And he said to them, The sabbath was made on account of man, not man on account of the sabbath;
The Pharisees had just accused the disciples of breaking the sabbath as they walked through the grainfields. Jesus does not argue the details; He asks what the day was ever for — a rule man exists to serve, or a gift God gave to serve man?
Jesus points to why God gave the day at all. One writer sets the burden the Pharisees made of it beside God's aim in it:
In their ignorant zeal, under a thin veneer of piety, they had made the sabbath a yoke of bondage too heavy to carry. The Lord declared with full authority, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." God set up that seventh-day rest to bless man, not to punish him.
Jesus says "man," not "Israel." One writer traces how far back the day reaches:
The Lord declared that the sabbath was made not for Israel only, but for man. The sabbath was indeed a special sign that Israel was the nation of Jehovah. But it also existed before Israel's day, even though God laid on Israel the duty of keeping the seventh day holy… At Sinai, then, Israel received what had been the sabbath of Jehovah from the beginning. In its original scope it took in all mankind.
The day met a real human need. Under Pharisee rules it did the opposite:
The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. It was in man's best interests to have a day in the week when he could rest. Yet often he will not rest unless he is almost forced to. God was seeking the blessing of man in providing him with one day of rest during the week. Now the Pharisees were turning it into a virtual curse for man by their rigid traditions.
One writer weighs the Pharisees' zeal against what it ignored:
In raising the question of the sabbath, the Pharisees show great zeal for keeping a day outwardly. Yet they care nothing that the Lord of the sabbath and His disciples were left hungry. They claimed to be glorifying God at the very moment they were rejecting His witness. The Lord exposes their unreality by recalling the history of David and his companions, who in the day of their rejection were left hungry. When God's anointed was rejected, hunted and hungry, the holy bread lost its value in His sight. So no sin was committed, though David and his companions acted against the letter of the law in eating it. So with the sabbath: it was for the blessing of men, and not for increasing the sufferings of hungry men.
Jesus never argues this way about the moral commands, like hating a brother or coveting. One writer asks why:
Could God say, I am greater than a moral commandment? Would that be a divine way of putting things if it were a question of hating a brother or coveting another man's wife? Such a thought would revolt us at once. But that is the Lord's reasoning about the sabbath… Besides, the Son of man was Lord of the sabbath. Surely this could not be said of a commandment about right and wrong! He had a title to dispose of the sabbath, through the dignity of His person and office.
The weight of the saying rests on the Speaker. He made the day, and He stands in the place of the man it was made for:
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." This, after all, was a very wonderful truth. But when we get Christ, truths come out. He is the God who made it, and the Man who takes up the blessings, so He has a right to teach them. God sanctified it because He rested in it, yet it was made for man. Here was He who made it, and who was a Man… If God works and rests, even in His own delight, it is for man.
- Made for. The day is a gift given to serve man, not a test man exists to pass; its design is blessing, not punishment.
- Made early. It was for "man" before it was for Israel. God Himself rested in it first, so its kindness reaches wider than one nation.
- Made ugly. Human tradition reversed the gift, turning God's provision of rest into a burden and even a curse.
- Made to yield. As with David and the holy bread, a rule gives way when God's rejected anointed and His companions are hungry.
- Made by Him. The One saying this made the day, and He became the Man it was made for. So He, not the Pharisees, says what it is for.
so that the Son of man is lord of the sabbath also.
The disciples were hungry, and the Pharisees attacked what they did on the sabbath. Jesus does not argue the fine print of the law. He answers by naming who He is, and the title He picks — "Son of Man" — carries the whole claim.
The name is chosen, not casual. One writer sets it beside an older case: hungry men once ate bread reserved for priests.
If the bread of priests became common when they of old were hungry, would God now hold to His sabbath when the disciples of Jesus lacked ordinary food?… So He asserts the superiority of His own person, and He does this as the rejected man. That is why the title "Son of Man" is brought in here.
The sabbath was not a human custom that He was adjusting. It was God's own institution, and lordship over it goes far past anything Adam ever held.
It is worth noticing what the Servant of Jehovah did here. He was perfect in His dependence, tireless in His energy, exquisite in His sympathy, tender in His compassion. Quietly, with no display, in the simplest words, He claimed an authority without limit that no man ever had before. Remember, this Lordship meant more than Adam's rule over the lower creation. This was Lordship over a divine institution which Adam never had. The Son of man, who had power on earth to forgive sins, had power on earth to regulate the sabbath also, for, even as Peter said to Cornelius, "He is Lord of all."
Verse 27 gives the reason; this verse draws the result. He stands on both sides of the day — the God who made it, and the Man it was made for.
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." This, after all, was a very wonderful truth. But when Christ comes, such truths come out. He is the God who made the day, and the Man who takes up the blessings, so He has the right to teach them. God set the day apart because He rested in it, yet He made it for man. Here stood the One who made it, and who was a Man… The despised, rejected Son of man is not under His own institutions but Lord of the sabbath as Man. It was made for Him, as well as by Him as God, and, first of all, being who He is, He is Lord of it.
The Pharisees had turned the purpose of the day upside down. Their rules made a gift into a burden, and they set their own authority against His.
It was in man's best interests to have a day in the week when he could rest. Yet often he will not rest unless something almost forces him to… Now the Pharisees were in effect turning that day into a curse for man by their rigid traditions. More than this, the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath. His authority stands far above the sabbath itself, and beyond all measure above the authority the Pharisees claimed for themselves — little as they were willing to admit it.
The sabbath was the seal of God's covenant with Israel. One writer sets the rejection of Christ beside the rejection of David, and follows what happens to that seal.
First, when David, the anointed of the Lord, had been rejected, everything became common and unholy. In the same way, Christ was the last test for man in the flesh. When men rejected Him, nothing was holy for man any more, and the seal of the first covenant had lost all its meaning. Then, when Christ gives up for a time His position in Israel as Messiah, He becomes the Son of man. So He is the Lord of the sabbath, which was made for man. And so the sign of the old covenant disappears, through man's sin and his rejection of Christ.
His lordship is not limited to one day in the week. It reaches forward to a rest God has still to give.
The ideal sabbath is yet to come. In the letter to the Hebrews, the apostle shows that the rest of God did not come in Old Testament times. Then he declares, "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Heb. 4:9). Of this sabbath rest the Son of man is Lord, as He is the true Joshua to lead His own into that rest, and to keep them in it.
- Rejected — He answers as "Son of Man," the name that belongs to Him as the One men refused. On that ground He asserts the superiority of His own person.
- Made for man — the day was a gift to man; so the true Man, who also made it, stands above it rather than under it.
- Lord of all — this is authority over something God Himself instituted, a claim no one before Him ever made.
- Sign gone — with Christ refused, the seal of the old covenant loses its meaning, as the priests' bread became common food in David's day.
- Rest to come — the same Son of Man who is Lord of the sabbath will lead His own into the rest that still remains.