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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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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 27th, 2019

4/27/2019

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The Gospel text for this Sunday [John 20:19-31] should be familiar to many; in the three-year series and in the one-year series, it is ALWAYS the text for the second Sunday of Easter. You cannot get away from this text.

For a while, a couple of these verses also appeared within The Small Catechism. In the section on Confession, in the 1986 edition of Luther’s Small Catechism (notice how Luther’s name somehow moved to the primary position), there were the following three questions and answers:

What is the Office of the Keys?*

            The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

Where is this written?*

            This is what St. John the Evangelist writes in chapter twenty: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.’ [John 20:22-23]

What do you believe according to these words?*

            I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

Note that each of these three questions has an asterisk. In that edition, the following sentence is also given: ‘* This question may not have been composed by Luther himself but reflects his teaching and was included in editions of the catechism during his lifetime.’

To borrow a question: What does this mean? These questions could be included, and they could be left out. This is not about Luther; this is about teaching, and that is more important.

If these three questions would be included, that would be okay. The five-hundredth-anniversary booklet of this catechism, entitled A Simple Explanation of Christianity, leaves these three questions in, but it leaves out the footnote. Leaving the footnote out helps to bring a greater focus on the included text. The year 2017 was an anniversary of the START of the Reformation. There is much more that could be said. There is much more that WILL be said as the 500th anniversaries of various Reformation events continue.

If these three questions would be left out, that would also be okay. This section would, in the end, focus on Confession, and that is not a bad thing. Obviously more emphasis should rightly, then, be given to the Absolution. Another good thing is the decreased emphasis on the pastor; the Lord’s words are the important thing.

You can see this lack of emphasis also in the fifth article of the Augsburg Confession of 1530, the article on ‘The Ministry’. Here is the translation given in the ‘Reader’s Edition’:
‘So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given. He works faith, when and where it pleases God, in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake (Second Edition, 2005, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Missouri).’
​

Where is the pastor? That is the point! All the way through the scriptures, it is the Word of the Lord that is the important thing (see Acts 28:31).
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