Lord Of The Sabbath

by R.I Shaw, Kirkintilloch, Scotland | Category: The Lord's Miracles | Jul 1992

The most sacred symbol of Judaism in the nation of Israel was the sabbath.

Many traditions and rituals upheld by the Jews were copied by the heathen.

Many nations had their altars and their sacrifices, but the sabbath was unique to Israel.

Thus it was that the Lord's attitude to the sabbath led the leaders of the nation, in their blindness, to determine His death. They were left in no doubt about His claims. He said plainly, "The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath" (Mat. 12:8).

In God's mind the sabbath was a means of grace, a divine provision by which men and women could derive help and strength, blessing and enjoyment. It was not something by which people were bound, burdened and suppressed. It was a means to an end, not an end in itself. The rulers and elders of the people may have been critical of what they regarded as the sabbath day labour undertaken by the Lord, His disciples and others, as in Matthew 12, but the ministry of the Lord Jesus to fallen mankind was tersely put by the Master, "My Father worketh even until now, and I work" (John 5:17). How could the Son of God rest in the presence of human suffering? Israel's leaders were prepared to place more value on the technicality of ritual observance than on the restoration of a man to life and righteousness. No wonder He accused them, saying, "Ye have not the love of God in yourselves.

In considering the ministry in miracles of the Lord Jesus on the sabbath day we have the examples of His attitude towards:

- the man with the shrivelled hand (Matthew 12)

- the man with dropsy (Luke 14)

- the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5)

The Man with the Shrivelled Hand:

Immediately prior to this miracle the Lord and His disciples had gone through the cornfields. It was the sabbath day and the disciples had picked some grain and eaten it, only to be subjected to the criticism of the Pharisees. They had not hesitated to do this in the presence of their Lord. The hungry man must be fed no matter the day. In fact, the vindication of what they had done was in the purpose of the Master's ministry. So they came to the synagogue. The Pharisees were there too, incensed by His actions on the sabbath. Majestically, the King turned the spotlight on them. What would they do if one of their animals were distressed and in danger on the sabbath day? He knew the answer and so did they.

Here among them was a man with a shrivelled hand. He was not a man at rest. No doubt his distress bad brought him to the synagogue that day and the Lord had come to rescue him. His work was not only a work of authority. It was a work of necessity. It describes the greater purpose of Christ coming into the world. Man, through sin, bad broken God's sabbath rest and He had come to restore it by His work for the rescue of mankind.

How blind were the Pharisees who, when they saw the miracle in the man's hand being completely restored, went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

The Man with Dropsy:

Zondervan's Bible dictionary describes dropsy as 'edema, a condition in which the tissues retain too much fluid. It may be caused by heart disease, kidney disease or local infection and may terminate fatally'.

This appears to be the story of the last sabbath in the ministry of the Lord of which we have any record prior to His arrival at Jerusalem. He was invited to the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees for a meal, but first of all they put before Him a man with dropsy. There was no doubt that events had been arranged to see whether the Lord would heal on the sabbath and, in their opinion, violate what amounted to false sanctions they had built around the sabbath. The Lord asked the question they were thinking, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not?" They held their peace. His answer lay in His actions. "He took him, and healed him, and let him go" (vv. 3A).

Not one of the critical Pharisees upheld the attitude they had adopted towards the work 'of the Lord on the sabbath when it came to something or to someone that was dear to them. Jesus knew their hearts and exposed the truth. How much greater virtue, the essential healing of a dear man or the retrieval of an ox or an ass from the pit? Peter warns in his epistle against, "seeing only what is near" (2 Peter 1:9).

The Pool of Bethesda:

The pool by the sheep gate was believed to possess remarkable healing properties. For this reason, in addition to its usual name, it had been called in Hebrew, Bethesda or, the house of grace.

Here is the story of a man's extremity with no other to help. How rewarding then, the presence of the Son of Man. "The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men" (Titus 2:11). It has often been said that the apparent healing properties of the pool were for the best of men, in that the quickest was cured, but that Christ came for the worst of men.

The man at the pool had been unwell and living on charity for 38 years. Aided or unaided, others more fortunate and less feeble than he struggled into the pool before him and the favourable moment was lost. Jesus looked on the man with heartfelt pity, a man whose life had been a long atrophy of despair. He said, "Arise, take up thy bed, and walk". The rulers must have known him but they were so taken up with his apparent lawbreaking in carrying his bed on the sabbath day that they overlooked the fact that he was now walking in the full vigour of life. In their blindness, all they saw was a man carrying his mattress. They had ignored the man himself. They did not ask him who it was that healed him. His healing apparently meant nothing to them. Instead, they asked him, "Who is the Man that said unto thee, Take up they bed and walk?" (v.12).

The carrying of the mattress on the sabbath day was a very trivial thing when we see God in action. The man had continued in sinful ways and had known its misery, but the grace of God had pursued him. There could be no rest for Christ when humanity was suffering. He had been sent by God to accomplish the great mission of salvation and reconciliation to God.

In Jerusalem, at Bethesda never had Christ spoken more plainly. He had determined to leave the rulers of the people without excuse by revealing the nature of His Being. They had summoned Him before them to explain His breach of the sabbath. He set Himself wholly above the sabbath, as its Lord. They had brought Him before them in order to warn Him, but the warnings fell on them; they had wished to instruct and to reprove, but instead He instructed and rebuked; they sat, round to overawe Him as an inferior, but they must have trembled as He assumed the awful dignity of the Son of God, Lord of the sabbath.

R.I Shaw, Kirkintilloch, Scotland | Jul 1992
The Lord's Miracles