The Jews had God’s Law, wherein God had said, “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” The teachers of the Law therefore knew that when God gave directions about the Sabbath, it was meant to take precedence over His previous direction about working. For though God had decreed that work was good and necessary even before the fall in Genesis 2:15, He Himself practiced Sabbath during the creation week in Genesis 2:1-3, which was prior to any work He assigned to Adam.
Jewish leadership knew that even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Consequently, even to this day orthodox Jews are exceedingly careful to ensure that nothing they do during the Sabbath might considered or even be perceived as work.
It is of little wonder then, that the Pharisees would take objection to how Jesus acted as He and His band of disciples moved about; “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” ”
To the Pharisees, the act of picking grain and rubbing the hulls off it to expose the edible kernel could and would be noted as work. After all, someone would be paid to do exactly that in order for the farmer to sell the grain. It was a job. A job the disciples were now doing, and a job Jesus knew they would do on account of their rather great hunger, which is why He led them through the grain fields to start with. As far as the Pharisees could see, Jesus had led the disciples into sin. Worse, He was sinning Himself for not reprimanding them for working on the Sabbath!
Of course, the disciples were not being paid for their activity – they were simply satiating their hunger. All Jesus did is bless them by providing for that hunger.
Blessing another by caring for an urgent felt need is not a violation of Sabbath. It is the exercise of compassion. Compassion does not nullify God’s command to rest. Neither is it an excuse for rejection of God’s revealed plan. Rather, compassion is a component of God’s character, and God’s character is that from which His Word springs.
That fact does not mean that God’s Law should be replaced by our interpretation of His character. After all, He is God, and we are not. We cannot judge Him, though He judges us. What we can do is realize that Christ did what He did so that we might glean from it (pun fully intended). And this is what we can glean: It is not wrong to bless another made in His image by providing for urgent felt needs on the Sabbath Day. But it is wrong to use our Sabbath Day to focus on pointing out another’s fault in our own eyes. For to do the latter we have to assume God’s seat as judge, and that is something we should be exceedingly hesitant to do.
Even if our job (for which we are paid) is in the judicial system of our day.
A believer longs after God, to come into his presence, to feel his love, to feel near to him in secret, to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than in an eternity of the presence of man.
Robert Murray McCheyne
APPLICATION: Intentionality
How is your Sabbath keeping? Is God your focus, or is something lesser the foremost thing on your mind?