Jesus · c. AD 28
Chapter 19
Lord of the Sabbath
He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
For parents
In Jerusalem the Jews look for a way to kill Jesus because he healed on the Sabbath and called God his own Father (John 5:16–18), and later the Pharisees plot with the Herodians how to destroy him (Mark 3:6; Matthew 12:14). Unclean spirits fall down in front of Jesus and cry out (Mark 3:11), and he speaks of the dead coming out of their tombs, some to life and some to judgment (John 5:28–29); all of it is told plainly.
Some time later there was a feast of the Jews, and went up to . In Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool that has five porches. Its Hebrew name is .
A great crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame or paralyzed lay in those porches, waiting for the water to move. At certain times an went down into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had.
There was one man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew he had been that way for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
“Sir,” the sick man answered, “when the water is stirred up, I have nobody to put me in the pool. While I’m on my way, someone else steps in ahead of me.”
Jesus told him, “Get up, take up your mat, and walk.” Right away the man was well. He picked up his mat and walked. And that day was a .
The Jews told the man who had been cured, “It’s the Sabbath. You aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”
He answered, “The one who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take up your mat and walk’?” they asked.
But the man who had been healed didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had gone away, and the place was crowded.
Later Jesus found the man in the temple. “See, you have been made well,” he told him. “Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. The Jews hounded Jesus and looked for a way to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
That made the Jews look even harder for a way to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus answered them, “I tell you for certain, the Son can’t do anything by himself. He can only do what he sees the Father doing. Anything the Father does, the Son does too, in the same way. The Father loves the Son. He shows the Son everything he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, to astonish you.
“The Father raises the dead and gives them life, and the Son, too, gives life to whoever he wants. The Father doesn’t judge anyone. He has handed all judging over to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
“I tell you for certain, whoever hears my word and believes the one who sent me has eternal life. He doesn’t come into judgment; he has passed from death into life. I tell you for certain, the time is coming, and is here now, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice, and those who hear it will live.
“The Father has life in himself. In the same way, he has let the Son have life in himself. He also gave him authority to carry out judgment, because he is a son of man.
“Don’t be amazed at this. The time is coming when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out. Those who have done good will rise to life, and those who have done evil will rise to judgment.
“I can’t do anything by myself. I judge as I hear, and my judgment is right, because I’m not seeking my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.
“If I am a witness for myself, my witness doesn’t count. There is someone else who is a witness for me, and I know his witness about me is true.
“You sent people to , and he was a witness for the truth. But the witness I accept doesn’t come from people. Still, I say this so you can be saved. John was the lamp that burned and shone, and for a while you were willing to rejoice in his light.
“But the witness I have is greater than John’s. The Father gave me works to carry out, and those very works that I do are a witness that the Father has sent me. The Father himself, who sent me, has been a witness for me. You have never once heard his voice or seen his form. His word doesn’t live in you, since you don’t believe the one he sent.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and those same Scriptures are witnesses about me. Still, you won’t come to me so you can have life.
“I don’t receive glory from people. But I know you: you don’t have God’s love in yourselves. I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t welcome me. If another person comes in his own name, you will welcome him. How can you believe, when you take glory from one another and don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
“Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. The one who accuses you is , the one you have set your hope on. If you believed Moses, you would believe me. He wrote about me. But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Jesus was going through the grain fields on the Sabbath day. As they went along, his began to pick heads of grain. Matthew says they were hungry and ate them. Luke calls that day “the second Sabbath after the first,” and says they rubbed the grain in their hands as they ate.
The saw it. “Look,” they said to Jesus, “why are they doing something that isn’t lawful on the Sabbath?”
In Luke, some of the Pharisees asked the disciples themselves, “Why do you do what isn’t lawful on the Sabbath day?”
Jesus answered, “Haven’t you ever read what did when he and the men with him were in need and hungry? He went into God’s house at the time of the , and he ate the , which no one but the is allowed to eat. And he gave some to the men who were with him too.” Only Mark names Abiathar.
In Matthew he went on, “Or haven’t you read in the law how in the temple the priests break the Sabbath on the Sabbath day, and still they aren’t to blame? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. But if you had understood what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t have condemned people who aren’t to blame.”
He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the is lord even of the Sabbath.” Only Mark gives the first of those sayings; all three give the second.
Jesus went into the again. Matthew says he went on from there into their synagogue; Luke says it was on another Sabbath, and that Jesus was teaching. A man was there whose hand was withered, shriveled up. Luke says it was his right hand.
They watched Jesus to see whether he would heal the man on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him. Luke says the ones watching were the and the Pharisees.
In Matthew they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” They asked this so that they could accuse him.
He said to them, “Suppose one of you has one sheep, and on the Sabbath day it falls into a pit. Which of you won’t grab on to it and lift it out? A man is worth so much more than a sheep! That’s why it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day.”
Luke says Jesus knew their thoughts. Jesus told the man with the withered hand, “Stand up.” In Luke he said, “Get up and stand in the middle.” The man got up and stood.
Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” But they said nothing.
He looked around at them all with anger, deeply sad that their hearts had grown hard. He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out, and his hand was restored, as healthy as the other.
The Pharisees went out and plotted together how to destroy him. Mark says they did it at once, with the .
In Luke, the scribes and the Pharisees were filled with rage and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
Matthew says Jesus knew about their plot and left that place. He went away to the sea with his disciples, and a great crowd followed him from , from , from Jerusalem, from and from beyond , and so did people from around and . A great crowd came to him when they heard about the great things he was doing.
He told his disciples to keep a little boat near him because of the crowd, so that the people wouldn’t press in on him. He had healed many people, and so everyone with a disease pressed in to touch him. Matthew says he healed them all.
Whenever they saw him, the fell down in front of him and called out, “You are the Son of God!” He sternly warned them not to make him known.
In Matthew, he told the people he healed not to make him known. This was so that the words spoken through the would come true:
Look, my servant, the one I have chosen,my beloved, who pleases my soul.I will put my Spirit on him.He will announce justice to the nations.He won’t quarrel or shout,and his voice won’t be heard in the streets.He won’t break a bruised reed.He won’t put out a smoking wick,until he leads justice to victory.In his name the nations will hope.