Jesus of Nazareth: The Real Sabbath!

Jesus said: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17, ESV) What does that mean? How did he fulfill the Law? Sure, almost everyone can see how he fulfilled the sacrificial system in Torah, but what about the rest of it?

In the Gospel of John, we read: "The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, 'Follow me.' Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (John 1:43-45, ESV) How did Moses in the Law speak about Jesus?" John also wrote that Christ told the Jews of his day: "For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" (John 5:46-47, ESV)

Likewise, in the Gospel of Luke, after his resurrection, Christ said: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:44-47, ESV) In other words, it ALL pointed to him - to his life, work, and mission.

But how did Jesus fulfill something like the Sabbath or the commandment to keep it holy? The answer, of course, is found in Scripture.

In the second chapter of Genesis, we read: "Thus 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." (Genesis 2:1-3, ESV) The thing which created the Sabbath was that God finished/completed/stopped working! Indeed, this is reiterated in the commandment he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. We read there: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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." (Exodus 20:8-11, ESV) The message is clear: God stopped working, and His people should too!

This point of stopping all work and resting on the Sabbath day was underscored to the children of Israel even before God made it a part of his covenant with them at Sinai. Indeed, the people had complained of being hungry as they traveled through the wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16:1-3). Then we read that the Lord said to Moses: "Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." (Exodus 16:4-5, ESV) Continuing, a little later in the same chapter, we read: "On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.' So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, 'Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none." (Exodus 16:22-26, ESV)

In these passages, we have the same message about stopping work, but another element is introduced: gathering the "bread of heaven." They had six days to gather that bread, and one day to abstain from gathering it. But what does all of this have to do with Jesus of Nazareth?

In the Gospel of John, we are informed that Jesus took five loaves of bread and fed five thousand people with them (John 6:1-13). Afterward, when Christ had left that place, the crowd went looking for him (John 6:14-25). Next, we are informed that Jesus addressed the crowd. He told them: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.' Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.' So they said to him, 'Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.' Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:26-40, ESV)

In this passage, Jesus clearly tied himself to the passage from the Law which we referenced before (from the book of Exodus). Even so, his Jewish audience did not understand the comparison that he was making. As a consequence, Jesus clarified. He went on to say: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." (John 6:47-51, ESV) For anyone who would come to the Father through the Son, the comparison with what was recorded in Torah (the Law) is clear! Jesus is the true mana (bread) that God rained down on his people from heaven, and God expects his people to gather that bread and eat it! Christ went on to say that the work which God expected of his people was to believe in him! Now, that's a lot, but Christ's fulfillment of this aspect of the Law didn't end there!

In several instances in the Gospels, we read that Christ intentionally healed people on the Sabbath and used it as a tool to teach people about what God really expected of his people. (Matthew 12:9-14, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:6-11, 13:10-17, 14:1-6, John 5:1-14, 9:1-17). Jesus taught that it was appropriate to do good on the Sabbath - to help people and heal them. In other words, stop doing your own work and start doing God's work! And what gave him the authority to modify their understanding of what was acceptable to do on the Sabbath? In the Gospel of Matthew, we read: "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, 'Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.' He said to them, 'Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12:1-8, ESV, see also Mark 2:23-28) Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for humankind, and that HE was the "lord of the Sabbath!"

Thus, we have seen that Jesus quite purposefully inserted himself into the narrative around the Sabbath. Indeed, in the Gospel of Matthew, we will see that he became the personification of it! We read: "At that time Jesus declared, 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:25-30, ESV) Did you catch that? Jesus invited people to come to HIM for rest - true rest "for your souls."

In the anonymously authored epistle to the Hebrews, the entire question of how the people of Israel related to God and the Sabbath is addressed. In the third chapter of that book, we are informed that Moses was a faithful servant in performing the tasks which God had assigned to him. This is compared to Jesus Christ who was also faithful in the performance of the tasks which God had assigned to him as God's own Son. Jewish Christians were then warned against following the example of their Hebrew forefathers. They were reminded that most of the folks who Moses had led out of Egypt died wandering in the wilderness because of their continual rebellion against God. They were not allowed to enter the "Promised Land," the symbol of ultimate rest from their sojourn.

Thus, beginning in the next chapter, we read that "the promise of entering his rest still stands" (Hebrews 4:1, ESV). Continuing, those ancient folks are compared to the Christians of that day - both having received a kind of "good news." Even so, unlike them, the Christians believed the good news about Christ and were allowed to enter the rest promised to them in Jesus. The author then continued the contrast in more familiar terms. We read: "For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.' And again in this passage he said, 'They shall not enter my rest.' Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, 'Today,' saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.' For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." (Hebrews 4:4-10, ESV) Once again, as God stopped working, he expects us to do the same. The entire thought is completed by a reference to Jesus Christ as their High Priest - a H.P. who is capable of providing that real rest (Hebrews 4:14-16)!

Jesus as the embodiment of the Sabbath? In this connection, notice what the Apostle Paul wrote to the saints of Galatia. He said: "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." (Galatians 2:15-21, ESV) Christ has made it possible for Christians to rest from their own works, and the works of the Law. According to Paul, our righteousness is found in HIM - in what HE did for us!

Hence, we can see that Jesus of Nazareth epitomized the Sabbath in his life, teachings, and death. He is the Christian Sabbath. Christians are to cease working and believe in him - allow him to give us real rest. He is what we are to remember and keep Holy in our hearts/minds/souls! What do you think?