What Did Jesus Say About The Sabbath?

What did Jesus teach about the Sabbath? Is it still binding on believers today?

The Sabbath Rest

After God created the heavens and the earth, God rested to leave us an example. Genesis 1:31 records the first mention of the Sabbath by inference as the sixth day. It says “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” After the sixth day and creation was over and all “the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (Gen 2:1-3). These verses doesn’t specifically use the word “Sabbath” but it does imply it as God included as part of the Ten Commandments, that it was “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex 20:11) so the Sabbath day is clearly the seventh day of the week and it was to be holy and a day of rest. If you look at the calendar, the seventh day of the week is Saturday.

Identified with Israel

Was the Sabbath ever commanded for Gentiles to keep? The Bible records God Himself speaking to Israel about the Sabbath in Exodus 31:13 where God says “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.” Notice that this was given “to the people of Israel” and God says of the Sabbath that it’s a “is sign between me (God) and you (Israel) so “that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.” To be sanctified means to be set apart for holy use by God and that’s what the Sabbath was intended for but it was written specifically to Israel. Never do we read that Jesus or the Apostles commanded Gentiles to keep the Sabbath, therefore, Saturday as a commanded day of rest was given to Israel as a sign of the covenant that God made with them in the wilderness.

Commands for the Gentiles

At the Council of Jerusalem, the early leader of the church, James, Jesus half-brother, required only four things of Gentiles. James said “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:19-20). This would have been the ideal time for the church to give the Gentiles the command to observe the Sabbath but they didn’t and no one objected, and the fact that no one objected is significant because the early church was almost all Jewish! If they didn’t bring up a protest about the Sabbath requirement then, they apparently believed that God does not require that of the Gentiles.

Jesus Sabbath Observances

We know from Scripture that Jesus preached in the synagogues and in the temple on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21) but so did Paul but does that mean we must? Paul was sent to the Gentiles but he never missed a chance to preach to the Jews for his love for them was great (Rom 11) so Paul, and certainly Jesus, always rubbed the Jewish religious leaders the wrong way but that’s because they were going against the grain of what the Bible teaches. By Jesus’ day, the Sabbath had become such a burden that almost all of the Jews dreaded it. Instead of making the Sabbath a delight for the Jews as God had originally intended, they had loaded it down with hundreds of laws that forbid them from doing almost anything. It made it nearly impossible to keep. A good example of Jesus’ view of the Sabbath was “One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain” (Mark 2:23). The Pharisees complained that this was breaking the Sabbath laws (Mark 2:24) but Jesus says “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). Jesus healed many on the Sabbaths (Mark 3:1-5) to show the Jews and us that if we put laws or regulations over man and animals, we don’t truly understand what the Sabbath is all about.

Prescriptive verses Descriptive

Some commandments, like in the Mosaic Law, are written to Israel and these are what we call “prescriptive” verses. That is, they’re like medicine for a patient that is intended only for him or her. Then, there are “descriptive” verses which describe what happened at Calvary. No one would think they’re called to go and be crucified. Finally, there are verses that are both prescriptive and descriptive as in John 3:16. Here we read of the descriptive love of God by Jesus’ dying for sinners and prescriptive that whoever would believe, will receive eternal life. Sabbath commands are prescriptive to Israel however God’s children would do well to rest for one day in seven. We should not forsake the assembling together on the Lord’s day (Heb 10:25) or on the Sabbath (Saturday) but make sure to follow what Paul wrote and “let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath” (Col 2:16).

Conclusion

The Sabbath rest that remained, mentioned by the author of Hebrews (Heb 4:9), doesn’t mean a literal day of the week, but a day of rest is still a great blessing for us all. Hebrews 4:9 says “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” but it was about “whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Heb 4:9-10). The context of these verses isn’t about keeping a holy day or day of the week but about ancient Israel’s disobedience (Heb 4:1-13). Context is always king because a verse taken out of context creates a pretext and usually a false one. Thankfully, we cannot work our way to heaven because we were saved only by the free gift of God’s grace (Eph 2:8-9). If it were by works, then we’d all be hopelessly lost, forever.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.