Sabbath Feasting

The Christian life is staggeringly free. It's absolutely true that God sets boundaries, but within those boundaries there is staggering freedom. You can eat anything you want. Even if its not organic. You can go to McDonald's, it's ok you're allowed.

That little legalist inside all of us wants to curb all this freedom because ultimately the legalist is terrified of sinning because they think God's going to smite them if they do. And in that fear, they multiply rules to "guard" the commandment. If you believe that God is a sour-faced judge, that's what your worship and sabbath day observance will look like. If you believe God is a box of dry doctrinal crackers, that's what your worship and sabbath day observance will look like. But only one thing can remove the fear of judgment and free the legalist from his paralyzing religion. It's Jesus.

And I don't mean doctrine about Jesus. I mean the God-man Himself.

Doctrine never saved anybody. Sabbath keeping never saved anybody. Going to church never saved anybody. Hearing the Gospel never saved anybody. Jesus saves. And when He saves, when He grabs hold of a sinner, the result is rest. Rest from all of your moralistic striving to be a good Christian. Rest from all of your attempts to look the part, say the right things and be the right sort of Reformed Christian. Rest from multitudinous regulations about what you may or may not do or talk about on the Sabbath.

Nothing on planet earth can give you this rest, you can't earn it or discover it within yourself. Jesus gives it freely as a gift. Sabbath keeping, then, is not a work you do. The primary command of the Fourth Commandment is that you and your household rest.

The Christian life shouldn't be a dry and dusty life of eating saltines, sipping lukewarm water, and thinking about "spiritual" things. We worship a joyful God who delights over us with singing, we worship a God who turned water into the best wine you've ever tasted, we worship a God of feasting and fellowship and song. So we should act like it, and we should act like it on the Sabbath. Jesus is a God of feasting and fellowship and good wine and extra dessert and presents and joy. So our observance of the Sabbath should reflect our faith in this God.