The Sabbath - Mark 2:28 Series

Mark 2:28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Introduction

On August 31, 1986, the cargo ship Khian Sea was loaded with more than 14,000 tons of trash from waste incinerators in Philadelphia. The city would burn its trash and ship it away because they were out of landfill space. The plan was to take it to a landfill in the Bahamas, but when the ship arrived, they wouldn’t accept it. So they tried another location, where they were also turned away. That ship wandered at sea for 2 years, was turned away from 11 countries in 3 continents, sometimes at gunpoint. How many of us are like the Khian Sea – floating through life loaded down with a bunch of garbage, with no place to take it? You go to church, hoping to unload some of it there, and so often you find that the only thing that happens is even more gets piled on top of your load. What do you do when the weight on your shoulders is too much, and the pressure is making life a burden?

We left off last time with Jesus and the disciples walking away on the Sabbath with the Pharisees standing there in the grainfield wondering what hit them. Once again they thought they had Jesus dead to rights, and with a couple sentences he shows that the Pharisees were not only in the wrong in that instance, but their entire system and way of interpreting the Bible is wrong. Then Jesus drops yet another claim to deity on them, calling himself the Lord of the Sabbath.

That was the 4th of the 5 conflict events Mark gives us in rapid fire in this section. The 5th is in that first paragraph of ch.3, and it’s also about the Sabbath. Of all the points where Jesus could have confronted their religious system, the Sabbath was the most important. That’s the one he hits hardest, and most often. The Sabbath is a really big deal to Jesus, and today we’re going to see why.

I’m going to hold off on starting ch.3 until next time. Tonight I want to devote a whole session just on Jesus’ statement in Mk.2:28 (I am the Lord of the Sabbath) from a theological perspective. I want to make sure we understand the doctrine of the Sabbath because was so important to Jesus, and it’s a point of so much confusion for people. In the OT the Sabbath was Saturday, now we worship on Sunday – are we supposed to observe the Sabbath today? And if so, which day? The answer is yes – it’s more important to keep the Sabbath today than it was in the OT. And the consequence for not observing it is far more severe now than it was then.

Lord of the Sabbath – Changing it Up

When they accuse Jesus’ disciples of violating the Sabbath, you expect him to say, “They didn’t violate the Sabbath; they just violated your traditions.” But instead of saying that, he says, “I’m Lord of the Sabbath.” If you accuse someone of breaking a law, and instead of saying, “I didn’t break the law,” his response is to say, “I’m in charge of that law,” what does that imply? Is this an indication that as Lord of the Sabbath Jesus is going to make an adjustment? Is Jesus about to change it up? Yes, I believe he is, and that becomes evident as the rest of the NT unfolds.

The Purpose of the Sabbath Law

Sabbath Shadow

Shadows are Temporary

Let’s go back to the OT. At the time of Moses, God created the Sabbath law – no working on Saturday, as an illustration of something that would be revealed later. Illustrations don’t point to themselves. They exist to help us understand a greater reality. The Bible calls those illustrations “shadows.” They aren’t the reality. They are just a shadow being cast by something greater. And so they are temporary. Once you have the reality, you don’t need the illustration anymore. That’s why we don’t have animal sacrifices anymore. Now that the true Lamb of God was sacrificed, we don’t need the shadow illustrations anymore.

The Sabbath is a Shadow

And the Sabbath law is one of those shadows.

Colossians 2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival … or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.