Wednesday
Wednesday
The Debate over the Sabbath
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27–28
The fourth debate between Jesus and the religious leaders was over the Sabbath and what it was lawful or unlawful to do on the Sabbath. Mark records two incidents, both of which happened on the Sabbath.
The first took place in some grain fields, in which Jesus allowed his disciples as they walked to pluck and eat some heads of grain. Now the law specifically prohibited reaping on the Sabbath (Exod. 34:21); the oral tradition declared plucking equivalent to reaping, and therefore the disciples were guilty (in the eyes of the scribes) of a serious violation of the law. But Jesus appealed to Scripture.
He reminded them that when David and his companions were hungry, they ate the consecrated bread in the tabernacle, which it was lawful only for the priests to eat. But Scripture did not condemn them, which shows that Scripture is less rigid in its application of the law than the Pharisees were. Jesus concluded with the great pronouncements that “the Sabbath was made for man [that is, for our enjoyment], not man for the Sabbath,” and that he was himself “Lord even of the Sabbath,” because he had authority to interpret it correctly.
The second incident took place in the synagogue, in which Jesus on the Sabbath healed a man with a shriveled hand. He told the man to stand up publicly in front of everyone. Then he asked the bystanders, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (3:4). Nobody answered, for there was more in Jesus’s question than was first apparent. He was exposing their hypocrisy. For, whereas Jesus was planning to do good and to heal on the Sabbath, they were full of evil thoughts and, Mark tells us, “began to plot … how they might kill Jesus” (v. 6).
Looking back over the series of four mini debates or conflict stories, which Mark has brought together, we see that they not only preserve valuable teaching but depict Jesus in his supremacy. We see him as the Son of Man with authority to forgive sin, as the physician of our souls, as the bridegroom who fills his guests with joy, and as the Lord even of the Sabbath.
For further reading: Mark 2:23–3:6