of additional rules added over the centuries.

Sabbath keeping had become a source of identity and pride for the Jews. It distinguished them from the surrounding nations. The better you kept the Sabbath rules the better you were at being Jewish. Judaism had become a religion of law keeping, heaping heavy burdens on people which did not bring them into the Kingdom of God (Luke 11:46; Matthew 23:13-15).

The kind of Sabbath the Pharisees promoted left people hungry and disabled. Jesus brings a different Sabbath. He frames it with the question, \u201cwhich is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?\u201d Can Jesus be any clearer? Sabbath is about undoing the fall into sin. That is why in the Old Testament, the Sabbath laws are linked to creation and exodus. Sabbath is about liberty from evil.

But how do we connect Sabbath to our Christian lives? I think the Heidelberg Catechism is helpful. In its treatment of the Sabbath commandment, it says nothing about figuring out what is and is not permitted on Sundays. Rather, it calls us to engage actively in gospel ministry. We need specific time to allow the Spirit and Word to align our lives with the Kingdom of God. This Sunday engagement then leads to this result, \u201cthat every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath\u201d (HC 103).

That puts in positive form the question that Jesus asked.

I think it is also helpful for all those who need to work on Sundays. We ought to develop the discipline of setting aside time during the week to focus on getting our lives shaped by the kingdom. It requires both discipline and the input of other people. We need to ask ourselves Jesus\u2019 question: am I doing good or evil, am I destroying life or saving it?

For many of us, Sunday is a day for doing whatever I want (for some its family, for some its checking things off our to do list, for some is nothing at all). I\u2019m not sure this is any better for us spiritually than a concern for following the rules.

So how will you adjust your life so that you can \u2018rest from your evil ways, let the Lord work in you through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath\u2019?