Shabboth (Sabbath) is not an easy subject for the average Christian to discuss. Most of us, who were born in the early 50’s in America, grew up as children in an era when Downtown closed on Sunday. Some of us couldn't even buy gasoline for the Sunday afternoon drive. I grew up in a small town, and I can remember the quietness of that day. My mother told me "this is Sabbath, and we don't even go to restaurants on the Sabbath Day." I can also remember when a restaurant in our town opened for the first time on a Sunday. For us it was in the early 60's, and it took a while, but my Mother and I went there to eat like everyone else, on Sunday, the day she called "Sabbath."

    I think many people grew up with similar images and impressions. Today, those experiences are the background of most everyone’s theology. Jewish people, however, have always had another experience. Theirs began with Moshe (Moses) and a stormy evening, on a stark mountain, in a strange wilderness. Moshe's face was shining like a star as he told his neighbors that he knew what day was the Shabboth (Sabbath). He knew because God had told him, Yom Hazeh, "This is the Day"... and Moshe told all of his neighbors to "always remember the Shabboth, and to honor it throughout every generation." He said that the Shabboth would be a "seal" that demonstrates God's covenant with them, and that the Shabboth would never end.

    Their "remembering" began with our Friday evening as the sun set, and the day lasted through the night until the next setting of the sun, the evening of Saturday -- it was not Sunday. It was the last half of our Friday and the first half of our Saturday, because they recon time from from sunset instead of midnight. Time begins that way because the world began that way -- in darkness -- "there was Evening, then there was Morning ... the first Day."

    Through hunger, fear, disease and persecution ... the Jew never stopped counting the days after that Great Day on Mount Sinai. Knowing that day was tantamount with knowing God himself, and all of his ways. The Shabboth (Sabbath) gave the Jew more than a Jewish identity. The Shabboth gave each Jew a personal connection with the personage of the Lord. This connection was very special, yet there was an added uniqueness. The Day is filled with gifts from God. Some of these gifts are peace, comfort, love and steadiness of faith. These gifts preserved the Jew as he suffered the brutishness of an otherwise savage world. The haughtiness of the Gentile world demonstrated that worldliness could not recognize anything about the Shabboth Day. Yet even in the death camps of Poland, the Jew knew and remembered the Shabboth. They kept the day Holy... and the Day did not withhold any of God's gifts for them.

    Yeshua (Jesus) knew that Day. He said, "I am Lord of the Shabboth (Sabbath) also." This statement was not to justify breaking Shabboth Laws. Rather, it was to affirm that he would not violate the sanctity of that Day... for he had not broken the Law by gathering grain for eating, nor by not washing his hands before eating it. If he had violated Shabboth, he would be violating himself. The intention of his words were to say, "I remember the Day, it is Holy by the blessing of the Father." He remembered... as does every Jew.

    Does the Church remember the Shabboth (Sabbath) Day? I think so. Do you recall the Tradition of Easter and Good Friday? Good Friday is the day of Yeshua's (Jesus') death. The Gospels tell us that Yeshua died before the sunset, and the beginning of Shabboth. It was very important to bury him before the Shabboth began because the Torah commanded (Deuteronomy 21:22,23) that anyone who died from hanging must be buried on that same day. Therefore, with the sun setting, the leaders of the Jews hastily asked that Yeshua's legs be broken, forcing him to die, and allowing them to bury him before the Shabboth -- which began with the evening of Friday (Good Friday).

    Yet when the Roman Centurion went to Yeshua (Jesus) to break his legs, he discovered he had already died ... so they buried him without breaking his legs. For Psalm 34:19,20 says that a righteous man will not have broken legs, and verse 22 says that God will redeem such servants, and all who trust in him will also be redeemed. Therefore, with Torah evidence, this righteous servant rested his life before the Shabboth, and kept his peace within Shabboth.

    After Shabboth (Sabbath), and in the morning of Sunday, and while it was still dark, the two women (both named Mary) went to prepare Yeshua's body for death -- because the haste to bury him before Shabboth, and the injunctions of Shabboth itself, had kept them from doing it earlier. But they discovered that Yeshua (Jesus) was not in the tomb, and an Angel declared to them that he had risen from the dead. Therefore, in observance of Shabboth, Yeshua was raised from the dead after Shabboth, and in the third day of his death, before the sun arose on Sunday.

    How can the Church forget the Shabboth (Sabbath)? It is a fundamental element of their redemption! You might want to celebrate Sunday as a memorial to his resurrection -- but how can you forget Shabboth! Neither Yeshua, his disciples, nor our Father in Heaven (God) ever forgot the Shabboth ... and Yeshua said that Shabboth is an integral part of his domain and authority (Matthew 12:8).

    So what about the question of, "What should Christians do about the Shabboth (Sabbath) injunctions?" One thing is for sure in my own mind... we should not be haughty, as are the Gentiles that do not know Shabboth or God. I wonder if Colossians 2:16 could be read with a new perspective... "So do not let anybody criticize you for what you are eating, nor for what you are drinking, nor your observance of the New Moon Festival... nor that you are keeping Shabboth."

    From a Jewish mind set, Colossians is saying... Don't let anyone discourage you from keeping the Food Laws of Torah (being Kosher). Don't let anyone stop you from observing the New Moon (an injunction of Torah). Don't let anyone convince you that there is another Shabboth (Sabbath). Verse 17, "For these things (keeping Torah injunctions) are the shadows of what is coming toward you... and their demonstration is revealing the body of the Messiah (a Holy Congregation). Verse 18, Therefore, do not let anyone spoil your Holy Gifts by tempting you ...to worship angels..."

    Worshipping angels! Is that what this is about? Changing our worship from God's injunctions to a man's, or a demon's inventions? I think so... Chapter 3:1 states, "if you are risen with the Messiah (the Lord of Shabboth), then look for the things that are above (and from him)... even look where the Messiah is sitting. He is near the right hand of the Father." It is that same "right hand" that gave to Moshe (Moses) the Shabboth (Sabbath) and all of Torah.

    Personally, I have decided to not let my childhood miseries dictate my theology. I have also decided to not allow the criticism by others to keep me from discovering the real Gifts of God. Concerning cultural theologies, I think that the Apostle Paul can be difficult for the Gentile mindset to understand. I don't think that he opposed the Lord of Shabboth (Sabbath). Lastly, I refuse to interpret Paul's arguments as supporting Gentile arrogance.

    So you tell me. Is it good to do what God has said to do, or is it good to do what our culture dictates that we should do? God's voice has never been silent. We are still reading what he told Moshe (Moses). As I review Yeshua's and Paul's arguments, I never see them opposing what was given to Moshe ... the Torah. I do see them opposing what a Synthesized culture (or a super culture, being Jewish or Gentile) would do (and had done) with the Holy Gifts of the Father. Such as treating the Gifts as though they are business profits, and not the evidence of friendships. The true stance of Yeshua (Jesus) is seen in all of his words. He said, "Heaven and Earth must be dismantled before even a single letter of the Torah can be modified."

    That statement makes the Torah seem like a monument. Yet the monument is not a single scroll or book. Yeshua (Jesus) said that the book merely spoke of his own coming... the appearance of the Messiah. That means that the Law must be describing the Messiah... because it is part of that book. In fact, the Law is the whole content of that book. Yet the real monument that we see, standing through every age, has been the faithfulness of those that have kept the Torah's testimony. The Torah is not words and thought, rather it is the behavior of those that study it. As Paul said, "The Torah is a teacher explaining righteousness." He also said, as stated earlier, that the Torah is a great shadow of the Holy One that comes to redeem you from every perversity. It is our perversity that leads us to pervert worship.

     Admittedly, Paul was saying that the shadow was not the final reward. He was also saying that the Torah was not what should be focused on. He was also saying that the Torah did not hold all the mechanics for salvation. He said that the Messiah was the one that is casting the shadow of Torah. As such, his words are expressing a Hebrew perspective that, as a shadow of something greater, the Torah is still elevated far above our own thoughts and methods for doing things. Many of us have trouble hearing that with his words, but Paul assumes that we know that Yeshua (Jesus) is Jewish... not a Greek. He assumes that we know that God was intimate with the Jews, and that he did not reveal his secrets to the Gentiles... not to anyone, except through the Jews and the Torah.

    Standing in sun light, do you see your shadow? Standing beside Yeshua (Jesus), we still see Torah.

    Baruch Hashem.