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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

January 19th, 2019

1/19/2019

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The Gospel text for this Sunday is the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine [John 2:1-11]. But, because that text is within the Gospel according to John, it is not always that easy to describe.

Certainly, much more could be written. And, certainly, much more HAS been written.
Since I have recently been at the Fort Wayne seminary for their annual symposia, and since that city is currently in a different time zone than much of the Midwest, I have experienced what it is like to have a different time frame. And that is similar to the Gospel according to John; it uses the Roman way of telling time instead of the ‘Old Testament way’ (for more detail about this, see The Lutheran Study Bible, page 1567).

The Romans started counting the hours of the day earlier than the Jews. And that difference actually fits with the ‘time frame’ of this gospel account. Very early within this account you hear some wonderful confessions of faith. And the ‘hour’ that Jesus talks about for a long time within this account comes to him BEFORE he is put on the cross. And it is interesting that the hour comes to him when Jesus is told that some Greeks have come to Jerusalem to worship, and they say, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus (John 12:21).’ That is actually when Jesus says that his soul is troubled (12:27). In the Garden of Gethsemane, and even on the cross, Jesus seems not to be having too much trouble. (On the cross he says, ‘I thirst’, but even the text says THAT was done to fulfill scripture; 19:28).

With that in mind, much already has been written about the way in which this miracle text begins: ‘On the third day… (John 2:1a).’ Most connections have been made to something in the Old Testament, and that should be expected.

Since there are three ‘next day’s in the previous chapter (vs. 29, 35, 43), some have seen a connection to the six days of creation (since, of course, three plus three is six; see The Lutheran Study Bible, p. 1778). I appreciate that connection, especially since there is, within the first creation account, a division between the first three days and the last three. (If you are interested in more specifics, the first three ‘set the stage’ in a way, and the second three fill that stage. There is also a way to see this layout as also pointing to the structure of the entire book of Genesis, with its two divisions being 1:1-11:26 and 11:27-50:26; in this way, God sets the stage with his creation and then fills that stage with his story of redemption—at least the very beginnings of that redemption story.)

I would much rather see within the mention of the ‘third day’ a connection to Jesus’ resurrection—since it also was on the third day that he came back to life. In the same way that Jesus hides the miracle of turning water into wine, he also has hidden the miracle of his resurrection from the eyes of many.​

Just imagine how easy it would be for Jesus to show many more people that yes, he really did rise from the dead. And as the servants of the wedding feast knew that the water had turned to wine, Jesus’ servants today know his current whereabouts.
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