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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

December 30th, 2017

12/30/2017

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This is my last writing for 2017. And it focuses on a text near the beginning of the Gospel according to Luke (2:22-40). And in this text, Jesus is only forty days old.

It is with a strong contrast that the speech which goes along with this account appears near the end of the Divine Service. The Nunc Dimittis (In The Lutheran Hymnal, it starts “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word.”) is a hymn that fits with the beginning of Jesus’ life, but it deals with a very important subject—death.

You know a man is significant when the beginning of his life has ramifications for the end of many others. After receiving the Lord’s Supper, we are basically saying that it is okay to die.

Jesus’ life takes precedence over ours; his life, death, and resurrection are infinitely more significant than ours. Jesus’ life gently takes over ours.

The language of Simeon at the very beginning of his speech betrays the huge importance of his God and his promises. A literal translation could be something like the following: “Now you are releasing your slave, O Despot.”

The title he uses seems a bit extreme. But the word has received some negative connotations in the last few years. A despot is essentially the lord of the house. God is called that by Abraham in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, right after Yahweh comes to him and gives a wonderful promise (Genesis 15:1ff).

The word appears at a critical spot within the book of Acts—although there are many such critical spots. Peter and John, after being arrested, were released. The enemies of Jesus saw confidence in them, but they did not harm them. After going back to ‘their own’ (a deliberately ambiguous title), they then say a prayer, asking to speak Jesus’ words with confidence; and their prayer is granted. And this prayer begins with the same title for God.

You are not your own; you were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It takes a while for those words to sink in.
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