“The Lord of the Sabbath” Mark
2:23-28
Intro.: Through
Moses God instructed the Israelites, “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord
your God commanded you.” (Deut. 5:12) But what does
this mean, and how is the Sabbath properly observed and kept holy? Is it enough if we follow the words of Moses
to do no work, and so sleep-in on Sunday’s rather than receiving God’s holy blessings
in worship, or lay around all day rather than giving ourselves to holy works in
His name? On the other hand, is it too
much if we apply Moses’ words in such a way that worshiping on any day other
than Saturday, or doing anything at all on the Sabbath becomes a sinful? In
today’s Gospel Jesus declares Himself “The Lord of the Sabbath” and makes it
clear that He, and He alone, should be…
I.
The One Who Interprets The Meaning Of The Sabbath.
A. Like so many today, the Pharisees did not
truly understand the Sabbath law as something intended to bring relief and rest
to the people of God. Instead, taking
Moses’ words, “Six days you shall labor 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…” they turned it into an opportunity to oppress people
with bondage to the Law and burden them with a load of false guilt. They focused exclusively on the prohibition
against working on the seventh day of the week and, with their oral traditions,
expanded it to the point of being ridiculous and utterly impossible.
To them
the letter of the Sabbath Law was more important than the spirit of the law: to love the Lord our God with all our heart,
soul and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The welfare of humanity took a back seat to
obedience to man-made Sabbath rules; in essence for them “man was created for the
Sabbath.” This mindset was evident when
they showed no concern that the disciples who accompanied the Lord were hungry,
but accused them of doing what was unlawful because they plucked some grain as
they walked through the field, rubbed it between their hands, and ate it. Their twisted thinking was even more
pronounced as they repeatedly accused Jesus of sinning against the Sabbath Law
because He loved people enough to reach out to them when they were hurting, to heal
them of their diseases and infirmities, and to release them from spiritual
bondage even on the Sabbath.
B. Jesus reveals the true meaning of the Sabbath
law when He says in our Gospel, "The Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath..” (v27) What Jesus meant is that the Sabbath was
established to serve the needs of humanity; their need for rest in body and spirit
and their need to receive God’s gifts.
This is how it has been since the creation of the world.
In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth; the last and greatest of His marvelous creation were Adam and
Eve. Afterwards God set aside a day (which
happened to be the 7th day) to be holy. It was a day when He and the people created
in His image and loved by Him could devote time to one another. The Sabbath was created for man, so that we
might have the opportunity to rest not only from our physical labors, but most
importantly to rest our spirits in the assurances of God’s grace. It was never intended by God to be a burden,
but a blessing.
By using the Sabbath as an opportunity to
feed the hungry, heal the sick, relieve the burdened, and deliver the demon
possessed, Jesus was not breaking the Sabbath; He was upholding it. In our Gospel Jesus offers the example of
David and his men who ate the special bread in God’s house, because in the
process of serving the Lord they grown needy and hungry. But let me give you a couple more
examples: In the verses following our
Gospel it is recorded that: “Again
(Jesus) entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he
would heal him on the Sabbath,
so that they might accuse him. And he
said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to them, "Is it lawful on
the Sabbath, to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they
were silent.” On another occasion when Jesus was teaching
in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath,
He healed a woman who had been afflicted by a disabling spirit, and
she responded by glorifying God. The
twisted synagogue ruler became indignant
and said to the people, "There
are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed,
and not on the Sabbath
day." Jesus response was, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you
on the Sabbath untie his ox or
his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? Ought not this woman,
a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years be loosed from this
bond on the Sabbath day?" (Lk 13)
Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, shows us clearly the meaning of the
Sabbath: It is the holy time set aside
for the people whom God loves to find restoration and relief in His grace and
mercy. It is that time which is made
holy because it is filled with the word and works of God.
Thanks be to God,
that Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath is also…
II. The One Who Fulfills The Sabbath.
When Jesus calls himself by the messianic
title “Son of Man” He is asserting that He is the divine Lord of heaven and
earth; the one who has always been and will be forever.
A. As the “Son of Man” Jesus is the author of the
ceremonial law, and its sole purpose was to point to Him. He, therefore, has the right to put an end to
it. Galatians 3 tells us that, “the law, which came 430 years later, does
not annul [the] covenant previously
established by God [to Abraham], so as to do away with the promise. So then, the law was our guardian
until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer
under a guardian..”
(Gal. 3:17, 24-25) As Christ’s ambassador, the apostle is
showing us that the law which came through Moses, including the Sabbath Law,
was always to be understood in light of the covenant promise and should never
take away from it. The law was to lead
us to Christ so that we might find our rest not in our own imperfect obedience,
but in His perfect righteousness, His perfect sacrifice, and His perfect gift
of salvation by grace. Since the purpose
of the ceremonial law has now been fulfilled, and Christ has come, Jesus has
put an end to it. As
B. As “Son of Man” Jesus not only put an end to
the ceremonial law with all of its rules and regulations, but He also fulfilled
the whole law for us and took away its curse.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 5: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I
have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not
a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matt. 5:17-18)
In these words Christ speaks first to all
of you who have been taking the law lightly and feel that you are free to live
as you please; putting your desires ahead of service to Christ, your personal
opinions ahead of God’s Word, and your self ahead of others. He is especially speaking today to all of you
who say “Sunday pay is too good to pass up, I can’t go to church. I have other more important things to do on
Sunday. Sunday is my day to what I want.”
or “I don’t have to go to Church to be a Christian”. Don’t be such a fool! Listen to what Jesus says: “I have not come to abolish the law!” In other
words, sin is still sin, and if you choose to ignore God’s law and continue to
live in impenitence, then you do not really belong to Christ. You are a hypocrite, your faith is dead, and
you are condemned.
Next Christ’s words speak to all of you who
do take God’s law seriously and though you have the desire to show your love
for God through obedience, know that you are a sinner in need of God’s grace. To you Christ says: “I have come to fulfill every dot and iota of
the law for you. Everything that was
written in the Law and Prophets about your salvation I have accomplished.” We have all felt the burden of God’s law and
the weight of our sin. We know the big
ways in which we have failed to show our love for God, by not fearing. We know that He hasn’t always come first,
that we have not talked to Him or about Him as much as we should, and that we
have neglected His Word and refused to live according to it. We also know the little ways we have hurt
Him by hurting others. We know the
bitterness and hostility and carnal lust that is
churning away in us, the subtle ways we have of cheating, lying, and stealing,
the backbiting and gossip, greed and selfishness that is always there. And these are only the things we know about
ourselves, there must be so many other sins about which we don’t even have a
clue. But Christ has become the
fulfillment of the law whole law for us.
He has taken it away, not by abolishing it, but by fulfilling it and
then taking it in His body to be nailed to the cross where He received the just
sentence for our sin.
There in His obedience He set us free from
the law and its curse. As
C. As “Son of Man” Jesus has now changed our
view of the Sabbath. The Sabbath, along
with all of God’s law, was made for us; to serve us. The Sabbath is not about what we do for God on
a particular day, but about celebrating what God does for us every day;
especially what He does through His Son, Jesus Christ. In the light of Christ, who is the
fulfillment of the Sabbath, we can understand the meaning and the purpose of God’s
words through Moses in our OT lesson. In
these words He encourages us to “Observe (that is guard and protect) the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy (or set apart for contact or involvement with sacred things),
as the Lord your God commanded you.”
(Deut. 5:12) The reason for guarding the Sabbath, and
setting it apart for holy things, is made clear if we simply read what follows,
“Remember that you were slaves in
III. The One Who Blesses Through The
Sabbath.
A. The Sabbath was made for our blessing, as I
said before it is the time set apart by God for us to rest in His grace. Christ made the Sabbath for you, and invites
you: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. (Matt.
11:28) The rest He offers you is to rest from your
own labor under the law, to rest from the heavy burden of guilt you feel
because you know that you have not kept every dot and iota, and the hurt you
feel because you have so miserably failed to love the one who loves you so
much. It is as the writer of Hebrews
says:
“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's
rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” (Heb. 4:9-10) Today,
Christ invites you to rest from your labor under the law, and believe that He
has taken the burden of your sin upon Himself.
He offers you the light and easy yoke of forgiveness and life.
B. As Lord of the Sabbath Jesus comes and blesses
us with His gifts. Just as He provided
bread for David and His men, He now feeds all of us who hunger and thirst for
righteousness. He feeds us with
spiritual food which nourishes us for eternal life, with every Word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. He feeds
us with His own body and blood for forgiveness and refreshment. Here in Word and Sacrament as we receive this
Word, in Bible Study as we chew on it and meditate upon it, and at home as we
digest it, apply it and live it the Lord of the Sabbath blesses us with life
and salvation as we rest in Him.
Concl.: This
is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! Let us enter into the rest of the Sabbath
Lord, Jesus Christ! Amen.