The Use of the Sabbath

Mar_2:23 to Mar_3:6

One of the most important questions which

Christian people have to consider in these
daysis that of the proper use of the Lords
Day. What is its purpose? What place should
it occupy among the days? What should it
mean to us? How should it be observed? It
would be a great calamity to usif we were
to lose our Sabbath altogether. We would
then have no churches, no religious services,
no Christian institutions, no Sunday schools,
and no Christian fellowship; for it is the
Sabbath that is the inspirer and helper of all
these institutions and blessings. Jesus loved
the Sabbath. He took from it certain things
which had grown up about it and spoiled its
beauty; but He did not abolish it. He
sanctified it, and then gave it back to us an
institution of good and of blessing.

One Sabbath Jesus and His disciples were

going through the grain fields. We may infer
that they were on their way to the morning
synagogue servicewere going to church, as
we would say. There are many evidences that
Jesus was always regular in His attendance
upon church ordinances. We would think that
He did not require the spiritual help which
comes from public worship; yet He seems
always to have sought it. If Jesus kept up
church - going habits, then surely we should
not think that we can get along without them.
We would do well to emphasize this particular
part of Sabbath duty. Young people should
feel the obligation and realize their own need
of what the church can give them. We ought
to come together to worship God, to
recognize Him before men as our God, and to
render due homage and praise to Him from
whom all our blessings come.

Then we need the help that the Lord sends

from the sanctuary. We need the instruction,
counsel, warning, encouragement, and
comfortwhich come from the faithful
preaching of the Word. We need the
fellowship of Christians, the strength that
comes from human sympathy. In our thought
about how to observe the Sabbath, let us not
forget to get into it a healthful measure of
church-going. We may be sure that Jesus and
His disciples were not merely taking a walk
for pleasure that morning, and that they were
not merely traveling somewhere. We need to
be careful how we seek our own pleasure, on
the Lords Day. We ought to make the
Sabbath different from other days restful,
quiet, a day for receiving the divine blessings
of health and renewal, as well as spiritual
good and enriching.

The Pharisees were exceedingly punctilious in

the observance of the letter of the law, and
besides this, of the rabbinic rules which had
been added form time to time to the law.
They also regarded it as their duty to keep a
close watch on others and to note any failure
in them to follow the rules. They were
especially keen in watching Jesus and His
disciples. Their motive was not sincere
interest in the teaching and example of
Jesusbut to criticize Him, that they might
accuse Him. They went along with Him, not
because they loved to be with Himbut as
spies upon His conduct, looking for some fault
in Him!

We get two lessons. One is that the conduct

of Christians is always watched by unfriendly
eyeseyes keen to detect the slightest
apparent fault. We should live at all times
most carefully, so as to give no occasion for
just censure. Yet the example of our Lords
disciples here, shows us that we are not to be
slaves to traditional opinions which have no
foundation in the Word of God .

The other lesson is that we can find better

business than playing the spy on the life and
conduct of our fellow men. The unfriendly
espionage of these sanctimonious religionists
on the actions of our Lord and His disciples,
appears in our eyes very base and
contemptible. Let us remember that it is no
less base and contemptible for usto watch
our fellow Christians, in order to discover
flaws. Suppose they do not live quite as they
should live; are we their judges? Then
perhaps our sin of uncharitableness in
watching themmay be as great as theirs of
some other inconsistency.

The scribes were always referring people, to

what was written. With a keen irony Jesus
remind them of an incident in their Scripture
which had a bearing on the matter which was
troubling them (see 1Sa_21:1-6). David was
a favorite Jewish hero, and what he did ought
to be taken at least as a precedent. The
teaching is for us, too, and its meaning is that
works of necessity may be done on the
Sabbath. It was in the literal sense, a breach
of the ceremonial law for the priest to give
David the showbread; but it was not a breach
of the spirit of the law, for the necessity of
hunger overruled the ceremonial regulation.
The work of the priests in the temple, was
also in a literal way a continual profanation of
the Sabbath; yet they were blameless
because their work was necessary for the
maintenance of the ordained worship of God.
In like manner, our Lord taught that the act
of His disciples in plucking and rubbing out
the heads of grain to get food to satisfy their
immediate hungerwas a work of necessity,
and therefore was not a sin. Though the letter
of the law may have been violated, there was
no violation of its spirit .

So we get the principle, that works of

necessity are excepted in the law of the
Sabbath, which requires the cessation of
secular labor. What these works of necessity
are, cannot be established by minute rules
and regulations. This would be to repeat the
error of the Jewish teachers, who added to
the plain and simple law of Godso many of
their own traditions as to obscure and bury
away the law itselfand make their religion
burdensome and oppressive. What these
works of necessity arecan be left to the
enlightened conscience of the faithful
followers of Christ.
Jesus went further and made a general
statement concerning the purpose of the
Sabbath which is very important and which
we should always remember in thinking of the
observance of the day. He said unto them,
The Sabbath was made for man and not
man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is part of
Gods plan of love for man. It was not made
for him merely as an arbitrary law, without a
reason. It is as much a law of his nature, or in
harmony with his natureas is the night,
which bids him cease from toil and seek rest
and sleep. It was made for his physical
nature. Then it was made also for his spiritual
goodto give him opportunity, not for
physical rest alonebut for communion with
God when the noise of business and of toil
has ceased. It was made for man, to promote
his highest welfare in every regard.

Jesus clearly showed, both by His own

example and by His teaching that the
Sabbath is never meant to be a burden or to
work oppressively. Though work is forbidden
on the Sabbath, it is not a violation to prepare
food sufficient to meet the hunger of our
bodies, to lift a beast out of a pit, or to heal a
sick man. Not many people are now disposed,
however, to make the Sabbath a heavy
burden or a cruel yoke. The tendency is the
other way. At the same time it is well to
understand just what our Lord taught on this
subject. Works of necessity are allowed, even
though they may seem to violate the letter of
the law. So also are works of mercy, works of
benevolence. It will be hard, however, to get
out of this great saying of our Lordsany
excuse for the hundredth part of the secular
activities, which men want to bring in under
the shield of Christs teaching.

Jesus went still further, and asserted His own

authority over the day. The Son of man is
lord also of the Sabbath. Therefore He had a
right to interpret the laws for its observance.
He does not intimate any intention of
abolishing the Sabbath. He had just said,
The Sabbath was made for manand not
man for the Sabbath. Because the Sabbath
was made for manit came under the
Lordship of the Son of man. As Mediator, He
had all the interest of humanity committed to
His hands. The Sabbath was not to be
abolished, for it was part of the very divine
constitution which the loving God had
ordained for His children. Christ came not to
destroybut to fulfill. He took the Sabbath,
therefore, and stripped off the temporary
ceremonial regulations, and set aside all the
burdensome traditional rules and then put
into it its true spiritual meaning, just as He
did to the other commandments in the
Sermon on the Mount. Under His touch the
Sabbath was made new in a sense. The
bondage of the letter gave way to the
liberty of the Spirit. He liberated His Church
from the oppressive burdens of a rabbinic
Sabbath, and made the day one of joy and
gladness, a type and foretaste of heaven.
He said unto them: is it lawful to do good on
the Sabbath dayor to do evil? To save life
or to kill? In the account of this incident in
Matthews Gospel (12:11, 12), we learn that
Jesus gave an illustration. If any of you has
a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,
will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How
much more valuable is a man than a sheep!
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the
Sabbath. He appealed to simple common
sense. The Jews could not but admit that a
man should lift his sheep out of the pit on the
Sabbath. Whatever their traditions said about
such a case, the practice of the people would
be on the merciful line. Now Jesus asked: Is
not a man better than a sheep ? If it is right
to help a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath
then it surely is right to relieve a human
sufferer from his malady on that day.

So we get the lesson that it is right to do

good on the Sabbath. It is right for physicians
to attend to their patients on that day. It is
right for those whose duty it naturally is, to
nurse the sick and care for them on the
Sabbath. It is right to visit the sickwhen we
can carry blessing or cheer to them; to visit
the afflictedwhen we can carry comfort to
them; to visit the poorwhen we can minister
to their needs or relieve their distress; to go
out among the unsavedwhen we can do
anything to bring them to Christ and save
their souls; to gather neglected children from
the streets and from Christian homesand
bring them to the Sunday school and the
Church. Jesus here gives us warrant for many
works of mercy on His own Holy Day.

When Jesus entered the synagogue, there

was a man there with a withered hand. The
scribes watched very intently to see whether
Jesus would heal this man on the Sabbath. He
asked the man to stand forth, as if He would
cure him; but first asked the scribes whether
it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. They
were not willing to commit themselves in
answering His question, and after a little
while Jesus proceeded to heal the man. He
said unto the man: Stretch forth your hand.
And he stretched it forthand his hand was
restored. Jesus would not let the man suffer
because of the criticism of the Jews.

We get a lesson here. We must not be

hindered in doing goodby the opposition
and the fault-finding of those about us. We
must do our good deeds fearlessly, serving
Christ regardless of the worlds sneers and
hindering.