Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest (Continues) Next, Jesus ordered a demon out of a man, and those in the synagogue “were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, ‘What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out’” (verses 33-36). Jesus then went to Peter’s house, where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever. Finally, as the Sabbath day drew to a close, “all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!’ And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ” (verses 38-41). As the Savior, Jesus understood the purpose of the Sabbath, that it was a perfectly appropriate time to bring His message of healing, hope and redemption to humanity and to live that message through His actions. Even the demons recognized that He was the prophesied Messiah (which is the meaning of “Christ,” John 1:41), the promised King and Deliverer. Jesus used the Sabbath to point people to Him as the Healer and Savior of mankind. Pharisees confront Jesus over His disciples’ actions on the Sabbath Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28 and Luke 6:1-5 are passages misconstrued to imply that Jesus broke the Sabbath commandment. But let’s see what really happened. Mark’s account states: “He went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’” (Mark 2:23-24). The Pharisees were an excessively strict branch of Judaism holding considerable religious authority during Christ’s time. As we saw earlier, they were extreme in their interpretation of what was allowed on the Sabbath. Their question would make it appear the disciples were hard at work gathering grain on the Sabbath and were confronted by the Pharisees for violating it. Luke’s account clarifies the disciples’ actions: As they “went through the grain fields,” they “plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands” (Luke 6:1). They did this because they were hungry (Matthew 12:1), not because they were harvesting the field. Christ’s disciples didn’t violate the Sabbath commandment Their actions were perfectly acceptable according to the laws God had given the nation of Israel. As a matter of fact, God made specific allowance Amen
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 18:19:46 +0000
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