the true sabbath.

This is a very mysterious passage that brings to mind several questions: 1) why did Jesus tell him to pick up his mat if it was against the law; and 2) was Jesus referring to the sin of picking up the mat when he told the man to stop sinning?

Exodus 23:12 gives an explanation of the Sabbath, “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.” I’m not sure where carrying a mat fits into the law, but I can’t imagine anything more refreshing than walking for the first time in 38 years. Exodus 31:13 explains, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.’”

After doing this research, it seems that perhaps the law about the mat could have been a tradition held to by the Pharisees rather than an actual law. Either way, it seems like those who were questioning the healed man were missing the point of the sabbath.

When Jesus finds the man in the temple and tells him to stop sinning this is a another example of the true sabbath, Jesus sanctifying the man. It seems that Jesus healing this man, telling him to get up, take his mat and walk, and telling him to stop sinning was a true expression of the sabbath - this man was truly refreshed, cleansed, purified and blessed.

Created almost 2 years ago