Picky, Picky

Sabbath Laws

Sometimes the people who make our laws get a little carried away and pass some silly laws. I did some research on the Internet and found some examples of some of the silliest laws I have ever heard of.

• In Fairbanks, Alaska, it’s illegal to serve alcohol to a moose. – I wonder if it is legal to serve alcohol to a bear?

• There’s a city in Arizona where it is illegal to drive a car in reverse. – Apparently, they didn’t think about how people would get out of your parking space at the mall?

• There’s a town in Minnesota where a woman can be arrested for impersonating Santa Claus. – Now There’s something I want our elected officials to be concerned about!

• In Oklahoma, people who make ugly faces at dogs can be arrested and jailed or fined. – I wonder if a bulldog can get thrown in the pound for making ugly faces at people?

• In Nicholas County, West Virginia, a preacher is not allowed to tell jokes from the pulpit. – Maybe a better law would be that a preacher has to know HOW to tell a joke.

I think we all agree that those are some pretty silly laws, but this is nothing new. In today’s text we’re going to see some people who were very zealous in keeping God’s laws, especially the Law of the Sabbath. But in their hyper-protective desire to keep people from disobeying God’s laws, they came up with some “Silly Sabbath Laws,” the title of my sermon.

So one Sabbath day and Jesus and his disciples were out walking somewhere. The disciples did something that sounds weird to us; they just reached down and stripped some kernels of grain off the stalks. Then they rubbed them in their hands to get the husks off, and they ate the raw grain as a snack. And some Pharisees saw it and complained. They didn’t complain that his disciples would get indigestion from the raw grain. They didn’t complain that they were stealing from a farmer. They complained that Jesus’ disciples were breaking one of the Ten Commandments. They were both harvesting grain and milling grain on the Sabbath.

Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament Chapter 2

By now, the religious leaders watched everything that Jesus did. They were gathering evidence they could use to discredit Him before the people and possibly to accuse Him before the authorities. Jewish tradition said that there were thirty-nine acts that must not be performed on the Sabbath, among them harvesting grain. It was legal to take grain to eat from your neighbor’s field (Deut. 23:25), but not on the Sabbath. Jesus defended Himself and His disciples by referring to David’s experience (1 Sam. 21:1–6) and affirming that He was Lord of the Sabbath. This was the same as claiming to be God!

The Teacher’s Bible Commentary Criticism (Mark 2:1–3:6)

The feeling of some Jews toward the Sabbath was so strong that they would not defend themselves on the sabbath. Military enemies, knowing this about the Jews, sometimes attacked on the sabbath, knowing the Jews would not resist.

They had laws such as you couldn’t carry an object that weighed more than a dried fig, couldn’t walk more than 3,000 feet from their homes, nothing could be bought or sold, couldn’t light a fire, wash anything, couldn’t move chairs or anything that weighed more than that because that could make a mark on the floor or in the ground and that was considered plowing, couldn’t tie or untie a not, prepare food, couldn’t take a bath because water might splash on the floor and that is considered washing it, a woman couldn’t look into anything that she would see a reflection of herself because she might see a grey hair and be tempted to pull it out, drive a wagon, ride in a boat, ride an animal, carry anything.

Modern neighborhoods where these Sabbath laws are still kept can be found throughout Israel. Jews cook their meals for the Saturday Sabbath (beginning at sundown Friday night and ending at sundown Saturday night) on Friday. They don’t cook anything at all on Saturdays. Elevators in apartment buildings work automatically and stop at every floor on the Sabbath, so the residents don’t have to push any buttons.

The Sermon Notebook: New Testament The Scandal over the Sabbath (Mark 2:23–28)

This is just a small sample of the thousands of senseless, foolish, man-made rules the Jews were forced to live by. The Sabbath, as a result, was a day filled with burdensome ritual and no rest at all.

So, when the Pharisees saw the disciples picking and eating grain on the Sabbath Day, they considered what they were doing to be work. Picking grain was considered reaping. Rolling the wheat to remove the husks was sifting. Rubbing the heads of wheat was threshing. Bruising the ears of wheat was grinding. And, tossing wheat up into the air was winnowing.

The laws were serious and if you were caught breaking them could get you killed and at the very least, go to prison. They had so many laws I’m surprised they could keep track of them all and they seem silly and make us question what the purpose of them was.

The purpose of the Sabbath is a sign of the everlasting covenant between God and his people to be a day of worship and reflection.

But over time it became a legalistic restriction instead of being what is was created to be, a joyous occasion reflecting on the many blessings of God that he has given to us.

I asked last week about encountering God as Isaiah did, do we want an encounter with God? Why do we gather here, what is our purpose for being here? While the reasons for each of us can be different, the intent is the same, to encounter God, and problems with our understanding of the Sabbath has blurred the lines some.

The laws I mentioned earlier seem silly, they were very real in their time and they carried real consequences for those that broke them and now Jesus is seen as a rule breaker. A question we have to ask ourselves about the encounter Jesus had with them is, why were they in a field watching him to begin with? They were trying to catch him.

The work that Jesus was doing was beginning to cause problems the religious leaders and they were looking for anything they could use to accuse him of not being who he said he was, the Messiah. So now they are watching his every move, they’re stalking him in a way and now after seeing what they had done, they finally had the evidence they needed to have a just accusation against him, so they thought.

In the eyes of the Pharisees, they were guilty of reaping. You see, the Pharisees had constructed a man-made mountain of rules that enslaved those who tried to follow them. No one could live up to the expectations, nor should it have been expected that they would. While it was not normal or lawful for David and his men to eat the showbread, it was even more the case that God did not want them to starve. He was primarily concerned with protection and provision for His servant David, the anointed king of Israel.

Jesus says:

The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Put the statement in another form. It is self-evident that food was made for man, and not man for food. No one would ever think that the statement meant that man need not take food. It was made to meet man’s physical necessities, and he cannot do without it. Now, just in the same way as food was made for man, so the Sabbath was made for man’s physical, intellectual, and moral nature.

Exodus (Sabbatic Years and Days)

The Sabbath was made for man, as the Bible was made for man, Mk 2:27.

Exodus Sabbatic Years and Days

The Sabbath was made for man as heaven is made for redeemed man. A refuge from the storms of life. A home of peace after the six days of care and toil. A goal to which we look with glad hearts, and towards which we work with hopeful spirits

The Sabbath was made for us as the Savior himself was made for us, that the powers of evil may not gain a complete mastery, and that we may sit in the heavenly places.

Exodus Sabbatic Years and Days

There are those who seem to regard the Sabbath as an infringement on their rights, and as a robbery of the time they might otherwise

Its infringement is only the result of a selfishness that will bring the fabric of life to complete ruin. The Sabbath is not for pleasure, not for doing little odds and ends that we didn’t make time for during the week, but for rest of body and rest of mind, rest in peaceful worship. The letter of the OT is not binding, but the spirit is and we must do all that we can to enjoy this rest.

The Sabbath was made for man as heaven is made for redeemed man. A refuge from the storms of life. A home of peace after six days of care. A goal to which we look with glad hearts and towards which we work with hopeful spirits amidst the struggles of life.

Jesus’ words help us understand the true meaning of the Sabbath for Christians. Jesus said that God created the Sabbath for humanity not humanity for the Sabbath. God did not declare that we keep one day out of seven holy just to lay an extra burden on us. God knows that we need that time. We need to be able to stop and focus on our real purpose for living.

“Is Jesus Lord of your Sabbath?” What do you do on Sunday? (Let congregation answer the question.) You all have come to church this Sunday. That is good. One would consider that a good thing to do to keep the Sabbath holy. But why did you come to church? Was it to worship God and become a better disciple throughout the week? Or did you come to see friends or be seen? Did you come to relax in beautiful surroundings, to hear some pretty music, and maybe an eloquent message? You remember that the Pharisees were in the Synagogue on the Sabbath just as Jesus was. But they came to accuse the Son of God. Jesus, on the other hand, came to serve God by healing a man. Do you come to church for Jesus or for yourself?