And [Jesus] looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. (Mark 3.5)

Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. In the beginning, within His triunity, He modeled for us a time of rest and reflection after He completed the work of creation. In the law, spoken by His Spirit, He set down a day to be kept holy, set apart, honored by humanity as a day to rest. Over time though the people of God warped their blessed time of rest and reflection into a mandate of boredom and rigid displeasure; for what is more pleasing to God: to see His people fed in their hunger and freed from paralysis or seeing them needlessly starved and crippled?

And so Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath speaks to us as He did on that Sabbath day in the synagogue. He asks us not only what is lawful, but what is best. Whether we cast ourselves as the man with the withered hand, one of Jesus’ disciples or a hardhearted Pharisee, we must answer His question: How are we acknowledging His Lordship in our rest and reflection? As He surveys us, will He be grieved with what He finds? We see in the Lordship of Jesus His supremacy in our repose. We find in the meditation of our life, our brokenness and our need for a willing and gracious Savior. Jesus is ready to stretch His hand out and heal us. We will find restoration on the horizon when we honor Him for who He is: Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus, thank you for healing me and setting times to rejoice, days to rest and refresh myself in your presence. It is not the day for itself, but the day for you!