The Sabbath Was Made for Man

Background Scripture: Mark 2–3
Lesson Scripture: Mark 2:23–28; 3:1–5

Introduction

God created the Sabbath to be a blessing for His people.

The word Sabbath is derived from a Hebrew word that literally means “rest.” This concept of Sabbath has its origin in the very beginning, in the creation. God created the entire universe in six literal, 24-hour days. Then on the seventh day, God rested. He did not rest because He was tired; He rested because He was finished. His work was done. Creation was complete, and He pronounced it to be very good. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen. 2:3).

Under the law of Moses, observing the Sabbath on the seventh day was an express command, and there were consequences for disobedience. In the New Testament, the Son of God completed His work of salvation on the first day of the week, the day of His resurrection. Thus, began a new week, a new era, the New Testament. The day of rest is now the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day. There is, however, a deeper meaning yet to the Sabbath than merely a day of rest. We want to understand the true purpose and observance of this institution God has provided for mankind.

Key Verse

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days (Col. 2:16).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

Our lesson today is taken from Mark’s Gospel. This is the John Mark mentioned often in the Acts of the Apostles. John Mark was not one of the twelve apostles. It is possible that he knew Jesus personally, though this cannot be proven. It is generally accepted that the material in Mark’s Gospel is derived largely from his companionship with the apostle Peter.

Today we study two incidents when our Lord was accused of not properly observing the Sabbath. In the first incident, Jesus’s disciples were passing through a grain field on the Sabbath and plucked ears of growing grain to eat. The Pharisees found fault with this, and since the supposed offenders were Jesus’s disciples, they accused Him.

The Pharisees, known for their self-righteous efforts to keep the Law, did not appreciate Jesus. In the Pentateuch, God forbade His people to do manual labor on the Sabbath day. This applied even in harvest. The disciples were getting only enough grain for their own food, but the Pharisees accused them (and Jesus) of harvesting, thus disobeying God.

In the second incident, Jesus was accused of laboring on the Sabbath because He healed a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees suspected He would do this and were ready to pounce. Our text says plainly that those finding fault had hard hearts, and therefore they did not perceive God’s will.

Our Creator knows our limitations. Rest is essential to our physical well-being, and God meant for the Sabbath to be a day of rest. He wanted this rest to be an opportunity to seek the will of our heavenly Father. Instead of constantly being employed in pursuits of our physical life, God set aside time for refreshing and maintaining our spiritual life. God hallowed the Sabbath, meaning it to be a blessing for man.

The attitude of our Lord’s critics reveals the pride of their hearts. The Pharisees were very religious—not holy. They focused entirely on the Law’s requirement to abstain from manual labor on the Sabbath, ignoring the weightier matters of the Law such as mercy and faith. They amplified and exaggerated the restrictions of the Law so much that they missed God’s purpose. In place of spiritual rest, they ended up with a rigid system of religious works that they thought would earn God’s favor.

The Son of God clearly directs us back to God’s purpose for Sabbath observance. “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?”

The commandment to keep the Sabbath in the Old Testament points us to something yet greater. Colossians 2:17, which follows today’s key verse, says that the Sabbaths “are a shadow of things to come.” This points to the rest for the soul that Christ would bring. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Heb. 4:9).

Practical Truths for Today

When our sins are forgiven, we are free and happy—we are at rest. Our sole desire is to be faithful to the One who called us and forgave us. However, soon we face temptations. Our old selfish nature breaks out again, and sometimes we fail. Then the devil whispers to us, “You must not really be a Christian,” “A Christian would not have those thoughts,” or “A Christian would not do what you just did.” If we believe the evil one, we become burdened, and our peace seems to leave. What has happened? Why am I not at rest?

Perhaps we can see the tendencies of our human nature mirrored in the pride of the Pharisees. We would like to be a perfect Christian who is well thought of. When we fail, Satan tries to hinder us from humbly coming to Jesus with our burden. It is difficult for us to admit our depravity and failure. We may determine to do better, but we become frustrated with our lack of victory. We cannot find rest until we cease from our own works in the sense of self-effort and cry to God for His grace to overcome. Then our efforts are born out of grace, and we will have strength to be victorious and we are at rest again.

God rested on the seventh day because His work was finished, and His creation was very good. He had created Adam and Eve and given them a home. Included in creation’s perfection was the freedom to choose to love and obey God. He endowed His children with free will, often called the power of choice. God’s children were not meant to be puppets.

Then Adam and Eve made a fateful choice. Now the “very good” of creation was very damaged. Disobedience and sin had entered the realm of God’s creation. Paradise was lost, perfection was corrupted, and death was the penalty. God’s original work was now broken with no hope except redemption. This meant there was more work to do, and it would be an incredibly difficult work. Who could accomplish the great work of redemption for all?

Sin had ruined creation and contaminated the posterity of the first parents. Because the penalty of sin is death, redemption for sin could be paid only in blood. To bring fallen man back to perfection would require a perfect sacrifice. Because all humanity is corrupt, no perfect sacrifice could be found among them. God’s only begotten Son shouldered this responsibility.

God’s Son humbled Himself to become one of us: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same” (Heb. 2:14). He became the only perfect human being without sin. Now the ransom could be paid; now there was a perfect sacrifice. And He who was perfect, He who had no need to die, voluntarily gave Himself to be sacrificed.

It is beyond our ability to adequately explain what a tremendous work was accomplished by the Son of God. Fallen man was redeemed, his sins were forgiven, and paradise was regained. Every redeemed human will testify that things are now very good. And just as a rest followed the original work of God in the creation, a rest also follows this work of redemption. That rest is for all the redeemed.

Humanity had fallen so far that we could not recover ourselves. Now we sing “Love lifted me.” The price of our sins left us bankrupt; we had nothing to pay. Now we sing, “He paid a debt He did not owe; I owed a debt I could not pay.” We could never earn our salvation, but now we do not have to. It is a gift. We could never be good enough to deserve eternity in heaven; now Jesus has become our righteousness.

When God finished the creation, He entered into rest. When the work of salvation was finished, the Son of God returned to heaven. “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (Heb. 4:10). “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Truly the Sabbath is made for man.

Jesus became the true Sabbath.

Illustration

God intended that we would live our Christian life from a position of peace and rest. However, God forbid that we justify willful sin, because sin is still our enemy. We must walk carefully with Jesus and live holy lives. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). If we fall, we need to repent and rise again. But we do this from a position of grace. We trust Jesus for our salvation and, though in weakness, we live the best we can out of deep appreciation and love for God.

In this New Testament era, let us observe the Sabbath as God intended. Let us keep the day holy. We all appreciate physical rest, so let us lay our earthly cares down and rest and use the time of rest to nurture our spiritual man. Let us go to church and Sunday school and fellowship with other believers to grow in knowledge and grace. Let us allow the day to bless us, and let us be a blessing to others, lending a hand, saying a kind word, encouraging the discouraged, and being a light to the world.

Questions

1. What is the key verse telling us?
2. Isaiah is called the “gospel prophet.” Read Isaiah 58:13–14 and discuss its application
3. Can we apply Jeremiah 17:21–27 to today’s lesson in a spiritual way?
4. How do we reconcile “labour” and “rest” in Hebrews 4:11?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).