Whose rules are you following?

Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:1-5

“So he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’”   Mark 2:27-28

Some years ago two friends of mine were headed to Sunday School with their children.  They were in a hurry because they were running late.  On the way, they passed a neighbor who was obviously having car trouble. As they were speeding past their neighbor, one of their children said, “Well, I guess we’ll hurry on to Sunday School so we can sit and listen to the story of the Good Samaritan.”  With that comment, they turned around and helped their neighbor.

One of the greatest priorities for the Pharisees was keeping all the laws they had made.  One of Jesus’ greatest priorities was helping people.  One of the greatest reasons for opposition to Jesus by the religious establishment of His day was Jesus’ disregard for their detailed man-made rules for keeping the Sabbath. Here are some interesting examples of their man-made rules.

The law said no one was to travel on a Sabbath.  But how far a walk was considered traveling?  The rule was made that going further than 1000 yards from home was traveling.  If someone walked farther than that, it was considered to be a sin.  But if a rope was tied across the end of a street, the whole street was considered to be one dwelling place, and then people could legally walk 1000 yards beyond the rope.  Or if someone deposited some food at a certain place on Friday night, the next day he could walk to that place, eat his food (thereby technically establishing a new home) and then he could go 1000 yards beyond that.  A clever person could travel as far as he wanted to that way.

The Pharisee’s law forbade carrying a load on the Sabbath.  A piece of clothing was defined as a load if it was carried, but if it was worn, it wasn’t considered a load.  So if a person wanted to move an article of clothing from one room to another on the Sabbath, he could put it on, wear it to another room, and take it off.  The Pharisees established 39 categories of work that were forbidden on the Sabbath, including healing and reaping.  There are several instances where Jesus ignored these laws to heal on the Sabbath, but Jesus also allowed His disciples to break some of the Pharisees' laws against reaping.

One Sabbath Jesus and His disciples were walking through a grain field.  The disciples were hungry, so they picked some of the grain and ate it.  The Pharisees didn’t accuse the disciples of stealing grain.  What the disciples did was lawful on any day except the Sabbath.  Deuteronomy 23:25 says, “If you enter your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain.”

The reason the Pharisees became so angry about the disciples picking and eating a few kernels of grain was because they had done so on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered picking the grain to be reaping.  When the disciples rubbed off the husks, the Pharisees considered that threshing.  Blowing the husks away was winnowing, and the whole process was considered to be preparing a meal.  All of these activities were forbidden on the Sabbath by the Pharisaic rules.

Perhaps the Pharisees expected Jesus to correct His disciples, but He defended them.  He stated that, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” Mark 2:27.  God intended for man to be helped by the Sabbath, to be rested and refreshed.  But He didn’t intend for human needs to be neglected because of some man-made rules. The "Golden Rule" says, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you". Doing good for others is not against God’s law.

Father, thank you that nowhere in Your Word are there commands that we neglect other people.  May Your priorities be our priorities as well.  Amen.