Why Do Christians Rest on Sunday?
From the Jewish Sabbath to the Lord’s Day — which is the day of rest?
“I’ll sew those buttons on in a jiffy,” said Mary.
“Not on Sunday!” said Una, shocked.
“Sure. The better the day, the better the deed. You just gimme a needle and thread, and look the other way if you’re squeamish!”
(from Rainbow Valley, L.M. Montgomery, 1919)
Sew buttons on Sunday? Shocking!
At least, it was back in 1919.
When did Sunday become a day when no work could be done?
Ever wonder why Christians have their day of rest on Sunday, and not Saturday as is the case in the Jewish tradition?
The Initial Jesus-followers Were Jewish
Back in the first century, most people who were becoming Jesus-followers were Jewish. There was no concept yet that this was becoming a new religion, and everybody still followed Torah, went to the synagogue and temple, and observed the Sabbath, which goes from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
But in the Acts of the Apostles (the book following the gospels in the New Testament), we are told that gentile people also began to follow Jesus.
Now what?
Gentile believers join the community
One important theme in Acts was trying to sort out what to do with gentile believers who were joining the community.
Were they Jewish, or not? Did they need to obey Torah, get circumcised, and follow Jewish dietary practices?
The apostles finally met over these issues, at the council of Jerusalem, and it was decided that gentile believers only had to refrain from sexual immorality, and from eating blood and meat sacrificed to idols.
They did not have to observe the Sabbath.
Everyone wanted to get together to eat the Eucharist meal though, but the Jewish members of the community were restricted by Sabbath law to how far they could travel. So the workaround was that everyone waited until later Saturday night after Sabbath so they could all could come to each other’s houses. People still went to the temple like all good Jews, but they did Eucharist at individual homes.
By the end of the first century, however, the celebration of the “Lord’s day” — the day Jesus was to have resurrected (the “first day of the week”, or Sunday) — was starting to become normative.
For centuries, the early church observed both a Sabbath and a Lord’s Day.
Christians meeting for worship on the first day of the week (Sunday for gentiles) dates back to the time when Acts was written and is historically mentioned around 115 AD.
However, this wasn’t Sabbath.
How Sunday Became Official
On March 7, 321 CE, the emperor Constantine declared Sunday a Roman day of rest, but it wasn’t until the council of Laodicea in 363 CE — which prohibited Christians from observing Saturday Sabbath — that Sunday truly became the Christian day of rest.
Because these were more civic or political edicts, rather than religious ones, many Christians continued through history debating which day should really be observed, if any.
Around the 17th century, Sabbatarianism arose among some Protestant denominations, which concerns whether Christians needed to obey the Sabbath rule, and on which day. The discussion were sincere:
- Are Christians obligated by the Ten Commandments, or was Mosaic law done away with?
- Do they continue to follow the moral implications of the Law or should they consider the ritual commands, as well?
- Does that include observing Sabbath?
- And should it be Saturday or Sunday?
Most of what we consider mainstream Christian churches, including Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist, followed what is called first day Sabbatarianism so that Sunday was the chosen day.
Sabbatarian groups such as the Puritans enacted strict rules about what kinds of activities one could engage in on Sundays so that it wasn’t just about not doing work, but refraining from any “frivolous” behavior like singing or playing music, playing games, “banqueting” or anything that did not further one's spiritual development. They brought these rules with them to America and influenced many nascent American churches.
The conversations from the early church councils appear to have continued.
By the later 19th century, organizations such as the Lord’s Day Alliance, The Women’s Temperance Movement, and the Sunday League of America, were formed to support the keeping of Sunday as the day of rest, even lobbying for laws called “blue laws” to prevent businesses from doing business on Sunday, especially the selling of alcohol.
Hence the squeamishness of a young character in a Victorian book for young girls.
And the reason why, in some states anyway, you still can’t buy beer on Sunday.
Which Day is Sabbath?
Despite the assumed normalcy amongst contemporary Christians, it is interesting to consider that the “Sunday as day of rest” contingent hasn’t been set in stone for very long — if at all.
There are Christian groups (and, of course, Jewish groups), even today, that still celebrate Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening followed by a formal “Lord’s Day” on Sunday. In fact, there are whole sects of Christianity that never went away from the original Sabbath rhythm.
At the least, the conversation that began back in Jerusalem thousands of years ago and continued up through Protestantism’s rise and American revivalism is still ongoing.
