(Chapter 2)
The Sabbath When Jesus Came
At the time of Christ, Israel had lost sight of the true meaning of the temple, its services and ceremonial laws. Even the laws that had ruled man from the very beginning of time, the Ten Commandments, were misunderstood. The religious leaders taught that keeping rules was the way to be saved and that the more rules a person kept, the holier he would be. In essence, they taught salvation by works. They made their own laws, and while God's true laws were distorted and forgotten, the manmade, tyrannical laws were accredited to God. These were regarded as the highest standards of holiness. This made God seem exacting, cruel and One whose demands could not be satisfied. Jesus Himself spoke to this, saying to the scribes and Pharisees;
"...Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? ... But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" Matthew 15:3, 9.
This is the scene upon which Christ entered. It was His privilege to show to us, in human form, that God, His Father, was a God of love, and that He does not ask of us more than we are capable of giving. It became paramount for Christ to vindicate the law of God. Through His life, Christ showed that the law of God is just, and that it can be obeyed. He said,
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law... I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" Matthew 5:17.
What does the word "fulfill" mean? Some suggest that Christ is saying He didn't come to destroy the law but to do away with it, but that would be a contradiction. He must have meant something else. Let's see what some synonyms of fulfill might be: perform, discharge, bring into effect, execute. The second definition for this word in the dictionary says, "to perform or do, as duty; obey or follow, as commands."1 This is the way Christ was using the word fulfill.
In no way was Jesus saying that the Ten Commandments had no more value or that they could be changed. If the law could have been changed, He would not have needed to come to this world, because the law could have simply been re-written so that man could still be saved in his sinful state. But no, this could not be done. God's law was perfect; there was no way it could, or needed to, be changed. The law must and can be obeyed through God's strength. It is not a means of obtaining salvation, but is evidence of God's saving us from our worst enemy of sin and self.
Christ obeyed the laws of His Heavenly Father in every particular, including the Sabbath! It is no secret that He was careful in observing the Sabbath. The Bible gives us many examples. Let us look at just a few of them.
"And they [Jesus and His apostles] went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he [Jesus] entered into the synagogue, and taught" Mark.1:21.
"And he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read" Luke 4:16. emphasis added
"And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he [Jesus] entered into the synagogue and taught..." Luke 6:6.
Thus we see that during Jesus' life, He unfailingly kept the
Sabbath sacred, indicating in no way by example or word that the
Sabbath was to be discontinued or that its solemnity was to be
transferred to another day. While the Jews had made the day one of
bondage, of do's and don'ts, Jesus restored it to it's original
intent. It was to be a day of holy joy, peaceful communion with our
Father and Creator, and a day to share that joy, hope, help and
fortitude in God in an even more special way with others. In
Scripture we often find Christ relieving, or referring to relieving,
the emotional, spiritual or physical needs of man and animal on the Sabbath.
Jesus, as if to insure that we not misinterpret any act or statement during His life, was careful of the sacredness of the Sabbath, even in His death! Luke tells us that, "...there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour" (which would be approximately 3 p.m.), shortly after which "...he gave up the ghost" Luke 23:44, 46. Jesus' disciples took His body down and tenderly "...wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on....And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" Luke 23:53, 54, 56.
"Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they [the women] came unto the sepulchre...And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus" Luke 24:1-3
Jesus died, ending the first phase of saving man prior to sundown Friday, leaving His beloved disciples enough time to perform the necessary burial rites and prepare themselves for the Sabbath before its sacred hours began. His work to that point was accomplished. During those preciously close and hallowed hours, He rested peacefully in the tomb, under His Father's loving watch-care. Then early Sunday morning His Father called Him from His peaceful repose, to begin the mediatorial phase of redeeming man. Yes, even in His death, Christ kept the Sabbath holy! Thus, through Jesus' death and resurrection, the Sabbath becomes not only a sign of God's creative power, but also of His redemptive power.
NOTE:
It is also worthy of notice that Luke says:
"...they returned...and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment" Luke 23:56.
It doesn't say, "according to a commandment" or "according to the custom" or "tradition." It says, "According to the commandment." It is the fourth commandment of the same Ten Commandment law spoken with thunder from the mouth of God, and written indelibly in stone with His own finger, that Luke is referring to, not some tradition or custom of men, but the eternal, loving law of God.
The Commandments were given by the kind and loving God, Who desires a personal relationship with each of us individually. While God longs to be real and personal every day of the week, the Sabbath affords a special opportunity to get especially close without the demands of everyday life.
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