The Pharisees and other religious leaders were constantly looking for reasons to condemn Jesus even though Jesus said His mission was the opposite:
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:17
Self-righteous judgment and condemnation work this way not only for the Pharisees of Jesus’ day but also for modern church members and leaders who don’t know Jesus. Jesus cut across the traditions of men and religious rules that, ironically, paved the way for additional condemnations from religious people.
A good example is the story of the disciples in the grain field on the Sabbath day.
Jesus’ disciples got caught breaking a tradition (not supported by Scripture) regarding the Sabbath. The condemnation by the Pharisees was picky and petty.
A Misunderstanding About the Sabbath
Here was their crime: The disciples were walking through a grainfield and plucked some of the heads of grain because they were hungry. They were condemned by the church leaders for breaking a Sabbath law; then they made sure Jesus knew it! Of course, this was a man-made law regarding the fourth commandment. Jesus attempted to clarify the Sabbath to these religious leaders.
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!”
Matthew 12: 1-2
Was this stealing, or was it something else that was unlawful to do on the Sabbath? The instruction given to Moses by God in Deuteronomy 23:25 allowed the disciples to take some of the heads of grain to satisfy their hunger.
“ When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.
Deuteronomy 23: 25
During this time period, It was lawful to satisfy your hunger but not harvest it (use of a sickle)—the issue the priests had with the disciples related to their laws about activities allowed on the Lord’s Sabbath. The Pharisees considered their activities with the grain as work (gathering and threshing), which was prohibited by the melakhah, which describes at least 39 CATEGORIES of prohibitions on Shabbat (Sabbath). Again, these were man-made laws and not laws/prohibitions that God made. In fact, God says very little about prohibitions on the Sabbath. The most obvious is ceasing from labor, but after that,, God says very little about how to keep it holy or things that can’t be done on the Sabbath. Of all the commandments, only the fourth and fifth commandments do not start with a “Thou Shalt Not,” but rather an invitation by God to remember, rest, and honor. This is something that is positive for the mind of mankind.
Son Of Man-And Lord
The Pharisees carefully watched the movements of the man of Galilee, who claimed to be “The Son of Man.” A title that Jesus liked to use. It had a nice ring of connecting Himself with mankind. He was one of us! But, He was also God…Immanual (God with us). Paul would later explain it this way:
For both, He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren…Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same.
Hebrews 2: 11,14
Jesus said something about the Sabbath that is very revealing about Himself and the Sabbath:
Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:28
Here is the Sabbath connection with Jesus. He is one of us, but He is also Lord, even of the Sabbath!
Apparently, the Pharisees didn’t appear to catch what He was saying. First of all, He is proclaiming Himself to be Lord, a title given to God the Messiah! He is God, even of the Sabbath!
Some have mistakenly tried to say that Jesus was indicating that the Sabbath didn’t matter or that Jesus “broke the Sabbath” to make a point. That is far from the truth.
Jesus said,
I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
John 15:10b
But Jesus did not keep the commandments according to additions and traditions to the law by the religious leaders.
Additions and Traditions
Using the context of this event, the point Jesus made was about additions and traditions by the priests that had made the Sabbath a burden and were not in the spirit of God’s intention of the Sabbath. The religious people had robbed its joy and turned it into a list of do’s and don’t’s.
But Jesus was also proclaiming His Lordship. Jesus was not breaking His own words given at Creation. He is our Lord, even of the Sabbath. If anyone should know what is good or bad on the Sabbath, it would be its Creator.
Jesus made it clear. The Sabbath was made (just like everything else at creation) for the benefit of mankind. Before He proclaimed His Lordship over the Sabbath, He reminded the religious leaders and anyone who had ears to hear:
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:28
By the multitude of non-Scriptural rules, the Sabbath became their master. It became a do-nothing day for fear of breaking a rule. The Sabbath was hallowed at creation, as recorded by Moses in the first and second chapters of Genesis. It was after God had spent six literal days (evenings and mornings) that God said these words:
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Genesis 1:31
Even in the Ten Commandments law, written by the finger of God in stone (Exodus 31:18), is the acknowledgment that God is Lord of the Sabbath.
“…the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God…”
Exodus 20:10
The Sabbath From The Beginning
It had been an unwritten gift from the time of Adam and Eve. A gift of rest because God rested after His work. This was long before there was a Jew. Therefore, it was an invitation to all mankind to work six days, then rest in Him.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Genesis 2:3
He finished His work of Creation and did not add anything else. It was all very good. But it was finished. The Sabbath stands as a memorial in time, repeated every week to teach us to Remember His creative work. What He has blessed cannot be reversed.
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Numbers 23:20
Jesus Created The Sabbath
Here is another connection between Jesus and the Sabbath. He made it and blessed it! Both John and Paul tell us that Jesus is God and worked with God the Father to create everything we see, including the Sabbath;
In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:1-3
In this passage, John uses another name for Jesus, “the Word” He leaves no doubt as to the identity of “the Word” in the proceeding verses, especially verse 14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. john 1:14
Who else but Jesus fits this description of “the Word“? It would be very fair to read John 1: 1-3 this way:
In the beginning, was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.
The same (Jesus) was at the beginning with God.
All things were made by Jesus, and without Jesus was not anything made that was made.
John 1:1-3
This one passage eliminates all those who would claim that Jesus was just another prophet or that He was not a member of the preexistent Godhead. Paul agrees with John:
He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him ( Jesus) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him (Jesus) and for Him (Jesus). And He (Jesus) is before all things, and in Him (Jesus) all things consist. And He (Jesus) is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Hebrews 1: 15-18
The writer of Hebrews adds this:
…in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Jesus), whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He (Jesus) made the worlds;
Hebrews 1:2
Jesus Himself proclaimed His Divinity by taking the name given to Moses at the burning bush when Moses asked what name he should use when he talked to the children of Israel about their pending release from Egyptian bondage:
God told Moses:
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Exodus 3:14
Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” John 8:58
Jesus’ Connection with the Sabbath-Summary:
1.) He is the Creator or Co-Creator, at the least.
2.) He created everything we see or don’t see. and blessed the Sabbath after finishing the work of creation.
3.) He told us He made the Sabbath for us and not us for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not meant to be a burden but rather a delight and a joy (See Isaiah 58: 13-14)
4.) He is Lord of the Seventh-day Sabbath. There is no other Lord’s Day described so well in Scripture. The Lord’s day in these exact words only appears once in Revelation 1:10, but it does not specify which day of the week. But using the plethora of verses connecting the seventh day with the Lord’s Day. It is, therefore, very likely the Sabbath (the seventh day) that John was “in the Spirit.” The only other explanation is that John was “in the Spirit” to describe the events of the coming of Jesus.
Religious People and the Sabbath
The religious people of Jesus day and even some of those who remember the Sabbath today want to put burdens on the Sabbath to make it a day of useless time just sitting around. But this rest is also mental and spiritual rest. Jesus proclaimed the following when He invited us with all our burdens to Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11: 28
So the Sabbath is more about coming to Jesus for relief from the mental, physical, and spiritual burdens accumulated during the six days of labor. It was never meant to be a day of does and don’ts or a way to please God.
It encourages time to visit the sick and other acts of mercy. God desires mercy and not sacrifice.
At the end of Jesus’ discourse with the Pharisees, He said,
But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7
Worship and the Sabbath
Oddly, nowhere in the fourth commandment does it mention it as a day of worship. In fact, formal corporate worship is not limited to any day of the week, as shown throughout the Bible.
But only the Sabbath was proclaimed “holy” and “sanctified” by Jesus Himself. Jesus’ custom, along with Paul and the disciples, was to be present in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16, Acts 16:13, Acts 17:2). So worship on the Sabbath fits with God’s will by both Jesus’ example and reasons for worship (His Creatorship). Those who worship on Sunday should not be condemned, nor those who worship on Saturday. Either way, it does not take away the sanctity of God nor His word to “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy…”
While formal worship is not described in the fourth commandment, the main reason for worship is there. He is our Creator! He completed His workweek and ended it. He took time, not because He was tired, but because He desired to look at what was “very good.” He invites the same for us today. A day of worship to Jesus and looking to Jesus who is “very good.“
The call to worship Him as Creator becomes a call from a powerful angel (messenger) in Revelation 14 at the end of time. This messenger is one of three angels:
Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
Revelation 14:6-7
This message of Revelation 14 is pointing back to the fourth Commandment and is connected to the two other powerful messages to the earth, Babylon is fallen and warnings against the beast and its mark. (See Revelation 14: 8-9)
Jesus’ Connection With You
So what do you do with Jesus and the Sabbath? Do you accept both as a gift of love from Jesus the Creator? Do you make the Sabbath a way to please God and make yourself more religious by adding on more additions and traditions? Do you ignore it and claim it was stricken from the table of the Ten Commandments? Or do you embrace God’s command as something to enhance your relationship with Jesus?
Jesus said His law was valid forever.
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 one 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.
Matthew 5: 17-19
Jesus’ demonstration of mercy, forgiveness, and love extends from the Garden of Eden to the end of time and beyond. The Sabbath is not just another rule but an invitation to be with God in Spirit on His holy day. It is only legalistic if a person puts additional rules on it and thinks that it is a way to gain favor with God or another rule to keep for salvation. It becomes a joy when it is connected with Jesus, and we follow His commandments because of our love and respect for Him…not for just pretentious religious purposes.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:15
Worshipping Jesus on the Sabbath will not stop when He creates a new heaven and a new earth for the redeemed.
“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 6; 22, 23