Christ’s approval of His
disciples plucking the grain, and His own acts of healing upon the Sabbath day,
are often used to proof that He did not observe or teach His disciples to
observe the Laws of Moses. Some further assert that Jesus rejected the fourth
commandment of God’s law. The Bible confirms that although Jesus did not
support the man-made traditions which the scribes made to make sure that the
Jews kept the law, Jesus adhered to the requirements of the Law of Moses and
God’s eternal law in every respect and taught His followers to do the same. He
repeatedly affirmed the eternally binding nature of the moral law (Matt. 5:17,
18; John 15:10), and recognized also the validity of the ritual law of Moses as
applicable to Jews at that time (Matt. 23:3).
Although Jesus was a Jew, throughout
His ministry on earth He was in uncompromising conflict with the Jewish leaders
over the validity of their man-made laws and traditions. For example on Sabbath
tradition dictated that, a Jew was not allowed to walk more than 2/3 mile
(about 1 km); look in a mirror fixed to the wall; or even to light a candle or
fire. Yet the same regulations permitted an egg laid on the Sabbath to be sold
to a Gentile, and a Gentile to be hired to light a candle or a fire on behalf
of the Jew. It was counted unlawful to expectorate (spit) upon the ground, lest
thereby a blade of grass be irrigated. It was not permissible to carry a
handkerchief on the sabbath, unless one end of it be sewed to one’s garment—in
which case it was no longer technically a handkerchief but part of the garment.
There are many more examples of how the Jewish leaders made it a burden to keep
Sabbath holy. It is these absurd regulations that Jesus rebuked and ignored.
The Saviour well knew that
in healing on the Sabbath He would be regarded as a transgressor, but He did
not hesitate to break down the wall of traditional requirements that barricaded
the Sabbath.
In Mark 3:4, 5 Jesus asked,
"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or
to do evil? to save life, or to kill?" It was a maxim among the
Jews that a failure to do good, when one had opportunity, was to do evil; to
neglect to save life was to kill. Thus Jesus met the rabbis on their own
ground.
In Matthew 12:11-12 when
questioned, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath
days?" Jesus answered, “What man shall
there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the
sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12How
much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on
the sabbath days.” Rather than violate their traditions, the Jews would
leave a man to suffer, while they would relieve a brute because of the loss to
the owner if it were neglected. Thus greater care was shown for a dumb animal
than for man, who is made in the image of God.
In healing on the Sabbath,
Jesus condemned the custom of the Jews, and left the fourth commandment
standing as God had given it. "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath
days," He declared. By sweeping away the senseless restrictions of the
Jews, Christ honored the Sabbath, while those who complained of Him were
dishonoring God's holy day.
Those who hold that Christ
abolished the law teach that He broke the Sabbath and justified His disciples
in doing the same. Thus they are really taking the same ground as did the
caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ Himself, who
declared, "I have kept My Father's commandments,
and abide in His love." John 15:10. Neither the Saviour nor His
followers broke the law of the Sabbath. Christ was a living representative of
the law. No violation of its holy precepts was found in His life. Looking upon
a nation of witnesses who were seeking occasion to condemn Him, He could say unchallenged,
"Which of you convicteth Me of sin?"
John 8:46.
The Saviour had not come to
set aside what patriarchs and prophets had spoken; for He Himself had spoken
through these representative men.
If it was right for David
to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread that had been set apart to a holy
use, then it was right for the disciples to supply their need by plucking the
grain upon the sacred hours of the Sabbath. Again, the priests in the temple
performed greater labor on the Sabbath than upon other days. The same labor in
secular business would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the
service of God. They were performing those rites that pointed to the redeeming
power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony with the object of the Sabbath.
But now Christ Himself had come. The disciples, in doing the work of Christ,
were engaged in God's service, and that which was necessary for the
accomplishment of this work it was right to do on the Sabbath day.
