We’ve just heard a classic story from Luke’s Gospel. Mark’s version of it includes the well-known phrase, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’. What does that mean?

Wasn’t it only last Sunday morning when we were talking about time, the millennium and the passing years after the birth of Christ? How extraordinary this person must be if, it seems, the whole world acknowledges the time since his birth.

But we do get ourselves into such pickles! One thing is that the millennium didn’t change when 1999 became 2000, as the whole world celebrated at the time, but rather the millennium changed when 2000 became 2001. That was the real millennium, but that subtlety was lost on most of the world!

And now historians have told us that we have all this time miscalculated the actual year of the birth of Christ. It occurred, we are now led to believe, in 4 BC! So the so-called ‘millennium’ actually should’ve taken place in 1996, or, perhaps I’m supposed to say 1997!

It’s all very complicated, and in the whole scheme of things does it really matter that much?

I don’t think God worries too much about time. What does the Psalmist say, ‘For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.’ (Psalm 90)

We love numbers, especially big numbers! When we’re talking about the cosmos and light years, and the numbers get so big that they really become meaningless. When we have realised that the UK debt has now reached into the trillions that is just beyond me!

I received an email recently which started off, “This is too true to be funny. The next time you hear a politician use the word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about whether you want the politicians spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A.  A billion seconds ago it was 1959

B.   A billion minutes ago Jesus walked the earth.

C.   A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D.  A billion days ago no-one walked the earth on two feet.

E.   A billion pounds ago was only 13 hours and 12 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.”

Now, you can check all those figures out if you’re so inclined. But thousands, millions, billions or even trillions, it can get all a little complicated and, in truth, I don’t think it bothers our God too much!

But he does want us to give him our time! Not all of it – we have so many things to do; he’s not asking very much. But he wants us to think of him, to remember him to thank him. I don’t think he is even too worried about the rules of the Sabbath. They are important, but people matter far and above rules and regulations; people and their need are far more important than religious ‘systems’!

But he does want us to give him some of our time. How many of the billion seconds have we given him since 1959? That question goes for me too!

That Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath simply gives us an opportunity to give Him some of our time; it is for our benefit, it is only for our own good.