Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

J. MARK MARTIN

In his gospel, Mark describes the ministry of Jesus primarily to a Roman audience. Because his audience is Gentile, Mark is careful to explain the Jewish traditions and ideas Jesus confronted so his readers would understand that Jesus was more than just an ordinary man. In fact, He had divine authority over the devil, over the effects of sin in people’s lives, over people, and over tradition. In the last five verses of chapter 2, Mark shows that Jesus also has authority over the most sacred and revered institution of Judaism: He is Lord of the Sabbath!

Just before he introduces Jesus’ lordship over the Sabbath, however, Mark quotes Jesus saying, “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins” (Mark 2:22).

One of the Jewish traditions that could not hold the “new wine” of the Gospel of God’s grace was the Sabbath. It was part of the old wineskin of the Law that was going to become obsolete (Hebrews 8). Jesus boldly foreshadowed the obsolescence of the Sabbath when the Pharisees accused His disciples of breaking the law when they picked and ate grain on the holy day.

“And it came about that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to Him, “See here, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” (Mark 2:23-24)

Their deep anger about the disciples’ apparently careless Sabbath behavior resulted from the fact that the day was the Jews’ national sign from God that they were in covenant with Him (Exodus 31:13, 17). God had given Israel the Sabbath to point forward to what the Gospel rest of the Messiah would be like. Instead of honoring it as a day of rest, however, the Pharisees in their misguided zeal had turned the Sabbath into a day of restrictions. There were thousands of confusing, complex, and sometimes contradictory rules to keep. 

For example, it was forbidden to pick up a sheaf of barley or wheat and carry it on the Sabbath because such action would be considered bearing a burden. It was acceptable, however, to put a wooden spoon underneath the sheaf and pull it along. Moreover, a woman was forbidden to look in a mirror on the Sabbath lest she see a gray hair, pluck it out, and thereby break the prohibition against harvesting on the Sabbath. 

The rabbinic rules were so stringent that a synagogue leader indignantly rebuked those who, having heard that Jesus had healed a woman crippled by an evil spirit simply by touching her, began coming to Jesus to be healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days of the week for working,” the leader snapped; “…come on those days to be healed” (Luke 13:14b NLT). 

Such rigidity did not foreshadow the Gospel rest of Christ. Jesus wasn’t only saving man from the Sabbath, he was saving the Sabbath from man.

When the scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus about his disciples plucking and eating grain as they walked through a field, they were accusing them of harvesting, an activity that was expressly forbidden on the Sabbath day (Exodus 34:21). The religious leaders brought their protest directly to Jesus instead of approaching the disciples because they believed that a teacher was responsible for his disciples’ actions.

“See here,” they said triumphantly to Him, “why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

By bringing this complaint to Jesus, the Pharisees were setting Him and His disciples up to be prosecuted. The Law required there be a formal warning given to Sabbath breakers prior to prosecution, and this confrontation would serve as that official warning.

“Throughout the Gospels you’ll notice that Jesus only defends Himself when His deity is attacked or His authority is questioned,” says New Testament scholar J. D. Pentecost. 

This was such a situation. Taking responsibility for his disciples, Jesus defended them saying they had a right to do what they had done. Then He answered their protest by reminding them—the scribes and scholars of Judaism—of their ignorance of God’s Word!

Matthew gives a clearer picture than Mark does of Jesus’ reasoned response on this occasion: “But He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did, when he became hungry, he and his companions; how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone’?”(Matthew 12:3-4)

Jesus is saying, “What David and his men did is what I’m doing here.”

Unknown to the priest, David was already God’s anointed leader of Israel. He and his men were on a divine mission to protect the kingdom. As God’s anointed, David had the authority to give his men the priest’s food because they were serving the Lord. Similarly, although the Pharisees did not recognize the fact, Jesus was God’s anointed King and Priest, and He and His disciples were also on a divine mission to save Israel. Because He had divine authority, Jesus had the right to allow his disciples to pluck and eat grain on the Sabbath. 

Moreover, serving the Lord supercedes Sabbath law. Matthew 12:5-8 gives us this insight: 

“Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are innocent? But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

The priests worked on the Sabbath in the temple because the temple superceded the Sabbath. The temple housed the law and the ceremonies foreshadowing Jesus’ atonement, and traditionally it had housed the very presence of God in the shekinah glory. The service of the temple was more important than the Sabbath because the temple housed the symbols of the atonement as well as the revelation of God and His actual presence. 

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Jesus is saying He’s greater than the temple, and thus greater than the Sabbath. He’s saying that everything the temple represented was in Him. The atonement, the law including the fourth commandment, the presence of God—He embodied all that the temple had protected and foreshadowed. 

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The temple represented Israel’s calling and identity. It was the symbol of all that set the nation apart from the world. Now, however, Jesus really offended the Pharisees: “But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here,” Jesus is saying He’s greater than the temple, and thus greater than the Sabbath. He’s saying that everything the temple represented was in Him. The atonement, the law including the fourth commandment, the presence of God—He embodied all that the temple had protected and foreshadowed. 

Jesus was saying, in effect, “My disciples and I are doing God’s work—a work greater than that done in the temple by the priests who break the Sabbath every week. In fact, I am the temple, I am the law, I am the Sabbath, I am the atonement—I am God among you!

“I’m not breaking any rules; I make the rules! I am LORD of the Sabbath!”

Jesus is not merely one voice among many voices; He is The Voice that tells us what is right and wrong.

Now, to show His authority over the Sabbath as its Lord, Jesus backed up His claims with a miraculous sign: “And He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there with a withered (shriveled, deformed) hand. And they were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, in order that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Rise and come forward!’ And He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness [Gk. porosis, meaning to be covered with thick skin, or to be covered with a callus] of heart, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.”

It’s interesting that the Sabbath confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees is followed by the story of a man with a withered, malfunctioning hand. Throughout the Bible the hand represents a person’ works. We say we are not saved by the “works of our hands”. By that we mean we’re not saved by anything we can do.

The Sabbath was a shriveled wineskin. It had no strength to save anyone. Under the Law, people had shriveled, and they didn’t have the ability to do God’s work. In the New Covenant, however, Jesus supercedes the Sabbath, and He brings His people to life and their hands to productivity.

Since Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, He is now our Sabbath rest. The author of Hebrews explains this reality in Hebrews 4:1-13. The Sabbath was an issue of national identity for the people of Israel—a covenant sign for Israel alone. Jesus came to remove the barriers dividing Jews from Gentiles and to include everyone who believes in Him in the New Covenant. Now there is no need for an obsolete symbol of national identity foreshadowing a future rest. 

Jesus has accomplished the work of God, and now His people from every ethnic background can rest in the assurance of their salvation in Him (Hebrews 4:8-11; 1 John 5:10-12). 

We no longer need to embrace a day to find our identity. We embrace Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. In Him we rest. †

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J. Mark Martin is senior pastor of Calvary Community Church in Phoenix. It is part of the Calvary Chapel Fellowship of churches, and it has over 10,000 members. Mark pastored in the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the support of his wife Leslie for six years before being forced to resign in 1982 because he persisted in teaching God’s grace. Pastor Mark’s teaching is extended in an outreach to Seventh-day Adventists as well as being on three radio programs in the Phoenix area. He also has an extensive CD and tape ministry. His sermons and other materials about Adventism are available at www.sdaoutreach.org.

REPUBLISHED FROM PROCLAMATION! | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2005