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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

February 5, 2017

2/5/2017

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One of the great things about the Sermon on the Mount is that you can see it within the context of the entire Gospel according to Matthew, but you can also look at one word and see it within the context of the entire scriptures.
 
An easy word to do that with is ‘righteousness’. It’s essentially throughout the entire bible. In the text from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says our righteousness has to surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20). But that’s not too hard if God is in control of that word—which he is from the beginning. (And Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness—Genesis 15:6.) The Lord, the Righteous One, gives that righteousness out, where and when it pleases him.
 
It’s not too easy to see the word ‘think’ in context with all of scripture. It’s not a bad thing to do though. The human race ends up thinking a lot. In the text we are not supposed to think that Jesus came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. That word’s use within all of Matthew is pretty distinctive—an interesting characteristic of this very ‘human’ gospel account.
 
In that command, the verb ‘to think’ is given as follows in one of the dictionaries (BDAG): ‘To form an idea about something, but with some suggestion of tentativeness or refraining from a definitive statement.’
 
In our era, you have probably heard it said that you need to exaggerate to be heard. Perhaps you have heard of people encouraging others to speak up with confidence, even if they have reservations about what they believe. This is not new. And those things that are true and lasting will prove themselves in the end.
 
We are constantly forming ideas. We are in a constant state of tentativeness. That’s this life. And that’s usually pretty depressing.
 
That’s why Jesus came down. We needed a savior. We needed a savior, even from our own thoughts. And we have that—and more—in Jesus.
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