By Tony Gatewood
Image by Raul Sandoval via Midjourney
How often have we heard pastors communicate from the pulpit the importance of attending church and ensuring we keep the Lord's Day sacred? "God wants his house filled! Bring all of the gifts into the house of God!" I've heard it, and you've listened to it as well. I get it. Where else do you find a Christian community? With the advent of COVID, we've seen churches decrease in size and attendance wane in the church. Again, as the church, we continue to blame the congregation. Churches are downsizing and letting go of staff. If only we would just come back and fill God's house again.
Here's the problem. Not everyone can make it on Sundays. Do you know that restaurant you would love to go to afterward with your friends or your church small group? You probably love going to get some Chinese food or some Mexican food. You may enjoy Thai or plain American food. Wherever you go to eat, someone is serving you that food. Someone is washing those dishes, and someone got there while you were worshiping God, drinking coffee in the foyer, and bringing your children to Youth ministry. You see, people experiencing poverty serve you lunch on Sundays. Yes, those sacrilegious folk who get you Boba tea on the Lord's Day ensure your drink stays filled, all for a few extra dollars in tips.
Going to church on a Sunday morning is a luxury afforded to middle-class, salary-earning Westerners. Again, Sunday morning services are for the privileged, not the marginalized: the wage worker, the 3rd shift worker. Jesus looks at this through the eyes of talking about the Sabbath. Here's what Jesus has to say in Luke 6: 1-11:
6 One 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. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" 3 Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." 5 Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." 6 On another Sabbath, he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man whose right hand was withered was there. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" 10 He looked around at them all and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Here, we have two instances of Jesus doing "unlawful" things on the Sabbath, letting his disciples "work" by eating food from kernels and "healing" someone. It seems the Pharisees are Jesus' paparazzi, watching his every move, even watching the behavior of his disciples. The Pharisees are, as we know, a group of legalists of Jewish religion and society. Think of them as the Tea Party Movement of the Republican Party or the Congressional Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party. These are your most zealous, religious idealists of how American society should run. There's a prominent following for each group, and they all have a major influence. Pharisees were no different, and they felt Jesus was a threat to their image of life as they know it. Jesus is a third-party candidate for the Kingdom of God movement, and no one wants to waste a vote on third parties, am I right?
Jesus is asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful?" What law was being broken? Were Jesus and his disciples stealing? No, this was permitted under the law. The Pharisees, however, said that Jesus "broke the sabbatical law." Well, we know that keeping the Sabbath was a part of the Ten Commandments:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. There, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
- Exodus 20: 8-11
Charlton Heston brought down those tablets to a migrating nation to share the goodness of God, only to see the future nation of Israel in full debauchery with a golden calf. Interesting how context plays a pretty important role in understanding the words of God. The Pharisees are referring to this law. They're saying, "Jesus, you have to keep it holy! No work! Look how thorough God is about this. Friends, daughters, servants, cows, or foreigners?"
Same thing with the healing of the man in the synagogue. Jesus isn't supposed to be healing anyone on the Sabbath! The Sabbath?! Perish the thought.
Let's be honest, the Pharisees aren't trying to keep tradition alive in this passage. Look at how they respond to Jesus at the end of Luke 6, They were furious at him and began to "discuss what they might do with Jesus." I don't think I need to tell you how this ends. Arrested. Tortured. Cat-of-Nine-Tails. Crown-of-Thorns. Cross. Crucifixion. Death. They wanted him silenced forever. But they failed. Amen?
Jesus shared about King David eating priest bread in the temple, and of course, this would piss off the Pharisees. David the KING! And they are waiting for the returning, prophesied King, not podunk Jesus from Nazareth. But Jesus declares he is "The Lord of the Sabbath." The Oxford dictionary says that Lord means "someone or something having power, authority, or influence; a master or ruler." Jesus is saying, "I set the terms of what is lawful and sabbath-worthy, not you." He also is saying, "I am a greater ruler than David."
I imagine that moment in Black Panther with T'Challa and Killmonger. T'Challa is beaten up in their death match, and Killmonger provokes the Wakandans, "Is this Your King? Is THIS YOUR KING???"
So, what does this mean for Sunday? The holy day for rest, when it happens, how it happens, and who's involved in it is determined by the will and pleasure of our master, Jesus, in whose hands God put all authority. To me, it is bloviated nonsense to preach about people not in your Sunday service when you are served on those days by some of the poorest people in our world. It is downright Pharisaic.
Jesus said, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
Here's my ideal church future, one that I hope to plant one day. I want a church made for man, not man for the church. What if we put more time into service between Monday through Wednesday? That church only gathers once a month; the rest of the time, we are in community groups. Sundays are community gatherings all across the town you live in. We have a general message given, but the community comes together in each other's homes and has a meal, chooses what type of worship they'd like, loves their children together, and serves their community. Then, we pick a day monthly to gather as a whole community; people can schedule that time off. Maybe you don't get to have a long service together.
Maybe the first experience of the love of God happens in your home, and the second experience happens at a large gathering. Wouldn't that change our churches from being entertaining to being integrated into our community? Can't you smell the mission of God being intentionally dispersed to affect our communities? Since they're not coming to church anyways, maybe the church needs to come to people and not just for post-service meals.
Tony Gatewood has just joined Servant Partners staff. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.