Matthew 12:8: For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is an institution, a rule, a commandment, a marker of time, a social practice that distinguishes Jews from Gentiles. It is also a basic structure of human history.

The creation week begins with the creation of light and the separation of light and darkness, and climaxes with God entering into rest on the Sabbath. God labors for six days, dividing and moving and filling, and then sits enthroned to enjoy His creation.

For Adam, though, the sequence is different. The Sabbath is the first day of his existence. Adam begins in God’s rest, and then moves toward labor, and he labors so that he will someday enter again into the consummated rest of God. Humanity begins in Sabbath and moves toward the Sabbath of the new creation, when we will sit enthroned with the Creator, and rest from our labors.

Jesus is the Lord of this Sabbath. He is Lord of Sabbath because He is the one who determines the rules and regulations of rest for His people. He is Lord of Sabbath because He is the Creator who rested on the seventh Day. And He is Lord of Sabbath as the last Adam who will rest on the Last Day, the seventh Day of the week of history.

Sabbath is our beginning, and Sabbath is our end. But Sabbath is also in the midst of history. In the middle of history, Jesus, the Lord of Sabbath, rose from the dead on the day after the Sabbath, and took His throne at the Father’s right hand, to rest from His labors. In the middle of history, the Last Adam has entered the end of history; in the middle of the week, Jesus has reached the end of the week, and we reach it through Him.

Since Jesus has entered rest, he, as the Lord of the Sabbath, brings us every week into that coming Sabbath. Every week, at this table, in His kingdom, we sit enthroned, in an attitude of rest, to eat and drink from this table.

Each Lord’s Day, the coming Sabbath intervenes into the present. Through Jesus and His Spirit, we who began in Sabbath are caught up into His Sabbath, so that may journey toward Sabbath.