(A comment on Luke, chapter 6, verses 1 to 5, which tell of the Saviour rebuking the Pharisees for criticising the disciples for plucking and eating ears of corn on the Sabbath).
We should notice in these verses, the clear light which our Lord Jesus Christ throws on the real requirement of the Fourth Commandment. He tells the hypocritical Pharisees, who pretended to such strictness in their observance of the Sabbath, that the Sabbath was never intended to prevent works of necessity. He reminds them how David himself, when suffering from hunger, took and ate that shewbread, which ought only to be eaten by the priests, and how that act was evidently allowed by God, because it was an act of necessity. And He argues from David’s case, that He who permitted His own temple rules to be infringed in cases of necessity, would doubtless allow work to be done on His own Sabbath days, when it was work for which there was really a need.
We should weigh carefully the nature of Christ’s teaching about the observance of the Sabbath,… We must not allow ourselves to be carried away by the common notion that the Sabbath is a mere Jewish ordinance, and that it was abolished and done away by Christ. There is not a single passage of the Gospels which proves this. In every case where we find our Lord speaking upon it, He speaks against the false views of it which were taught by the Pharisees, but not against the day itself. He cleanses and purifies the Fourth Commandment from the man-made additions by which the Jews had defiled it, but never declares that it was not to bind Christians. He shows that the seventh day’s rest was not meant to prevent works of necessity and mercy, but He says nothing to imply that it was to pass away as a part of the ceremonial law.
We live in days when anything like strict Sabbath observance is loudly denounced, in some quarters, as a remnant of Jewish superstition. We are boldly told by some persons, that to keep the Sabbath holy is legal, and that to enforce the Fourth Commandment on Christians is going back to bondage. Let it suffice us to remember, when we hear such things, that assertions are not proofs, and that vague talk like this has no confirmation in the Word of God.
Let us settle it in our minds, that the Fourth Commandment has never been repealed by Christ, and that we have no more right to break the Sabbath day, under the gospel, than we have to murder and to steal. The architect who repairs a building, and restores it to its proper use, is not the destroyer of it, but the preserver. The Saviour, who redeemed the Sabbath from Jewish traditions and frequently explained its true meaning, ought never to be regarded as the enemy of the Fourth Commandment. On the contrary, He has “magnified it, and made it honourable”.
Let us cling to our Sabbath, as the best safeguard of our country’s religion. Let us defend it against the assaults of ignorant and mistaken men, who would fain turn the day of God into a day of business and pleasure. Above all, let us each strive to keep the day holy ourselves, Much of our spiritual prosperity depends, under God, on the manner in which we employ our Sabbaths.
From Expository Thoughts on the Gospels by J.C. Ryle