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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

June 24th, 2017

6/24/2017

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​The structure of the Gospel according to Matthew is quite clear when compared to the other accounts, but, to be honest, most people do not care about the structure of a book. They basically want something that catches their attention in the beginning and that will hold their attention until the very end.

The most significant part of the structure of this account is the five sermons or discourses, and saying or writing that can REALLY turn a person off. Sermons or discourses are typically not very exciting.

In verse 21 of chapter 10, when Jesus talks about members of a family putting other members of that family to death, now THAT is something of interest to people, although that is very sad to say. Now that is something that would make the evening news, although, again, that is very sad to say.

Why would a person want the other members of his or her family dead? It must be something extremely important. And that is exactly where God comes in.

Actually it is the name of Jesus that comes on the scene. In the first part of verse 22, Jesus says that '... you will be hated by all for my name's sake.' That name is important within this account. Instead of an account of Jesus' birth in Matthew, there is more of an account of his naming. His name means savior, rescuer--not just helper.

And the name of Jesus changes in a very interesting way in the rest of this 'talk'. In verse 23 he calls himself 'the Son of Man'--the only time in this account (and very near the center--a quick and VERY approximate check of this shows that there are 38 verses of this sermon, and half of that is 19, and, when added to the first 4 verses of the chapter, you come up with the number 23). It is interesting that Jesus is calling himself something that he isn't (he was--and still is--the Son of God, not the Son of Man), but he is going to do something that his followers are not expecting.

Just a bit later, Jesus will call himself 'the master of the house' (v. 25). There is a noticeable progression in all the accounts, that as Jesus gets more popular, that as he becomes 'the master of the house', he gets his enemies more angry with him. And that anger is directed toward his followers as well.

It all makes sense. It is going to happen. It is not going to get better here on earth. But that is not the very end. As Jesus says in that second part of verse 22, 'But the one who endures to the end will be saved.'
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