Lord of the Sabbath

March 1

(Luke 6:5 NIV) ““Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

(Luke 6:11 NIV) “But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.”

(John 5:16-18 NIV) “So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. {17} Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." {18} For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

As the Pharisees railed at Jesus for violating the Sabbath law, He did something even worse in their eyes. He told them that He was the “Son of Man” and “Lord of the Sabbath”. He was saying: “I am the Messiah. I created the Sabbath, and I, not you, will decide what is lawful to do on this day.” The Pharisees knew exactly what He was saying, but refused to recognize Jesus as Lord of the Law. Their hypocrisy had blinded them, and they started making plans to get rid of Him. Bucking the Pharisees could be fatal, as they were willing to violate the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not murder”, in order to enforce the fourth commandment concerning work on the Sabbath. They were saying, “You must keep the commandments, but we are free to violate them.” This is the essence of hypocrisy. Don’t join with them. The Lord of the Sabbath says it is lawful to do good every day of the week. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day