Lord of the Sabbath
Matthew 12:1-8
What is a Christian to do with the Sabbath? What to do with Sunday. Should we work on Sunday? Should we treat it like the Sabbath of the First Testament? This question has given rise to whole denominations. It has made some feel very guilty about doing rather minor things. Jesus gives us some guidance:
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath." He answered, "Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread--which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ’I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:1-8 NIV)
What is going on?
To our ears, what the Apostles were doing sounds almost like theft, but Moses’ law provides for it. Deuteronomy does not specify who may do it, but it probably provides for the workers in the field or the poor. To be walking through a field and pick some of the crop and eat it as you were walking was generally ok. Nobody would have thought a thing of it. The only exception would have been if the person began filling a bowl and taking it home. That was a no-no.
However, the Talmud indicates that it is one of many specific types of work that were expressly forbidden on the Sabbath. Generally speaking a person should not be walking out in the fields anyway, unless they were going someplace appropriately close on the other side. Presumably, there would be permissible food there too.
This of course, raises a secondary question. What were the Pharisees doing out in the field on the Sabbath?
Most of the Pharisees were not even in Galilee, because they would have mostly stayed closer to the Temple. But, Jesus is out in the field and they seem to be following Him around. The Gospel writers paint a picture for us of a group practically stalking Jesus to catch Him and His disciples in a mistake.
So they confront Him: This is Sabbath breaking!
Sabbath breaking is serious business. When Jews governed themselves, it was a death penalty offense. However, we are told in the gospels that Roman governance forbade the Jews from enforcing the death penalty except in the Temple. This restriction made space for more debate about what constituted Sabbath breaking. And there was debate.
So, in the indirect way Jesus had of dealing with questions, He reminds them of a story.
David and his men ate the Tabernacle Show Bread.
This is an unusual provision for the Temple. In the holy place was a golden table. On that table there were always 12 loaves of bread on display. Each loaf represented a tribe of Israel. This bread was baked by a specific recipe and replaced every Sabbath by the High Priest. Last week’s bread was then eaten by the other priests in a holy place, because the bread was considered sacred.
When David and his men first ran from Saul, He stopped at the Tabernacle to ask for some food. The Priest didn’t have anything to give them, so he gave them the show bread. This was a breech of protocol. But David was obviously in need.
The infraction is both about the Sabbath and about food. It was a violation of the last Sabbath, because the table would not be refreshed until the coming Sabbath. It was also sacred food, meant to be eaten by priests in a holy place. But David and his men had nothing to eat.
So, Jesus reminds them that laws, even laws about the Sabbath are to be tempered by mercy.
The second idea Jesus mentions is an inevitable paradox. If there is a time when everybody else has off and is supposed to be participating in your work, your job is just beginning. If you work retail, you know this best. People shop when they are off, which means you are at work.
All people were to rest and sacrifice on the Sabbath. But according to Numbers, the priests had to raise the sacrifices to God on the day when everyone else was resting. Hence, the people who conducted the sacrifices could not rest. And yet, they were not guilty of breaking the Sabbath.
Jesus is, through his references to the Law and the Prophets, telling the Pharisees there is more than one way of looking at this law. Their interpretation did not necessarily make his disciples guilty.
Then Jesus raises the stakes
I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.
Jesus says, the Temple makes the holy work done in the Temple exempt from normal treatment. But if that is true, then what happens when someone greater than the Temple interprets the situation?
The Temple is God’s throne! Who could be greater than the Temple?
When we hear this line, we smile. Our belief in Jesus informs our sense of humor. Of course if the Temple is great, the one worshiped in the Temple is greater.
But the pharisees didn’t know yet who Jesus was. He is challenging them. They now have some mental food to chew on.
Back up. Jesus is claiming to be greater than the Temple, giving Him authority to govern what may and may not be done on the Sabbath and by whom. But then He says something that is kind of obscure, and, I’m sure, gives the Pharisees something even more to think about.
If you had known what these words mean, ’I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. (Matthew 12:7 NIV)
Going back to the Temple. If the Temple makes the sacrifices conducted their sacred, even if they are done on the Sabbath, then those sacrifices are very important indeed. In fact, the Pharisees believed the sacrifice was in some ways more holy than the altar. But Jesus is saying there is not just one thing, but two things more important.
• The one who is greater than the temple
• and mercy
God values sacrifice, there is no doubt. But He values mercy even more. Look at the scale of value.
God
Mercy
The Temple
Sacrifices on the altar
Jesus is not trivializing the Sabbath. Far from it. He is just seeing through the fact that the Pharisee’s interpretations of the law tended to ignore mercy.
What is more important?
• Keeping a strict Sabbath?
• Or a hungry man eating?
You might argue, they could have waited. The weren’t walking far. It would have been a small thing for them to wait.
• But that is exactly Jesus’ point.
• It is a small thing
I remember a Hi and Lois Comic strip. This is an old one. The son Chip is ready to walk out the door to go to school, but he is wearing jeans. His parents remind him that jeans are not allowed under the school’s dress code. He protests that there is nothing wrong with his jeans. his parents insist that he change. As he is turning to go up stairs a single line comes out of everyone’s mouth
All that fuss over a pair of pants.
Jesus is allowing this debatable activity so that His men who are hungry can eat.
The Pharisees would condemn the same men for the same debatable activity. Given the chance, they would say that they deserve death.
• Death?
• For eating when you’re hungry?
• Shouldn’t mercy trump that?
In this and the following passage,
Jesus is asserting His authority over the Sabbath
There may not be a more pervasive representation of God’s holiness in the Hebrew Scriptures. God repeatedly emphasizes the Sabbath, and questions why His people aren’t honoring it. The Pharisees would have been very aware of this, and would have been meticulously keeping it, not out of drudging compliance, but out of a joyous participation in their identity as God’s people.
• Jesus is showing them that they should not neglect mercy to comply with a debatable detail
• In fact, it is better if they keep the Sabbath in a spirit of mercy
• And He is Lord of the Sabbath, so it is His right to say so.
What about the disciples and what about us?
Christians have completely reinterpreted the Sabbath. In some ways we think of Sunday as the Sabbath.
• Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday
• In Acts, Luke talks about Paul meeting together with the other brothers and sisters in Troas on the first day of the week to break bread
• Paul talks to the Corinthians about bringing offerings for the poor on the first day of the week
• In Revelation, John talks about being in special prayer on the Lord’s Day
• The church of the first and second centuries made it their practice to gather on what they called "The Lord’s Own Day."
• Ignatius, a student of the apostle John speaks of keeping the Sabbath in meditation on the Law, though not in bodily rest or with the strictness of Jewish observance, followed by keeping the Lord’s Day with celebration.
These were days when Christians were still trying to settle their identity apart from Judaism. Certainly there was a strong continuity with the Jews and the Holy Scriptures, but there were also differences, and they could not be ignored. So they initiated the observance of a different day.
Interestingly, nothing I have found suggests exactly how the Lord’s Day was observed, only that the Sabbath was still observed but in a different way that would not encourage legalism. The Lord’s Day, observed on Sunday was not meant to replace the Sabbath, but to distinguish Christians who saw in the "eighth day" a kind of fulfillment of the expectation of the Sabbath, just as the Gospel fulfilled the expectation of the Law.
Christian practice has been to see the Sabbath as part of the Law from which Grace frees us, instead we keep Sunday as the Lord’s Day.
Sunday is about resurrection. We celebrate the Lord’s day on Sunday, because on the day after the Sabbath, Jesus was raised from the dead.
Ironically, we resurrect the Law in Sunday
Even though, Paul warns us clearly against binding ourselves to the law again, we tend to do just that when it comes to Sunday. Jesus rose from the dead, but when we discuss the topic of the Sabbath, we make Sunday more about judgement than about celebration.
• We shouldn’t work on Sunday
• We shouldn’t shop on Sunday so store keepers won’t have a reason to open on Sunday
• We shouldn’t eat out on Sunday so restaurant owners won’t have a reason to open on Sunday
• We shouldn’t ...
• We shouldn’t ...
In order to make sense out of all the passages in the Bible that apply to the Sabbath, we have simply replaced the Sabbath of the seventh day with the Sabbath of the first day and have transferred all the laws that go with observing the Sabbath to observing the Lord’s Day.
Risky statement – I believe this is wrong
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath
He says in this passage and in the following passage that different attitudes should surround the concept of Sabbath. Far from strict observance, He says the Sabbath should be about good works and mercy.
Jesus begins our transformation in thinking about Holy days by defining what is acceptable, rather than what is forbidden.
Then His apostles establish a second day of higher importance that is given over to celebration of our Risen Lord
Paul is very clear about his own thinking on the subject. He very much relegates it to the sphere of choice and personal conviction:
One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
(Romans 14:5-6 NIV)
Should we make Sunday a day of specific observance and an avoidance of work?
Paul says it’s up to you. And you should not judge anyone else either way.
So what about the Sabbath? It’s a commandment!
Jesus calls us to reinterpret the Law according to the Spirit of the Law. It isn’t enough to observe any Law with strict adherence to the letter. We must discern, through the Spirit who lives in us, and through examination of the Scriptures in light of Jesus’ coming, what is intended by the law. When we discover what is intended, we can then keep the Law in a way that transcends mere detail analysis.
Exodus 23:10-12 makes it clear that two principles are at work in the Sabbath. Deuteronomy talks about these principles and adds a couple of others:
• Relief from work
• Rest for the animals
• Relief for the poor
• Celebration of God’s blessing and deliverance
• Freedom for those in bondage
• Thanks and offerings for Gods provision
This is the spirit of what God wanted when He established the Sabbath, so we must ask ourselves:
How should we practice Sabbath keeping?
We are freed from the meticulous observance of details
We are also guided into observance of another kind
And yet, Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. What should we do?
It would be completely inappropriate for me to give you specific things to do. If I did that I would be as guilty as the Pharisees who would have neglected feeding the hungry.
Think about it this way. The primary problem is one of honoring God with the way we use our time. We are best served not in making rules, but in using questions as a guide:
Do I get adequate rest to care for the body God gave me and do I allow others, including animals to get the rest they need to be well cared for?
You are made in the image of God. As a person with authority over other creations of God, animals, employees, I believe even machinery, are you doing two things:
Are you honoring the image of God in you and in others by maintaining the rest part of your health?
Does your self control in matters of necessity like food, make space for those who would otherwise do without?
Jesus and Moses both make it clear that part of Sabbath observance is mercy to the poor. If you personally consume all you have, you are not living in the spirit of the Sabbath. Just as a portion of time is set aside for rest, a portion of our necessities is set aside for relief of others.
Do you take time to appropriately thank God for all He has done for you?
Part of Sabbath observance is remembering and thanking God for the goodness He extended. For the Jews this included the Passover, and the goodness of God during harvest times. Some of the observance of this thanksgiving was connected with Sabbath. Part of it included preparing offerings for God as tokens of thanks. Part of it was simple celebration, sometimes including feasts. Part of it was reflecting upon and finding ways to participate in blessing others with freedom from injustice.
For some this will mean that their observance of the Lord’s Day is a day entirely dedicated to these attitudes and activities. For others, it will mean making time throughout the week and perhaps at odd times for them. The high call of the Christian life is in allowing these attitudes and activities to permeate our lives so that our whole existence is consecrated to God.
Should we do it on Sunday?
If you like
Should we do it in other ways?
Sure, that’s ok too
Should you avoid making it a restrictive necessity?
Absolutely, especially if it gets in the way of the merciful treatment of others. And it should never be a way that we judge others.
This may involve some reinterpretation for us. I was taught at times that it was wrong for me to eat out on Sundays because I was creating an atmosphere in which that server had to work.
In this new freedom we have in Christ, we must also consider whether there is mercy in helping a person fulfill the requirements of his or her job in order to provide for their families.
We must consider what it means to celebrate the bounty of God.
We must acknowledge that our society has built needed rest into the labor laws and not allow our insistence on Sunday rest to be an excuse for something else.
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath
The Spirit of the Sabbath ideal is rest, celebration of God’s goodness, and mercy to others.
