JESUS IS OUR SABBATH REST
`A friend sent me a picture this week with this text:
“I have a Sabbath setting on my stove: The Sabbath mode adjusts your Samsung oven to comply with certain religious laws for holidays and days of rest. This mode disables the oven's automatic shut-off feature, interior lighting, and audible alerts. While the oven remains on for an extended period, you cannot change the temperature or use other oven features.” I texted back, telling her about a Sabbath elevator I saw in Israel that stops at every floor so you don’t have to do the “work” of pressing a button and picking your floor.
Talk about adventures in missing the point about the Sabbath.
Mark 2:23-28
23 One Sabbath day, as Jesus was walking through some grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” 25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
Mark 3:1-6
1 Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. 2 Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” 4 Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. 5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! 6 At once, the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
The Sabbath Day is supposed to be a day of rest. The Sabbath, or Shabbat, is still Saturday in Israel. If you’re Jewish, you start Shabbat when evening comes on Friday, and Shabbat goes until Saturday at sunset. Every Friday night is like Christmas Dinner in Israel. It’s a weekly time to rest, eat together, stop work, and rejuvenate.
In Mark 2, Jesus and his disciples are walking one Sabbath day, going to the synagogue (church), and they see the grains of wheat on the side of the road. They are hungry, so they pick some grains to eat. That’s okay. It’s allowed. God told His people to not harvest to the edges of grain fields so that people who were poor could eat. That’s what was going on here.
But “picking” berries or wheat off the stalk was now warped by the religious authorities to be considered “harvesting” or “work.” Ridiculous.
In the Talmud, the allowed distance one could walk on the Sabbath (Shabbat) without violating the prohibition of carrying is known as the "Sabbath day's journey" or "techum Shabbat." According to traditional Jewish law, this distance is approximately 2,000 cubits, which is roughly 0.57 miles or 0.92 kilometers.
The Torah was the Law of God. The Talmud was man’s interpretations of the Law—man-made rules and traditions. Like: you couldn’t walk more than half a mile to the synagogue. A man-made rule.
So, the Pharisees do what they do best and pick at people, picking them apart. Jesus, who wrote the book on what the Sabbath was for, sticks up for His men.
“Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”
He reminds them of the time that David, when he was fleeing the tyrannical, maniacal King Saul, ate the “showbread” the priests made for the temple. They were starving and ate the “religious” bread that was only supposed to be for the priests.
God had mercy on him and didn’t rebuke David for feeding himself and his starving men. So when Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people,” He uses this account of David as an example.
David and his men had a need and they ate food at God’s house, which was what they needed. God gave the Sabbath for people to get the rest and rejuvenation they needed.
That’s the heart of God. Come and rest and eat in the Father’s house.
**28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!**
Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, “I, the Son of Man, am the Lord of the Sabbath, and I made the Sabbath so that people could eat, get some rest, be healed, and be rejuvenated. You have made it into a mere rule-ridden, religious point on a to-do list. You are not understanding why there is a Shabbat.”
Again, Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man—a divine title from Daniel 7 that the Pharisees would have recognized. He used the same title for Himself when He forgave the sins of the man who was paralyzed.
Who do you think you are telling me, the Lord of the Sabbath, what the Sabbath is for? All you do is receive old rules and don’t give one thought to the sick man in your gathering.
The Sabbath is not another item on your list of to-dos to get God’s favor. You’re always religionifying what God meant to bring rest and freedom. Stop it!
The Bible says,
**5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts.**
The word for anger here is wrath and indignation—anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment. He was furious about the unfair treatment of this man and His disciples. Jesus is furious that these men have ignored the purpose of the Sabbath to give people rest and heal them and instead use it to control people. That’s what this was about: their control. People who are control freaks can never rest. They have to be in charge.
**Jesus Heals the Man**
Jesus, who always shows us what to do and doesn’t just talk about what to do, demonstrates the Sabbath’s true purpose. He goes into the synagogue and heals a man with a withered hand. These days, the man might have had his hand amputated. But there he was, sitting in the synagogue, in need of healing—probably having prayed his whole life for some healing. And in walks the Messiah, who gladly gives him the healing he needs.
The Pharisees, of course, attack Jesus and accuse Him of “working” on the Sabbath by healing the man. It is true—Jesus is working. But He is doing what any sane person would do to help their child who was sick or a shepherd who takes care of sheep stuck in a ditch on the Sabbath. You’re not going to leave the sheep stuck, or it will die. And Jesus is healing a man who is stuck in this situation.
“Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?”
You would rather keep your control on the Sabbath and maintain your position of being the focus. This was the real situation. Jesus was taking the focus off the religious leaders and putting it on the One who matters on the Sabbath—Him.
Jesus is the rest. Jesus is the point of the Sabbath—it was always about Him. We rest in Jesus from the work of trying to earn God’s favor. We work for money, right, so we can earn a living. Jesus is saying you don’t need to earn His favor or love. Rest.
He is our Sabbath, our high priest. All we need is Jesus. He walks into the synagogue and heals the man who needs healing. He feeds His disciples. All on the Sabbath that He made to give rest and healing.
Jesus is the healing. Jesus is the rest. Jesus provides the food.
The key to understanding how Jesus is our Sabbath rest is the Hebrew word "sabat," which means "to rest or stop or cease from work." Working hard is good, but that’s not how we are saved and healed by God.
You’ve been working hard your whole life to prove yourself. To make something of yourself. To make yourself successful or acceptable to others.
The origin of the Sabbath goes back to Creation. After creating the heavens and the earth in six days, God "rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made" (Genesis 2:2). This doesn’t mean that God was tired and needed a rest. We know that God is omnipotent, literally "all-powerful." He has all the power in the universe. He never tires, and His most arduous expenditure of energy does not diminish His power one bit. So, what does it mean that God rested on the seventh day? Simply that He stopped what He was doing. He ceased from His labors. This is important in understanding the establishment of the Sabbath day and the role of Christ as our Sabbath rest
