Q. Erm... we all know that Saturday is the true Sabbath day don't we?
A. Yes it is. As much as a sign post is the true destination.
The Jewish Sabbath, plus practically all the other customs and traditions commanded by the Lord God in the Old Testament, were all a "training course", an "induction programme", a "preparation", a "rehearsal", "signposts" to the New and everlasting Testament. Even the Old Testament characters such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, Gideon, David, etc. were themselves "foreshadows", "premonitions", "foretastes", "rough drafts" of characters in the New Testament especially of Christ. Indeed, the People of Israel is itself a preparation for the New People of God - the Church.
So, the Paschal sacrifice of the Jews, that yearly Passover ceremony, where an unblemished lamb had its blood spilt and its flesh eaten that the Angel of Death may pass over the Jews and spare their physical lives was a premonition of that new and definitive Paschal or Easter sacrifice where the unblemished or sinless Lamb of God had his blood spilt and flesh eaten that the Angel of Death may pass over the new People of God that their spiritual lives may be spared. The Jewish Passover was a rehearsal for Christ's definitive sacrifice that begun with the Last Supper and ended with the Crucifixion.
Moses was rescued from the massacre of the Jewish children commanded by Pharaoh, given the 10 Commandments on a mount, delivered the Chosen People through the waters of the Red Sea and fed them with manna from heaven till they reached the Promised Land. Christ was rescued from the massacre of the Jewish children commanded by Herod, issued new commandments (Jn 16:36, "I give you a new commandment...") from a mount (cf. Mat 5), delivers the new Chosen People through the waters of Baptism and feeds us with the manna from heaven - his own body, the Eucharist - till we reach the new Promised Land: heaven.
The Old Testament Sabbath - Saturday - when God rested from his work of creation was in this sense a rehearsal for the New Sabbath - Sunday - when Jesus rested from his work of the new creation (Rev 21:5 "Behold, I make all things new...").
In all this, it is not that the old are done away with, but that they are completed, fulfilled. "I have not come to abolish the Law," Christ said, "but to complete it." (Mt 5:17) The Old Testament practices were rehearsals for the New. But every rehearsal culminates in the actual play or performance: the New Testament practices.
26thJuly 2015