It took six days for God to lay out the heavens and the earth and everything that would fill them. On the seventh day, God rested. He rested and made the day holy. For years and years, his people took note of this day. They marveled at the fact that God himself had rested as an example for his creation. They followed his lead. They rested their bodies and rejoiced as God called them together in order to revive his life within them. He made them holy Sabbath after Sabbath. For years and years there could be no better day that the people of God could think of to rejoice and to rest in God’s holiness than the day when God rested.
One Sunday that all changed. Well to be honest, it only began to change on the first Sunday. But on that Sunday something happened that was even more extraordinary than the idea of God resting. Something happened that was even more notable than God making a day holy. On that day, God laying dead in human flesh arose. Yes, God had again rested on the Sabbath. He lay in the cold tomb the whole Sabbath long. But it was not his rest that the people were talking about Sunday morning. It was not his resting that was the focus of God’s people any longer. It was his rising. The seventh day of rest had given way to an eighth day of rising.
And so, slowly but surely, the people of God began to take note of the eighth day more than the seventh. And when those who treasured God’s rest more than his rising forced out the Christians, the tradition was solidified. The people of God would still take one day a week to rest their bodies and to receive the life of Christ as God gathered them to himself. But now, it would not be on the day of rest but the day of rising. It would not be on the seventh day but the eighth. It would not be on Saturday but on Sunday.
And that is why Christian worship on Sunday. ((The Scriptures make clear that there is no prescription that worship must be on Sunday. Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.†Yet, we must realize that the tradition of the church since Easter morning has been to use this freedom to worship on Sunday, the day of resurrection. This tradition should not be discarded for simple convenience but only out of necessity.))
