By Mark Scott
Jesus and the SabbathKey Verse: Mark 2:27
I. God Instituted the Sabbath as a Day of Rest
A. “Sabbath” means a desisting or cessation with more of a negative than a positive connotation. It is a day in which one should not do what he ordinarily does the other six days of the week (Ex. 23:12 ). God had a humanitarian motive for instituting this injunction against work on the Sabbath.
B. The same benevolent purpose also lay behind the sabbatical year which was to be observed every seventh year (Ex. 23:11 ).
C. In the Decalogue (Ex. 20:8 ) the Israelites were commanded to “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy [to set it apart from the others],” with further explanation of the command given in verses nine and ten. Deuteronomy 5:14 reveals the Lord’s philanthropic intent that rest should also be given to others.
D. Besides being a day of refreshment, the Sabbath was likewise a day of corporate worship, commemorating God’s goodness (Ex. 20:11 ; Deut. 5:15 ).
E. As time went on, however, the Sabbath celebration degenerated into mere legalistic prohibitions which sapped from it God’s original altruistic intent. Our Lord explicitly refuted the rigid restrictions which had developed by saying, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27 ). It was not to be seen as an end in itself but as a means to an end. The Sabbath was, therefore, instituted to bless man and bring honor to God.
II. Why Did Jesus Choose the Sabbath Day to Show His Benevolence?
A. The Lord deliberately performed many of His miracles on the Sabbath.
1. One such miracle was the healing of the infirm man near the Pool of Bethesda (John 5:5-18 ). According to tradition it was lawful to carry a sick person on a bed on the Sabbath because the bed was only an accessory, but to carry the bed alone, an ordinary burden, was unlawful. Thus the healed man was criticized for carrying his bed, and Jesus was censored for healing on the Sabbath a man who was not dying (Mark 3:1-6 ).
2. The casting out of an unclean spirit at Capernaum also occurred on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21-27 ; Luke 4:33-37 ).
3. Jesus cured Peter’s mother-in-law on the Sabbath after He had returned from the synagogue (Matt. 8:14, 15 ; Mark 1:29-31 ; Luke 4:38, 39 ).
4. Jesus also healed the man with a withered hand in the synagogue during Sabbath observances (Matt. 12:9-14 ; Mark 3:1-6 ; Luke 6:6-11 ).
5. Both the opening of the eyes of one born blind and the “making of clay” which was involved in this healing, brought criticism upon Jesus because they had been done on the Sabbath (John 9:1-16 ).
6. Jesus healed the woman who had a spirit of infirmity on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17 ).
7. He cured the man with the dropsy at the home of one of the chief Pharisees on the Sabbath as well (Luke 14:1-6 ).
B. By enacting all these miracles on the Sabbath, Jesus endeavored to show the true benevolent spirit of the Law. At the very beginning of His ministry He had declared, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17 ). Jesus thus attempted to restore to the Sabbath its original intent as He also did with other commandments (Matt. 15:3-20 ; 23:13-33 ).
C. By allowing His disciples to pluck corn on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28 ), Jesus showed that physical needs are to be met on the Sabbath as well. His illustration from the life of David (Matt. 12:3, 4 ; Mark 2:25, 26 ) likewise demonstrated that physical needs take precedence over the ceremonial law. Jesus explained that God prefers mercy exercised by man toward his fellows, to sacrifices (Matt. 12:7 ).
III. After Christ’s Resurrection, the Day of Worship Began to Be Observed on the First Day of the Week
A. During His earthly life and ministry the Lord Jesus honored the seventh day as a day of worship and took care to demonstrate its original beneficent purpose.
B. The first day of the week was instituted by the disciples of Christ not as a substitution for the Jewish Sabbath, but as a way of commemorating the Lord’s resurrection (Acts 20:7 ; 1 Cor. 16:2 ). Although Jesus could have risen on the Sabbath, He rose instead in the early morning hours of the first day. In Greek that first day came to be called κυριακη~ͅ (from κύριος , “Lord”), the day of the Lord (Rev. 1:10 ).
C. During the first three Christian centuries the Lord’s Day was carefully distinguished from the Sabbath. It was only after the third century that these Christian and Jewish institutions gradually became confused.
