In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus seems to be intentionally starting some controversies in order to explain or reveal some wondrous truth about the Bible and Himself. Jesus uses the Sabbath to declare Himself as the Lord who gives true rest, a rest which is not available in this world. He also condemns the false, works based religion of the Pharisees. In Matthew’s version of this event, Jesus leads them into a grain field. Nothing Jesus does is by accident or coincidental because He is sovereign. He wanted to expose the wrong understanding of the Pharisees of that time. Now, Jesus never violated any law in the Scriptures, according to Deuteronomy 23:25. The Pharisees knew that, but they accused Jesus of violating their own oral law, the law of their man-made religion, not God’s word.
So what does the Sabbath mean? It simply means cessation from work. It falls on Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and it means to rest. The origin of the Sabbath is in Genesis 2. God showed his example. He doesn’t need rest but He rested on the seventh day. This rest was not because God was tired or lazy but it was a day for God to enjoy what He made. It was a day for fellowship and devotion to God, a holy day of worship. To the Jews, the Sabbath held great importance and represented their covenant with God. Observing the Sabbath set Israel apart from all the other nations. The Jews emphasized the Sabbath so much, that they were outraged by Jesus claiming to be God, yet violating the Sabbath. It was ridiculous in their eyes.
God does command the Sabbath in the Mosaic Law (Exodus 20:8-11). It’s the fourth commandment. However, in addition to the Mosaic law, the Pharisees believed that there was an oral law passed down from Moses to them. These extra rules are called the Mishna. The Mishna had thousands of sub points covering every detail of life. The Pharisees taught and studied them so diligently that many of them spent their lives just studying a few points. It was due to their devotion to the Mishna that Jesus was constantly clashing with the Pharisees.
So the Pharisees accused Jesus, the leader of these disciples, of breaking the law. By their standards, picking is reaping, rubbing is threshing and winnowing, and eating is storing, which was all work. The Pharisees were so controlling over every action in relation to the Sabbath that even what God permitted, they denied. Jesus is the liberator from this sort of works based religion. It is when people don’t understand the spirit of God’s law, it turns into futile legalism. Salvation is never earned by our deeds and how well we perform. By trying to keep the law as a means of salvation, we break the spirit of the law. Since Jesus is the author and perfect keeper of the law, he knew its true meaning and purpose to reflect God’s holiness and love. The Pharisees were drowning in legalism, hypocrisy and self righteousness and they all have to do with how they treat the law of God. In Matthew 15:2-3, Jesus challenges them, asking them why they are against God’s word for the sake of tradition. If the good deeds or righteous behavior is the means of your salvation, then you are not obeying God’s law, you will never be saved, and you will never find rest.
We must realize without Christ there is no Sabbath, meaning there is no rest in this world. Only in Christ is there true resting. Therefore, if you know Jesus, you have true peace because of who Jesus is and what He has done, not what we’ve done. You can be like the Apostle Paul who is fully satisfied in Jesus. That’s why Jesus came to destroy the false Sabbath and restore the true Sabbath. Hebrews 4:9-11. You don’t have to work to earn your salvation because Jesus accomplished our redemption on the cross and rose again so that we are free from sin and death. He declared ‘It is finished!’. A believer’s obedience is different from legalism. In fact, they are opposite. We obey because we love and because we already have what we do not deserve. Jesus died for us, so we obey His commands. It is through obedience that we know Christ more and how we obtain our Sabbath.
So unlike the Pharisees, how should we define our Sabbath? Jesus reveals the true Sabbath that is already demonstrated long ago from the Bible. The Bible is sufficient and powerful. We don’t need anything else, outside of the Bible we already have. Jesus refers to 1 Samuel 21:1-6 when David was being chased by King Saul. While running away, they asked for bread but the only bread available was the consecrated bread, the bread of presence, which was reserved for the priests (Exodus 25:29-30), which the priests gave to David. Jesus’ situation was very similar to David’s. Jesus is David’s descendant and his disciples were hungry. As God did not condemn David, Jesus does not condemn His disciples. This is because the law is the law of Christ and His law is to love God and love your neighbor (Galatians 5:14). The spirit of the law is love. By reading and knowing God’s word, you understand the true spirit of God’s law and gain freedom from a works based salvation.
If you have Jesus in your heart as Lord, then you have the Sabbath. In this world there is no satisfaction, no rest. No matter how hard people try, it’s like chasing the end of a rainbow, never getting any closer. (Matthew 6:31-32) However, Jesus says He is Lord of the Sabbath and only he can give true rest. As a Christian, this is our initial and natural response, Jesus is our Lord and in Him our hearts find such blessed rest.
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