Jesus and the Sabbath
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Frankly Answered Questions - FAQs

Jesus and the Sabbath

Q: I have a question about Jesus' approach to the Judaic laws regarding the Sabbath. He seems to have repeatedly taught that it was not the letter of the law, but its spirit we are to comply with. His basic position seemed to be that yes, the law is there, and it is good, but it must be mitigated with common sense. "Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man." Is this not in conflict with scripture and Mosaic law?

It seems that Jesus told the Pharisees to read not just the externals of scripture, but they must think about the underlying principles. That's fine, but don't scriptures in the Old Testament say not to work on the Sabbath? Jesus says something like "that makes no sense and you know it. Sabbath law shouldn't be a burden but a blessing. When it is a burden, ignore it." (Sorry about the lack of "proof text," but I'm trying to keep one eye on our kids.)

When He heals the blind man He seems to go out of His way to break the Sabbath law and offend Pharisaical sensibilities. Rather than His usual "Your faith has made you whole" He makes a little mud ball by mixing His spit with dirt. This would qualify as "work" under Sabbath law. It was an intentional poke at the Pharisees not necessary to the healing. (Got Him in trouble too!) The blind man said "all I know is I was blind and now I can see." Jesus said "Look at you bunch of fools. You have a God given miracle right in front of you and all you can think about is how it is in conflict with your reading of scripture."

A: I think the confusion here relates to the idea that Jesus broke the Mosaic law. Take for example, healing on the Sabbath. There is nothing in the Old Testament that prevents healing on the Sabbath. Working on the Sabbath was forbidden (Exodus 20:8-11). Going to the fields to plow, harvesting, or cooking were considered work (Exodus 34:21; 35:1-3). But healing or helping someone in trouble was never viewed as "work" in any Old Testament text or command that I know of.

Did Jesus ever break an Old Testament law? This is an important point. Jesus never broke the Old Testament law (Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 16:17; Romans 10:4; Galatians 4:4; 1 John 3:4-5) -- if so, he would not be our perfect sinless sacrifice. Jesus was entirely sinless, even in reference to the Old Testament law (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22). What Jesus broke were the Pharisaic additions to the law, not God's law.

The Jews had taken God's Word found in the Old Testament and ADDED their own oral traditions to the law. These added traditions were called "the tradition of the elders." For Jesus' view of these added traditions see Mark 7:1-13. These additions to the law were placed on the same authoritative level as God's Word! What the Pharisees did was somewhat like Roman Catholicism today: Truth = God's Word + Church Tradition.

In some ways this was understandable, because the Jews had to wrestle with the issue of "What is work?" on the Sabbath. But in the process of trying to define "work" they went to tremendous extremes. For example, if you pulled a chair across a room and dragged the leg in the dirt resulting in a furrow, then you had "worked", because you had been plowing!

These traditions dealt with things like:

Get a copy of the Mishnah regarding the Sabbath and you will get a better feel for the bondage that the Pharisees had placed God's people under. Jesus put it this way: "You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them" (Luke 11:46).

All of the conflicts that Jesus had with the Jews regarding the Sabbath related to these additions to the Word of God. Picking grain to eat with your hand was defined by the Pharisees as "reaping," therefore the Pharisees said, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath!" (Matthew 12:2). Unlawful? The only violation was the violation of their man-made additions to the law (see Mishnah, Sabbath 7:4; 7:2).

It is easy to mistake Jesus' attacks on the Pharisees' tradition, as attacks on God's Word. This is one of those cases. Another prime example is in the sermon on the mount where Jesus seems to be changing the Old Testament law. But what is really going on here is Jesus rebuking the Pharisee's misinterpretation and additions to the law. See Matthew 5:43 for instance. In each case (whether it is Sabbath controversies or Sermon on the Mount) Jesus is merely teaching the true meaning of Old Testament commands.

"Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man" is not in conflict with Scripture and Mosaic law. It is only in conflict with the Pharisees' traditions. By means of their hairsplitting legalism the Pharisees were constantly burying God's law under the heavy load of their traditions and robbing men of the joy of Sabbath rest.

Jesus never violated any Old Testament Scripture regarding the Sabbath that I am aware of.

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