It was a Sabbath and Jesus and His disciples were walking past ripe corn. The disciples were hungry and began to pluck some ears of corn and eat them. The Pharisees challenged them, claiming that they were doing what was “not lawful” on the Sabbath. With their legalistic outlook, the Pharisees were putting the disciples’ activity into the category of reaping, which would indeed be in breach of the Fourth Commandment if done for any reason but to satisfy present hunger. Jesus’ response was along the lines of indicating that His disciples’ actions came into the category of “works of necessity and mercy”, to quote a helpful phrase from The Shorter Catechism (ans 60). He then said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27,28).
In saying that the Sabbath was made for man, the Saviour was stressing that the Sabbath was given to mankind for their good. J C Ryle comments, “It was made for all mankind, not for the Jew only, but for the whole family of Adam. It was made for man’s benefit and happiness. It was for the good of his body, the good of his mind, and the good of his soul.”
The Sabbath was instituted at creation, for God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Gen 2:2, 3), setting it apart for holy things. So the Fourth Commandment directs us: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy . . .” (Ex 20:8). It was a day distinct from the others. On the first six days of the week, man was to work, even while sinless; God put Adam into the Garden of Eden to look after it (Gen 2:15); but on the seventh day he was to abstain from work as far as possible – for his good. It was an opportunity for Adam and Eve to rest from physical labour and devote themselves to spiritual things in a way that was not possible on other days.
Thus the Fourth Commandment goes on to state: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work” (Ex 20:9,10). Especially in the light of what Jesus said to the Pharisees, the prohibition of work was not meant to be absolute, but we are to keep it to a minimum and maximise the spiritual opportunity the day provides. Professing Christians today are likely to go to the other extreme. Even in the 1850s, Ryle warned, “Let us be jealous over our own conduct in the matter of observing the Sabbath. There is little danger of the day being kept too strictly in the present age. There is far more danger of its being profaned and forgotten entirely.”
Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in a soul, people can have no sense of the value of a well-kept Sabbath; nor can they prize the spiritual activities which we then have an opportunity to engage in to a much greater extent than on other days, laying aside our normal activities as far as possible. Instead people are apt to view a well-kept Sabbath as a day made unpleasant by unreasonable restrictions. But we should look on our Sabbaths as given to us by God for our good, as opportunities to learn about Him, to seek His favour and to worship Him, to an extent that may not be possible on other days. Yes, caring for a loved one who is seriously ill, for instance, may interfere with the opportunities a Sabbath might normally provide, as will looking after young children. But the Lord knows everyone’s circumstances, and He can supply all their needs, spiritual as well as physical, even when their situation is difficult. The next incident that Mark records is Christ healing, on a Sabbath, a man whose hand was dried up and therefore useless. Christ, of course, healed the man’s arm, calling on him to stretch forth his hand. Christ did so in spite of the opposition of those around Him, emphasising that it was lawful “to do good” on the Sabbath. All Christ’s healing miracles, while they were works of kindness to those who were suffering, were illustrations of spiritual healing. And those acts of physical healing on Sabbaths may well have been intended to encourage us to believe that the Sabbath is the particular day on which we may expect to see acts of spiritual healing. It is a special opportunity to stretch out the hands of our soul to receive Christ.
Among the Sabbath’s opportunities are services of public worship, when the gospel is preached. So in “Capernaum . . . on the Sabbath day [Jesus] entered into the synagogue, and taught” (Mk 1:21,22). Today Christ teaches by His ambassadors, especially during Sabbath worship. There we may look for gospel calls to be made – such as, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is 45:22). When the Holy Spirit blesses such calls, spiritual life and healing are given, so that sinners are made able to look to the Saviour by faith. Sabbath worship is also an opportunity for those who have experienced spiritual healing to find assurance that they are indeed spiritually alive and are now God’s children. Again, Sabbath worship is an opportunity for believers to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of [their] Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18) as they go on looking unto Jesus under the preaching of the Word.
If “the Sabbath was made for man”, as a blessing, then we are to look on it as one of the gifts purchased by Christ for the good of those who will trust in Him. Accordingly we must believe that He has authority over it; so He claims: “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath”. Thus He was able to explain the doctrine of the Sabbath authoritatively to the Pharisees when the disciples were plucking the ears of corn. Also He had authority to change the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first. While, in the Old Testament age, the weekly Sabbath pointed back to creation, in the New Testament age, it commemorates the rising of Christ from the dead, which took place on the first day of the week. So John speaks of being “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10), the day over which the Lord Jesus has particular authority. Paul no doubt preached on the various days of the week, but we are told that the first day of the week was the particular day when, in Troas, “the disciples came together to break bread”, at the Lord’s Supper, and it is particularly noted that “Paul preached unto them” on that day (Acts 20:7). The New Testament Sabbath was, for these followers of Christ, a welcome opportunity to have communion together and with their Lord and Saviour, at the Lord’s table – as well as a precious opportunity to receive instruction and spiritual blessing through the preaching of the Word.
The Lord Jesus’ words apply to Sabbath observance: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15); those who love Him love His day. Nehemiah showed his love to the Sabbath by taking steps to prevent trading on the day. His attitude to the Sabbath paralleled his refusal to charge the people, as previous governors had done, to fund a lavish lifestyle: “But so did not I,” he could claim, “because of the fear of God” (Neh 5:15). He was referring to his holy reverence for God and His commandments. And Nehemiah kept the Sabbath because he feared God. Nehemiah, we can be sure, experienced the fulfilment of the promise: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth” (Is 58:13,14). This promise is still valid. The Sabbath provides us with a real opportunity, not only to get good for our souls now, but to receive a blessing from God which will follow us throughout eternity.