What did Jesus say about the Sabbath day?

Then there is that important verse (8), "The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath day." He is not only greater than the temple but He who in grace became the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. If He is Lord you see He is the One to regulate, and to order, and to say what should and should not be. David was the anointed king, and if he was so circumstanced that he had not food, what was the value of the showbread to God if His own "anointed" had need? If that was true of the type, what of the Lord Himself?

"The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." In these words, to the confusion of the unbelieving Pharisees, the Servant of Jehovah asserted His claim to an absolute authority over the sabbath. In virtue of His own rights He was competent to decide what might or what might not be done on the sabbath, for He was Lord of the sabbath.

The Evangelist proceeds to show that the Lord justified His followers on another ground — by the enunciation of a weighty truth concerning the sabbath which the Pharisees had nullified by their tradition. The distinction of this utterance from the Lord's historical allusion to the Old Testament is marked in the narrative by the phrase, "And he said unto them." For He proceeded to introduce to them a new phase of the subject, illuminating it by the truth of God, as it could emanate from Himself only. In their ignorant zeal, under a thin veneer of piety, they had made the sabbath a yoke of bondage grievous to be borne. The Lord pronounced authoritatively, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." The object of the institution of the septenary season of rest was not the punishment of man, but his blessing.

He sums this up by announcing principles of vita! significance in verses 27 and 28. The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. It was in man's best interests to have a day during the week when he might rest, yet often he will not do this unless he is virtually forced to. God was seeking the blessing of man in providing him with one day of rest during the week. Now Pharisees were turning it into a virtual curse for man by their rigid traditions. More than this, the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath: His authority is far higher than that of the sabbath, and certainly infinitely higher than the assumed authority of Pharisees, little as the Pharisees were willing to recognize it.

Now another matter concerning the sabbath brings out even more glaringly the bitter animosity of the Pharisees against Him. Though He had reminded them that the priests carried out their duties for the help of Israelites on the sabbath day, yet the Pharisees were adamant in their opposition to His healing on the sabbath. They raise the question as to whether it is lawful to heal on the sabbath days, since a man with a withered hand is present. But their object is to accuse Him. He answers by referring to their own practice. For them to rescue a sheep out of a pit was certainly harder physical work then for Him to heal, yet they would do this on a sabbath day. If a sheep should be shown such consideration, how much more so should a man, who is of far more value! He finalizes this with the emphatic announcement, "it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days." What honest man could dare to object to this?

His words are followed by suitable action. Before them all He tells the man to stretch forth his hand, and it is immediately healed. God's own rights of showing mercy on the sabbath day had been challenged for He was healing by the power of God. Therefore He confronts the Pharisees with their own folly, no matter how greatly it will increase their hostility.

We have seen that the sabbath was made for the purpose of ministering to the needs of men. Now the Lord in the synagogue encountered a man who was in manifestly serious need. But his need meant nothing to the Pharisees compared to their zeal for the sabbath day. Knowing His compassion, they suspect that He will heal the man in spite of their opposition. He does not tell the man to meet Him elsewhere out of sight of the Pharisees, but makes a decided issue of the matter. For they were contesting God's right to show mercy. Having the man stand forth, He asked them a simple question that was fully to the point. Did the law allow one to do good on the sabbath days or to do evil? -- to save life or to kill? So far as they were concerned, they would rather see one die on the sabbath than to see him healed. They would not answer, for they knew that an answer either way would incriminate them, unless they gave up their foolish prejudice.

298 Let us now see what the New Testament directly affords us on the sabbath. Is any hint as to its sacredness to be found? Matthew 12:1 is evidently of great consequence here. The Pharisees complained of the disciples' plucking and rubbing the ears of corn. The Lord's answer is remarkable. It is not to rebuke the Pharisees as He does elsewhere, but to shew that the sabbath and other ceremonial enactments have been set aside for sufficient cause, and that a greater than any obligation of the sabbath was there. 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 at once. But that is the Lord's reasoning as to the sabbath. First a rejected Messiah made all common, for another obligatory commandment, the sabbath, gave way under God's own eye. Christ was greater than the temple; and if they knew God's heart, they would not have condemned His disciples. All this proved the Pharisees wrong and unjustifiable. But, besides, the Son of man was Lord of the sabbath. Surely this could not be said of a commandment as to right and wrong! He had a title to dispose of the sabbath, through the dignity of His person and office. Could all this have been said if the Lord were insisting on the maintenance of its authority? He adds that it is lawful to do well on the sabbath. The parallel passage in Mark adds, The sabbath was made for man.

28 Nor (p. 237) does the Lord ever refer that I remember, to 'legal authority for the Sabbath.' However wise it may be to give 'one day in seven,' it was never the ground of the Sabbath, but God's rest, God's people then having a part in it. And to rest when God worked, and to work when God rested, and talk of 'one day in seven being due to God' is losing sight of all its import. If it be God's work, we ought to work every day. If it be part in God's rest, we must have it where God's rest is - this is gone in corrupted Creation. Jesus has given it us in Spirit in His resurrection, not as a law but introduced by redemption and death. But 'important interests of men' (p. 236) is all Dr. Fairbairn can see. Therefore 'Its sacred repose must give way to the necessary demands of life, even animal life.' But the Lord was not approving the Pharisees, but making them ashamed of their hypocrisy. Very likely they did right, but the Lord was making no 'enlarged intelligent rule' by it, but appealing to what they did, and was done, in the Temple itself. He never gives any instruction how to keep the Sabbath, only asserts "It is lawful to do good."

To bring man out of death into life the Father and the Son were working. When the Jews found fault with Jesus for doing good to men on the sabbath day, He answers, "My Father works hitherto, and I work." They would have limited the activities of divine love to six days in the week; but in a world of sin, death and human woe there could be no sabbath for Jesus. It was impossible for the love of God to rest in a world like this. So we find Jesus going down to the pool of Bethesda, that scene of misery, on the sabbath. A multitude of poor afflicted creatures were there whose physical condition set forth the spiritual and moral condition of God's earthly people. The pool was at the sheep market. The people were under the iron rule of the proud Roman and were, so to speak, being bought and sold. They were under hard and cruel bondage. They had been, up to the coming of Christ, viewed as Jehovah's sheep, but they had wandered from Him and were reaping the sad consequences of their departure from Him. And their spiritual condition was as bad as was their physical condition —they were blind, halt, withered. They were unable to see, and they were unable to walk rightly, and the blight of death was upon them.

Then, in the same chapter, we have the repeated mention of the sabbath (vs. 9, 10, 16, 18). It was true that God had desired to allow man to participate in His rest (Gen. 2:1; Ex. 20) but sin had come into the world and, with it, an extent of misery that was hardly a basis for rest. Nevertheless, the sabbath was still religiously observed by the Jews. But the Lord had to say ‘My Father worketh hitherto and I work' (v. 17) and He healed the lame man in Bethesda on that very day.