Can I Take a Day Off?

By Preston Rhodes, Resonate Missoula

Introduction

In the second part of this blog series, which you can read here, we established that:

1. Jesus is the substance of the Old Testament Sabbath shadow.

2. Christians observe the Sabbath by ceasing to labor for their own righteousness, trusting instead that Christ’s finished work is sufficient as their righteousness. 

3. God has designed us to “work from rest”, meaning that the finished work of Jesus is the foundation for all our value, identity, and effort. 

4. Christians, therefore, do not hold to a Jewish practice of the Sabbath (resting from work one day in seven), but a Christian practice of the Sabbath (resting from works-righteousness every moment of our lives). 

In this third and final part, we will discuss the practical implications of this understanding of the Sabbath, with the hope of freeing us up to have a greater rest and joy in Christ and the life He has given us.

Can I Take A Day Off?

If the Old Testament Sabbath practice is fulfilled fully in Christ, and thus to practice the Sabbath we must simply trust in the finished work of Christ on our behalf, then we may be tempted to ask “Can I take a day off?” Even though the Old Testament Sabbath practice does not remain we cannot forget that God’s commands to Israel about Sabbath observance can remain instructive to us about God’s concern for our physical rest. God made us finite creatures. We must eat and sleep and rest to maintain our strength.. God does not intend for mankind to work constantly, but to periodically experience renewal and refreshment by resting. Many scientific studies are finding that taking one or two days a week to rest from your work actually increases health and productivity. As Scott Hubbard writes, “So, should Christians keep the Sabbath? In one sense, no: under the new covenant, no Christian is bound to the fourth commandment as such. But we may still decide to rest one day in seven — and indeed, wisdom seems to support the practice of imitating God’s own 6-and-1 pattern.”1

Therefore, please do not read this as some sort of prohibition against taking a day off. We all need to be taking a day off on some regular rhythm. In fact, I would even argue that most of you are not taking enough of a day off. Instead of truly resting in Christ during your day off, you have developed a strict list of spiritual activities you must accomplish to regain your right standing with God. This Pharisaical Sabbath practice does not lead to rest, but worry and shame. To guard against this incomplete practice of the Sabbath, here are three warnings I would give regarding your “day off”: 

1. Do not rely on these “days off” to catch up on all your time with Jesus. Our time with Jesus should not be a binge cycle, but a steady daily rhythm. Spend time with Jesus every day through prayer, Bible reading, and fellowship with other believers. If you don’t pick up your Bible all week and then cram three hours of reading into one day, you’re not feasting on the glories of Christ, you’re just checking passages off your reading list. 

2. These “days off” are not your Sabbath. If you are a Christian, then Jesus is your Sabbath. Your day off is just a day off, and that’s ok. Take a break, go on a hike, play some video games, sleep in, go hammocking–do something you love. Your body needs the rest provided by a day off. You don’t need to feel pressure to turn your day off into a transcendent, spiritual experience every week. Do not pretend that this day off is your way of experiencing the Sabbath rest God has designed for you. That Sabbath rest can only be found in Christ. 

3. Do not become legalistic about your “day off.” As some modern Christians have slowly readopted the Pharisaical understanding of the Sabbath, mostly through the influence of a few popular teachers, they’ve resumed the legalistic rigidity that the Pharisees were notorious for. We must remember that God’s commands to love your neighbor (Mark 12:31) and to keep your agreements (Matthew 5:37) supersede the comfort of a day off. That means that if Saturday is your day off and someone asks you if you can come help them move a couch, you do not get to say “sorry man, I would, but this is my day off.” And if you have committed to be a small group leader in your church, and on Saturday there is a Leadership Training, you do not get to say “sorry, I would, but this is my day off”. Be flexible, be sacrificial, and be selfless with your days off. 

If this understanding of the Sabbath is discouraging or makes you feel like you aren’t doing enough, then I fear you’ve missed my point. Correct understanding of the Sabbath should free you up to rest in Christ all the time and take days off whenever you need them without the guilt that comes with attempting to follow a legalistic Jewish Sabbath framework. Don’t chase shadows and miss the substance. Or, as C.S. Lewis says, don’t be a “child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”

Ultra-Practical Conclusion

Since I have undoubtedly ruffled a few feathers, I’ll get super practical and personal as I close. What does this look like in the personal life of Preston Rhodes? Take a look at my ideal week:

• Weekly - I try to make Thursday mornings my time off. Because Friday and Saturday are typically filled with evangelism events and leadership training, and Sunday is filled with the church gathering, Thursday is my most available day. I try to avoid scheduling meetings on Thursday mornings, but sometimes it’s unavoidable and that’s ok. On Thursdays, I sleep in later than usual, have a slow morning of eating breakfast and listening to the news or a sermon, and then get some yardwork or housework done while listening to a fiction book. If something interrupts my Thursday plans, sometimes I will move them to Friday but usually I just take what I can get, thank Jesus for my energy and health, and move on with my responsibilities. I never deny a responsibility or an opportunity to serve someone on account of my “day off.”

• Daily - I spend time with Jesus through Bible reading in the morning for 15-30 minutes, in prayer with Tracy for 5 minutes before bed, and in prayer throughout the day whenever something comes to mind. 

• Perpetually - I honor the Sabbath by remembering that God’s love for me rests on Christ’s finished work on the cross and not on anything I have done or could do. I work hard out of an overflow of thankfulness for Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf. 

If you read this and think “I could never do all this”, then again I fear you’ve missed my point. Sabbath rest is not about doing, it’s about celebrating, trusting, and resting. I pray that our church will be filled with Christians who are not ashamed of taking a day off to do what they love without a list of spiritual boxes they have to check, and who experience a full, joyful, and non-anxious Sabbath rest every moment of their lives through their belief that because of Christ’s work, we no longer have to labor for our own righteousness. 

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