Lord of the Sabbath
“Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” (Mark 2:28)
Jesus once asked His accusers, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46) None could. Jesus never sinned. He was “…in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
Yet they accused Him of violating the sabbath by working. On one sabbath, He healed a man with a withered hand. He knew His accusers were watching, so he asked, “What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12) His logic was simple but compelling: “If you take care of animals on the sabbath, shouldn’t you take care of people even more?”
He also healed a woman on the sabbath who was so badly hunchbacked that she was bowed together for eighteen years. Imagine how miserable she must have been! The ruler of the synagogue was indignant at Jesus healing her. He said Jesus was working and violating the sabbath! Jesus put him in his place: “Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?” (Luke 13:15) The people rejoiced, and His adversaries were ashamed.
On another occasion, Jesus and His disciples went through a corn field on the sabbath. The disciples were hungry, so they plucked ears of corn and ate. Some Pharisees accused them of working by plucking ears of corn. Jesus asked them, “Have ye never read what David did,” (Mark 2:25), and told a story from 1 Samuel 21 how the high priest Abiathar gave David and his hungry soldiers bread ordinarily reserved just for priests. Bread rule or no, Abiathar was not going to let the men starve when food was available.
Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) The sabbath, or Sunday for Christians, is supposed to glorify God and benefit people, not be a burdensome, hard-and-fast rule. In a way, it is like a police policy. Police are on the job to catch criminals and help decent people. A policy manual should be a guide to help them do the job, not a punishing instrument to hinder them.
Say a policy rule forbids officers from badmouthing leaders. That’s a good rule. But what if a cop sees a suicidal man on a bridge? As he talks with him, trying to get him down, the man starts to talk negatively about local leaders and tells the cop why he feels that way. The cop wants the man to keep talking and not jump, so he says, “I can see your point.” Eventually he talks the man down. The cop saved a life, yet he also violated policy by helping the man badmouth leaders. Should the cop get an award or a suspension?
That depends. What’s more important: helping people in crisis or obeying policy? Policy writers may not have to live with the results if the policy is bad. Cops do. If the guy badmouths local leaders, should the cop argue with him just to obey policy? If the guy jumps and leaves a family behind, policy writers may not have to live with the man’s death. The cop will. Policy is for the cops, not cops for the policy.
The sabbath, or Sunday for Christians, is not an absolute prohibition against working. If it were, only heathen people could be first responders or do military service. After all, crime can happen on Sunday. Fires can occur on Sunday. People can need medics on Sunday. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on a Sunday. Yet Christians can and should make Sunday a special day by attending church faithfully.