…Mark 2:27-28 And [Jesus] said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
How is Jesus the lord of the Sabbath? The lord of the Sabbath is the one who creates and rules over the Sabbath. Before his incarnation, Christ gave Israel the law, and used his finger to write the law in the stone tablets, who sat down and ate a covenant meal with Moses, Aaron, and the 70 elders of Israel. Jesus was not subordinate to the law, the law was subordinate to Jesus. And the great law giver gave the Sabbath as a gift of grace to man, as a day to fit to the needs and burdens of his people.
The Mosaic books contain 33 references to the Sabbath. And all of the references speak of the Sabbath as given for the rest of God’s people.
Exodus 16:23 “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn (complete) rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD…’”
God did not give the Sabbath to refrain from work, but for rest. Now rest demands a person refrain from work, but the purpose is rest. Not simply rest from physical toil, but rest, in its fullest sense, resting in the grace of God. Leading up to this first Sabbath, Israel wandered the desert, weary in a land without water and food, three full days without water. And then God sweetened the bitter water, led Israel to a fresh spring, and provided the manna. God then gave the Sabbath to Israel to find their rest in the Lord, to be strengthened in him to carry out his covenant purposes.
When we look to Christ as the lord of the Sabbath, we look to Christ as the fulfillment of that Sabbath rest, to find rest in Christ, from our labors, to fulfill God’s covenant purposes of righteousness. For in Christ, we receive a covenant of forgiven sins…
