Yeshua Kept the Sabbath

One question has followed us through these chapters. If the Sabbath is repeated in the New Testament and no verse ever cancels it, did not Yeshua Himself break it?

It is a fair question, and it does not come from nowhere. Those who ask it can point to a verse, for John’s Gospel puts it in so many words: “He not only was breaking the sabbaton σάββατον sab'-bat-on.” If the Lord broke the Sabbath, then the Sabbath can no longer bind those who follow Him.

That verse deserves a careful reading, and so does every Sabbath the Gospels record.

Read the Whole Sentence

John 5:16-18 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Yeshua, and were seeking to kill Him, because He was doing these things on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23). But Yeshua answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23), but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

Notice first who is speaking. Verse 16 tells us that “the Jews were persecuting Yeshua,” and verse 18 tells us what they were after: they were “seeking all the more to kill Him.” John is not stepping forward to give his own ruling on the case. He is reporting the charges of men who wanted Yeshua dead.

Now read the rest of the same sentence. It holds two charges, not one. He “was breaking the sabbaton,” and He was “making Himself equal with God.”

Would John accept the second charge as it is worded? John opens his Gospel by saying that the Word was God. In his eyes Yeshua did not make Himself anything, because He already was. That wording belongs to His enemies, not to John. The first accusation stands in the same breath and comes from the same mouths. If we take the one as the words of His enemies, we cannot quietly promote the other to the rank of John’s own verdict.

The word translated “breaking” is lyo λύω loo'-o, which means to loosen or to undo. It is the very word Yeshua used in the Sermon on the Mount when He warned that whoever “breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of the heavens” (Matthew 5:19). His enemies accused Him of the very thing He had warned His own disciples against. That alone should make us slow to put our names to their charges.

Grammar is not the only witness. The Gospels record what Yeshua did on the Sabbath and what He said when He was challenged, and the record is there for us to read.

Grain in the Fields

Matthew 12:1-2 At that kairos καιρός kahee-ros'(appointed-time) Yeshua went through the grain fields on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23); and His disciples became hungry and began to pick heads of grain and eat. But the Pharisees seeing this said to Him: "Behold, Your disciples are doing what is not permitted to do on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)."

The Pharisees say the disciples are doing “what is not permitted.” What does the Torah itself say?

Deuteronomy 23:26 When you come into the standing-grain of your neighbor, then you may pluck ears with your hand; but a sickle you shall not wave over the standing-grain of your neighbor.

A hungry traveler may walk through his neighbor’s field and pluck heads of grain with his hand. What he may not do is bring a sickle and reap. The disciples were picking heads of grain by hand and eating them; they were not harvesting a field. The Torah allowed exactly that. (Most English Bibles number this verse Deuteronomy 23:25; the YLV keeps the Hebrew numbering.)

Yeshua answered the charge from the Torah itself:

Matthew 12:5-8 Or have you not read in the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) that on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) the priests in the temple profane the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means — 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice' — you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)."

“Have you not read in the nomos(law).” His defense sends them back to read Moses. The priests in the temple do the heavy work of the Sabbath offerings, and they “are innocent.” Then comes His verdict on the disciples: “you would not have condemned the innocent.”

Mark what He did not say. He did not say, “Yes, they broke the Sabbath, but grace matters more than rules.” He called them innocent, without guilt. In His judgment no Sabbath had been broken at all.

A Sheep in a Pit

The healings follow the same pattern.

Matthew 12:10-12 And behold, there was a man with a withered hand, and they questioned Him, saying: "Is it permitted to heal on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)?" — so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them: "What man among you will there be who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23), will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a person than a sheep! So it is permitted to do good on the sabbatons(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)."

They asked their question so that “they might accuse Him.” He answered with something every farmer in the room already did. If a man’s one sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath, he would pull it out, and a person is worth more than a sheep. “So it is permitted to do good on the sabbatons.”

In John’s Gospel, after the healing in chapter 5 that started the whole quarrel, Yeshua returns to it:

John 7:22-23 For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) so that the nomos(law) of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)?

Circumcision is commanded for the eighth day, and when the eighth day falls on the Sabbath, the circumcision is done all the same, “so that the nomos(law) of Moses will not be broken.” The Torah holds both commands together, and the Sabbath was never meant to block the other one. If the Torah allows a knife to touch one part of a man on the Sabbath, Yeshua asks, why rage at Him for making “an entire man well”?

Luke records another:

Luke 13:14-16 But the synagogue ruler, indignant because Yeshua had healed on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23), answered and said to the crowd, "There are six days in which work ought to be done; so come and be healed on them, and not on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) day." But the Lord answered him and said, "Hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years — should she not have been freed from this bond on the sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23) day?"

Listen to the synagogue ruler’s rule: “come and be healed on them, and not on the sabbaton day.” It sounds like the fourth commandment, but the commandment forbids work and says nothing about being healed. The ruler had built his own fence around the Sabbath and then called the fence the law. Yeshua answered with what the ruler himself did every Sabbath, when he untied his ox and led it to water. Should a daughter of Abraham, bound for eighteen years, matter less than an ox?

When these scenes are set side by side, a pattern appears. Again and again Yeshua collided, sharply, with the rules that men had stacked on top of the Sabbath, and every time He set those rules aside by appealing to the Torah. Not once did He say that the Torah’s Sabbath was over.

What Hangs on It

This matters because of the way the Bible defines sin. We met this verse in Chapter 9:

1 John 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices anomia ἀνομία an-om-ee'-ah(Torah-lessness); sin is anomia(Torah-lessness).

Sin is anomia, Torah-lessness. If Yeshua had broken the Torah’s Sabbath even once, then by the Bible’s own definition He would have sinned, and a sinner cannot be the spotless sacrifice for anyone else’s sin. The cross itself would be void.

Scripture says the opposite, and says it plainly:

1 Peter 2:22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth;

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.

“He committed no sin.” “Yet without sin.” And Yeshua Himself told us what His whole life had been:

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My agape ἀγάπη ag-ah'-pay(love); just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His agape(love).

“I have kept My Father’s commandments.” He does not say most of them, or all but one. The Sabbath was among His Father’s commandments, and He kept it.

The One Who Wrote the Score

Think of a composer who walks into a rehearsal of his own symphony. The orchestra has played it for years, and over that time the players have added habits of their own: a slowing here, a pause there, a passage that everyone agrees must be played softly. The composer stops them and says, “That is not what I wrote. Read the score.” Some of the senior players are offended, and one of them says he is tampering with the music.

Yet he is the one person in the room who cannot be accused of that. He is not tearing up the symphony. He is the one who knows what it was meant to sound like.

That is the scene in the Gospels. “For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbaton.” He did not mean that He was therefore free to throw it away. He meant that He had the authority to say what the Sabbath is, and what it is not. The Lord of the Sabbath is not the one who abolishes it, but the one who defines it.

So Yeshua kept the Sabbath, and He defined it rather than broke it. One question naturally follows. If the Torah is still the way God’s people walk, and many of us were taught to walk away from it, what does it mean to come back?