Your Bible & You - Little Book Open.org

YOUR BIBLE AND YOU
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W h i c h I s G o d ’ s D a y
preserved until Jesus came to place the benediction of His own example
upon it. Sometimes obscured but never wholly lost, it was now confirmed
by the Lord of the Sabbath Himself.
But did not Jesus change the day No. Your Bible says not a word about any
such change. What Jesus did do was to restore to this holy day its original
meaning and intent.
“One sabbath he was going through the grainfield; and as they made their
way his disciples began to pluck ears of grain. And the Pharisees said to him,
‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath’ And he said to
them, ‘Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was
hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God,
when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which is
not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were
with him’ And he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for man, not man
for the sabbath’ ” (Mark 2:23-27, RSV).
By so saying He did not minimize the importance of the Sabbath. Rather,
He magnified it. The Sabbath was made for man – man’s happiness, welfare,
uplift, inspiration. The better the holy day was observed, the more good
would man get out of it. To make it a day of penance and legalistic observance
would be to miss its purpose altogether.
“Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered
hand. And they watched him to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath,
so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the
withered hand, ‘Come here.’ And he said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the sabbath
to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill’ But they were silent. And
he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and
said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand
was restored” (Mark 3:1-5, RSV).
It was on this same occasion, Matthew tells us, that He asked the Pharisees,
“What man of you, if he has one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath,
will not lay hold of it and lift it out Of how much more value is a man than
a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath” (Matthew 12:11, 12, RSV).
Again and again during His brief sojourn among men He reemphasized this
principle by precept and example. Many of His greatest miracles of healing
were performed on the Sabbath. By every possible means He showed the
people how the God of love wanted His day to be observed. But He never
changed the day.