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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

March 03rd, 2018

3/3/2018

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​The Gospel text for this Sunday (John 2:13-22) jumps to the Gospel according to John, and that usually means a jump into very deep water. The words are relatively simple, the points are relatively straightforward, but some of the things mentioned within the text are simply huge.

The text is Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, and that is a big topic in itself. The first few verses describe the situation. At a midway point (v. 17), there is a remembrance of the disciples (an interesting structure to this text is that, at the end of this section, there is another remembrance). Both the Jews and Jesus have an ‘answer’ to the situation, and both groups also have something to ‘speak’. The grammatical way both these groups are set up, there is a strong contrast between the two.

In verse 21, the translation usually says something like, ‘But he [Jesus] was speaking about the temple of his body.’ A more literal translation would be, ‘But that one was speaking about the temple of his body.’ I hope you notice the difference.

It almost seems disrespectful to call a person ‘that one’, but the writer wants to set up a contrast between the two groups, the two sides. This setup can also be seen in a very early Christian document called ‘The Didache (did-ah-kay’)’, literally, the teaching.

Without some context, it would be easy to say that, if there are two choices, two roads, two groups, then it is up to a person to pick the right one. But this gospel account DOES have a context. And the first three accounts do fit very well together with this fourth one, although this one is significantly different.

Jesus is so much the center of ALL these accounts. And it should be argued that the so-called Acts of the Apostles also focuses on what God does … through these particular people.

A reminder of this emphasis is in the ‘extra’ verses that could be read on this Sunday as well, from John 2:23-25: ‘Now when [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.’

Believing in Jesus is not about us. The way faith is used in scripture, it is about receiving a gift. The Church is about Jesus as well. After all, it is HIS body.

What is ‘in man’ is not worth talking about. More important is that we, the Church, are ‘in Christ’. 
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