BibleProject - Jesus and His Jubilee Mission - 7th Day Rest E11

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

QUOTE"What Jesus is claiming is that the ultimate jubilee that the prophets pointed to has begun. Here it is. I’m doing it. It’s a massive claim."KEY TAKEAWAYSThe Sabbath was a big deal to Jesus. He and the Jewish religious leaders often disagreed over what observing the Sabbath should actually mean.Jesus announced his public ministry at a synagogue on the Sabbath by reading from Isaiah 61, which is a prophecy about a future time of jubilee.Jesus claimed that he was fulfilling all that the ritual and symbolism in the Sabbath pointed to. Jesus claimed to usher in a new age of peace and rest.SHOW NOTESIn part 1 (0-29:15), Tim and Jon review the conversation so far.Tim shares a quote from Samuele Bacchiocchi and his scholarly work, “Sabbatical Typologies of Messianic Redemption.” His essay examines traits of Genesis 1-2 that are carried forward in Jewish texts of the Second Temple period. One of the things that characterized the giving of the Sabbath laws was man’s relationship to and peace with the animals. Consider this excerpt from the Babylonian Talmud.“A. A man should not go out with (1) a sword, (2) bow, (3) shield, (4) club, or (5) spear.“B. And if he went out, he is liable to a sin-offering.“C. R. Eliezer says, ‘They are ornaments for him.’“D. And sages say, ‘They are nothing but ugly,“E. ‘since it is said, “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2:4).’” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 12a: Jacob Neusner, The Babylonian Talmud: A Translation and Commentary, vol. 2 [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2011], 269.)Tim also shares Bacchiocchi’s findings on the connection between the themes of food, the Sabbath, and material abundance.Tim shares from 2 Baruch 29:4-6, “the Messiah shall begin to be revealed ... the earth also shall yield its fruit ten thousandfold and on each vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster produce a thousand grapes and each grape produce a cor of wine.”Abundance through unending food, Tim says, was one of the signs viewed by the prophets as an indication that the Messiah had come.Tim also shares from Bacchiocchi’s findings on the theme of what he calls “Joy and Light.” Bacchiocchi cites Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Zimra.“‘For the Sabbath day,’ that is, for the day which darkness did not attend. You find that it is written of other days, ‘And there was evening and there was morning, one day.’ But the words, ‘There was evening’ are not written of the Sabbath. And so, the Sabbath light continued thirty-six hours.”(The Midrash on Psalms, translated by William G. Braude [New Haven, 1959], p. 112. Quoted in Samuele Bacchiocchi, “Sabbatical Typologies of Messianic Redemption,” p. 159.)In part 2 (29:15-34:00) Tim and Jon dive into Luke 4.Luke 4:14-21“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisonersand recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”In part 3 (34:00-50:45), Tim examines the word “release” or “freedom” in the Isaiah passage (Grk. aphesis, “release,” or Heb. deror, “Jubilee liberation.” See Isaiah 61:1 and Leviticus 25:10). This is the common word for “forgiveness” in Luke (Luke 1:77 and 3:3), but the word’s meaning is broader in this instance. It’s denoting release from burden or bondage. The word in Isaiah 61 is rooted in the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25), and it is about release from the social consequences of society’s collective sin—a freedom from debt, slavery, poverty, and oppression.Tim notes that forgiveness and release are the same word in the New Testament. The guys talk about how Jesus would have viewed “releasing” people from slavery to sin.In part 4 (50:45-58:30), Tim and Jon talk about the controversy Jesus created around the Sabbath. They note that the conflict was not about whether the Sabbath should be observed but instead about what that observance of the Sabbath entailed in practical terms.Take for instance this story from Matthew 12.Matthew 12:9-13 “Departing from there, he went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’—so that they might accuse him. And he said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’ Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand!’ He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.”Tim cites scholar R.T. France on this passage:“Fundamental to the rabbinic discussion was the agreed list (m.Šabb. 7:2) of 39 categories of activity which were to be classified as ‘work’ for this purpose, some of which are very specific (‘writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters’) others so broad as to need considerable further specification (‘building, pulling down’), while the last (‘taking anything from one “domain” [normally a private courtyard] to another’) is so open-ended as to cover a vast range of daily activities. The 39 categories of work do not explicitly include traveling, but this too was regarded as ‘work,’ a ‘Sabbath-day’s journey’ being limited to 2,000 cubits, a little over half a mile. These two rules together made Sabbath life potentially so inconvenient that the Pharisees developed an elaborate system of ‘boundary-extensions’ (ʿerubin) to allow more freedom of movement without violating the basic rules. The ʿerub system illustrates an essential element of all this scribal development of Sabbath law: its aim was not simply to make life difficult (though it must often have seemed like that), but to work out a way in which people could cope with the practicalities of life within the limits of their very rigorous understanding of ‘work.’ The elaboration of details is intended to leave nothing to chance, so that no one can inadvertently come anywhere near violating the law itself. Some rabbis spoke about this as ‘putting up a fence around the law.’”(R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007], 455–456.)In part 5 (58:30-65:30), Tim and Jon discuss how Jesus didn’t really dispute the validity of Sabbath practice. Instead, he insisted that he was fulfilling all the symbolism that the Sabbath pointed to.Tim notes that one way to characterize the life of Jesus is as one big jubilee announcement tour. Jesus went around and released people from sickness and death.In part 6 (65:30-end), Tim and Jon note that Western Protestant tradition tends to separate a social gospel from a proclaimed verbal gospel. This is a false dichotomy that didn’t exist in Jesus’ mind. To proclaim a full gospel of release meant release from cosmic sin and death as well as working to release from physical bondages as well.Thank you to all our supporters!Have a question? Send it to us at [e-mail] to join The Bible Project? Go to www.thebibleproject.com/vision Show Resources:Samuele Bacchiocchi, “Sabbatical Typologies of Messianic Redemption.”R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament Show Music:Defender Instrumental by TentsMy Room Becomes The Sea by Sleepy FishThe Cave Resides Deep in the Forest by Artificial Music Show Produced by:Dan Gummel Powered and distributed by SimpleCast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode. Hey everybody, this is Tim Mackey at the Bible Project.

And welcome to the Bible Project Podcast. We are in the final stretches of this series we've been doing on the theme of the seventh day rest in the Bible. And today we're going to move into the New Testament and the story of Jesus, especially as it's presented in the Gospel according to Luke. And what we're going to find is that Jesus' mission to announce the Kingdom of God connects directly into this theme of the seventh day rest in the story of the Bible.

When most of us think about the story of Jesus, you might remember these famous moments of like feeding of the 5,000 hungry people or walking on water, of course, his crucifixion and resurrection. What's really interesting is that in the Gospel of Luke, the first story about Jesus going public with his mission and what he's all about is found in chapter 4. He goes to synagogue on the Sabbath and he ends up reading aloud from the Isaiah scroll a section of text that we call Isaiah 61 and guess what?

It's all about the 7x times seventh year of the Jubilee. Now, if you remember from earlier episodes about the Book of Loviticus, your favorite book of the Bible, in the Torah, God told the people of Israel every seven times seventh year to perform this year of Jubilee, where all debts would be forgiven, all slaves would be set free, and anybody who lost their

family land would have it restored back to them. It was like this total Eden reset for everybody in Israel. What John and I paid attention to was that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible began to use that jubilee hope as a way of thinking about not just what would happen in another 49 or 50 years, but to think about the whole of Israel's history and the whole of human history would get a fresh restart in this year of God's favor that he was going to bring one day.

So Jesus walks into his hometown synagogue on the Sabbath. He picks up the scroll of Isaiah and he reads this, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to announce good news for the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free all who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And then such a great part of the story, we're told that Jesus closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down while everyone's eyes in this synagogue were fixed on him.

And in that moment to Jesus the Master, he says, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. If there were ancient microphones, this would be the moment where he drops it on the floor and leaves the synagogue. The Year of the Lord's Favor, this is all about the Jubilee you guys, which is all about the seventh day rest and the Sabbath. This is a big deal to Jesus Jesus and it should be a big deal to us if we want to understand Jesus on his own terms. So we're going to unpack this story and a whole lot more related to issues of Sabbath in the story of Jesus. We're going to unpack it. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Do you want to give us the... oh, I'm a time you know.

Oh, I got the time you on your five minute summary. All right. I'll give you six minutes because we've covered some more ground. No, five. All right. It's all right. All right. We've begun our conversation about the seventh day, noticing on page one, Genesis one, that the seventh day

is both the culminating point of the whole story of God, leading creation out of chaos and disorder and darkness into light and abundance and life, God, with his image-bearing humans ruling the world together forever, amen. So the Sabbath, it's like the ultimate culmination of all creation, but the fact that it takes seven, it's the seventh day, days one through six become this period of waiting, leading up to liberation out of the chaos and disorder, moving towards the ideal. So the seven day structure, yeah,

it communicates both out of a non-ideal state into the ideal. We've been calling that liberation. And then the ideal is the seventh day Sabbath rest, God plus humans forever. Basically, then after the story gives you that setup, the question is, is, all right, that's the ideal. Is that what's going to happen? And it's not what happens. Page 2 of Genesis goes on to tell you how humans forfeit that rest and ideal. So they find themselves

exiled into the land, not of life and abundance and rest, but of work and toil, slavery to the ground and death and all of that. So then God sets in motion a plan to restore people to the ultimate rest. That is happening through the family of Abraham. God chooses one family, gives them the blessings of Eden, and invites them to experience the Sabbath rest, not by obeying the law of the Sabbath, but by living out the ideal of the Sabbath. Like when Abraham makes peace by offering a gift of seven lambs to Abimalek to stop a war from breaking out over some wells. That's awesome. That's a little taste of Sabbath in Abraham's life. Israel is called out of slavery in a way, a slavery in Egypt in a way that mimics and imitates the pattern of Genesis 1, liberation out of death and slavery.

Egypt is de-created. It's Genesis 1 in reverse through the 10 plagues. But Israel is given light and life in abundance and brought through the waters on the dry land, just like the dry land appeared in Genesis 1. And then they sing a song about how they're going to be led into the promised land where they'll be planted in the garden and live with God forever and ever amen. So that's the hope you have for the storyline of the Old Testament as they're traveling through the wilderness. This is going to take me longer than five minutes. As they're traveling through the wilderness, they learned that living and experiencing that Sabbath rest will involve moments of trust. There to wait for God's bread from heaven to arrive in the morning, gather enough just for each day, and then not gather any on the seventh day as an act of trust. So now Sabbath becomes a way of trusting that God will give you tastes of the ultimate Sabbath, even here in the

dry desert land, as you wait to go into the ultimate Sabbath in the promised land. Israel goes into the promised land, they begin to get tastes of that rest, but God warned them that if they don't remain faithful to the covenant they made with God, that their rest in the land will be forfeited just like Adam and Eve's were. In fact, in the book of Leviticus, we learned that exile from the land of Israel will be like an anti-Sabbath. They're to go into the land and observe all these creative variations of Sabbath, their whole ritual calendar of seven feasts, all the calendar, are ways of four tastes of the Sabbath

rest. Not just the seventh day. No, it's the seventh month and seven-day feast in the first month and the seventh month and all this. So Israel doesn't do this in the land and they end up exiled. And the way the prophets talked about it was, yeah, this is our anti-Sabath or anti-Xile is like an upside down Jubilee. Jubilee, which is the seven times seven year of rest. The mega Sabbath. The mega Sabbath. And so the prophet said, okay, well, if we lived on the land about a long Jubilee period, ten times seven times 7, then what we have

in store in exile is a 7 times 7 times 10, a big 490. This was all the 70 years of Jeremiah becomes the 490 years. Daniel. Yeah, it's an upside down Jubilee. No, not Jubilee, an anti-Jubilee in exile. And so, about the prophets anticipated that on the other side as the land finally gets its Sabbath rest from being enslaved to stupid humans, that one day God will bring about the ultimate Jubilee Sabbath rest.

Isaiah, we looked Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel, particular, but it permeates the book of Hosea and Ezekiel. And so the Hebrew Bible anticipates the arrival of an ultimate Jubilee Sabbath rest for all creation. Is it the prophets, sorry, and we're way over now? Yeah. Yeah. Good work. Thanks. That was harder than I thought it was going to be. Oh, you did excellent. Oh, thank you. I feel like you just wrote the script. That was six and twenty. Okay. Alright. Alright. But I got to interject. So the profits seem to take the turn and start talking about this in terms of all creation again. Yes. Yeah, that's right. Is that right? Because you did show, I mean,

there's a big emphasis on the land for Israel, going into this specific land. Correct. And there are exiles from that land. That's right, yeah. But even when they get back to the land, they still feel like exiles. Correct.

So the profits turn it into something more cosmic than just a land. Yeah, well, and I would argue that Genesis 1 through 11 The prophets turn it into something more cosmic than just basically. Yeah. Well, and I would argue that Genesis 1 through 11 sets up the whole story of Israel in a cosmic context. Got it. So that their story in the land is a specific people's narrative of the cosmic story of exile from the ultimate Sabbath and awaiting it.

So in essence, what the prophets are doing is reading the story of Israel in light of Genesis 1 through 11, and then portraying it out. When the true faithful Israel is restored to the land in the ultimate Sabbath, that will be the restoration of all creation to the ultimate Sabbath. Because that was the whole point of God calling the family of Abraham in the first place. Right, all nations would be blessed. Yeah, that's right. So in the period where the Hebrew Bible was coming into its final formation in the mid-delate second temple period, period of the second temple, so some people have returned from exiled Babylon.

Yeah, built a new temple. Yep, books of Ezra Niyamae show us the first generation or two of that process, but people were just there. And now they're just immersed in the Hebrew Bible, and every week, as they've been doing for centuries now, they're observing Sabbath. Yeah, Shabbat. And they're doing the festival calendar And so all of that is generating hope for the thing to come yeah as they go to synagogue or sing the Psalms and prophets at home they're singing about this future hope of the And the thing to come now isn't just being in the land, but it's a freedom while in the land. And it's a prosperity while in the land.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's actually, it's a lot of things. Okay, so just because we can't spend too much time here, but just to get a flavor of how Jewish communities and leaders and theologians talked about what the Sabbath meant to them around the period of Jesus and the New Testament. So this is a helpful essay article by Italian scholar Samuel Bacchioci. You just want to give it a little attire. Look at the two sets of double C's. It might even be, when isn't an Italian two C's,

is that a ch-? In which case, this is b-g-o-g. B-g-o-g. Anyway. That's, maybe that's stereotypical. I might have just defended somebody. I don't know, man. That sounds, it sounds beautiful to me.

Basically, one I hang out in Italy. I don't. I was really amazing scholar in mid-20th century scholar of Jewish studies and New Testament. Anyway, what's this essay called, sabbatical typologies of messianic redemption during title? sabbatical typologies. Yeah, and he's not talking about sabbaticals and like, you know, built into your career

cycle. Yeah, like a pastor gets to go on sabbatical. Yeah, that's right. What he's saying is he surveyed Jewish literature from this whole period, a lot of different authors. And he kind of puts together a little top 10 list of how Jewish authors talked about their hope

in the coming Messianic Age. And he would have raised it. He pays attention to Sabbath language about the future Messianic Gate. Awesome. He breaks it into sections. I'll just do some samples because it's interesting. One of the things that characterized the seventh day rest in Eden was man and God together

at peace and man at peace with the animals. Peace with the animals. This generated a whole bunch of discussion as the centuries would on about how you relate to animals on the Sabbath. So this is a conversation from the Talmud, which post-dates Jesus in the New Testament. But it's talking about the opinions of rabbis from the period of Jesus in the New Testament. So there was this debate going on where on Shabbat, the question is, can you wear like a dagger? You know, like you might...

You might run into a wild beast. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so some rabbis say, a man should not go out with a sword, a bow, a shield, a club, or a spear on Shabbat. It's just not necessary. No, no, say, if you're using that thing, you're not Shabbat. Yeah, even if you normally carry it around, you know,

for, I don't know. Keep your pocket knife at home. Yeah, totally. That's right. So one rabbi says, yes, if he wears that stuff and he goes out on Shabbat, he's liable for sin offering. He's gonna, that's a sin. He's gonna have to go to the temple to make an offering. Yeah. He's playing

with fire there. Yeah. Yeah. But Rabbi Eliazer said, no, there are his ornaments. He's a hunter. He can carry his hunting equipment on Shabbat. It's fine. It's a flare. Yeah. Rabbi Eliazer disagrees. He said, it's not a sin. Yeah. He wears it. All that it's just part of his deal. He shouldn't have to take it off. Sure. But the sages, the majority of the rabbis say they are nothing but ugly. Unchubat. Oh. And then they quote, they say because it is said and they quote from the prophet Isaiah, and they shall beat their swords into plow blades and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation nor will they learn war anymore.

So that's Isaiah 2, which is of the cosmic exaltation of the New Jerusalem, where the nations stream up to it and learn Torah and its peace. So I just like this. I think Christians who only ever read the New Testament can read the portraits about the Pharisees and the Sabbath. That it's just legalism. That it's just legalism. It's not what's happening. They want to just saturate themselves in the, in this idea of new creation. So every detail matters. Yeah.

Is it an offensive ugly thing to have your club? Or is that an ornament ugly thing to have your club? Or is that an ornament of, that's just normal? And if we're really anticipating new creation on this day, that actually should feel kind of ugly to us. Yes, a sword should feel ugly. Seeing a sword on Shabbat should feel like a sad defilement of our hope of a time of peace in the messianic.

Oh, interesting. Yeah. That's how they're thinking and talking about it. Yeah. sad defilement of our hope of a time of peace in the Messianic. Interesting. That's how they're thinking and talking about it. I mean, it's a silly, it feels derogatory to say, Sabbath becomes like a play acting. Yeah. We've used that. But it is.

That's in a way. Put your guns back in the gun case. Yeah. For the Sabbath. Six days. To hunt. Here we live the life of Eden together as much as we can. Yeah, and that isn't to just put on rules so they can try to please God, which is what people think of legalism. It's really focusing on how do we keep this day allowing us to create in our

hearts and in our minds what we're ultimately hoping for this, the Sabbath rest, this rest with God, ruling with God. That's right. So that's the energy behind the Pharisees' passion for the Sabbath. Yeah, this Christians we need to be much more charitable

in understanding the context of this debate. So we'll talk about the debates about the Sabbath that Jesus had. And they don't actually quite say what people often take them to say. Of course, we'll talk about that. We'll get there. Another theme is the material abundance, the garden, which is recapturing the life of Eden. So you'll find all over Jewish literature of this period, this image of hope, and actually we've talked about it in the prophets, like just crazy metaphors. It's like hills flowing with wine. That's a crazy stream. Yeah, totally. What kind of ecosystem created the wine stream?

Yeah, we are, we are wine and milk, but it says crazy is the sky's raining some sort of frosty, bread crust. Desert flakes. Desert flakes, yeah, totally. Yeah, so there's a text called Second Baruch. It goes by a few different titles, but Baruch was Jeremiah Scrib, and there's a really amazing work

that predates Jesus called First Baruch that's in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Dudro Canon, the Apocrypha. It predates Jesus called First Baruch. That's in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox, Dudro Canon, the Apocrypha. It's amazing. Then there was a later work in people debate exactly when Second Baruch was written. But it describes the period where the Messiah is begun to be revealed.

The earth will yield its fruit. 10,000 fold on each vine a thousand branches and on each branch a thousand clusters and on each cluster a thousand grape and each grape produces a whole that of wine. You get the idea. Yeah, and each that of wine can be drunk for a thousand years. But a thousand people. Yeah, that's right. So the point is, yeah, the unending abundance of the garden

gets projected out forward. And we've talked about this. There's a whole part of the modern west in a certain socioeconomic class that has no category. It hasn't had to go without food for very long to understand how these images of abundance would seem like another world. To most people for most of human history, extravagant abundance, a food would be like, that must be some

other world. Yeah, you're not you're not talking about the reality I know. Yeah, that's right. It's as weird saying that as desert flakes is to us. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's right. Like, that's just doesn't happen. Yeah. So, then the reason why I think this is helpful is food and Sabbath rest of a tight connection all the way back to Genesis 1 where God provides food for the humans and animals on day six, seventh day, not just enjoy, because the food has been provided. And then the manna and the abundance of the land and trusting that the land will produce in the seventh year that you let the land rest. So food trust, trusting in God's provision of abundance and connection to the Sabbath is a major theme.

And so he notes that and this. Cool. That you find food. Another theme is what he calls joy and light. So this is from an early Jewish commentary on the Book of Psalms called Midrash on the Psalms. And it's discussing an insight that Rabbi Levy said in the name of Rabbi Zimra. For the Sabbath day, they're talking about Psalm 92.

Psalm 92 has a little heading, it says, a song for the Sabbath day. It's one of the only Psalms in the book of Psalms that is connected to one of the feast days explicitly. So a song you sing on the Sabbath day. Rabbi Levy went on and he said, why is some too for the Sabbath day? He says, well, that's for the day which darkness does not attend. Darkness doesn't hang out on that day. Yeah, it's a song for the day when there's no darkness. So in other words, it was a song that was sung every Sabbath, but what Rabbi Levy is saying is really what the song is about. It's about the day that's coming that has no sunset, the day that has no darkness.

Yeah, the seventh day has no evening and morning. Yeah, it's time back in to that observation in Genesis 1 that there's no evening or morning. So he goes on, you find that it is written of the other days, there was evening and there was morning, one day. But the words there was evening are not written of the Sabbath, and so the Sabbath light continued for 36 hours. So he's saying on the original Sabbath, Adam and Eve, let their Menorahs. And normally those candles would go from sunset to sunset.

And what he says is because there's no evening on the Sabbath, it's an undying candle of light, it just goes on into the perpetual Sabbath. You know people who live in Hemisphere get to experience this. Ah, yeah, right. 36 hour later. Or the sun just gets to the horizon where it's gonna set and then it pops back up. Yes, yes.

It doesn't actually set. That's right. Now, this is significant because what it shows us is people's interest in the eighth day. Or the concept of, well, so if you have the seventh day, then if the seventh day doesn't really end, then you can say the seventh day doesn't end, the Sabbath light continues on, or we're going to find other Jewish authors, including the gospel authors, who are going to be activating Sabbath themes when they talk about the day after the Sabbath or the eighth day

Or the morning after the Sabbath. They're activating. This is the morning after Adam and Eve got kicked out of the garden Yes, but imagine if you if if the Sabbath hope is for the ultimate Sabbath the ultimate Jubilee another Perpetual Sabbath that never, the truly never ends. Like Genesis 1 sets you up to hope for. Then there is no day after. It's just perpetual sevenths day. It's the final age.

That's right. And so here in historical time, the day at what in the Christian calendar has become Sunday, is the day after the Sabbath, the eighth day. And so what we're going to see is some Jews thought about the day after the Sabbath as an image of a new Genesis one, let there be light, day. Yeah. So they're going to talk about, because the eighth day goes back to the first day of Genesis

one. goes back to the first day of Genesis 1. And so the coming of eternal light where the sun rise that never goes out becomes an image of the rest beyond, maybe not being very clear. No, I think I see what you're saying. So like the eighth day, in our experience of time. In our experience of time. Well, okay, in a whole lot.

We experience time on a week lease. Yeah. Rhythm. So every week, seven days, there's always the eighth day, which is really the first day. The first day of the new week. Back into the cycle, waiting for the seventh day. Correct. But there's also a way to think about this in cosmic terms, which is if the seventh day doesn't end, is not supposed to end, and it's full of light, doesn't even have an evening. doesn't end, is not supposed to end, and it's full of light, doesn't even have an evening. If that did end because of something not natural to what God wanted, but something rebellion, then the next sunrise is now anticipating that we can now go back and try to get back to the seventh day. Yeah, it becomes the sign of hope for the ultimate Sabbath.

So the eighth day sunrise is almost like, oh, good. It's not over. Correct. We can still now journey back into the Sabbath. Correct. Correct. Yeah. So sometimes the seventh day can be talked about as the ultimate hope.

But in other texts or ways of imagining it, the sunrise of the eighth day becomes the sign of hope for the ultimate Sabbath. Yeah, for the foretaste of which I just finished a few like the on the previous day. Yeah, it's like here's the Sabbath awesome. It's great. The sun doesn't even set. You know, there's abundance. We're ruling with God.

But the tragic rebellion. And now, as we leave this state of being united with God and ruling, it's almost kind of like, oh no. Is it just darkness from now on? Yeah, that's right. It was just darkness and death, and now we return to the dust. And you're just like that kind of, that angst of like, oh, we screwed it up.

And then suddenly the sun pops back up. That's right. And that sun is a way to anticipate that we can get back. So I want to find, this has been confusing for me in the past, so I feel like this is my moment to get clarity about how these symbols work in these different texts. So you're hoping for the seventh day that has no end.

Yeah. Rabbi Levi says Psalm 92 was written for the ultimate Sabbath when the Sabbath light continues for 36 hours. So he's thinking about the Sabbath that has no end, but in terms of actual hours, he says it continues on into what would normally be the eighth day or the first day of the new week And so that light that appears in Genesis 1 and the sunrise of every eighth day after my experience of the Sabbath That light is the light that will perpetually burn of this on the ultimate Sabbath And so now the light of day 1 in Genesis can become another image pointing towards the ultimate Sabbath. And so now the light of day one in Genesis

can become another image pointing towards the ultimate Sabbath. Because it's all light and all life and all joy. It's counting by the hours in today's day. Which is arguably what Genesis one was doing anyways. Correct, yeah, just hating. Yes, in a way, day one tells the whole story of the Bible. Yeah, let there be light. They're out of darkness

God contains the darkness puts a boundary on it and says here your night shall stop and then comes day and That's a way it's not a day in the way that we think of day where the sun comes up No, no, because it's not even on the scene. Yeah, yeah, this is God's pure life and light and glory. It's a picture of eternal life. It's a picture of God's own being that will bring an end to darkness and permeate the cosmos with divine light. And so every day after that gets an evening and morning, which the sun isn't created till day four, so it's weird there's evening and morning. It's weird for us. But in their imagination, the sun is just simple.

Sorry, not just their imagination. In the biblical world view, the sun is a physical symbol of a power even greater than it. And then the Sabbath day, there is no evening and morning in that in the same way as day one. It's just light. Yeah, just all you need is day one light. Yeah, day one light. That's it.

Yeah. Okay, thank you. I just need to process that through. Okay, so this is everything that's in the air. Jesus comes on to the scene and the gospel of Luke presents his first like public appearance. And what's he talking about? He's doing something on the Sabbath, talking about the Jubilee. So let's read the story.

Luke 4, verse 14. Starting in verse 14. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the spirits. And news about him spread through all the surrounding district, and he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as it was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he stood up to read. The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him and he opened the book and found the place

where it was written, this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set those who are oppressed, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down in the eyes of all those in the synagogues were fixed on him and he began to say to them, of all those in the synagogues were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Yeah, yeah, it's a past or a perfect tense has been fulfilled. That means it's a past event with ongoing implications, present implications. Okay. Yeah, dude. This is a mic drop moment. If they have microphones back then. Yeah. So there's two clues, Luke gives us here. It's the day that he shows up at synagogue.

Sabbath. Sabbath. So we've got the seven day on our minds. And then it just so happens that the reading from the prophets is from Isaiah, and it's from a paragraph talking about the Jubilee. But remember, we talked about Isaiah 61, because it's not just talking about

the every 49 year Jubilee. This is, remind me, what is it about? Yes, I'm sorry. That's a kidding. So Isaiah 61 was this culminating moment where the servant who God and Isaiah 49 appoints as Israel on the mission to the people of Israel and to be a light to the nations and

to announce the good news of the restoration of the New Jerusalem and God's coming to live in his new temple and all this. And this figure is anointed, which is what happens to kings by prophets. And he's announcing the year of the Lord's favor, it's a time of release. This is all the vocabulary from the year of Jubilee. But in the prophets, this is a way of talking about the ultimate Jubilee. The ultimate Jubilee on the other side of Israel's exile. Yeah.

Yeah. So what Jesus is claiming is that the ultimate Jubilee that the prophets pointed to has begun. It has begun. Here it is. I'm doing it. It's a massive claim. It's a massive claim.

The thing that you've been hoping for. The thing that all of our people. The final rest. Yes. Yes. That all the battles have been for and all the everything, generation after generation, century after century, empire after empire. This thing we've been waiting for, it started.

Yeah, here it is. I'm bringing it into being. He just came from the baptism and the testing and the wilderness shows up in his hometown. What people say after this is, wait, isn't this Joseph's son? I think we know this guy's brothers. Yeah, he's claiming delight. He's bringing the ultimate Jubilee. Oh yeah, totally. It's like, yeah, what a scene. I was just audacious. And he's in a small town synagogue. That's a rithme.

I forget, there's still been a lot of archeological work in Nazareth. It's got a population of under a thousand. I mean, it's, yeah, it's not a big town. In the first century. It's like a one-stop-like town. Totally. Yeah.

Yeah. So, he chooses his hometown, which is a small town. Yeah. I mean, this is like, we've used lots of analogies in the past, you know, of like announcing you're the president of a country. When there's been no election. Yeah, no election, and you go to some small town.

Yeah, but you go to small town, and I don't know, West Texas or something. And, you know, just not the place where you would expect. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc Okay, now let's just pay attention. A couple nerdy things, I don't know, people, I think this kind of stuff is cool. If you line up the quotation of Isaiah, that Jesus read from, and then the Hebrew version of Isaiah, 61, you notice some tweaks.

And this is typical for not just in the New Testament, but just in Jewish literature, but constantly hyperlinking multiple texts. So, this quotation for Isaiah 61 has actually inserted an extra phrase that wasn't in Isaiah 61, but it's a phrase from elsewhere in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 58. It's the phrase to release the oppressed. So in the version of Isaiah 61 that we have here in Luke 4, the release of captives and setting free the oppressed, there's two phrases of

liberation or release. There's only one in the Hebrew version, but there's been a little seasoning of Isaiah 58. And if you go read Isaiah 58, how we won't necessarily do it, it's from Isaiah 58 verse 6. But it's a whole chapter on how Israel has been defiling the Sabbath by not feeding the poor on the Sabbath. She just lays into them. He's just like, you guys go celebrate Shabbat. But you let the poor just go hungry. And you just let me hungry naked people who were sick and hurting, and you don't have to do anything for them. And he's just like this, is a farce.

He's really ticked off the prophet, Isaiah. But then he says, isn't this the Sabbath that I choose to divide your bread with a hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him, to not hide yourself from your own kin? And then the prophet says, if Israel can learn to obey the Sabbath in that way, then verse 8, then your light will shine like the dawn. Genesis 1, will. Genesis 1, day 1 imagery, your light will shine

like the dawn, your restoration will spring forth like the plants spring up from the ground in Genesis 1. Righteousness will go before you the glory of Yahweh that illuminated on day 1 will be your rear guard. So this is in the wilderness. Oh yeah, the Exodus. Yeah, the glory is leading them, but now it's God's faithfulness to the covenant. Isn't it also when they were fleeing from Egypt? Isn't that the description?

Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, it went behind them to separate them from the Egyptians. Yeah. Verse nine, then you will call and Yahweh will answer, you'll cry out and he'll say, I'm right here. If you remove the oppressive... Oh yeah, sorry, okay, yeah, and he goes on into it. But that's the images of God's immediate presence like in the garden walking in their midst. So all this garden imagery, which is all connected to, if you do the Sabbath right,

you get a taste of Eden. And when you're in Eden, Eden has room for everybody. Yeah. So Jesus chooses just one little line from Isaiah 58. He just throws it in. And throws it into Isaiah 61. It's an interesting kind of rabbi move. The tallest. Because like if you're following along, like if you know what he's reading, you're like,

wait a second, he just threw that Oh, I see wisdom. Yeah, cuz I they 61 is about the year of Favor jubilee yeah, but he throws in a line that's about the Sabbath every seventh day Yeah, cuz they're about the same thing. Yeah, it is in his reading of the scriptures. Yeah, so yeah I we've talked about it. Um. The key word is release or freedom. The Greek word is offesis. Actually make sure I get the accents right. Any Greek nerds listen. Oh, it is offesis.

Yeah, offesis. Offesis. Yeah, letting go, releasing. Releasing. It's the word that was translated as, yeah, release. The seventh year release, you let the land go free from slavery to you. You let your slaves go free. So what's interesting is we're going to see in Luke.

This is also a common Greek word for me releasing you from something you owe me or in a way that you wronged me. And in English, we say, I forgive you. Not, I release you. But in this way of saying it in Greek, you would say, I release you. I release you. And it's the metaphor of sin as a debt.

Mm. I like that. Yeah. So release from oppression, release from hunger, release from homelessness, release from military occupation, and release from the debt of our sins. These are all bundled into one thing in this concept. Hmm, that's cool. Israel's exile is a result of their sin. So to announce offices, to announce forgiveness, to announce liberation, which is forgiveness for our sins that landed us in slavery to the

foreign powers. I think when we've talked about this theme before, in our minds we tend to separate God forgives me of my sins from a change in my physical circumstances. Right. And in this story, those are injured woven, because their circumstances are the result of their sins. I guess part of me flinches when we talk that way because then we're just one step away from like a prosperity gospel. Oh, interesting. Oh, I was not expecting that that's what you were gonna say. So, tell me about that.

Well, forgiveness of my sins, I'm in now a right relationship with God. You connect that with then the change in my situation, being freed from captivity, what's my captivity? I don't have enough resources. I don't have enough, or maybe I'm, you know, enslaved in some way. And there is a connection, but then I just, I feel that kind of like, or you play that up and all of a sudden now you're just like the reason

everything's about prosperity. But prosperity in what sense? He does specify, along with Isaiah 61, it's good news for the poor and the blind and oppressed. So people usually don't get access to the goods. They get them and that's prosperity. That is, it is prosperity. But who's saying this?

And then the context of what kind of movement, how are the poor going to experience release? Jesus from this moment's gonna start throwing banquets. And then it's people, and who's funding these banquets? Not Jesus. Yeah. It's people who decide to start sharing. Doing Isaiah 58.

Israelite start sharing, like Zacchaeus. That's in the gospel of Luke And he's like oh my gosh. I've been depriving all these people taking too much. Yeah big party I'm gonna pay back even more than what I took from people. Yeah offices So the vehicle of prosperity is people sharing with each other. Yeah, it's into that have a different it does It's interesting because like, like, okay, there's two different ways my mind's going here. One is towards prosperity, gospel.

It's a new form of selfishness in a way sometimes. Oh, it can be. It can be. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, in the way I'm thinking of it. Yeah, by turn to God, He'll release material blessing into my life. That's in my life.

Yeah, that's a way way that's a mindset. Yeah. And then there's kind of what I grew up in, which is like, let's not, let's just talk about it in a spiritual sense. You're forgiven, it's not about material. But then there's the way that it seems like the gospel of Luke is thinking of it, is like, what is material and does have to do with prosperity, but in a very unselfish way. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where it's like, it's giving out to others so that when you realize that Jubilee has begun, you can now live in a way that shares very freely so that people who don't have can join the banquet. That's what. Yes. So here, let's see Luke. This is programmatic for Luke. And this announcement of Jesus is setting the program for everything Jesus is going to do

in like the next six chapters. Actually, the whole book. But this word, offices, is a key repeated word in the stories to follow. What does Jesus start doing? After chapter four, he heals a man with diseased skin. And then says to the man, hey, go to the temple. You can go to the temple now, show the priest. Yeah. They're going to be blown away. And you can go be in the temple now. Yeah. Because

because La Presse was made him unholy. Made him ritually impure. That's right. Yeah. The next story is the story about the paralyzed man carried by his friends. Oh, it is. Yeah. What Jesus says to him, as a young man, your sins are, and he uses the verb, a fiamme. It's the verb. Your sins are released. And for, I think for West, at least for me, for many years, I read that story and it's like, oh, that's cool. But I'm sure the guy actually wants to walk. And of course, Jesus is going to do that. But in Jesus' mind, oh, that's cool, but I'm sure the guy wants to walk. And of course, Jesus is gonna do that, but in Jesus' mind, again, your circumstances

and your relationship to God, it's all one bundle. You're being released from oppression is one way to think about Jesus' healings. It's release, release. In this case, from the powers of darkness and mortality and death, corrupt our bodies. For Jesus in this moment, releasing the man of his sins was connected.

Is it like completely connected to this idea of his body being... Think of, in John, the story of the blind man and the disciples asked, hey, who's sinned, this guy or his parents? Because we know people don't end up blind, who's sinned? This guy or his parents? Yeah. Because we know people don't end up blind unless somebody's sinned.

Right. And Jesus says, it's the wrong question. Yeah. Like neither this man nor his sin. But I'll tell you what, it's gonna happen. God's gonna use this man's blindness and his healing to show God's glory. So Jesus doesn't automatically connect sin with suffering.

Okay. But there is a need for release from sins So Jesus doesn't automatically connect sin with suffering. But there is a need for release from sins in a cosmic sense, in the age of sin and death and exile. In the cosmic sense, why does anyone lose function of their body? Correct. Because of where in the age of sin? Where in the age of mortality and slavery to the powers. We're being ground back to the dust.

Correct. The liberation from that is connected. It's the same idea as the liberation from our moral feelings and our... Yeah, I mean, it's hard for us to do in English because when Jesus says to this guy, your sins are forgiven. That word forgiven just, I guess it hindered us from being able to hear the double nuance of release of for what Jesus is saying Whereas to say you are

Released from your sins. Yeah, they're holding captive. Yeah. Yeah, it's like your your sins are released You have the burden image, you know wait are the sins released or are you released? What he says is your sins are released. Your sins are let go. The sins are let go. Yeah, you could say it. You could make it him the subject by saying you are the one released, but your sins are being released.

It's interesting. It's like a reversal. Like a slave is released. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. But the sin is released. A debt slave is enslaved because his debt is like a weight or a burden. He owes somebody money.

So to be free to the slave is for your debt to be released. Correct. Your debt is released. Nice. So to be under the power of death and mortality. Is a type of debt. Is a type of debt. There's a type of death. And that's what you are released from.

They are released and you are no longer under their power influence. Release sounds like what you do to a prisoner is release them from his jail cell. But here, we're not talking about that. We're talking about letting go. Yeah, I mean, here, it's literally your broken body is a form of slavery and debt

to this mortal world. A lot of people experience that. Yes, yes. I'm starting to experience that slowly. Slowly. My lower back is for sure. More and more. So yeah, the story is important

because I struggled with it for many years because I don't have the same connection between slavery to death and needing forgiveness. I think because we just think, oh, this guy is individual sins. I mean, I'm sure the guy probably did and said some lame things. Yeah. But the point is he, along with all of us, need to be released from the power of sin and death. And that's what's happening. Jesus names it in that moment. In the story, he says, your sins

are forgiven, but then when he heals his body, does he use the same word? He says, which, he says to the Pharisees, which is easier to say this guy sins are released or to say, hey, get up and walk. Yeah, okay. And then so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority, has God's authority on earth to release sins. And then he tells the guy to get up and walk. Now this could be just a semantic thing that's not what we're talking about, but that word release to me isn't hard. It's not getting at because it's release is to me a liberation word for the thing being released. But what we're talking about is a liberation from the person who was captive to the thing we're releasing.

I understand. So you are released from your sins. That's how I would use it in English. And that's the idea. That's the idea. So but the sins are released. They're, but what's a word that we could use there? They're let go there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's connected to the image of the day of atonement, which is sending out the goat. They're sent out.

You confess Israel's sins over this goat. Not the one you kill. The one you kill, the whole point is that it's blameless. Yeah. That one stays. You kill it and it ascends before God in your place as you're representative. The one that gets the sins is exiled. Exiled, that's the word actually that was coming to my mind. It's every least. Oh, interesting. Your sins are exiled.

Your sins are exiled. Your sins are sent into exile. Yeah, they're not released into freedom. They're released into a boundary. Isn't that a good example of where a literal translation your sins are released Doesn't get across the idea right which is you are released from the power influence I think that's and that's just because of the way we use the word release It's just yeah part of our yeah, that's right, But the word a facist. Yeah means to let go

But it's the word for the seventh year release of the land you release the land to let it lie fallow for a Seven year. So it could be so it's a neutral phrase like what? It's really the situational Whether it's like you're releasing it into freedom like the land you're releasing it So it could be free or if you're releasing something into exile so that you don, you're releasing it so it could be free, or if you're releasing something into exile so that you don't have to be burdened by it anymore. Yeah, yeah.

So a debt, you release it into exile so that it's now outside, we use the same word. Okay, sorry, it's very semantics, but I like it. No, don't be sorry. These are always actually good moments when you're pressing for clarity. Next story? Next story. In chapter 6, Jesus goes on the Sabbath.

It's the next story that takes place on the Sabbath. This is chapter 6, verse 6. He goes to synagogue, he's teaching just like he did when he read for my day at 61, and there's a guy who's right hand, it's deformed, and the religious leaders are watching him closely, and he knows it, and so he intentionally goes forward and restores this guy's hand on Shabbat. Which you're not supposed to do? Well, then they get into this debate here, which is the scribes were watching to see if he would heal on Shabbat

and they were looking for a way to accuse him. These are the stories that I think, again, we can misunderstand why this would make some people frustrated, because we tend to think, why? That's legalistic. That's legalistic. Yeah.

And I think it's just because we don't understand what Sabbath, what it meant to people. So you don't heal on the Sabbath. Is that a thing? This Sabbath controversy, the one about Jesus picking grain on the Sabbath. These aren't debates about. Jesus is outmoding the Sabbath, saying it's no more. This isn't about Jesus not practicing the Sabbath. Yeah, he obviously practiced the Sabbath.

He obviously did, it was important to him. So what this is, is this is a inner, Jewish, Bible nerd debate about. How do you practice that? How do you practice Shabbat? Yeah, that's what this is about. It's not like, oh, there was Judaism, but that's a religion of

legalism and works. Jesus came preaching a new religion of grace. No more Sabbath. It's total misunderstood. No, where does Jesus say that? Yeah, that's right. It's a debate about what types of behaviors are most appropriate on the Sabbath? Sure. What's not appropriate. Yeah. Which becomes for every new setting, kind of a cultural debate. Yes. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Like we talked about earlier with the UKRA clubs or not. Yeah, yeah, no, that's exactly right. So this is just a little excerpt from a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by RT France. If you like the Gospel of Matthew, go by RT France's commentary.

I've been using it for years. It's such an amazing resource. So he tries to help readers understand Jewish discussions about Shabbat. And so he says, fundamental to the discussion of the rabbis was an agreed list found in something called the Mishnah of 39 categories of activity, which were to be classified as work. Some are very specific, like writing two letters or erasing like a wax tablet.

Some people have papyrus, most people wrote notes on wax tablets. So erasing in order to write two letters. So preparing your wax tablets to write some letters. Others are really broad and need considerable specification, like building or demolition, pulling down the building to build. At what point are you building? Yeah, totally. Yeah, how many bricks?

Yeah. Or how how many bricks? Yeah. Or how many fence posts? Just playing Legos with your kids on the Sabbath building. Yeah, that's right. The last entry, the last entry, I'm in trouble. That's the, the last entry is taking anything from one domain to another, taking thing from one place to another.

That one is so open-ended as to cover a vast range of daily activity Yeah, pulling something early oven. Yeah, moreover the 39 categories of work Don't explicitly include traveling but this did come to be regarded as work So a Sabbath day journey was limited to 2000 cubits a little over half a mile So these two rules together, that don't move one thing to another. And domain. And domain and not walking too far.

This made Sabbath life potentially so inconvenient, Francis, that the Pharisees developed an elaborate system of boundary extensions, they're called Erwin. So exceptions. What are the reasons? I'm admiring. You have to break these89 lists to allow more freedom

of movement without violating the basic rules. Sure. So the eruf system, this is a whole section of the mission is the eruf system. It illustrates an essential element of all of this scribal debate about Sabbath law. The aim was not to make life difficult, though it must have seemed like that to outsiders. It was to work out a way for people to cope with life's practicalities within the limits

of their understanding of work, and the elaboration of details is intended to leave nothing to chance so that no one can inadvertently come anywhere near violating the Torah, the rabbi spoke of these discussions as putting up a fence around the law. So his point is let's be charitable. These people want to honor God and they formed it form to tradition that did this and they didn't experience it as oppressive for them. It was a way to worship God on Shabbat and not do the things you don't really know. Interesting, well they saw it as uncomfortable and inconvenient, but that was the point.

Yes, yeah, that's right. And so, Ted. But sometimes it gets so uncomfortable and convenient, it loses the point. And by recognizing that, they gotta add more stipulations. So, in that sense, I think that is the point of debate between Jesus and the Pharisees in this story. Yeah. I think our mistake is to automatically associate

this discussion of 39 definitions of work with legalism. You know, it's no more legalistic than a group of people saying, hey, you know, we want to find a way together to honor God doing XYZ. So we're going to do these practices. Yeah. And that's like putting the fence around the law. It's a metaphor I've thought about before in terms of, I mean, especially if you grew up in like a Baptist rooted, like, like kind of my tradition was a bit. It's like, there is that practice,

there is that sense of like, okay, here's the thing we don't wanna get involved in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's draw the boundary line around it. So if we keep that boundary, then there's no way we're gonna actually do that thing. Yeah, yeah, sure. So we don't wanna have sex, we're not even gonna dance.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, sure. So we don't have sex. We're not even going to dance. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. That kind of sense. Sure. And while that can lead to what we think of as legalism, the purpose was to try to honor. That's right. Yeah. It is not inherently or necessarily legalistic to clarify practices as a community, we're gonna live this way to honor God. But it can become that. Especially if you just really want to dance. As a sign of the Jubilee, this is dance. So, all the way back to the Paralise man. Their response is, there are six days to exert energy. Yeah, we're fine with you feeling.

That's great. Yeah, that's right. You got six whole days to do it. Yeah, totally, but on Shabbat. Come on, don't screw up Shabbat. Yeah, and Jesus says, listen, the way I define Shabbat, let me ask you this question. Is it lawful to do good or to do harm, to do good or he's generous this one,

generous this one and two language? Good or evil? To save life or to end life? So for him, it's about good and evil, life and death. If it's about the restoration of somebody to wholeness in life, dude, that's what Shabbat is about. There's no more proper activity to do than the thing. It's a debate about what kinds of behavior

get at the meaning of Shabbat. And in Jesus' mind, this is exactly what Shabbat is about. The restoration of life. This is really, really fascinating to me, because let's think about Shabbat as a practice. So the Shabbat as a future reality. Let's call that the eschatological Shabbat. Ultimate Shabbat. But then there's Sabbath as a ritual, which the point of that is to which the point of that is to, we've used the word play act, prepare ourselves, practice,

and even begin to taste what that ultimate Sabbath will be like. And what Jesus is doing is that he isn't practicing Sabbath in that second category. He's actually inaugurating the ultimate Sabbath. So it's almost like they're doing two different things. That's right. Yeah, that's a good way to put it in. In a certain way. Yeah. Because if you're practicing Sabbath, you're working really hard to rest in an unnatural way that doesn't actually. It's inconvenient. It's inconvenient and it's unnatural. Yeah. And everything's fighting against it, like the actual rest. So you're creating all these stipulations to help you figure it out.

Yes. What Jesus is doing is he's actually truly resting and ruling in the way of the Sabbath. And so like, if you take Jesus' logic of like, well, yeah, what should you do? Good or evil, then on Sabbath, we should all just be going to the hospitals, taking care of people. Like, that should be the Sabbath practice. For us, that would be work, because we're fighting against death and decay, but for Jesus, that wasn't work. Yeah, that was just him being Lord the Sabbath. Yeah, yeah. That's helpful. I've never thought to put it that way. For us to honor the Sabbath as a mortal being, honoring the Sabbath. We can't deal with the way Jesus did it. I can't, unless God perhaps through the spirit. Does it through me?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, there you get into the gifts of the Spirit. Yeah, sure. The sometime bring the life of Eden and to someone's body. That's true. People get healed. Yeah.

But not in a predictable, controllable way. So it seems by its pattern throughout history, whereas Jesus could be led. Well, actually, Jesus was led by the Spirit to do these things. He didn't heal every person, came into contact with, but he healed many. He's an example of a human being led by Spirit. Yeah, that's right. So, all the way back to your point, he's not just saying,

listen, I have a different way of honoring the Shabbat. What he's saying is, listen, what the Shabbat means. It's the thing that I'm bringing into existence. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. Yeah. Which, yeah, and that's helpful to me, because it's not just about Jesus' anti-legalism. It's also why were they threatened by him?

These chapters in Luke and in Matthew are all the tension mounting between Jesus and the religious leaders. Not just about what he does on Shabbat, but because of his claims about himself. That he's the one bringing the two away. How can you be the one bringing the two away? So for him to do this on the Sabbath also is a claim to his identity. And that I'm the one bringing the Sabbath. That's right. So they're threatened by him on multiple fronts.

And you know, you can see once somebody becomes a public figure, you know, they're scrutinized and criticized for things that become ridiculous, but they're just, you know, fault lines of much larger, you know, cracks underneath areas of difference and divide. Yeah, they're not following everyone around seeing if they're gonna put a band-aid on someone on the Sabbath. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. So that is a helpful perspective too, that he's already a public figure with mounting opposition. That's one layer of what's going on in this story. But I like your observation too. He's saying this is the fulfillment of why we do this at this.

This is the whole reason. So one way to characterize the kingdom of God, announcement of Jesus is as a jubilee celebration. And everywhere he goes, he's creating environments where people are sharing with one another so that the poor are released from poverty precisely through loving their neighbors themselves Someone else or poverty is released from them And that is a release from sins.

It's people coming out from under the power of sin to love each other because we, God has visited us in our exile and not allowed us to rot here in our sins and death, but he's visited us in the person of Jesus. So what better response than to have a party and celebrate God's generosity with the Jubilee? And so that, and every part of Jesus' ministry, all the people, we didn't even finish our list. But I mean, it just goes on.

A widow receives her son back. The blind lepers, lame deaf, are healed. A prostitute has her sins released. Same phrase. Jesus heals a woman with a hunched over back and he says she's being released from the bonds of the Satan. So exiled in our mortal bodies is a form of bond slavery. So this is a really big deal to Jesus. The Sabbath and Jubilee are all interconnected in his vision of the kingdom of God coming on earth. 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1c 1 tbc 1 tbc

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1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc Let me ask you one more question, that releasing someone of their obligation, which is forgiveness, releasing someone and forgiving them. Same word as being released from sickness or debt. Or debt. And so he can go to a prostitute and say, your sins are forgiven. Yes, yes. But he could also go to paralyzed person. So your body is now released. Yeah. From sin. Yeah.

Because it's the sin in a cosmic sense is causing all of our bodies to decay. And sin in a cosmic sense has created the structures in which people are oppressed. Correct. So to release people from oppression is also then in some, releasing us from power of sin. But just, and two different categories that I just wanna keep separate in my mind. And I can even tell with certain people I've talked to, it's important to keep those separate in your mind, and specifically for one reason.

There's this fear of like, if I just go and help release people from poverty without releasing them from what I would call their sin, they're just gonna take advantage of you. And it's not actually going to be released from poverty. And it doesn't seem like Jesus had that concern as much. Like you just kind of really did both the same time saying how both were connected.

But he always connected the two. Yeah, they were inseparable for him. And maybe a part of it too is, at least, it's the culture I know, and I grew up in. We tend to also think of the social vehicles for addressing those issues, namely nonprofit entities, right? Or parrot church ministries. Whereas on this model, the communities that he leaves behind in a town after announcing the kingdom of God is the vehicle for doing this thing, for sharing and releasing the

poor from their poverty by them being invited into the weekly Jesus meal. I guess that's the post-resurrection. In other words, the social entity that Jesus leaves behind to keep the Sabbath, Jubilee thing going is a group of people who live in a place living out this way of life. Now, some of those people might come together and form a non-profit and do that.

But my reason for saying that is, but the whole rationale for that group of people doing what they're doing is to celebrate Jesus. And in the name of Jesus. And to celebrate that what Jesus did isn't just helping me on a personal level. It's actually disarming cosmic evil. Yeah, that's right.

And I find that I am freed from my slavery to consumer goods, right? When I start giving them up for the people in my Jesus community who don't have the things that I have, we're back. Man, this is what the book of Acts is about. Why is Luke obsessed with telling us about how much people are sharing with each other in the book of Acts? He's showing us pictures of people living the Jubilee. Right?

What else is it about? Living the Sabbath is living generously. Yes, yeah. Yeah, because if you believe there's enough, and that's the seventh day, you don't need to go get what you need. In fact, yeah, have a party and share. Yeah, that's what you do on day one through six is you're getting what you need. In fact, yeah, have a party and share. Yeah. That's what you do on day one through six is you're getting what you need. Yeah, totally. That's the mentality. Seventh day mentality,

it's got to be completely different. Yeah. You don't gather, but it'll be provided for you and in a bun-dip one. Yeah, that's right. So, I want to go back. I think the fear that some people have, I think mostly certain traditions of Protestants have, about this overlap of what came pejoratively, unfortunately, to be called a social gospel. Right, social justice. But a social gospel that was a mid 20th century term, meaning that social initiatives are an expression of the gospel.

Right. And then you get groups reacting to that, that say, no, the verbal proclamation of God forgiving you from your sins and preparing eternal life for you after your die, that's the gospel. It's the words of that story. And if you don't address that issue,

then feeding them won't help, ultimately. And even that dichotomy is a fabrication. It's a modern fabrication. Even the Protestant Church in America, Mark Null has written extensively on this. I mean, just the origin of homeless shelters in American cities. It's remarkable. It's all local churches. In the early 1900s, the homeless shelter movement in American cities was a local church movement throughout the country. And it was before there was this dichotomy. And so when a local church that announces release from sins in the name of Jesus and then

engages the poor in their neighborhood, I just think for in Jesus' mind they're not different things. You just think for in Jesus' mind, they're not different things. You just one thing. Because what else do you do with your stuff? Once you realize Jesus is forgiven you, you start sharing it. Like what do you do with your stuff? Once you realize Jesus is forgiven you and the cosmic order is being redone in the way that there is.

That's right. I'm not for everyone. So what more natural thing to do on Shabbat than, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, cool. There you go. Yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, thank you. It's important to speak to that issue. So we talked about Jesus in Luke doing Sabbath stuff. Yeah. Where to next.

Where to next? We could spend more time in the Gospels. I just want to touch on one cool next we're going to go to a saying of Jesus about the easy oak come to me and find rest. Yeah. We're going to look at patterns of seven and stabbeth in the architecture of the gospel of John. And then maybe we should talk about the letter to the Hebrews a little bit. You guys, thank you for listening to the Bible Project podcast. We're going to keep on this series of the seventh day rest. In real time, we're releasing this in the month of December 2019 and we're taking the whole of this month to just say thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of our

listeners and supporters, people who are getting behind the Bible project in an enthusiastic way. We are just so grateful for you all. And we love getting to make all of this content. And we're going to keep doing it as Lord Willis. If you want to find out more about what we're up to at the Bible project or some kind of like big picture dreams that we have for the project as a whole, check out our website at thebibeproject.com or thebibeproject.com slash vision.

Hey also, we've been taking this last month of 2019 on the podcast to highlight some other really cool stories and things happening around the Bible project. We want, in this episode to introduce you briefly to the Japanese localization team. They're doing really amazing work and you'll get to hear from them in just a moment. If you have questions about the seventh day rest theme that we've been discussing, we'd love to hear from you and we want to discuss those in question and response episodes coming up. So feel free to send us a question. You can email it to info at join the BibleProject.com. You can send a video or an audio file.

Try to make it around 20 to 30 seconds and we'd love to hear from you. The Bible Project is produced by Dan Gummal. Theme music is by the band Tent. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Hello, Konnichiwa. My name is Hishouuga, and I'm the Project Manager for the Japanese Version of the Bible Project. And I'm Yusubuya, and I narrate the voice of Tim, I usually write in direct plays.

Something unique about our project is that we are a remote team, which means some of our team members have a few hundred kilometers north, or west of Tokyo, and actually are animator lives in Canada. In December 2019, we're launching our first videos from the READScripture series and the Luke Act series, and we'll be releasing videos regularly in 2020. I'm really excited to be launching these videos, because I believe they are incrediblyそして、会社会会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、 2020の動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会についての動画を楽しんでいるので、会社会会 you