One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.  The Pharisees said to him, ”Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?  In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat.  And he also gave some to his companions.” 

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (NIV Mark 2:23-28)

[This is a message I preached at our Church one Sunday.  It's not quite the way I normally preach and a good portion of the content came from a couple of Tim Keller sermons - probably more than I realised at the time.  Still, I make it available here because it gives an example of how Jesus interpreted the Law through the lens of love (careful, careful, don't get too liberal on me!!!)]

²³ One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.  ²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 

We have to understand here that the Sabbath was the day of the week – Saturday – where no work was to be done.  Back in Exodus 20, in the 10 Commandments, God had said, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work…”

And there wasn’t much else God said about it.  What did it mean?  What was work?  What was rest?  There were only a few other verses that talked about this, but they didn’t really give much detail.  The Jews, however, made a list of 39 activities that were prohibited on the Sabbath, causing even their fellow Jews to say, “the rules about the Sabbath…are as mountains hanging by a hair, for Scripture is scanty and the rules many.”  But this did not stop the religious experts of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees, from enforcing those rules.  The disciples’ picking heads of grain was considered reaping, and that was one of the 39 prohibited activities.

What did Jesus say to this?  Note that he didn’t say, “Look, guys, you’re far too uptight about all this.  Picking heads of grain off a plant while you’re going for a walk is not reaping” – though he could have.  Nor did he say, “The Sabbath is passing away.  Get used to it”.  Instead, he went even deeper to challenge the whole way they interpreted the Law.  Look:

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?   In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

First of all, note that he didn’t talk about the Sabbath laws – he went to a completely different part of the Law – that part where the regulations for the consecrated bread are mentioned.  So what Jesus is saying here is not restricted only to the way the Jews were interpreting the Sabbath.

Second, he totally crushes the idea of unthinking, slavish obedience to a law – even the Law of God.

My own tendency is to be that way. 

The other night I went to pick up Paula from the work at the private hospital where she works in the Dialysis Unit.  As I walked in to get her, there was an Aboriginal lady sitting at the entrance, waiting for a ride, no one else around.  So, I went in, got Paula, and as we walked out Paula spotted this lady and asked, “Are you still waiting for your taxi?”  Yes.  “Well…” says Paula, “why don’t we give you a ride home?”  So we did.  Problem is, it’s not acceptable practice to give patients a ride home.  But it was 8.30 – 9.00 o’clock at night, raining, she lived near us and had been waiting for ages.  Should we have given that lady a ride? 

What does Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees suggest?

Yes, of course.  It hasn’t happened since, it will probably rarely ever happen again, but in that situation it was a reasonable, loving thing to do.And that’s where we come to the crux of the matter – love.

Romans 13:9-10 says, The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

In Matthew 22 Jesus said the greatest commandments are: ”‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

It has been that way from the beginning.  Why did God give Laws?  There are many reasons, but one of the most important ones is to show people how to live in love for God and others.

So, Jesus is saying, if you Pharisees were there when David came looking for food, the way you interpret the Law would have meant you would not have given him anything.  You are using the Law itself to bind people up in rules instead of using them to help people for their own good.

The Law made for man, not man for the Law.  Or more specifically, in verse 27:  Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

God didn’t think, “Hmm, I think I’ll make one day of the week a day of rest.  Now, let’s make some people so they can rest on that day.”  No.  God made the Sabbath for people.

How did He make the Sabbath for man?

Well, here we could go on for ages, but let me pick out a few.

In the Ten Commandments, God says the reason people should rest on the Sabbath is because he rested after six days of creating. In Genesis 2:2 it says: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

It’s been asked thousands of times: Why did God have to rest?  Was he tired?  Well, he’s God, of course not.  So there must be another reason.  And I think the reason can be found in the previous verses in Genesis 1.  Imagine working around the house, mowing the lawns, fixing the fence, painting the eaves (I really have to stretch my imagination for this one) and stopping for a moment after each job to allow yourself a moment of satisfaction with what you’ve done before going on to the next one?  And, finally, when it’s all done, what do you want to do?

Throughout the creation account, God keeps recognizing the quality of his work: It’s good.  At the end it is very good.  So when it’s finished, he stops…and is satisfied.  Sounds like an anti-climax, but think of the satisfaction we get when we finish our work – not because we are tired, but because we have done a good job. That is no small thing.

The Sabbath was designed to remind people that, though work is a good gift from God, it is not an end in itself.  So, the Sabbath is to remind people to find satisfaction in our work, in God’s work and ultimately in the reason for work and everything in life – glorifying God.  It is in heart-felt satisfaction in God – it is for worship.

Then flip over to Deut 5:15:  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

We read that and think…where is the logic.  Israel was a community of slaves in Egypt – check.  God delivered them in a mighty way – check.  Therefore, observe the Sabbath?Well, there might be a range of explanations for this logic, but one I think is quite profound. 

What happens to a slave? 

They are put to work. 

When do they work? 

All.  The.  Time. 

So God is saying, “I delivered you from slavery.  Do not go back into it.  And do not oppress your wife, children or servants, any animals you own (!) or any foreigners who are not Israelites into by working them non-stop.  Instead, take a day off to remember me, the God who delivers people from slavery!  It becomes, then, not just a matter of your own rest, but the rest of others around you.

One more verse: Isaiah 58:13-14  “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”  The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Whatever else these verses are saying (and they’re saying a heck of a lot) it indicates that the Sabbath was given for the joy of God’s people.  “If you call the Sabbath a delight…(v14) then you will find your joy in the Lord.”

Now, for a people without the benefit of a 40-hour week, who worked hard to survive in a mainly agrarian culture, one day off in seven is Good News!  To call it a delight is not a stretch for them, and neither is it a stretch to find joy in the One Who gave them this delight!  God made this day for them to enjoy!

So God made the day

-         for people to worship

-         for people’s protection

-         for people’s enjoyment

But the Jews had made the day a burden.  They had completely missed the point that the Law was made for man, not man for the Law.

Do you see what Jesus has done?  He has taken an example of nit-picking legalism and instead of just saying, “You guys are being too pedantic here”, he takes them right back to first principles – how to correctly interpret the Law. 

The Law is based on love.

The Sabbath was made for man.

And then He says: So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

There are a few different ways to read this, but my basic understanding goes like this:

Sabbath was made for man, and can be put aside for the greater good of man (as David put aside the Law about the consecrated bread), and SO or THEREFORE, the Son of Man – the ultimate man and supreme representative of the human race – has authority to set aside the Sabbath should something that will serve people better come along!  And it has!  The gospel!

Do you see that man dying on a cross?

He’s dying so that all our arrogance and self-centeredness, our hate and evil behaviour, our deliberate wrongs and not-so-deliberate mistakes will die with him; so that God can look at his new creation and say, “Very good”; and so we can worship him in a way people have not been able to before – in Spirit and in truth – anywhere and any day.

He’s dying to bring us out of slavery – not just slavery to work, but to the reasons we work so slavishly - the approval of others, fear of abandonment, wanting to prove ourselves, becoming someone important.  We can rest from these deeper things and He’s become our protection: now we don’t become someone through work, we work because we know we are someone in Him.

He’s dying to bring us joy, to let us experience the true rest from trying to do everything ourselves, live for ourselves and save ourselves – to delight in the rest from just trying to survive because he lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.

So, Jesus himself has brought along something that will serve people better.  He now is our Sabbath.  Jesus means rest.

But how do you get to that rest?

Hebrews 4:2-3 says we: have had the gospel preached to us…Now we who have believed enter that rest…

Believe that this is true for you: Jesus died to get rid of all your imperfections so God is satisfied with you and you can worship God; Jesus died to bring you out of slavery to anyone and anything and to protect you from becoming a slave again; and Jesus died to bring you the joy of resting on what he has done for your acceptance with the only One whose acceptance matters – him. 

If you truly believe that gospel and have faith that it is true for you - you will enter His superior Sabbath and find what I mean when I say Jesus means rest.

So where to from now?  It is so easy to lose sight of what we have in Jesus.  We can still make work an end in itself, we can still become slaves to anything and anyone and we can still live as though it is up to us to survive.  Even though the Sabbath day is no longer a law, it does provide an example of how to live a life of love for God and man.  I’d strongly encourage us to discipline ourselves to take one day a week a day of rest (and my wife says, “He’s like an alcoholic preaching moderation”) so that we do not lose sight of the true rest we have in Jesus.

But practically!  Practically!  Alright, very quickly, this is what I’d suggest: 

1. Put aside a day where you stop working, believing that the gospel means you are no longer a slave.  If you are a builder, don’t build.  If you are a chef, don’t cook.  If you are a teacher, don’t teach.  If you are a cleaner, don’t clean.

2. Rest and enjoy, believing that the gospel has covered you for everything to that truly needs doing – just because you are not working doesn’t mean you should fill your day up with other little jobs and responsibilities.

3. Spend some time during that day worshipping God, believing that the gospel clears the way for us to be completely accepted by Him.  He, after all, is the reason for everything.

But, as it says in Colossians 3:…whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  And rest in Him.

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