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A Sabbath Day's Journey

By: Rev. Paul Landgraf
What is a Sabbath day's journey? First of all, it is a Jewish expression. We measure distances in meters or yards. The Jews had a certain distance that they could walk on Saturday before it would be considered work. So their synagogues that they went to on Saturday could not be very far away. The word appears only in Acts 1:12 and indicates a distance of about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, I think it is important to remember the origins of Christianity. Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'. Much of the Old Testament has a literary structure that we are not aware of because of our modern emphasis on chapter and verse divisions. Within many of these blogs, I try to get the reader to see a bigger picture, a larger perspective that often includes the Old Testament and the environment that was present when the New Testament was seeing the Light of the day.

Second, a Sabbath day's journey is intentionally short. These 'journeys' with a text, almost always one of the three readings for that Sunday, are deliberately brief discussions. This blog was never designed to be a comprehensive look at any text. Sometimes a specific word is studied in detail. But, as a whole, a blog entry, by itself, is meant to be quite brief.

Finally, since the term 'Sabbath day's journey' appears in Acts, it is meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This blog is meant for those who cannot come on Sunday mornings. And it is also for those who do come on Sunday mornings but would also like a further study of the text. It is also for those who live somewhere else in the world (besides Drake and Freedom, Missouri, USA) and would simply like a further study of the text. It was meant to get these different groups of people to start thinking about the biblical texts. Part of the reason for this blog is that I am not able to have a bible class on Sunday mornings with either congregation, and so, to have a blog like this seemed like a good idea. I hope it is helpful for you, in whatever situation you may be.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

April 22nd, 2023

4/22/2023

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The second Sunday after Easter is typically called ‘The Third Sunday of Easter’. This Sunday the gospel text is from the Gospel according to Luke [24:13-35], and this text speaks of the ‘way’ or ‘road’. And we are continuing our ‘way’ or ‘road’ through the Gospel according to Matthew, at a slightly different position. But the ending is the same.

In the writing of last week, we looked at the last specific miracle that was described between the first and second sermons in this gospel account. This is the miracle that established two different directions in which one could go (Matthew 9:32-34). One could say that Jesus could do these ‘miraculous’ things because of the ‘ruler of the demons’, or he could do these things ultimately because of his heavenly Father. How will the last section of this non-sermon part of this gospel account (hopefully) point the reader/listener to the second of those two options?

Before we look at this last section of this narrative, it may be helpful to restate an earlier part of this gospel account, Matthew 4:23. This will be given a similar translation style to that of the text to be studied:

And he was going about in all the Galilee, teaching in the synagogues of them and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing all disease and all weakness in the people.

One will notice a great similarity to the first part of this next section (Matthew 9:35):
And he went about, the Jesus, the cities, all, and the villages, teaching in the synagogues of them and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing all disease and all weakness.

There are some extremely close similarities, but what are the differences? One difference is that the second text includes the name of Jesus, which is understandable since there have been many more people described since the chapter four. And the area in which Jesus is working is only Galilee in the first reference, and in the second reference, it is described as much larger. That is also understandable, since Jesus has gained more notoriety. After those slight differences, in both texts, there are the same three things described in an extremely similar way.

There were also three temptations given earlier in Matthew 4, and their order was different from that temptation account in the Gospel according to Luke. As the central temptation was the most important in the Gospel according to Matthew—the one having to do with Jesus in Jerusalem—and both times, the central thing of the three things listed that Jesus is doing seems to be the most important. Jesus is proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

This action is significantly different from simply teaching in the synagogues. And it is certainly different from miracles; powerful news is not necessarily good news. And it may be helpful to remember that the word ‘gospel’ is based on the word for a messenger being sent by a person with authority to do something important and not necessarily powerful. And in this statement, Jesus is seen as the messenger from the throne of his gracious heavenly Father.

What follows are the verses after that, the ending of chapter ten (Matthew 9:36-38; again, in the same translation style—somewhat literal—with the historical presents, like before, in bold print):

Now seeing the crowds, he had compassion concerning them, because they were weary and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd.

Then he says to the disciples of him, ‘On the one hand, the harvest, large, now on the other hand, the workers, few. Therefore, petition the Lord of the harvest so that he may throw out workmen into the harvest of him.

The concern is for the crowds that are ‘as sheep not having a shepherd’. How those crowds get shepherds is the next concern. The importance of the disciples is given in the verses which follow, up to the point where Jesus begins his next sermon. And the following is a somewhat-literal translation of that section (Matthew 10:1-4):

And calling near the twelve disciples of him, he gave to them authority of spirits, unclean, so as to throw out them, and to heal all disease and all weakness [cf. 9:35]. Now of the twelve apostles, the names are these: First, Simon, the one called Peter, and Andrew, the brother of him, and Jacob, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of him, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax-collector, Jacob, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, Simon, the Canaanite, and Judas, the Iscariot, the one also betraying him.
​

Names are important, as is yours. This is especially true if you have been baptized. And at the beginning of this account, the story behind the name of Jesus was given. And now this ‘One who saves’ is sending out his twelve—but not yet to proclaim the gospel. For now, that is the business of Jesus.
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