Friday, March 21, 2008

Norah Rose Lovin' the Park


A Day Off

Every Wednesday night as we wrap up worship practice, there is this euphoric feeling that sweeps over me as I realize that my week is almost over… you see, Thursday is my day off, so when we sing that last song on Wednesday night and I turn out the lights and lock the doors of the church, I’m done, and I’m off! I turn off my phone, turn off my alarm clock and uncoil for twenty-four hours. It’s an awesome feeling to have that day off, and it’s not a deal where my job is killing me or anything like that… I love my job and my life, but the Apostle Paul did talk about facing daily what he called “the pressure of my concern for all the churches” and it’s awesome to take one day a week and just lay that down, letting someone else deal with it and not picking it up again until Friday.

Today is Good Friday… the day we remember what our Lord did when He laid His life down to pay for our sins. Traditionally Christians get together on this day to observe a solemn and sacred time of remembrance by singing songs and listening to the Scriptures that tell of our Lord’s death. I have been reading the book of Numbers lately and in doing so, I have realized just how appropriate this is. You see, when Jesus died, it was during the feast of Passover. He was, in fact, the true Passover lamb, and Numbers 28 talks about that feast and how God’s people were supposed to observe it.

“On the fourteenth day of the first month the Lord’s Passover is to be held. On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Present to the Lord an offering made by fire, a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect.”

They were supposed to observe Passover one day and then start a weeklong party the next day with a sacred assembly where no one was allowed to do any work. It was a full week of days off for the whole nation starting the day after Passover… well, almost everyone was off. There were some who still had work to do on the day after Passover: two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old… they had some pretty solemn work to do on that day, and that made me think of Jesus. On the day after Passover, when the whole country was having a day off, Jesus did His greatest work. Everyone stopped while He worked… while He paid.

I think God set it up this way because this is the whole picture of what it means to know Him. We can’t clean ourselves up or cover our wrong, but He can. This is what Sabbath is really all about. It’s not so much about resting, it’s about stopping… taking a day off from trying to do what we can’t do. We need to stop working for what we can’t pay for and let Jesus do the work for us. We need to lay it down, and let Him pick it up. When you get together with your brothers and sisters tonight, hold your sacred assembly and do no regular work, because it’s all been done. Just remember.

1 comment:

Cody Blair said...

Good stuff Lee on Good Friday. Thanks for the thoughts, hope you guys have a great Easter!

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