Even more on the 4th commandment

Today, let me just share with you a couple of Sabbath Day jokes that I did not have time to share during my message last Sunday:


A Sunday School teacher was telling her children about the importance of observing the Sabbath Day. "I never go FISHING on a Sunday!" piped up little Johnny. "VERY GOOD, Johnny!" said the teacher. "Won’t you tell the other children why you don’t go fishing on a Sunday?" Johnny replied: "Because my Daddy won’t let me go along!"

A certain minister had a weakness for golf. But he had no time for it. Searching his busy schedule, he found one day in a year’s time when he could play. Unfortunately, that day fell on the Sabbath. The minister apologized to God and traveled some distance to a golf club so that no one who might know him would see him. As he teed up the first ball, an angel looked down from heaven aghast: "A minister playing golf on the Sabbath!" He immediately told the Almighty about it. On the third hole, God sent down a gust of wind that made the minister’s ball sink into the cup. . . a hole in one! The angel watching was puzzled. "You call that punishment?" “Think about it," the Lord replied . . . "Who can he tell?" - [Hopewell Herald, June/July 1997]


And, this is not a joke, but a story that illustrates how the rules and regulations are supposed to help people (like on the Sabbath Day) but if the rules are what is important, they actually take away from the benefit they were intended to give. Here is an example:


On July 15, 2000, Tim Tolton was rushing his wife to the emergency ward of a Hospital. But the entrance to Emergency was blocked, so Tim decided to park in front of another set of doors. He just wanted to get his wife into Emergency as fast as possible. Tim remembered picking up a parking ticket on his windshield and throwing it into his car. He forgot about it until he decided to clean out his car and removing his wife’s belongings after her July 30 death.
Tim then wrote a letter to the municipal court of Pointe Claire to explain the circumstances that led to the ticket. He expected that the ticket would be forgiven. The response was this: a notice that said “pay up by Sept.7 or 30 days in jail.” Tim said: “That was the last thing I needed, I was trying to help my wife, and it seemed they were trying to put me in jail.” The municipal court clerk explained that there was nothing that could be done. Tim paid his ticket and he asked “Where are the people behind the rules and regulations?”

The laws were supposed to be there to protect people and for the benefit of man. But, instead, many laws end up being an obstacle to man, even when it comes to caring for other people. That is why Jesus, when He was confronted with helping people on the Sabbath Day, doing work, that he said:

Mark 2:27 – “And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”