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Jesus and the Sabbath

by Steven Siciliano  |  9 September 2018  |

All four New Testament gospels include stories in which the religious leaders of Jesus’ day accused Him of breaking the Sabbath. By analyzing these stories, Seventh-day Adventists build up their theology of proper Sabbath observance, often relying heavily on Jesus’ statement that “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” This principle, though clearly central, is by no means the only defense Jesus used to excuse things that He and His disciples did on the Sabbath. Depending on how you subdivide His various rebuttals, Jesus provided upwards of eight or nine different lines of reasoning for His unorthodox activities. This installment of “Reading What’s There” will survey a few of those, starting with a review of the one just mentioned.

The well-known phrase “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” appears in Matthew 12:8-14, Luke 6:6-11, and Mark 3:1-6. All three accounts describe the same incident with some variation, but the shared storyline involves Jesus’ healing a man with a paralyzed hand and a discussion about whether or not what He did was appropriate. All the gospels convey the idea that acts of healing do not breach the law because they are “good,” and therefore appropriate on Sabbath. Matthew includes an additional comment showing that Jesus’ opponents were willing to rescue animals on Sabbath, implying that they too understood that saving life can override the prohibition against exerting oneself on the day.

Another well-known incident precedes this one, however, in which Jesus uses other arguments that impart important insights into His attitude towards the Sabbath, and His very identity. It’s the story in Mark 2, Luke 6, and Matthew 12 in which Jesus’ disciples were gleaning grain when the Pharisees demanded to know why they were doing something unlawful. Jesus could easily have said that meeting people’s needs was “good,” and thus allowable, but He didn’t. In fact, He seems to have implied the opposite.

First, Jesus reminded his opponents of an incident recorded in 1 Samuel 21, in which David and his men ate the consecrated showbread, which was reserved only for priests. Rather than try to argue that David’s action was lawful, Jesus acknowledged that what David and his men did was unlawful. He gave no explanation as to why David was free to circumvent the rules but Jesus could very well have meant to suggest that, as God’s anointed heir to the throne, David’s status and work superseded ritual prohibitions. In fact, in Matthew’s account Jesus adds in a similar remark about priests who serve in the temple. They too “break the Sabbath” and yet are guiltless, presumably because they are ministering in the presence of God and thus exempt from the usual prohibitions. After that Matthew includes an another argument in which Jesus, referring to Himself, said that “something greater than the temple” was present.

When taken together, these statements about David, the priests, and the temple affirm that Jesus was both the anointed messiah and the new dwelling place of God. His followers, therefore, like the priests and the companions of David, were not bound by typical Sabbath restrictions – at least not while in His presence.

Be that as it may, the obvious point here is that Jesus was certainly not restricted to the argument that “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Instead, His sayings in this story seem to provide a different, more exalted logic to justify actions which were technically unlawful.

And that’s not the end of it. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus introduces yet another line of defense by saying, “The Sabbath was made for man.” That statement, within the context of the debate at hand, strongly suggests that the human race is not subservient to the Sabbath but vice-versa. The Sabbath was not designed to bring people into subjection but to minister to their well-being. As shocking as it may sound, human beings rightly oriented towards God take precedence over the Sabbath.

Jesus then adds what may be the clinching argument of all when He says, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In other words, Jesus as messiah is in charge of the day and not vice-versa. Clearly, for a person to be lord over something means that he or she possesses higher authority than the thing. Jesus had already said that the human race enjoys superior status to the Sabbath. How much more must Jesus, as the Son of Man, have authority to specify what is and is not appropriate on the day? Even beyond the question of what is “lawful” to do on the Sabbath, Jesus used this occasion to assert an essential fact about Himself – He is messiah and Lord. And that means He is Lord of the Sabbath.

These two stories alone introduce four or five different principles that not only contribute to a theology of the Sabbath but convey profound insights into the status of human beings and the authority of Jesus as Lord. It takes effort to know how to apply these concepts, but one thing is sure – Jesus did not rely on a single argument for why He and His followers were free to break the Sabbath conventions of His day. If contemporary Christians settle for only one defense while neglecting the others, they do themselves and the Bible a disservice.


Steven Siciliano is pastor of the Jackson Heights, Hartsdale, and New York Filipino Churches in the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and an M.A. in Community Health Education from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.

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Adventist Tomorrow: Fresh Ideas While Waiting for Jesus, by Jack Hoehn

ADVENTIST TOMORROW by Jack Hoehn has become the best-selling book that Adventist Today has published, selling over 850 copies so far (480+ in the paperback and  370+ in the electronic Kindle version).  It is being read by Adventist College and University students.  It is being read in Canada, in Australia,  in South Africa, in Kenya and in Spain, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Who is reading Jack’s book?  Jonathan Butler said it is on his reading list.  Smuts Van Rooyen says he is enjoying it.  Pastors John Hughson and Kenneth Preston have highly recommended it.  Pastor Kevin McGill in Seattle quoted from the book in one of his sermons.   Carmen Lau has read the book.  Jennifer Ogden, Beverly Beem, Linda Nottingham,  Cherri-Ann Farquharson, Gina Olberg have all read it with positive reviews.

Even Clifford Goldstein told Jack he liked the chapter on Intoxicants and got a new idea from the chapter Not a Rib, “but not much else.” (Jack accepts this as good a review from Cliff as he could ever hope for!)

You too don’t have to agree with Jack to read the book.  The ideas discussed in the book are important for all caring Adventists to carefully consider.  It is up to you to decide what you want to do about these issues.  Is there a future for Adventism as well as a past?  And what might that future look like?

Readers who like the book say:   It’s a good read.  I have enjoyed it immensely.  A very valuable piece of work.  Once I started it, I could not put it down.  Very well written.  An unprecedented and transformative rescue of Adventist thought.  A genuine pleasure and a relief.  Added very richly to my heart, soul and mind.

The book is good for individual consideration.  It can be even better as the basis for group discussions — Sabbath School classes, book clubs,  classrooms, workers’ retreats focusing on the challenges of tomorrow.  After you read your copy share it with someone else, or gift them their own copy.   There are 92,000 SDA congregations in the world, most of  them should be having  discussions on important topics like these.

HOW TO GET YOUR COPY–

USA and Canada:  CLICK HERE for Amazon.com   who will print and mail you a paperback copy for $US 20.00 or send you an electronic Kindle copy for $US 9.00.  All profits go to support Adventist Today.

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Australia and New Zealand:   ADVENTIST TOMORROW from  www.Amazon.com.au for $AUD 28.38 for the paperback or $AUD 11.57 for the Kindle version.

Europe:  For example Germany has www.Amazon.de  where ADVENTIST TOMORROW (in English) is available for EUR 17,41 paperback  or EUR 7,42 Kindle. You should be able to do the same with Amazon.[fr/es/it].

Japan:  Try www.Amazon.co.jp. where paperback is offered for JPY 2,309 and Kindle for JPY 948.

Kenya:  A few copies have been imported to your country, contact us for information.

Other Countries: If not close to one of the above sources, Amazon does ship to other countries.    You can go here:  https://www.amazon.com/International-Shipping-Direct  and find out if a printed book could be shipped directly to you, and what shipping costs would be.  Kindle electronic versions have no shipping costs.

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