Jesus' Attitude Towards the Sabbath

In part one of this series we looked at how the Sabbath was a type of rest we have in Christ and we enter it by obedience to His word. However, before we can fully rule out the idea that Christians are supposed to follow and keep the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, it is vital that we examine Jesus' attitude to the Sabbath. There are several passages in the gospels that cover this, many of which are describing the same events, so bear with me! The passages in question are (with my emphases added):

Matt 12:1-14

1 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. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”

3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.

11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. 14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Mark 2:23-28

23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”

27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Luke 6:1-11

1 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. 2 And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”

3 But Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?” 5 And He said to them, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

6 Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. 8 But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand here.” And he arose and stood. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” 10 And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 11 But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus

Luke 13:10-17

10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.”

15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.

Luke 14:1-6

1 Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. 2 And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

4 But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. 5 Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” 6 And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

John 5:7-18

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

And that day was the Sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

11 He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’”

12 Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

John 9:13-16

13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”

Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

The key statements and common elements we read in these passages are:

• "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
• "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
• Healing/doing good on the Sabbath
• Picking and eating heads of grain on the Sabbath

However, these points need to be examined in light of the rules governing the Sabbath in the Old  Testament.

The Old Testament clearly teaches that NO work was to be done on the Sabbath (Ex 35:2), no preparing food (ex 16:29), no lighting fires (Ex 35:3), etc. Indeed, the seriousness of violating these rules can be seen in the following passage from the book of Numbers.

Num 15:32-36:

32 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp." 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Thus, unlike as some Sabbatarians claim, strict Sabbath rules were not all man-made trivial rules, rather, God Himself had very strict rules regarding how the Sabbath was to be observed. However, Jesus' statements in the passages outlined above shed a great deal of light on this.

First, His statement "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" indicates that the Sabbath was to serve the needs of mankind, NOT the other way around. Indeed, the Sabbath commandment is the only one of the Ten Commandments that exists directly to serve the needs of those who were to obey it.

This thought is also reflected in the story that Jesus refers to regarding David's eating of the showbread. David and his men were hungry and they ate the showbread, which [was] not lawful for any but the priests to eat, yet there was no consequence. David's need, and the need of his men, was more important than adhering to this rule. God was and is far more interested in meeting the needs of mankind than enforcing trivial rules and regulations.

Second, His statement "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" is also of great significance. The word translated "Lord" means "he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord; the possessor and disposer of a thing" (Thayer's Lexicon). Jesus is basically saying that He is the one that controls the Sabbath, he is "ruler" over it.

What is also of great interest is that the Luke 6:1-11 passage immediately follows Jesus' statements regarding putting new wine in old wineskins (Luke 5:36-39):

Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

A careful examination of this parable reveals that here Jesus was talking about the Old and New Covenants. Jesus is saying you don't put the New Covenant into the Old or vice versa, it is an entirely new covenant. Hence, the old rules concerning the law of the Sabbath are not placed on New Covenant believers in just the same way that, for example, rules concerning circumcision are also not part of the New Covenant, which is based on grace, not rules and regulations.

Summary

Jesus' attitude towards the Sabbath can be summarized by the following key points:

• The basic needs of mankind are more significant than strict legal rules.
• The Sabbath was designed to meet the needs of mankind, not to impose some form of legalism on them.
• Under the New Covenant, believers are not placed under Old Covenant laws.