The Tuesday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 14, 2025 by under
Scripture: Hebrews 4:9-13 (NKJV)
4:9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Devotion
The Lord Jesus Christ, who is God and Man, united in one perfect Person, is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. It is not that the Sabbath ceased to be, for the book of Hebrews explains the Sabbath in this way: “there remains therefore a rest for the people of God,” and Christ “has entered His rest.” The Sabbath rest is a present reality in Christ. Having suffered and died for the salvation of the world, He rests from His labor, and those who have been buried with Him in Baptism (Romans 6:4) rest from the pains of sin and spiritual death.
This is why Dr. Luther, in his wisdom and—more importantly—in conformity with this Epistle, taught that to “remember the Sabbath day” was not a matter of bodily resting, but of hearing and meditating on the Word of God (Small Catechism, 3rd Commandment). Any man may rest from physical labor on Saturday, but the true Sabbath rest is “for the people of God,” because it is the peaceful rest of the conscience in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some argue that the Christian Church “moved” the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The Church did not “move” anything. The Christ is our Sabbath rest from sin. We are to rest in Him every day of the week. But we set aside Sunday to celebrate this formally, because that is the day He rose from the dead.
Collect: Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
