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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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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 27th, 2018

1/27/2018

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The Gospel text for this coming Sunday (Mark 1:21-28) has Jesus coming IMMEDIATELY into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and there IMMEDIATELY was a man with an unclean spirit. There is even the same word (although it is translated ‘at once’), after the miracle, that Jesus’ fame spreads EVERYWHERE THROUGHOUT ALL the surrounding region—and here we have another literary exaggeration. But there is no ‘immediately’ mentioned when Jesus heals. That is an extremely painful omission.
 
That reminds me of the first miracle after Jesus’ transfiguration; this is another delayed healing. This healing in chapter one is the first miracle recorded after Jesus’ baptism—unless if you consider his ability to get four fishermen to follow him to be a miracle! (This was an important aspect to be included so that at least two or three witnesses could attest to these events.)
 
The following are two painful realities regarding the exorcisms in the Gospel according to Mark: The man with the unclean spirit does not get healed right away, and the boy with the unclean spirit is rolling around on the ground (it happened IMMEDIATELY after the spirit saw Jesus), in desperate need of help, and Jesus asks the father, ‘How long has this been happening?’ The father ends up getting a bit impatient, and so do we. (He even IMMEDIATELY cried out, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief’, and, sometimes, so do we.)
 
At the baptism of Jesus, the way the text came across, Jesus was the only one who saw heaven opened and who heard the words, ‘You are my beloved Son….’ Now comes the good Lutheran question, ‘What does this mean?’ Some people would probably like an IMMEDIATE answer to that question. The demons and the devils certainly did.
 
It is a fascinating statement of the unclean spirit in chapter one. Literally, he asks, ‘what is it between us and you?’ (Jesus asked the same question of Mary right before he turned water into wine in John 2—his first miracle according to that account.). In other words, what is our relationship? How are we related? Then he says, ‘I know who you are—the Holy One of God.’ Jesus is holy; the demon is not.
 
Jesus is holy; the synagogue was not. Jesus is holy, and, when we consider our sin, we are not.
 
It is interesting that Jesus tells him to be quiet. Later Mark says that Jesus would not let the unclean spirits talk when he cast them out. If Jesus would have let them talk, they could have added to his numbers IMMEDIATELY.
 
I am sure that the early Christians who were getting killed because they were followers of Jesus wanted something good to happen IMMEDIATELY. We are sometimes no different.
 
The demons were speaking the truth. They knew who he was. They knew he was holy. But that is not good news. Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God and the gospel of God. Those things belong to God, and through that gospel, God tells us that we IMMEDIATELY belong to him. Now THAT is good news.
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