A Sabbath Day's Journey...

"Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey" Acts 1:12


"They" were the apostles, and they had just witnessed the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives. What should they do now? Jesus told them. He commanded them "not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father," that is, the Holy Spirit. Christ's body had left, but His word and authority remained. They obeyed their departed Savior's instruction. They returned from Mount Olivet to Jerusalem.

Then comes this strange little tidbit of information. Luke tells us that from Olivet to Jerusalem was  "a Sabbath day's journey." What does that mean, and why include it here?

What it means is impossible to know from the Bible alone, as this is the only place this phrase occurs in Scripture. But Jewish historians have confirmed from other sources that the distance is precisely 2,000 cubits, or just over half a mile.

At some point in Jewish history it appears to have become acceptable to travel this short distance on the Sabbath, but no further. Thus the distance is termed "a Sabbath day's journey." Maybe it was an attempt to further clarify the meaning of Exodus 16:29 where Moses commanded the wandering Israelites saying "let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." The context there was the gathering of manna. But maybe to accommodate the walk to the tabernacle for worship, a distance of 2,000 cubits would have to be permitted. Anything beyond that was apparently "work," and forbidden by the 4th commandment.

So maybe this "Sabbath day's journey" is a leftover expression from the OT era, important to a manna-gathering, tabernacle-visiting people but no one else.

But if so...why would Luke, and more importantly the Holy Spirit Himself, preserve this curious phrase for NT readers like ourselves if it was to become irrelevant to our modern situation?

Maybe because the phrase is not irrelevant at all. Maybe it is more important now and to our generation than ever before.

Think about it. The "Sabbath day's journey" was an attempt to limit the intrusion of busyness into a day designed for God's people to rest. We need this reminder too. The concept of a weekly day of rest was God's idea from creation. Jews practiced this on the seventh day. Today Christians celebrate this on Sunday. But the ordinance comes from creation, and found expression in the very moral law of God alongside other perpetual commands concerning things like idolatry, adultery and murder.

Are we not living in a culture that offers us 24/7 opportunities for a hurried, busy, constantly-going lifestyle? And has not the church bought into this mentality by virtually abandoning any notion of a "Lord's day" in our preaching and teaching to modern Christians? We have adopted the mindset that as long as you can make it to church (most of the time), the rest of the day is yours. Shop, play, work, exercise, entertain...whatever you want. The concept of a restful day to care mostly for the needs of our souls has vanished.

We don't want to become legalists. The scribes and Pharisees apparently took this notion of a "Sabbath day's journey" and found ways to extend their travel by randomly assigning any spot, such as a tree, as their "new home" and could thus travel an additional 2,000 cubits further to get to wherever they wanted to go. This is hypocrisy, not piety. They entirely missed the spirit of the rule. What was designed as a practical way to encourage a peaceful, restful, God-centered day, they took as nothing but a burden, and looked for loopholes to get around it.

What is our "Sabbath day's journey?" What are the practical restrictions we have prayerfully placed in our lives to promote the Lord's Day as a day of resting in Christ, both physically and spiritually? Maybe not doing routine housework and yard work on Sunday is a good one. What about committing to both a morning and evening worship service, to protect the day from other intruding obligations? What about refraining, as much as possible, from activities which require other people to work for the sake of our entertainment or refreshment? What about asking the boss to have Sunday's off?

Again, I don't think we become legalists simply by seeking practical ways to promote piety and the keeping of the 4th commandment. Modern conveniences and technology such as cars allow us to travel greater distances without the day become excessively busy or exhausting. But they can also easily become a convenient way to avoid the rest which the Lord has wisely prescribed for our body and soul.

Our culture wants us to bear the yoke of perpetual activity. We feel the need to be constantly "moving and doing" or our lives are simply not worth living. The horror of inactivity is implied by advertisers and social media which tell us if we are not constantly doing something worth sharing...we are unimportant and insignificant as human beings. Oh how much better is the yoke of Christ, who said "my burden is easy" and in Him "you will find rest for your souls."