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John 5:16-18 says,
“And this was why the Jews were persecuting
Jesus, because he was doing these things on
the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My
Father is working until now, and I am
working. 18 This was why the Jews were
seeking all the more to kill him, because
not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he
was even calling God his own Father, making
himself equal with God.”
John
was simply summarizing what the Jews were
saying in his gospel, not making those
claims about Jesus himself.
Later in John’s gospel, Jesus asked, “Which
one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the
truth, why do you not believe me” (John
8:46)? And near the end of His time on
earth, Jesus said to His disciples, “If you
keep my commandments, you will abide in my
love, just as I have kept my Father’s
commandments and abide in his love.” (John
15:10)
If Jesus truly broke
the Sabbath command then why didn’t His
detractors arrest Him for breaking the
Sabbath?
John 5:16-18
contains two claims. First, that Jesus was
breaking the Sabbath; and Second, that He
was making Himself equal with God.
In
healing on the Sabbath, Jesus was not acting
against the Father’s commands, He was doing
what the Father wanted. The Jews were
outraged, not because Jesus was wrong to
heal on the Sabbath, because they didn’t
even answer His reply to them regarding His
Sabbath healing. Jesus silenced the Jews
repeatedly by showing it was acceptable to
God for someone to do good and heal a person
in need on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:1-37; Mark
2:27-28; Luke 6:5; 14:5; John 7:21-24).
The MacArthur Study Bible has this to
say about John 5:16, “Jesus did not break
God’s law since in it there was no
prohibition of doing good on that day (Mark
2:27). However, Jesus disregarded the oral
law of the Jews that had developed, i.e.,
“the tradition of the elders” (cf. Matt.
15:1-9). Most likely, Jesus deliberately
practiced such healing on the Sabbath to
provoke a confrontation with their religious
hypocrisy that blinded them to the true
worship of God.”
[1]
What the Jews were really
furious about was that Jesus was “calling
God his own Father, making himself equal
with God.”
Did Jesus actually
break the Sabbath?
According
to Exodus 31, Jesus would be worthy of the
death penalty since He was born under the
Law, and breaking the Sabbath would have
been a sin (Gal. 4:4-5).
Exodus
31:14-15 says, “You shall keep the Sabbath,
because it is holy for you. Everyone who
profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever
does any work on it, that soul shall be cut
off from among His people. 15 Six days shall
work be done, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD.
Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day
shall be put to death.”
Jesus
said He came to uphold the Law.
He said in Matthew 5:17-18, “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. 18 For truly, I
say to you, until heaven and earth pass
away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from
the Law until all is accomplished.”
This important statement of our Lord
gives us insight into His mission and the
importance of God’s Word.
Jesus did not contradict the Old Covenant
Law in any point. The truth is, Jesus went
out of His way to promote the authority of
God’s Law. Regardless of what the Pharisees
accused Him of, He said He did not come to
abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. In fact,
Jesus commended those who taught the Law
faithfully.
Matthew 5:19-20 says,
“Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least
of these commandments and teaches others to
do the same will be called least in the
kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and
teaches them will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless
your righteousness exceeds that of the
scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus’ point
in the Sermon on the Mount was that God sees
the heart, and that we are actually held to
a higher standard than external conformity
to the Old Covenant Law.
On the
cross, Jesus fulfilled the righteous
requirements of the law on our behalf (Col.
2:13-14; Rom. 8:1-4).
The
scriptures say that Jesus was without sin.
Jesus kept the Sabbath in the way God
intended it to be kept under the Old
Covenant Law. He pointed out that David and
his men could eat the temple bread without
being guilty of sin (Mark 2:26). The temple
bread was holy; it could only be eaten by
priests, but that law could be set aside
when people were hungry and had no other
food to eat (Lev. 24:5-9).
How could
the scriptures say Jesus was without sin if
He broke the very Law that He authored, and
as a human being was born under (Gal. 4:4-5)? And why
would Jesus tell His disciples to keep the
Law faithfully and then break it Himself?
Jesus considered the law
prohibiting work on the Sabbath to be a
ceremonial law that could be set aside when
there was a human need such as healing.
It is also important to notice that the
Jews were upset because Jesus told the
paralyzed man he healed to pick up his mat
after he healed him. Rabbinic tradition had
formulated nearly 40 different forbidden
activities in the Mishnah, one of which was
carrying your mat, but there is no command
in the Old Covenant not to carry your mat on
the Sabbath. Neither Jesus, nor the man He
healed broke the Old Covenant laws regarding
the Sabbath, they only broke the Rabbinic
traditions.
Jeremiah 17:21 said not
to “carry a burden” on the Sabbath but he
never explained what he meant by that. To
carry a burden meant to “carry a heavy
load.” Telling a poor man who was just
healed to pick his mat up and go home was
not a sin. To leave his mat would most
likely mean he would lose his property if he
left it unattended. Again, Jesus was trying
to teach Israel the true intent of the law.
What was lawful to do on the Sabbath
contrary to the legalistic approach the
scribes and Pharisees took to the Sabbath
commands.
What about the
claim that Jesus was making Himself equal
with God.
Jesus was God; and
He was claiming the same right as His Father
to do good and heal on the Sabbath, but He
defended His right to do so based on the
scriptures alone, not on His divine
prerogatives.
Jesus tried repeatedly
to show Israel that healing people and
caring for their needs was not breaking the
law. He showed them what was lawful to do on
the Sabbath.
Jesus taught
that Israel needed to be practical about the
way they approached the Sabbath law.
Jesus asked in Mark 3:4, “Is it lawful
on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to
save life or to kill?” But they were
silent.” And Matthew 12:10-12 says, “And a
man was there with a withered hand. And they
asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the
Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11
He said to them, “Which one of you who has a
sheep, if it falls into a pit on the
Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift
it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man
than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on
the Sabbath.”
Jesus did not break the
Sabbath! Not the way God intended it to be
kept. The accusation of Sabbath-breaking
came from the scribes and Pharisees who had
nullified God’s Word by their traditions
(Mark 7:13). According to Jesus, healing and
doing acts of mercy was not violating the
Sabbath command because He said it was,
“lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matt.
12:12). Jesus was never convicted on the
charge of breaking the Sabbath. How else
could He say later in the gospel of John, “Which one of you convicts me
of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not
believe me?” (John 8:46).
When Jesus
was convicted by the Sanhedrin, and then
sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the
charge was blasphemy for claiming to be the
Messiah and making Himself equal with God,
not Sabbath-breaking
(Matt. 27:17, 22; Mark 14:61-64; Luke
22:66-71).
What the Sanhedrin and
Pontius Pilate didn’t understand was that
Jesus really was the Christ. He gave many
proofs throughout His ministry that
demonstrated He was God in human flesh. The
New Testament refers to Jesus as being God
in many places (Matt. 3:16-17; John 1:1-18;
8:58-59; 10:30; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Phil.
2:5-8; 2:9-11; Col. 1:16-19; 2:9-10; 1 Tim.
6:15; Titus 2:11-13; Heb. 1:3, 8; 13:8; 2
Pet. 1:1; 1 Jn. 5:20; Rev. 1:8, 17; 2:8;
17:14; 19:16; 21:6; 22:13).
If Jesus actually broke the Sabbath command
then He was guilty of sin by breaking the
Old Covenant Law that He was born under and
worthy of death.
Galatians
4:4-5 says, “But when the fullness of time
had come, God sent forth his Son, born of
woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those
who were under the law, so that we might
receive adoption as sons.”
What did Paul mean by saying Jesus was “born
under the law”?
“First of
all, the Law consists of the do’s and don’ts
of moral and civil behavior (613 total) that
is revealed in the first five books of the
Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy. To be under the
Law means that the Law has jurisdiction and
authority over a person to judge and
condemn. If such a person breaks the Law
(sins, 1 Jn. 3:4), then there is a necessary
judgment and condemnation based on the Law.
All law-breaking brings separation between
God and the sinner (Isa. 59:2) and results
in death (Rom. 6:23). So, to be under the
Law means that the person is obligated to
keep that Law in all its aspects (Deut.
27:26), and if he does not the Law condemns
him.” [2]
“Like all men, Jesus was obligated to
obey God’s law. Unlike anyone else, however,
He perfectly obeyed that law (John 8:46; 2
Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1
Jn. 3:5). His sinlessness made Him the
unblemished sacrifice for sins, who
perfectly obeyed God in everything. That
perfect righteousness is what is imputed to
those who believe in Him.”
[3]
The Mosaic Law, or the Old Covenant was
given specifically to the nation of Israel
(Exod. 19; Lev. 26:46; Rom. 9:4), and the
command to keep the Sabbath was meant for
Israel alone because it served as a
ceremonial sign of the Mosaic Covenant
(Exod. 31:16-17; Ne. 9:13-14; Ezek. 20:12,
20). Christians live under the New Covenant
and are not under any of the laws of the Old
Covenant (2 Cor. 3:1-11; 3:12-18; Heb.
8:1-9:4; Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-16; Gal.
4:10-11; Col. 2:16-17).
Jesus
willingly placed himself under the Law to redeem us
from the curse of the law. He said that He
came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets,
and the scriptures say He was without sin.
Jesus kept God’s Law perfectly to establish
the Word, to embody it, and to offer Himself
as a sacrifice for our sins. Galatians 3:13
says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is
written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged
on a tree.’”
The fact that Jesus kept
the Sabbath does not in any way prove that
the seventh day Sabbath is still in effect
today. The Law of Moses was in effect until
Jesus’ died on the cross (Acts 15:1-20; Rom.
3:28; 6:14-15; 7:1-8; Gal. 3:10-13; 3:18-19;
Col. 2:13-14; Eph. 2:11-16). He kept the
Sabbath for the same reasons that He kept
the other laws of the Old Covenant. But when
He died, He removed the Old Covenant Law and
instituted the New Covenant in its place
(Heb. 8:6-13; 9:1-4; 10:9-10). The New
Covenant never made keeping the weekly,
seventh day Sabbath a requirement for the
church.
In fact, the New Testament
explicitly teaches that Sabbath-keeping
along with all of the other ceremonial
requirements of the Old Covenant Law are not
required for Christians who live under the
New Covenant (Matt. 11:28-30; 12:1-8; Acts
15:1-20; Col. 2:14-17; Gal. 4:10-11; Rom.
14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18; 2 Cor. 3:3-11; Heb.
3:7-4:13; 8:6-9:4; 10:23-25).
References:
1. The MacArthur
Study Bible: John 5:16.
2.
What does it mean to be under the Law?
CARM
3. The MacArthur Study Bible:
Galatians 4:4.
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