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“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8).
In the beginning, when God created all that exists, He also created rest. In the perfection of the Garden of Eden, a place without sin, there was a day set aside to rest and to delight in relationship and creation. Rest wasn’t something that God Himself needed, but something that He knew His dear children needed.
Have you ever thought about the fact that, for God, rest came on day seven, but for Adam and Eve it took place on day one? They were created on the sixth day, and the very next day was established for rest. So, they slept and awoke for the first time and stepped into a day of rest.
The fact that rest came first has captivated me for some time. As I interact with people, I often find them (and myself) avoiding rest because there is so much to do. Instead of starting from a place of rest, we work incessantly towards a place of rest, often never getting there. We reverse the order of how God intended us to exist. This isn’t surprising at all. In our sin, we rebelled against God in all things. This means even in rest.
But our loving Father established rest for our good. He even commanded us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, which means set apart. God set it apart and commands us to do the same. Not with the same Sabbath laws seen in the Old Testament, but as a time of rest for our souls. A time when we gather together and He comes to us in Word and Sacrament to work forgiveness of sins, strengthening of faith, and assurance of the gift of salvation — which He has won for us on the cross.
What if we viewed worship in this way? Not as a box to check at the end of a busy week, but as something so much better. What if, as we gather on Sunday morning, we remember it as the beginning of our week, as a day in which we find rest for our souls as He comes to us with His good gifts, giving us the strength we need to love and serve our neighbors in all of our various vocations throughout the week?
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