INTRODUCTION
Jesus honored the Sabbath of the fourth commandment during His earthly life. (Read Luke 4:16.) His prophecy regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, recorded in Matthew 24:20, makes it clear that Jesus expected His followers would still be remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy after His resurrection. (Read Matt 24:20.) Jesus also sought to help people understand the true meaning of the Sabbath. The religious leaders of His day had mutilated the Sabbath. They had surrounded the Sabbath commandment with a myriad of man-made rules and regulations. The Sabbath had become a burden. Jesus wanted people to discover the true meaning of the Sabbath, and I am convinced that Jesus still wants each one of us today to discover the true meaning of the Sabbath.
I. JESUS TAUGHT THAT THE SABBATH IS A TIME OF BLESSING
What, then, did Jesus teach about the Sabbath? Jesus taught that the Sabbath is a time of blessing. Our loving Creator provided the Sabbath for our benefit, as a time of blessing. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had turned the Sabbath into a burden. By a multitude of man-made regulations, they had turned the Sabbath into something that God never intended. They had mutilated God’s blessing and made it a burden. And so when they saw the disciples of Jesus plucking heads of grain as they walked through a grain field on the Sabbath, the Pharisees said, “They are breaking the Sabbath. That’s not allowed! According to our man-made supplements to the fourth commandment, that’s a transgression.”
And Jesus confronted this distorted view of the Sabbath. He taught, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27)”.1 The Son of God, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, created the Sabbath! He blessed it and sanctified it. (Read Gen 2:1–3; John 1:1–3, 14.) That’s why He could claim to be Lord of the Sabbath day (Mark 2:28).
The Sabbath is a time of blessing because it is a time to remember who we are and who God is. For six days we labor and do all our work. And if it were not for the blessing of the Sabbath, many of us would be working seven days a week. Am I speaking the truth today? We need the Sabbath. Not as some kind of additional obligation that complicates our already hectic lives. We need the Sabbath as a time of blessing to remember who we are and who God is.
The Sabbath is not only a time of blessing for us as individuals. The Sabbath is also a time of blessing as we allow God to bless others through us. Listen to the words of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 12:12. “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” You say, “Why would Jesus need to say that?” Because the Pharisees saw even works of kindness and mercy on the Sabbath as a transgression of the Sabbath commandment. But Jesus says, “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was made for man. It is intended to be a time of blessing, not a burden. If you see someone in need, there is no better time to let God bless that person through you than on the Sabbath day. Why? Because the Sabbath is a time of blessing. That’s the radical teaching of Jesus.
Sabbath is a time when we are blessed and when we can extend blessing to those around us. So, bless someone each Sabbath day. Visit someone who is in the hospital. Invite someone who is lonely to take a walk with your family. Share your lunch with someone. Do so knowing that you are experiencing the true meaning of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a time of blessing. That’s what Jesus taught.
II JESUS TAUGHT THAT THE SABBATH IS A TIME FOR HEALING
The Sabbath is also a time for healing. Jesus intentionally healed people on the Sabbath day. He knew that His actions would arouse opposition from the religious leaders. He knew that they would accuse Him of being a Sabbath-breaker. He could have waited until another day. But Jesus could not allow the truth about the Sabbath to be distorted by man-made traditions. The Sabbath is a time of blessing and healing.
Let’s examine one miracle Jesus performed on the Sabbath day, recorded in John 5. (Read John 5:1–9.)
What a remarkable healing! I have a question for you. Why do you think Jesus asked this man to take his sleeping mat with him? Can you imagine what that sleeping mat smelled like after lying on it year after year? Why, I would have said, “Just get up and walk. Forget about the sleeping mat.” But Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Why do you think that Jesus gave those instructions? I think we find the answer at the end of John 5:9. What does the Word of God tell us? “That day was the Sabbath.” Jesus was deliberately drawing attention to this healing. Didn’t Jesus know that the religious leaders would criticize Him? Didn’t Jesus know that they would accuse Him of being a Sabbath-breaker? Of course He did. And that criticism came almost immediately: “The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed’” (John 5:10). They totally missed this opportunity to praise the name of the Lord. After all, this man had been a paralytic for thirty-eight years, and he had been healed. But the religious leaders totally missed that. All they could see was a transgression of their man-made Sabbath regulations. But Jesus performed this miracle despite their opposition. He healed this man on the Sabbath day despite the criticism that He would receive. Why? Because Jesus could not tolerate a distorted view of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given by God as a blessing, not a burden. The Sabbath is a time of blessing and healing. (If time permits, review two other Sabbath miracles that illustrate the teaching of Jesus that the Sabbath is a time for healing: Luke 13:10–17 and Mark 3:1–6.)
What a tragedy! These religious leaders totally missed the true purpose of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given as a time of blessing and a time for healing, but these religious leaders had mutilated the Sabbath and made it into a burden. And because Jesus didn’t yield to their myriad of man-made regulations, they were ready to kill Him.
But it’s also a tragedy if we miss the true purpose of the Sabbath. We could also fall into the trap of remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy just because “it’s the right thing to do,” just to fulfill some legalistic obligation. Or we could fail to remember the Sabbath at all, believing the man-made tradition that the Sabbath had been done away with. Don’t fall into either of those traps. Jesus wants you to experience the Sabbath as a time of blessing and a time for healing.
CONCLUSION
That was God’s original plan in giving us the Sabbath. He didn’t create the Sabbath, bless it, make it holy, and then create people whom He could compel to observe it! No. God created the Sabbath as a time of blessing and a time for healing. That’s why our Creator blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it. That is why He told us to remember the Sabbath day. We need the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a time of blessing and a time for healing.
Is there anyone here today in need of a blessing? Is there anyone here today in need of healing? I invite you to reach out today to Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, and ask Him to bless you and heal you today according to His good plan for your life. If that is the desire of your heart today, I invite you to stand with me as we pray.
1 All Scripture references are from the NKJV.
Derek J. Morris, DMin, is the former president of Hope Channel International, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, USA.
