Tag: lord of the sabbath

Exodus 20:11 ” For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

As it gets closer and closer to Christmas we get busier and more anxious about getting everything done.  So this Scripture is giving us a heads up as to what we can do this Sunday.  It’s called a Sabbath rest…a reminder of God’s creative and redemptive work, but also something that was first demonstrated by God Himself on the seventh day.  The Sabbath rest is a God-given gift…to serve not enslave us…to be a blessing not a burden as we find rest in Him.

Luke 4:28-29 ” All the people in the Synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way.”

Jesus was back in His hometown of Nazareth…the place where He had been brought up, and where everyone knew Him and His family.  We find Him on the Sabbath in the Synagogue where someone handed Him the scroll of Isaiah to read from.  He read from Isaiah 61:1-2 …( Which was Jesus’ exact job description here on earth) and then sat down.  Everyone spoke well of Him until He uttered 8 words, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  No wonder the people were furious!  All they could see was Mary and Joseph’s little boy…and now He’s daring to claim to be the Messiah!  Their minds refused to believe…their hearts were hardened by pride…their eyes were blinded to His Deity.  Their long-awaited Messiah had come and was in their midst…yet they rejected Him.

John 5: 8-9 ” Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked.”

If you read through the Gospels, Jesus did a lot of healing on the Sabbath which in turn upset the Pharisees, the Jewish Leaders of the Law. On one hand, they could not deny the healed person standing in front of them, but they also believed Jesus was guilty of not “keeping the Sabbath” by healing the person in the first place. I rather think that Jesus enjoyed healing people on the Sabbath to show the Pharisees that He alone was “Lord of the Sabbath” and thus totally unencumbered by their strict rules and regulations.