A Discussion about the Sabbath

Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

August 5, 2020

A Discussion about the Sabbath

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

Mark 2:27

Read: Mark: 2: 23-28

I believe there are two important messages for us in this brief passage. By the time Jesus had begun his earthly ministry, the teachers of religious law had a well-established code regulating human behavior on the Sabbath. Regrettably, while they may have been well intentioned, they missed the point of God declaring the Sabbath, and the Jewish people needed correction. Verse 27 points them in that direction.

Secondly, Jesus used the title Son of Man for the second time in this Gospel. When taking for himself this messianic title, Jesus declares he is Lord of the Sabbath, and thus their Sabbath rules don’t apply to him. Those words, and what happens in tomorrow’s passage, pretty much cast the die for Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees; that relationship was irrevocably broken.

My Takeaway: Remember Blue Laws? By the time I started college (56 years ago), Blue Laws were fading away; however, there are still twenty-eight states with some form of Blue Laws which prohibit certain activities on Sunday. With the fading away of Blue Laws in our public life, Sabbath-keeping has pretty much faded away from church life as well. But Jesus said God made the Sabbath to meet my needs. I need some serious pondering and prayer on how I welcome God’s gift of the Sabbath to meet my needs. How about you?

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.