The mystery of Sunday

“On the first day of the week” (I Corinthians 16:2)

Sunday!  For many it’s the day we go to church and worship our Savior.  For others, it’s the last day of the weekend, before facing a busy week of activity and work. But the special thing about Sunday is the mystery it holds.  I say mystery because many don’t realize Sunday is the day the universe, as well as mankind, could begin living out God’s full creation.  In other words, Sunday is the beginning day.

Allow me to explain.  You see, for God everything began on Sunday.  We are aware from Genesis that God created everything in six days.  He created the heavens and earth, light, the sky and land, the seas, vegetation, the sun and moon, the animal kingdom, and of course, mankind.  All within six days.  But then, on the seventh day scripture tells us that God rested.  Have you ever wondered why God rested on the seventh day?  After all, the bible tells us that God “neither slumbers nor sleeps.” (Psalm 121:4).  So why would he need to rest?    

The reason God rested from his work on Sunday was to celebrate its’ sacredness.  You see, he knew Sunday would be the most significant day for mankind.  In the Hebrew, Sunday is called, “Yom Rishon.”  It means “The day of the beginning.”  The first day of the week.  It also means the first day of new life, the first day of everything for God’s created beings.  Not just because of the original creation, but because of the great secret God knew.  Way back when God was doing his amazing creative work….back when God was forming mankind and placing both a him and a her in a beautiful garden…..God knew something that no human, no animal, no bird, no part of creation knew. He knew that Sunday, Yom Rishon, would be the most sacred day of the week.

God’s infinite knowledge knew that as time and eternity advanced from the beginning of creation, the most significant event in the annuals of man’s history would take place.  He knew that it would be on a Yom Rishon in the future that his one and only Son would conquer sin and death.  And he knew that the power of his Son’s resurrection day would give humans the power to live the way he created us to live.  He knew in the future a Sunday (a Yom Rishon) would be the greatest day of deliverance for mankind, as well as His creation.  You see, Sunday was not destined to be the last day of the world’s creation.  It was destined to be the first day of man’s new creation.  A new creation without guilt and shame.  A new creation of daily oneness with God.  So, God could rest on that seventh day because he knew there would be a seventh day in the future when mankind could find rest in his Son, Jesus Christ.  Our own personal day of Yom Rishon!  The sacred day. 

That is why when we read accounts in the bible of the women coming to Christ’s empty tomb on Resurrection morning, the scriptures do not say they came on a Sunday morning.  The scriptures tell us they came “on the first day of the week.”  That special day of Yom Rishon.  And that, my friend is the mystery of Sunday! 

                                                                                Darlene