Many years ago in another part of the world, I was serving in a calling that required me to be in contact with many church leaders around the Stake. On a particular Sunday evening, I needed to make contact with several individuals and picked up the phone (this was before the days of mobile phones, text messaging and the internet). I specifically recall ringing one house, where the Bishop I spoke to was very polite on the phone. In the background, however, I heard a member of his household say, ‘What’s he doing ringing you now? Doesn’t he know the World Cup final is on?’

I imagine that amongst today’s congregation there are some who consider that watching sports is a suitable thing for the Sabbath; others who generally wouldn’t do so, but might make an exception for a big sporting event such as a World Cup final or Wimbledon final; and yet others who feel that keeping the Sabbath day holy means watching no sports whatsoever.

While many general authorities of the Church have expressed their opinions on what is or isn’t appropriate for the Sabbath day, there is officially no list of things we explicitly shouldn’t do. The current Church Handbook lists several things suitable to do, but not what to avoid. It is for each of us to prayerfully consider what is or isn’t suitable as we strive to keep the Sabbath day holy. This isn’t to downplay or minimise in any way the importance of the words and views of latter-day prophets and apostles, whose calling it is to give us guidance in our covenant lives. It is, however, in keeping with the prophet Joseph Smith’s statement that we teach correct principles and let people govern themselves. 

The same wasn’t always true in the days of the Saviour’s mortal ministry, where, over centuries, misguided Pharisees had built up countless rules governing every aspect of a person’s conduct on the Sabbath. I’ll come back to this later.

The origins of the Sabbath day take us all the way back to the beginning, of course. After completing His work of creation, God, ‘rested on the seventh day from all my work, and all things which I had made were finished, and I, God, saw that they were good; And I, God, blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it I had rested from all my work which I, God, had created and made.’ (Moses 3:2-3)

It was in remembrance of this Rest of the Lord that the ancient Israelites were first commanded to keep the Sabbath day holy. In coming to the third of the ten great commandments, Moses taught the people, ‘Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work …’ (Exodus 20:8-10)

As I’ve pondered these verses over the last couple of weeks a number of things have stood out to me and I’d like to briefly talk about three of these. I hope you’ll forgive me for some repetition.

First is the idea that the Sabbath day references the Lord’s rest. God blessed and sanctified His day of rest and as we keep it holy, so we may learn to join the Lord in His rest. To enter the Rest of the Lord in its fullest sense is to enter exaltation, having proven ourselves worthy in all things. We learn more about this when we do this symbolically when receiving our endowments in modern temples. It is significant that Moses received the ten commandments while upon a mountain, symbolic anciently of temples.

In this life, one way we enter the Rest of the Lord is when we have godly peace in our hearts and our minds; when, through the Holy Ghost, the sanctifying power of Christ’s grace has washed our garments clean. Alma taught this to the Nephites, saying that there were many who …

‘… were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb. Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.’ (Alma 13:11-12)

If this seems beyond us, Alma reassures his audience and us that we can begin now, saying, ‘I would that ye should humble yourselves before God, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, that ye may also enter into that rest.’ (Alma 13:13)

The Sabbath day, as a day of rest, helps us remember and strive towards this goal.

Second, the words used to describe the Lord’s actions towards the Sabbath – to bless and to sanctify it – bring immediately to my mind the words of the Sacrament prayers: our partaking of the bread and water – both of which are blessed and sanctified – in remembrance of our Saviour Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. Ultimately, of course, it is only through the grace of Christ, available because of His atonement, that we can be sanctified and enter the Rest of the Lord.

We regularly partake of the Sacrament on the Sabbath day, and following His resurrection, the Lord’s Jerusalem followers were told that they should indeed remember this crowning event of the atonement – the resurrection – on their Sabbaths from then onward.

When Christ visited the Nephites following His resurrection, He instituted there the ordinance of the Sacrament. I find the choice of words Jesus uses when teaching the people interesting. On the bread – blessed and sanctified – He taught that they should partake not solely in remembrance of His body, but rather, ‘… in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you.’ (3 Nephi 18:7)

What were the chief characteristics of the body the Saviour showed to the Nephites? It bore the scars of His atoning sacrifice – in His hands, in His feet and in His side. These scars the people had already witnessed individually as they had approached Him one by one at the beginning of this momentous day. In doing so, the people had also witnessed a second characteristic of the body Jesus showed them – it was a resurrected, perfected body.

When the people had drunk of the wine, He told them that they should, ‘… do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you …’ (3 Nephi 18:11).

In what ways did Christ shed His blood for us? In the garden of Gethsemane when he sweated great drops of blood, suffering for our pains, sicknesses, shortcomings, sins and every other way in which we are inadequate in this life; again on the cross; and finally, when he rose from the dead, His resurrected body shed forever that substance of mortality – blood – in a body of perfected flesh and bone and spirit. (See Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.199)

With these things in mind, when we partake of the bread and water of the Sacrament, we therefore remember what He did for us, what He does for us; and remember also to look forward to a time when, through the grace of Christ, we also are resurrected from the dead and, sanctified through Him, enter the eternal Rest of the Lord. This, on the Lord’s day of rest – the Sabbath.

The third thing I have pondered regarding the commandments for the Sabbath is that of keeping the day holy. God blessed and sanctified it. To sanctify something is to set it apart, to make it holy. It is for us to keep it that way in our own lives (see Exodus 20:8).

What does it mean to keep the Sabbath day holy? It is interesting to note that the Hebrew root word used for keep in this passage of scripture can have many connotations. One is that of exercising great care over – for example, taking care in how we do something and being diligent in doing so. Another related meaning is that of expressing careful attention to the obligations of a covenant or law. A third meaning is that of taking care of, or guarding. For example, the cherubim kept the way of the Tree of Life. (See Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, entry 2414). 

Taking these meanings together we can see that the Sabbath is for us to take great care in remembering our covenants with the Lord and maintaining their sanctity in our lives, that those same covenants, through Christ’s grace, may help us become sanctified ourselves.

When thinking of scriptural passages relating to the Sabbath, we often think of the Saviour during His mortal ministry. As I referenced earlier, the Pharisees had identified hundreds of things a ‘good’ Jew should do in order to keep the Sabbath day holy – so many that they could be felt more as a millstone around the neck of the people than a rest. Jesus rebuffed these false traditions. 

‘At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.’

Because it was forbidden to harvest food on the Sabbath, the Pharisees were greatly perturbed by this. They scolded Him, ‘But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.’

Jesus, being the one who had given ancient Israel the law of the Sabbath, knew that this holy day was thus for the benefit of men and women, not the other way round. Giving examples of how the Pharisees’ interpretation of the law had been righteously broken in Israel’s history, declared to them, ‘… the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.’ (See Matthew 12: 1-8)

Some time later, the Pharisees sought to trap the Saviour by presenting to Him a man with a withered hand, ‘And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.’

His disciples fed, He healed the afflicted. ‘The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath day,’ He said. And, ‘… it is lawful to do well on sabbath days.’ (See Matthew 12:1-13)

The context of these passages in Matthew’s record is equally important, however. Just prior to the gospel writer recording these events, he wrote of Jesus’ relationship with His Father. ‘… no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.’ (Matthew 11:27) As we seek in our lives to know better our Father in Heaven, we can only do that through His Son, even Jesus of Nazareth.

The scriptural record continues, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28-30)

This is the context for the object lessons about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of the Lord’s rest. As we keep the Sabbath day holy, we will surely come unto Christ, and through Him know also the Father, and enter the Rest of the Lord. Thus, as we rest from our worldly labours on the Sabbath day, we are able to spend time focussed more particularly on entering His rest.

May we each learn to more fully remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, that we may draw closer to Him and to His rest.

This is from a talk I gave in Sacrament meeting in 2023

© Jeffrey Collyer, 2023