I want to continue my study of the Sabbath Day by now looking at the teachings and interactions the Lord Jesus had as recorded in the Gospels. The first one that I am examining is where the Lord teaches that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. One note before looking at this teaching regarding something that has stood out to me in my reading of the Scripture recently is worthy of noting. It has had the effect of humbling me and instilling the fear of the Lord in my heart and I hope it does the same for you as well.
In Matthew 5:17-19 we read the following, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (NKJV).
While this verse is sometimes quoted in support of the Christian Sabbath Day teaching, it is not my design here to use it for that reason. While the Lord is speaking specifically regarding the law and the Prophets, and the fulfillment of all those things, I think it is safe to say that this means anything taught in the Bible. There is no doubt that men and women today and in history have mis-taught, mis-used, and twisted the Bible's teaching. Some have done this ignorantly while others have done this for their own wicked purposes. What stands clearly out to me in this text is that the ones who break even the least of these commandments, and teach others to as well, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. This is terrifying. It is enough to never want to be a teacher of the Bible! Yet, by not teaching it to others I am not acquitted from my obligation and responsibility to obey it. Therefore, to understand it more fully and completely is of utmost importance to me.
For me personally, I cannot escape teaching the Bible to others because I am a father--and that of seven wonderful children! I am responsible before God to train them in the things of God, to fear Him and obey Him, and therefore I must teach them His Word. I am also a husband of one wife. I am commanded by God to wash my wife with the water of the Word and help her as much as possible to grow in Christ Jesus.
This is sobering and a fearful thing for me. I never want to disobey the Word of God myself nor teach my house to do so because of my lack of understanding. Nor do I wish my reader to come away with a false teaching that would either lead them to legalism nor licentiousness. To make this applicable to our subject, with the fear of the Lord in my heart, if there is a Christian Sabbath Day taught by the Holy Scriptures, and I teach my house they do not have to obey this, then I will have both broken the law myself and have been found to teach others also. If there is no Christian Sabbath Day and I will have taught others there is, then I will be found to having added to God's law things He did not enjoin upon them and be guilty of putting burdens on others He has not.
What a great responsibility this is! O Lord Jesus, be merciful to your people and to all the teachers of Your Holy Scriptures. Keep us from error and help us understand Your teachings that we may obey and do them as You have commanded and for those of us who must teach others, that we may teach them to obey all that you have commanded and not a syllable more. Enable us by your great power to strengthen our minds and hearts to labor hard in the Word of God in our studies and prosper the work of our hands. Amen.
In the Gospels of our Lord Jesus we find the account of Jesus walking through the grainfields with His disciples on the Sabbath day. This account is found in all but the Gospel of John. We find this event spoken of in Matthew 12:1-8, Luke 6:1-5, and Mark 2:23-28. Each witness here gives a clear picture of what took place that day and each one with a unanimous testimony: the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Each one also adds a bit of information to paint a more clear picture for us. Matthew shows us that these men who questioned Him missed essential meaning regarding the Sabbath. After a couple questions Jesus says, "But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." v.7. Mark recording the same account bears witness of Jesus' mention of Abiathar the high priest setting the historical context for the happenings of King David when he took and ate the showbread thus furnishing us with a witness to the reliability of the Old Testament Scriptures. Moreover, Mark by the Holy Spirit gives us these words of Jesus, "..The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath..." not found in the other Gospels. What precious truth is here! At a closer examination of the text I found that in the original Received Text the Koine Greek places the definite article upon the word "man" so that it would not be improper to translate this as "the man." Hardly any reader can look at this and not recognize that Jesus is referring to Adam, the first man. And Adam, in that day, standing in the place as head of the whole human race, we have here from our Lord Jesus that the sabbath was given to mankind. Luke brings us, as it were, into the grainfields with the disciples and the Lord so that we can walk beside them as Jesus teaches us. "...and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing the in their hands." v.1 Here we are close enough to see the disciples rubbing the wheat in their hands doing that which these pharisees believed to be unlawful.
I am so thankful to Jesus that this part of the life and teaching of Jesus is recorded. John tells us that not everything Jesus did and taught is written. But the things that are written are written that we might believe, and believing we might have life in His Name. (John 20:30-31) This is recorded in three Gospels for our instruction. This was a significant controversy in those days. How controversies change! In those days the contention was over breaking the Sabbath. Today the controversy is over whether this is one at all. The issue was raised by the legalistic Jews of Jesus' day, the Pharisees. It therefore a question of lawfulness they were primarily concerned. It may prove helpful to understand this group of people to aid our understanding of the text.
I am so thankful to Jesus that this part of the life and teaching of Jesus is recorded. John tells us that not everything Jesus did and taught is written. But the things that are written are written that we might believe, and believing we might have life in His Name. (John 20:30-31) This is recorded in three Gospels for our instruction. This was a significant controversy in those days. How controversies change! In those days the contention was over breaking the Sabbath. Today the controversy is over whether this is one at all. The issue was raised by the legalistic Jews of Jesus' day, the Pharisees. It therefore a question of lawfulness they were primarily concerned. It may prove helpful to understand this group of people to aid our understanding of the text.
The Pharisees
The pharisees have been known in Christian circles in mainly a negative context. They are, after all, subject to many scathing rebukes from Jesus. In our texts they are corrected in their understanding of the Law of God of which they were supposedly experts. The word pharisee means separated. This most likely was a term others applied to them for their strict view of uncleanness, not only just keeping themselves separate from the unclean heathen nations, but also from other Jews they deemed to have also been affected by pagan culture (Unger's Bible Dictionary, 854). The pharisees called themselves Haberim, meaning associate. This was to mean someone who associated themselves with the Law so that it may be observed strictly against the rising tide of Hellenism (Hellenism is a term referring to the influence of Greek culture, language, customs, style, and/or thought). It is good to keep in mind that the pharisees generally held the sway
with the people. This religious group were generally those who the
people listened to. While the pharisees were certainly a real sect along with the sadducees and essenes, they can also be thought of in terms of concept, In concept then, pharisaism represents a reaction to the influence of the surrounding culture. The differences between pharisaism and sadducaism can be understood in how each group reacted to the influence of pagan/unholy culture. The pharisees were running to (and too far) adherence to the Law to the degree that they added to it their own teachings and practices, and the sadducees adopting, too much, the Greek culture, became more like the heathen around them. This led the saducees, also receiving many rebukes and corrections from Jesus, to hold ideas and practices that today we might label as liberal. For example, the saducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead while the pharisees did. A parallel could be drawn with the rise of modernism in the late 1800s that in many ways denied religious belief. When this modernism began to influence the Christian churches the "liberals/sadducees" began to adopt the ideas of the surrounding culture by denying miracles or the virgin birth of Jesus for example. This was seen as a danger to fundamental, or core, Christian belief and was responded to with a series of essays published from 1910 - 1915 called The Fundamentals. In time, those who adhered to the fundamentals began to see "modernism" everywhere and took on similar characteristics of pharisaism focusing more on external things as separation from the culture than a pure heart. Eventually, certain groups of these Christians attempted to separate themselves more and more, and like the pharisees of old, began adding to the Word of God their own teachings and practices.
Understanding pharisees and pharisaism is helpful in understanding the Lord's teaching on the Sabbath here. I have heard it said by some in defense of not keeping a Sabbath day that Jesus broke the Sabbath. Well-meaning Christians (at one time, myself included) do not realize what they are saying when they make this statement. To suggest that Jesus broke the Sabbath day would make Jesus out to be a law breaker against God's Law. Jesus was, according to the Scriptures, born under the Law and lived without sin. Breaking the 4th commandment was a sin punishable by death. My dear brethren, if Jesus actually broke the Sabbath day then he was a sinner! God forbid!! Jesus never once broke God's Law. What Jesus did break were the additions this group added to the Law of God and the ways in which they attempted to keep the Law but didn't.
In these accounts Jesus teaches us something very important about the Sabbath. Our text in Matthew, Mark, and Luke show us that the Lord's practice and teaching was for the purpose of correcting this. The pharisees were offended that Jesus and His disciples went though the grainfields and were plucking heads of grain and rubbing them in their hands in order to eat. When wheat is rubbed together in the hands the chaff is rubbed away and the grain, or seed, is exposed and is edible. How beautiful a picture this gives to us. As His disciples were rubbing the chaff away to bring out the good seed to nourish themselves, Jesus' teaching was rubbing away the false ideas the pharisees had encased the Sabbath in. Jesus was not teaching that we do not have a Sabbath Day to keep. He was correcting and stripping away a false understanding of it. From our three texts I have drawn the following points.
1. The questioning of the pharisees was one of lawfulness.
2. The pharisees inability to see the true meaning of the sabbath was their pride.
3. The true meaning of the Sabbath
4. Jesus is Lord of the sabbath.
1. The questioning of the pharisees was one of lawfulness.
2. The pharisees inability to see the true meaning of the sabbath was their pride.
3. The true meaning of the Sabbath
4. Jesus is Lord of the sabbath.
1. The questioning of the pharisees was one of lawfulness.
"At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!" Matt 12:1-2.
It is plain from this text that this statement from the pharisees is a legal one of which the pharisees considered themselves experts. In Mark and Luke's gospel we do not have these words posed as a statement like we read here, but rather as a question. I found this interesting because very often I have asked the Lord questions that haven't really been questions. I have been asked questions by skeptics that haven't really been questions, but have been more accusations and challenges. The Gospel of Matthew gives us this bit of information that is helpful in understanding this passage. Seeing how Jesus answers the question confirms this.
Their accusation was that what His disciples were doing was not lawful. They had judged that what these disciples were doing was breaking the Sabbath. Is this the proper understanding of the Law? The pharisees were men of the Word. They believed the Scriptures, zealously followed the Law, and separated themselves from things and others in order to keep the Law blamelessly. There is a part of me that can relate to these men. I must confess myself a pharisee also. In my zeal for personal purity and holiness I have separated myself from many things. And there is a truth here that ought be forsaken. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor 6:17-18). This exhortation we find given to us from the Apostle Paul, himself of the sect of pharisees, who understood and taught the Gospel of grace in truth. The Lord has not called us to uncleaness but to holiness (1 Thess 4:7). But like the pharisees of old I have at times gone too far and falling into the same prideful trap they did. Thanks be to God who gave us these Scriptures to help us learn from them so we may know how to walk as we ought to walk without forsaking mercy.
2. The pharisees inability to see the true meaning of the sabbath was their pride.
Jesus is a master physician who first seeks to clear and clean a festering wound before trying to bind it up. "Have ye not read.." He says in verse 3 of Matthew. "Have ye not read so much as this.." We read in Luke 6:3. "Have ye never read.." we find in Mark 2:25. Jesus lays the ax at the root of their pride which is at the heart of all pharisaism. These were the most read men in all Israel. These were the most learned and skilled in the law. And yet the Lord asks them if they have ever read about an account of King David! Of course these men have read this. They read it and did not understand it. The prided themselves on their learning and if they are to learn anything at all this pride has to go.
What Jesus teaches in this regard both hacks off the pride of the pharisees and instructs us on what indeed is lawful to be done on the sabbath day. Now, concerning the question on whether or not there is a sabbath day for the Christian believer, these passage do not offer support for saying there is not. Rather, they offer instruction for a proper understanding of what is lawful on the sabbath day. One has to admit that it would be quite odd for Jesus to teach these things if He intended to remove the sabbath day altogether.
3. The true meaning of the Sabbath.
There are two examples that Jesus sets before us for what lawful sabbath day obedience looks like.
First, King David and the men that were with him. "But he said unto them, have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?"
This account is given in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. I will not quote the passage entirely, but it gives the account of David coming to Ahimelech the priest asking for bread. The priest tells David that 'there is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread.." This was the bread set aside for the temple service and was not be eaten. But this was all that was in the house to give and the Scriptures says the priest gave this bread to David which he and his men surely ate. The sentence of death was upon those who were not proper to even touch these things (Num. 4:15) let alone take and eat them. Yet David did this and lived. Why? Because the Lord desires mercy and not sacrifice. The Lord desires compassion. Did the pharisees understand that the purpose of the temple service, the showbread, the sacrifices, the incense, and all these other most holy things pertained to giving mercy to God's people? Does God need bread to eat that it cannot be taken from His service to be given to those who needed food for the bodies God had made and for the men who were hard at work in the service of the Lord?
This example Jesus gives us shows us that it is not unlawful to be merciful on the sabbath day. To do the work of mercy is lawful. "But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." Matt 12:7. This clearly shows us that neither Jesus nor His disciples were actually breaking the sabbath. What Jesus is teaching here is to help us and pharisees of any sort understand that they had misunderstood how to keep the sabbath day.
Second, the priests performed much work on the sabbath day in the service of temple. "Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?" We can look to Numbers 28:9-10 to see works done on the sabbath day that would normally be considered profaning or dishonoring the sabbath.
Numbers 28:9-10 "And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: this is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering."
There was a great deal of work that went into these preparations. Yet this work was not counted against the priests as breaking or profaning the sabbath. Why? They were obeying the commandments. This shows us two things. First, that the sabbath day is kept even when some work is being done. Second, that which Mark's Gospel reveals, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." Mark 2:27. Under the old covenant sacrifices needed to be made on the sabbath day according to the Law of God and therefore it was lawful to perform the work necessary to accomplish this. Therefore, works of necessity to the service of God and man are lawful to be performed on the sabbath day.
"But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple."Matt. 12:6. The priests under the old covenant did not break the sabbath by doing the temple service any more than the disciples of Jesus did by their actions. It was merciful to permit the hungry disciples refresh themselves as they continued to labor in the Lord.
4. Jesus is Lord of the sabbath.
A final point should be made and that is what we have from Jesus: "..the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." What right had Jesus to declare that what His disciples were doing was not profaning the sabbath day? The same as He taught us regarding David and the priests. By the authority of God Himself. Jamison-Faussett-Brown's commentary contains one of the most sublime and poetic I have found so far on the passage. Consider what they say,
In what sense now is the Son of man Lord of the sabbath day? Not surely to abolish it - that surely were a strange lordship, especially just after saying that it was made or instituted for Man - but to own it, to interpret it, to preside over it, and to ennoble it, by merging it in the “Lord’s Day” (Rev_1:10), breathing into it an air of liberty and love necessarily unknown before, and thus making it the nearest resemblance to the eternal sabbatism.
In other words, Jesus is the Lord of sabbath and it is His rightful place to restore the sabbath day to its pristine beauty and benefit to mankind that it was meant to be.
It is plain from this text that this statement from the pharisees is a legal one of which the pharisees considered themselves experts. In Mark and Luke's gospel we do not have these words posed as a statement like we read here, but rather as a question. I found this interesting because very often I have asked the Lord questions that haven't really been questions. I have been asked questions by skeptics that haven't really been questions, but have been more accusations and challenges. The Gospel of Matthew gives us this bit of information that is helpful in understanding this passage. Seeing how Jesus answers the question confirms this.
Their accusation was that what His disciples were doing was not lawful. They had judged that what these disciples were doing was breaking the Sabbath. Is this the proper understanding of the Law? The pharisees were men of the Word. They believed the Scriptures, zealously followed the Law, and separated themselves from things and others in order to keep the Law blamelessly. There is a part of me that can relate to these men. I must confess myself a pharisee also. In my zeal for personal purity and holiness I have separated myself from many things. And there is a truth here that ought be forsaken. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor 6:17-18). This exhortation we find given to us from the Apostle Paul, himself of the sect of pharisees, who understood and taught the Gospel of grace in truth. The Lord has not called us to uncleaness but to holiness (1 Thess 4:7). But like the pharisees of old I have at times gone too far and falling into the same prideful trap they did. Thanks be to God who gave us these Scriptures to help us learn from them so we may know how to walk as we ought to walk without forsaking mercy.
2. The pharisees inability to see the true meaning of the sabbath was their pride.
Jesus is a master physician who first seeks to clear and clean a festering wound before trying to bind it up. "Have ye not read.." He says in verse 3 of Matthew. "Have ye not read so much as this.." We read in Luke 6:3. "Have ye never read.." we find in Mark 2:25. Jesus lays the ax at the root of their pride which is at the heart of all pharisaism. These were the most read men in all Israel. These were the most learned and skilled in the law. And yet the Lord asks them if they have ever read about an account of King David! Of course these men have read this. They read it and did not understand it. The prided themselves on their learning and if they are to learn anything at all this pride has to go.
What Jesus teaches in this regard both hacks off the pride of the pharisees and instructs us on what indeed is lawful to be done on the sabbath day. Now, concerning the question on whether or not there is a sabbath day for the Christian believer, these passage do not offer support for saying there is not. Rather, they offer instruction for a proper understanding of what is lawful on the sabbath day. One has to admit that it would be quite odd for Jesus to teach these things if He intended to remove the sabbath day altogether.
3. The true meaning of the Sabbath.
There are two examples that Jesus sets before us for what lawful sabbath day obedience looks like.
First, King David and the men that were with him. "But he said unto them, have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?"
This account is given in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. I will not quote the passage entirely, but it gives the account of David coming to Ahimelech the priest asking for bread. The priest tells David that 'there is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread.." This was the bread set aside for the temple service and was not be eaten. But this was all that was in the house to give and the Scriptures says the priest gave this bread to David which he and his men surely ate. The sentence of death was upon those who were not proper to even touch these things (Num. 4:15) let alone take and eat them. Yet David did this and lived. Why? Because the Lord desires mercy and not sacrifice. The Lord desires compassion. Did the pharisees understand that the purpose of the temple service, the showbread, the sacrifices, the incense, and all these other most holy things pertained to giving mercy to God's people? Does God need bread to eat that it cannot be taken from His service to be given to those who needed food for the bodies God had made and for the men who were hard at work in the service of the Lord?
This example Jesus gives us shows us that it is not unlawful to be merciful on the sabbath day. To do the work of mercy is lawful. "But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." Matt 12:7. This clearly shows us that neither Jesus nor His disciples were actually breaking the sabbath. What Jesus is teaching here is to help us and pharisees of any sort understand that they had misunderstood how to keep the sabbath day.
Second, the priests performed much work on the sabbath day in the service of temple. "Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?" We can look to Numbers 28:9-10 to see works done on the sabbath day that would normally be considered profaning or dishonoring the sabbath.
Numbers 28:9-10 "And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: this is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering."
There was a great deal of work that went into these preparations. Yet this work was not counted against the priests as breaking or profaning the sabbath. Why? They were obeying the commandments. This shows us two things. First, that the sabbath day is kept even when some work is being done. Second, that which Mark's Gospel reveals, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." Mark 2:27. Under the old covenant sacrifices needed to be made on the sabbath day according to the Law of God and therefore it was lawful to perform the work necessary to accomplish this. Therefore, works of necessity to the service of God and man are lawful to be performed on the sabbath day.
"But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple."Matt. 12:6. The priests under the old covenant did not break the sabbath by doing the temple service any more than the disciples of Jesus did by their actions. It was merciful to permit the hungry disciples refresh themselves as they continued to labor in the Lord.
4. Jesus is Lord of the sabbath.
A final point should be made and that is what we have from Jesus: "..the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day." What right had Jesus to declare that what His disciples were doing was not profaning the sabbath day? The same as He taught us regarding David and the priests. By the authority of God Himself. Jamison-Faussett-Brown's commentary contains one of the most sublime and poetic I have found so far on the passage. Consider what they say,
In what sense now is the Son of man Lord of the sabbath day? Not surely to abolish it - that surely were a strange lordship, especially just after saying that it was made or instituted for Man - but to own it, to interpret it, to preside over it, and to ennoble it, by merging it in the “Lord’s Day” (Rev_1:10), breathing into it an air of liberty and love necessarily unknown before, and thus making it the nearest resemblance to the eternal sabbatism.
In other words, Jesus is the Lord of sabbath and it is His rightful place to restore the sabbath day to its pristine beauty and benefit to mankind that it was meant to be.
In conclusion of this initial examination of the Scriptures, it is clear that these passages do not teach that Jesus broke the sabbath day. They teach how the sabbath is truly kept holy before the Lord. It warns me not to take this day in my hands like the pharisees and make of it what they did. It teaches me to remember mercy and do to good on the sabbath. These texts also teach me to consider not only this commandment but all the commandments under such light of mercy and truth.
May the Lord help me and all to a better understanding.
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