Wednesday, December 16
Jesus respected and upheld the law of God (Matthew 5:17, 18). Yet Jesus also challenged the religious leadership over their interpretation of the law. None of His challenges was more threatening to the establishment than the choices He made on Sabbath keeping. The synagogues did not fail to make the Sabbath an opportunity for education – the Torah was read and interpreted without fail. The scribes and Pharisees knew the letter of the law. However, Jesus went much further in His Sabbath-day education of His followers.
Read Matthew 12:1-13 and Luke 13:10-17. What was Jesus teaching the people in His time, and us today, with these events?
The controversies surrounding Jesus’ healing on the Sabbath lead into important spiritual debates about the nature of sin, the reason for the Sabbath, the relationship between Jesus and the Father, and the nature of Jesus’ authority.
Jesus’ attitude toward the Sabbath is summarized well in our memory verse for this week: “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27, 28). He wanted to emphasize that the Sabbath should not be a burden. It was “made” (created) as a unique opportunity for people to learn of the character of God who made the Sabbath and learn experientially by valuing His creation.
By raising questions through His actions, Jesus pushes His disciples, the Jewish leaders, and the crowds to think more deeply about Scripture and about what their faith and their God meant, anyway. It is so easy for any of us to get so caught up in rules and regulations that might not be bad in and of themselves, but that become an end in and of themselves, rather than means to an end – and that end should be a knowledge of the character of the God we serve. And this, then, leads to our faithful obedience to Him based on our trust in the merits of Christ’s righteousness for us.
What about your own Sabbath keeping? Have you turned it into a day of just don’t-do-this and don’t-do-that, rather than a time to truly rest in the Lord and know Him better? If so, how can you change so that you can get more from it that God intends for you?
