What did HE say? (continued)
Not on the Sabbath
The last series went a bit longer than planned; it took quite some time to understand and to explain the idea of “I will raise him up at the last day“. There are many difficult topics in the New Testament. This still after the more than 2000 years since it was acted out and written about. Much in the sayings of the Master is misunderstood and much is interpreted by theologians into dogmas and doctrines that are self-serving to some degree. We know that this was never the intent of the Master nor the writers of the gospels and the epistles. How different is the nature of the church of today from the church that Jesus found in His time. He railed against the Pharisees and the rulers for their ‘letter of the law’ attitudes and He had quite a list of ‘woes’ that He addressed to them. Least of these regarded their attitude toward Jesus activities on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is quite a simple and quite a remarkable commandment. As one of the Ten Commandments it singularly stands out from the rest; it does not address the Love of the One God nor man’s moral relationship with others as do all the rest. This commandment simply says that you are to do no work on this particular day each and every week. This was not only for the person who was religious and who adhered to the teaching but for all people and under the threat of severe penalty. Let us look at the commandment as it is written:
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). It is repeated again, as are all the commandments similarly: “Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou“. (Deuteronomy 5:12-14).
Here are two slightly different versions each showing that there is to be no work done on this day. A forced day of rest for all, from the highest rulers of the people to the lowliest servant and slave. A great equalizing commandment reflecting perhaps on their life of servitude in Egypt where they likely had no day of rest under the hardness of their masters. Here, in this new dispensation, was to be some degree of equality and of kindness for all the people and for the animals as well. We must remember that we are speaking of a time roughly 1500 years before Christ and about 3600 years removed from today. It was a barbaric and superstitious world and much of law and order was based upon this barbarism. The commandments and laws could be seen as an attempt to ease the harshness of the time though this is not really evident in reading of the historical books of Moses nor in the subsequent reigns of the Kings of Israel. By example we see that there is a law that prohibits work and prohibits one from forcing his servant to work on one of every seven days; this is probably a first and a positive rule in regard to becoming more civilized. But look at the punishment as well: “Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:14-16). Here we see the punishment of death for the infraction of working on the sabbath day.
Now this is a sign of the brutality of the time and the superstition is seen as clearly in all of the wanderings of the people of Israel from the worship of their God to the idolizing of others gods. Most of the punishments against the people and the country as a whole are the direct result of their wandering from their God. For a thousand years or so, up to the captivity of both Israel and Judah, this is a story of wars between a united Israel and the rest of the region at first and then, with a separated Israel and Judah, wars both between themselves and also with the rest of the region. It is a story of their God forsaking them because of their behaviour and superstitions in idolizing other gods and then taking their side in battle when they repented and prayed for His protection.
The captivity of the Jewish people goes from the separate captivities by the Assyrians of the Kingdom of Israel to the fall of Judah into the hands of Babylon about 150 years later. Somewhere after this time frame comes Persia and then eventually Roman rule of the area. Now this is not intended to be an accurate portrayal of history but a general guide to get us from the time of Moses to the time of Christ. In the time of Christ things may not have been any less brutal but they were somewhat more civilized which is inherent in the natural progression of time and cultures. In Jesus’ day the Jews are under Roman rule and able to perform their rites of religion as they wished and it is here that they had created the style of the Jewish religion of that day. It is here that we find the Master railing against the behaviour of the religious leaders of the day and it is here that we find Jesus reinterpreting for the people some of the laws that Moses had set forth. Jesus’ interpretations of these laws was always intended to make them deeper and more meaningful and more spiritual. All except, of course, the law of the sabbath. In many ways, under a mandate of change, Jesus rebelled against what the religion had become and the laws of the time, setting in order the new way for a new dispensation.
We see from the gospels that Jesus is looking at what had happened to the Jewish religion over the 15oo or so years from the time of Moses to His day. In reviewing the Master’s work we should see that He was not only concerned with what the rulers had created but that He was here to change what had become words of law to follow to a spirit of law to follow; a change that the society and the culture of the day could accomplish. One has to wonder what He would say to the myriad of different and differing denominations and interpretations that have come from His words if He were to come back to us today. There would likely be new teaching for a new era as there was 2000 years ago; what would happen to the current theologies. Would the churches find it within themselves to reason out their differences and be one as was the original intent or would they remain in their separate ways; separate from each other and separate from the Lord.
Let us look now at what the Master had to say to the religious leaders of His day. We start with the writings of Matthew where Jesus begins in saying to the multitude: “the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi” (Matthew 23:2-7). What does He say here but that the people should listen to their religious leaders and do as they say in the law but they should not do as they do. He says that the rulers create rules for the people to follow yet they do not follow them nor help. That they do so that they may be seen in doing, that they may be looked up to. They seek places of prominence and the utmost of respect from all. Little of what they do is done for the Lord or for the people that they were intended to serve.
The Master continues with the list of woes. Remember that He is saying these things to the people among which were sure to be some of those that He spoke against. He says:
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But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
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Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone .
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Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
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Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the prophets. .(Matthew 23:13-31 parts omitted)
This is quite a lengthy list that the Master recites for the people and this is not the end of it as there are many more things that He finds offensive throughout His sayings. What is the overriding message here but this: The leaders and the rulers were enacting and enforcing rules for the people to follow for their own salvation but were not keeping the rules themselves. They were, in their own actions, following the letter of the law when it appears, from Jesus words, that they should have been following the spirit of the law all along as “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith”. They were eagerly seeking converts to the faith and then training them in the ‘warped’ rules that they had created. And, they were looking always for way to make their lives better by taking advantage of the ‘widows’ and the like.
In today’s world the terms may change as well as the types of offence but how many of our churches and our church leaders would fall under similar scrutiny. Today’s post is an outline of the way that Jesus viewed the leaders of His day. Our theme, Not on the Sabbath, will explore next how He reacted to them and they to Him as He went through His ministry. He continually flouted their interpretation of the sabbath rules, most likely intentionally, bringing their ire to bear.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted (Matthew 23:11-12).
This is the lead in from our text in Matthew today. It is a simple message for all but most importantly for those who find themselves as leaders of any kind. This is a message that is repeated in several different forms in the sayings of the Master.
