Redefining the Sabbath
In v27-8 Jesus redefines the Sabbath, contradicting the Pharisees understanding of it and maybe ours too..
There is a bit of a tricky statement here in v27, Jesus says that "the Sabbath is made for man not man for the Sabbath."
This just backs up what He said about David taking the bread from the temple. This is Jesus reminding the Pharisees of the purpose of this Holy day, it is not to flex our legalities, instead it is to worship God.
The Jews had made Sabbath worship into an art form, they had made it into a display of nationalism, how good a Jew are you they would ask?
They were asking each other, just how well can you keep the myriad of laws that we have invented to make us more holy and show our pride in balancing these balls and boxes of legalism.
God wants to reveal the futility of all this, He wants to speak into it and bring truth and freedom.
We don't go to church on a Sunday to meet with God. NO, we believe that God is with us all the time, and more than that, when we become Christians we believe that the Holy Spirit comes to live with us and so God lives with us, this is how we can hear God speak to us, how we can understand our bibles and how the inspired words of scripture sometimes jump out at us.
God is more than just a Sunday, under this new kingdom teaching we don’t need to keep the law about the Sabbath, instead on a Sunday we are taking advantage of a day that was won for us by our forefathers to meet together, and enjoy the privilege of worshiping God together.
Jesus does not want us to be burdened with laws to follow unnecessarily, in fact He says “my yoke is light and my burden is easy” because in following Jesus there should not be a heaviness of heart and a pressure to conform, instead there should be a lightness in our spirit, a freedom found, liberation from all the bondage and restrictions that we place on ourselves.
Jesus said “I have come that you may have life and life to the fullness” – As Christians we are commanded to break free, we are ordered to live life to the full, we should be the ones that are free, and people should look at us and want the freedom we have found.
Instead of the judgements that people sometimes identify with Christianity, they should look at us and see FREEDOM...
Jesus then finishes in v28 with His deity affirming statement about “the Son of Man being the Lord EVEN of the Sabbath”
There are 2 things that Jesus is drawing out with this phrase, firstly in using the term “Son of Man” Jesus is giving Himself another title, Jesus here is claiming the title of Messiah, this term was used by the prophet Daniel in His apocalyptic, eschatological (end times), prophetic book, (Dan 7:13-14) where Daniel is describing the one who would come from God to bring authority, glory and power, this would be the expected redeemer, called the Messiah, the chosen one of God...
Just as the Pharisees are coming to terms with that term they realise that Jesus is claiming that as He is the Messiah, He has authority and power to say how the Sabbath should be done..
The word EVEN, is important here, in the KJV the word ALSO is used, so affirming that the Messiah will not conform to the man-made law of the Pharisees, instead He comes to bring in God’s righteous law, and God’s kingdom on a world that has fallen into bondage and judgement under the control of selfish men.
Friends we can celebrate our freedom today, but we can live it out EVERY day, Jesus has set us free, and while we may choose to celebrate together on a Sunday in a building, for the rest of the week our Lord Jesus wants to remain in control of our lives, we need to give our ALL to Him and let Him work His purposes out and use us!
Let's all REDEFINE the Sabbath in our daily lives, realising what God wants to do in us and through us in whatever context He has placed us...
May God bless you today in whatever situation you find yourself.
Created 4 months ago
