#third commandment

Primary Text | Matthew 17:1-9

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Dear People of God,

         Jesus took the disciples up the mountain six days later. That is a fact that could be easily overlooked when reading from this passage. “Six days later” means that the Transfiguration took place of all days on the Sabbath. This is noteworthy because when the voice from the cloud speaks, who we can safely identify as God the Father it says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” A similar event with the voice from the cloud happened in January when we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord—for when Jesus comes up from the water the voice says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased.” The difference, is that this time, on the day of the Transfiguration, the voice from the cloud adds the words, “Listen to him!” We will understand more fully the significance of this if we consider the meaning of the Sabbath.

         The Third Commandment commands us to “Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy.” We Christians often get confused about the Sabbath and what it means for us today. There are two ways that we commonly misunderstand the Third Commandment. The first way that we understand the Sabbath incorrectly is to understand it as a strict 24-hour period of which we do nothing but rest. When I was in college and had this understanding, I thought the purpose of the Sabbath was to not do my dishes on Sundays. To be sure, taking time for bodily rest from the hectic craze of our lives is important, but it’s not the big picture. As much as I love my Sunday afternoon nap, laying on the couch is not what it means to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Another common misunderstanding of the Sabbath is to dismiss it as irrelevant altogether. In fact, this position is so prevalent because when it comes to our time on Sundays, the first thing to be squeezed out is the Sabbath—hobbies, sports, and the whims of our emotions are quick to take priority over the holy things of God.

I will be unfollowing anyone using “oh my God” incorrectly as well as “Godd**n”, and any other phrase deemed to be unfitting of our LORD.

Is the “Sunday Obligation” Unreasonably Harsh?

Some Catholics find Sunday Mass attendance difficult, especially parents of young children. As a parent of a spirited three-year-old and a busy one-year-old who loves to show off her prodigious screaming ability, I get it.

But despite our parental hardships we recognize that we have a moral duty to be there. The Catholic Church reflects this obligation in its Code of Canon Law: “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass” (1247). The Sunday liturgy is therefore mandatory, like showing up for work; and just as skipping work can have serious consequences, so can skipping church. In fact, it is a mortal sin to miss Sunday Mass without good reason. For a Catholic then, whether or not to attend on Sunday is no small decision.

But is the “Sunday obligation” too strict of an expectation upon Catholics?

Rules to live by

Moral laws are like signposts: they properly orient us, and once we have been properly oriented we cease to notice them. The first time I travelled to Calgary I needed to follow the signs; they told me where to go and thus imposed a direction upon me. That was a long time ago. Years later, I know how to get there without the aid of signs. I have been properly oriented. The signs are still there—they still hold their objective force—but I no longer notice them. They are completely unimposing.

Likewise, the Sunday obligation helps to orient us spiritually. It can be easy to forget that Sunday marks the beginning of our week, not the end. In a sense, the Sunday Mass prepares us for the days ahead and sets the spiritual tone for the week, filling us with God’s word and grace so we might glorify the Lord with our lives. By starting our week with the Sunday liturgy we publicly profess with our whole being who we are as sons and daughters of God, and as members of his Church. We are God’s first. Without him we are nothing. That is why Jesus can say, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). Furthermore, the first and greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:38). Our unique love for God (and his for us!) is specially consummated when we receive the Eucharist at Mass.

The Mass is challenging

A Catholic is permitted to be absent from Sunday Mass in light of serious circumstances such as illness. But it is not licit to skip for trivial reasons. We might be tempted to do this, nonetheless, because Mass is not always an engaging way to spend Sunday morning. Many of us lead dynamic lives. We are used to the continual stimulation of caffeine and conversation. We are not used to the slowness or the silence of the liturgy. We are not used to the language of the Bible readings and the prayers. Even for a devout Catholic it can be a great difficulty to slow down and settle into a day of rest—and especially into a solemn hour of prayer and worship.

We can’t grasp the intrinsic value of the Mass until we understand that its aim is not to stimulate like a form of entertainment: its aim is to sanctify. Although the Eucharist is the “source and summit of the Christian life” according to the Catechism it is not uncommon for a Catholic—through no fault of his own—to feel almost nothing when he receives it (1324). Since the grace received in the Eucharist is not a physical or emotional entity but a spiritual reality, it tends to leave the senses unmoved. For this reason a Catholic’s experience of Sunday Mass can be deceptively dry and may leave him feeling like nothing special has gone on at all. This does not necessarily reflect a defect in the liturgy or the believer. Rather it moves the Catholic to a deeper mental conviction of things not seen: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29).

The Mass presents an essential challenge to Catholics: in its slow and leisurely rhythm, in its moments of deep silence, in its demands of faith. Two grave dangers to the human soul are a lack of contemplation and lack of love. A human being cannot have enduring happiness without these two things. The Mass fosters both.

What happens at Mass

To remember the Sabbath and keep it holy was not optional for the first-century Jew. To fail to do so was a violation of the third commandment and a grave sin (Num. 15:32-36). Christians, however, replaced the Sabbath, the last day of the week, with a new day of rest that they called the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. The essential moral prescription of the third commandment nonetheless remained: man ought to set apart a full day each week for rest and worship. “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them,” confirmed Jesus (Matt. 5:17).

Why Sunday? We are told in the Gospels that Jesus rose from the dead “on the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), and ever since the time of the apostles Christians have congregated on Sunday to worship God and receive the Eucharist together as one body in Christ (Acts 20:7). To compound this, it is primarily in the act of receiving the Sunday Eucharist—the real body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ—that the members of the Church unite themselves to their Lord and one other. Hence, St. Paul writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17).

Every Sunday “the whole Christ” is re-united in and through the Holy Eucharist. Moreover, our choice to participate is salvific: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). Finally, theologian Colin Donovan reminds us that “in the Mass it is Christ Himself who worships the Father, joining our worship to his. In no other way is it possible to adequately give thanks (eucharistia) to God . . . than by uniting our offerings to that of Jesus Christ himself.” Christ does with us in the Mass what we cannot do alone: make a perfect offering to the Father.

Let’s turn to Exodus 20:7 and read together.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

On the surface, the third commandment seems to be about keeping God’s name holy.

Let’s turn to Exodus 33:12-23; 34:1-5.

God is holy. His name is a reflection of His righteous and merciful character. Therefore God’s name is holy.

You may have some friends who say things on a regular basis like “G**dammit, that hurt!” or Jesus Christ! You scared me!” Of course, as conscientious Christians we do not want to take the Lord’s name in vain, that is to say, in an improper or irreverent manner. When we profane God’s name, we are profaning His holy character.

However, there is another definition of the phrase “in vain” that we should consider.

Let’s turn to Leviticus 26:16; 1 Samuel 25:21; Psalms 127:1 and read together.

According to these verses, “in vain” could also mean “without effect or avail; to no purpose.” Could it be that we could be breaking the third commandment when we claim to be Christian, but do not live a life that matches that claim?

Let’s turn to Numbers chapters 22-25 and read together.

This is the story of Balaam, a prophet of God, who was asked by the king of the Moabites to curse the Israelites. Balaam ostensibly said he would only obey God’s will in the matter, but he craved the riches the Moabites offered him. Although God would not allow Balaam to curse the Israelites, Balaam showed the Moabites how to entice the Israelites to turn away from God. What happened to Balaam as a result of his actions?

Let’s turn to Joshua 13:22; 2 Peter 2:15-16; Jude 1:11; and Revelation 2:14.

Although Balaam was a prophet of God, he was killed for his unrighteousness. Balaam became a lesson to future generations of what happens when you succumb to greed.

There are many other sad stories of people in the Bible who claimed to be followers of God, but were lost in the end: King Saul (1 Samuel 15:11-13), Judas Iscariot (John 6:70), Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). They were people who had an outward form of godliness, but their hearts were in fact far from God (Mark 7:6; 2 Timothy 3:5).

Let’s turn to Matthew 25:1-11 and read together.

One of the greatest insults a Christian can receive is being told by another person, “Hey, I never knew you were a Christian.” In this parable, what was the difference between the wise and foolish virgins? The foolish virgins did not have enough oil, that is to say, they did not have the Holy Spirit in their lives. There are people who go to church faithfully every week, but they do not live their lives dedicated to Jesus. These people take the Lord’s name in vain by calling themselves Christians.

Should Christians Keep the Sabbath or Celebrate the Lord's Day?

One of the most appealing teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is their insistence that Christians must obey the Ten Commandments . . . all ten of them. They rightly expose the errant thinking among many Protestant Christian sects that claims, “We don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments for salvation anymore.”

Of course, is Jesus reminds us:

And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And [Jesus] said to him… “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:16-17).

Given our agreement on this point, the Seventh-day Adventist commonly asks: “If you believe we have to keep the fourth (our third) commandment, why aren’t Catholics obliged to attend Mass on Saturdays instead of Sunday?”

Why not Saturday?

We can draw our first source from the the Catechism, which declares:

Since they express man’s fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart (2017).

Thus, the third commandment is “fundamentally immutable” because it’s one of the Ten Commandments which Jesus said we must follow to attain everlasting life. However, the Catholic Church teaches the particular day we celebrate in keeping the third commandment to be ceremonial, or an accidental component of the law that is changeable. Here’s how the Catechism puts it:

Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath . . . Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord's Day. . . .  The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship. . . .  Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people (CCC 2175-76).

Is there biblical data that concurs with this teaching of the Church? Absolutely!

St. Paul tells us that the ceremonial aspect of the old law—the Sabbath day itself—is no longer binding for the Christian faithful:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in regard to food or drink or in respect to festival, or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ (Col. 2:16-17).

Clearly, the Sabbath is “a mere shadow,” that is, fleeting by nature. And “shadow” (Greek: skian) is the same word used by the inspired author of Hebrews for the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant—also no longer binding on Christians.

For the law, having but a shadow (Greek: skian) of the good things to come, and not the exact image of the objects, is never able by the sacrifices which they offer continually, year after year the same, to perfect those who draw near (Heb. 10:1).

Moreover, it is important to note how St. Paul uses the same division of “festivals” (annual holy days), “new moons” (monthly holy days), and “Sabbaths” (the weekly holy days) that the Old Testament uses in I Chr. 23:31, II Chr. 2:4, 8:12-13, 31:3, and elsewhere, when referencing Jewish holy days. Clearly, along with the yearly and monthly holy days—which no Christian today claims binding upon believers in Christ—the Sabbath is included in what St. Paul calls a mere shadow.

When St. Paul teaches Christians do not have to keep the Sabbath, he speaks of the holy days that were specific to the Jews. He is not saying—and does not say—that we do not have to keep any holy days at all. In context, St. Paul is dealing with Judaizers who were telling Gentile Christians they had to be circumcised and keep the Old Covenant law that had passed away, which would include the Sabbath and other holy days, in order to be saved. Some overlook this fact when they use St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans against the necessity of keeping the third commandment.

As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. . . . One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord (14:1-6).

During the first few decades of Church history, the question of Jewish/Gentile relations to the Church and the law was a hot topic. As long as the Temple was standing, Christians of Jewish descent were free to attend the Temple and keep certain aspects of the Old law, as long as they did not teach these things to be essential for salvation.  

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest

Many will claim the Catholic is in grave error here because Hebrews 4:9 declares: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” And I must say that a surface reading here does appear to bind Christians to the seventh day. However, the context within verses 4-8 greatly clarifies things for us:

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this place he said, “they shall never enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. So, then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for whoever enters God’s rest ceases also from his labors as God did from his (emphasis added).

The context makes clear the Jewish “seventh day” has been superceded, or more properly, fulfilled, in “another day,” “a certain day,” that is a new “Sabbath rest for the people of God.” What day is this? In Hebrews, it is not so much a day at all as it is a person—Jesus Christ. In fact, the entire discussion of “the Sabbath rest” disappears into the discussion of our “great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God” (4:14ff). It is Jesus Christ himself who actualizes the actual “rest” that was merely foreshadowed by the Sabbath.

The Church connection

“End of discussion,” say our Protestant friends. “There is no longer any such thing as a day that binds Christians in the New Covenant. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath, not some day we have to go to church.” And they are actually correct, but only partially. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest in the sense that only he can actualize the “rest” the Sabbath symbolized.

In Hebrews 10:1-26 we see movement toward tagging on the Church as fulfillment of all which was merely shadow in the Old Covenant and not just Jesus Christ in the abstract. And this only makes sense when we understand that “the Church” is the body of Christ, or, Christ himself extended into the world (cf. Eph. 1:22-23).

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of those realities, it can never . . . make perfect those who draw near.

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in the full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water . . . not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some . . . For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:1; 19-22; 25-26).

As Christians, we “enter into the sanctuary” through baptism—bodies washed with pure water—and the Eucharist—his flesh—thus enters the necessity of the church.

The Lord’s day

So if Christians are bound to keep the third commandment and it involves “meeting together,” but not on the Sabbath, what day are we commanded to meet?

In Scripture, whenever we see Christians meeting to worship the Lord, receive communion, to take up collections—apart from the Synagogue—it is either “daily,” or especially, it’s “on the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:2). It is true that you often see St. Paul entering into the synagogue on the Sabbath (Acts 13:14-44, 16:13, 18:4). However, in each instance his purpose was to proclaim the truth about Christ to the Jews. These are not specifically Christian gatherings. But notice what we find in Acts 2:46:

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.

St. Paul and his companions attended the temple, but “the breaking of bread” occurred in the house “churches” of Christians. “The breaking of bread,” by the way, is a Eucharistic phrase in St. Luke’s writings. For example, when St. Paul was in Troas in Acts 20:7, we read: “On the first day of the week, when we gathered together to break bread…” Luke 24:30-31 records Cleopas and an unnamed disciple’s “eyes were opened” and they recognized Jesus “in the breaking of the bread.” And according to Luke 24:1, 13, this encounter was also on the first day of the week! St. Paul never says, “On the Sabbath, when we gathered to break bread.” Instead, the “breaking of bread” in Luke 24 and in Acts 20 occurs on the first day of the week.  

It’s important to remember that when we talk about biblical “churches” we mean the designated homes for “church” gatherings and specifically for “the breaking of bread.”

For, in the first place, when you assemble as a church… it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God…For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it. (I Cor. 11:18-23)