I’ve been practicing taking the Sabbath now for about four months and am starting to understand why the Pharisees might’ve been so legalistic about it; it’s really hard.  If something’s so important that it’s the law and you want people to abide it, you need enforcement.  Think about what happens (or will happen) if the Police stopped ticketing for infractions of the posted speed limit.  In the same way, I believe that our natural inclination is to be undisciplined and to do whatever makes us feel good in the moment, rather than to follow spiritual disciplines that might be hard in the short-term but in the long-term bring us closer to God.  The Sabbath, and related practices of Solitude and Prayer, are just like this.  While I’m not making excuses for the legalistic mindset of the Pharisees who Jesus rebuked, I can see now how religious legalism might have come about.

Despite our self-centered nature, I see Jesus continuing to reach out to us in grace.  I think about Jesus spending time to engage with the Pharisee Nicodemus (John 3: 1- 21).  People clearly matter to Jesus, and I feel delight when I spend time with Him in contemplative prayer, reading the Bible, or simply enjoying that Jesus loves me, just as I am, faults and all, and works in me towards becoming a better person and the one who He designed me to be.