‘But the foremost way to sanctify the Sabbath is to be more active in everything good on that day than on another day.
‘Only servants’ work, which is work for the world’s pay and wages, are you henceforth to perform neither on an ordinary weekday nor on a Sabbath! For from now on every day is to be a Sabbath for you, and every Sabbath a full working day. In this, My friend, you now have the complete rule for how you are to serve God in future. And let it remain so!’
The high priest says, ‘I now recognize most clearly the holy truth in this rule, which I gladly accept as a law. But among the firmly established Jews it will take much before this rule, proceeding from the purely divine will, becomes clear and comprehensible in its fullest truth! I think very many will not accept this rule until the end of the world, for since primordial times people have grown too accustomed to the Sabbath and will not let it be taken from them. Oh, that will bring truly great toil and work!’
I say, ‘But it is not at all necessary for the Sabbath to be abolished entirely, only what is foolish about the Sabbath. God the Lord needs neither your service nor your honor, for He created the world and the human being without any outside help, and asks nothing of people except that they recognize Him and love Him with all their strength, and this not only on the Sabbath, but equally every day, without ceasing.
‘But what sort of worship is it if you think of God only on the Sabbath and never during the week? Is God not the same unchanging God every day? Does He not let His sun rise every day, whether Sabbath or working day, and shed its light upon the just and the unjust, of whom there are always far more than of the just?
‘Does God Himself not work equally every day? But if the Lord takes no holiday for Himself, why should people establish holidays merely for the sake of idleness? For nothing else do they observe so punctually on a Sabbath as idleness! But by this they surely render God the worst service!
‘For God wants people continually, and ever more, to accustom themselves to loving activity, so that one day in the other life they may be capable of all work and effort, and seek and find true and highest blessedness in such activity alone. But could people ever bring this about within themselves through idleness? I tell you: never!
‘On a working day, even though a person works, he practices only selfishness, for he works for his flesh and calls what he has earned his own. Whoever wants what he has earned must buy it from him either through work or with money; otherwise he would be unlikely to get anything of significance from anyone. Now, if people cultivate only their selfishness on working days, but on the Sabbath—the only day on which they are to practice loving activity—devote themselves only to the most rigid idleness, the most serious question arises: when, then, should or might people practice, the only true service of God, which consists solely in lovingly serving one’s neighbor?
‘But if God Himself rests not for a moment, but is continually active for people and never for Himself—for He needs for Himself neither an earth, a sun, the moon, nor all the stars and everything that is in them and proceeds from them. God needs none of this, but all created spirits and human beings need it all, and so the Lord is continually and ceaselessly active solely for their sake.
‘But if the Lord, whose work is the same one day as another, is continually active for people and wants people, as His children, to resemble Him in everything, how could He ever have wanted them, after six days of selfishness, to serve God in a pleasing way on the seventh through rigid idleness, and honor Him who is eternally active through laziness?
‘I now tell you this, as the high priest, with palpable clarity, so that henceforth—knowing well who He is who has now spoken these things to you—you are to show your congregation the Sabbath in a better light than has been the case from Moses until this hour. For precisely as I have now unveiled the Sabbath to you, so it was also given to Moses. But the people had only too soon turned it into a heathen day of idleness, and thought they were rendering God a pleasing service by doing nothing and by punishing those who had sometimes dared to do a little work even on the Sabbath, or give healing help to a sick person. Oh, the great blindness! Oh, the grossest folly!’
Deeply contrite at this truth, the high priest says, ‘Oh, the holiest, purest truth from Your mouth! Yes, now everything is clear to me! Only now, O Lord, have You completely taken Moses’ threefold veil from my eyes! Now, O Lord, surely no further signs are needed, for here Your holy, true word alone is enough! And I now firmly assert with the fullest conviction that in future, as now, all those who believe in You, O Lord, because of the signs and not because of the supremely true word have no true living faith and will be only sluggish, machine-like followers of Your teaching and Your holy will. But among us it shall be different! Not the signs Your presence gave us, but Your holy, truest word alone is to establish true living faith in our hearts and awaken the fullest love for You, and from You and solely for Your sake also for all people in the right measure. And henceforth may Your holy will alone be done, which You, O Lord, have now made known to us so exceedingly clearly and as eternally true!’
I say, ‘Amen! Yes, dear friend and brother, this is right and good! For only in this way may you become perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. But if you are thus perfect, then you are also true children and can always call to Him, “Abba, dear Father!” And whatever you ask Him as His true children, He will give you, for the Father is exceedingly good and gives His children everything He has! But now eat and drink, for the food here is not from this earth; the Father sends it to you from the heavens and is now Himself among you.’