Jesus and the Meaning of the Sabbath

On Day 7 of Creation Week, God completed his work of creating, and so the Bible says: "God rested." Some people ask, "How could God have created everything in six literal days?" I think the better question might be, "Why did it take him so long?" If he had wanted to create everything in an instant, he could have done so.

One reason why God took so long is because he intended for Creation Week to serve generally as an analog for marking time and specifically as an analogue for the importance and priority of obeying, serving, and worshiping him (see Exodus 20:8-11 and 31:12-17).

The thing most people remember about God's instructions for keeping the Sabbath Day is that it was to be a day of rest. Though resting was important, it was not the ultimate purpose for observing the Sabbath. We come to this conclusion, for one, because there were some people in Israel who were exempt from resting on the Sabbath. In fact, priests were required to work on the Sabbath. They were required to offer certain sacrifices, according to Numbers 28:9-10. The requirements placed on them point to a purpose for the Sabbath that was higher than simply resting.

The Sabbath Day ultimately was intended by God to serve as a way of remembering his Creatorhood and the work that he did during Creation Week. It serve as a reminder that he completed the work of creation by the end of the sixth day. It also was designed to communicate God as Holy, and as the One Who makes his people holy. Finally, the Sabbath Day was intended to be a sign of the relationship between God and Israel, a relationship that featured God's faithfulness and Israel's obedience, service, and worship (once again, see Exodus 20:8-11 and 31:12-18). All this to say that actual "resting" was certainly a primary means for honoring the intent of the Sabbath, but it was not the only means, as is illustrated by the priests being required to work as a means to the same ends.

Religious leaders fixated on the outward means of keeping the Sabbath, as they did in regard to so many things in the Law. In other words, they fixated on "resting" to the point that they created an elaborate scheme of do's and don'ts for what could and could not be done on the Sabbath to ensure they did not profane it. For example, the rules prohibited people from walking more than 3000 feet from their abode on the Sabbath. Any distance greater than 3000 feet was not "resting."

By the time Jesus came on the scene, rules such as the one above were well-known features of the religious landscape. So when Jesus and his disciples walked through the grainfields, picking the grain, rubbing in their hands, and eating the kernels (see Matthew 12:1ff and Luke 6:1ff), the Pharisees became outraged.

Jesus responded to their criticisms by saying, "The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8; Luke 6:5). Jesus did not mean, "Look, I made the rules, so I can break them anytime I want!" He had something much more holy in mind. He was, in fact, calling the attention of the Pharisees to the importance of the significance of the Sabbath over "rest" as one of the chief means to its fulfillment.

I explained this on Sunday using the things Jesus said when the disciples were accused of breaking the Sabbath by walking through the fields, etc. You can hear that explanation by listening to the sermon, which you can access from the church website. Tomorrow, I will write about the second situation, in which Jesus heals the withered hand of man on the Sabbath...