Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 2:23-3:6, Luke 6:1-11
Today, more verses (37) than our average 20-25, especially following on last week’s all in the teens. Three accounts of Jesus and the Sabbath on three days in 2019…
He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? (Matthew 12:11) Matthew is the only writer who has Jesus asking that question in the context of this healing of the man with a withered hand. I was surprised to read here about a sheep falling into a pit. I have more often remembered a similar verse from Luke in the context of Jesus and a different healing on the Sabbath, And He said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” (14:5) John is the gospel where Jesus is the Good Shepherd; I was surprised to find this “sheep” item in Matthew.
And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28) Again, one distinct item that appears in Mark but not in the other gospels. In fact, I could not find Jesus making this statement anywhere else. We talked a lot about “sabbath rest” last year when we were reading Hebrews. I find great joy in Jesus reminding us that He has given us this one day a week for rest – The Sabbath was made for man – and that we should take that rest. There are so many people today who are forced to work on Sunday, like medical people and first responders. However, our society has changed so drastically over the past many years that Sunday is like any other day. Sunday is probably a bigger shopping day at Kroger than any other day of the week except maybe Saturday. And other places are open too: restaurants and bars, museums and zoos, etc. Thank God for places like Chick-Fil-A, even though I’d love to get one of their sandwiches after church on Sunday…!!
See also: February 26 / Matthew 12:1-14; February 27 / Mark 2:23-3:6; February 28 / Luke 6:1-11
Our frenetic society encourages us to always be on the go and to fill up our time with activity, either work, work, work or play, play, play. So the Pharisees’ focus on Sabbath prohibitions may strike us as odd at best. And their plotting to destroy Jesus in response obviously seems extreme — way out of proportion to the offense. But let’s remind ourselves of their cultural and historical setting. About 500 years earlier, God had raised up the Babylonians as an instrument of judgement against the Kingdom of Judah and sent the Jews into exile. One of God’s many charges against the Jews was their failure to keep the Sabbath. (See Isaiah 56:2; 58:13; Jer. 17:21-27; Ez. 22:8,26; 23:38.) On their return from exile, many Jews determined to be more strict in following the Law to avoid such a fate again. (See Neh. 13.) The Pharisees in particular were zealous for strict adherence to the Law, and my guess is that they saw it as a (or the) key to casting off the yoke of the Roman Empire. So in that context, strict adherence to the Sabbath would not be so odd or extreme as we might think. But the Pharisees nevertheless got it wrong, because love trumps legalism.
But let’s not “throw the baby out with the bathwater…” There are some who have taken Jesus’ words here as abolishing the Sabbath altogether, saying that only 9 of the 10 commandments are still in effect. (I really have read that in a book!) Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, love trumps legalism, so the Sabbath should not be interpreted as prohibiting doing good, but that does not mean that we are to abandon the Sabbath and treat it like just another work day. Our current culture has gone to the opposite extreme from the Pharisees’ position. But as Fred pointed out, the Sabbath is a gift of rest, and we should cherish it as such, recognizing that Sabbath rest is not some kind of legalistic burden imposed on us, but an opportunity for life-giving refreshment in the presence of God. Don’t discard the Sabbath; instead, observe it rightly, recognizing Christ as the Lord of the Sabbath. (Mt. 12:8)
So many good past and present comments!
Keep Holy the Sabbath, a seemingly simple command… with 39 proscribed activities in the Jewish traditions. Jesus reminds us that the intent of the Law is to bring us to love God and love others.
Great comments on these passages. Thank you all!
I was moved by Mark 3:5, “And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, …” Jesus is showing His human emotion of anger fueled by grief…grief because they (us?) (me?) didn’t get His message of love. How easily I can fall into the legalism trap and miss the true message.
I note that Mark is the only writer that recorded this emotional display of Jesus in this encounter.