Articles
Luke 6 - The Sabbath
Luke records several episodes in the life of Jesus the revolved around how one ought to keep the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was made known at Mount Sinai (Nehemiah 9:13-14). It was part of the 10 commandments that, along with ALL of the law of Moses, was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai and was NOT given to their fathers (Deut. 5:2-3). Israel received this covenant that included the 10 commandments and the Sabbath because they had been delivered from Egypt (Deut. 5:15). Hence it was only given to those whom God brought out of Egypt (Exod. 20:2, 8-11).
Jesus points out that the Sabbath was made FOR man (Mark 2:27). When they legislated their rules concerning how it must be kept, they did so to the point of harm unto men. Of course they were inconsistent in applying such a rule as they made exceptions that benefited THEM.
The Sabbath day was a day of rest from normal labor. Of course one could define labor so narrowly that doing ANYTHING is ‘work’, yet it should be obvious that such a rigid definition is wrong. The sluggard finds getting out of bed to be laborious. Jesus and the Pharisees disagreed on what constituted a violation of this law. In particular Jesus attacked their understanding from the point that it is lawful to do good. Eating is simply part of life, hence the episode in the wheat field was NOT labor but simply eating (Luke 6:1-5). The healing of the man with a withered hand was Jesus showing mercy and kindness to the unfortunate. [I have always wondered HOW they managed to categorize the doing of a miracle by the very power of God to be ‘labor’ that would be covered by the Sabbath regulation!]
Being part of the covenant that has been replaced, there is no such commandment given to New Covenant people. It, like circumcision, priesthood, the Day of Atonement, and such all ended with the institution of the New Covenant. Hugh DeLong
