Dear Christian friends:

The Third Commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath Day, keep it holy." There is much misunderstanding about this Commandment also today as there was when Jesus lived on the earth. Today people argue about which day is the Sabbath Day. Some people and churches say it is Saturday; other people and churches say it is Sunday. Who is right? Some people say you can't work on the Sabbath Day; others say it is okay to work on the Sabbath Day. Who is right? So you see there is much confusion and misunderstanding about the Sabbath Day.

In our text we see that Jesus and the Jewish Law teachers had an argument about the Sabbath Day, too. Jesus taught them the right idea about the Sabbath Day. Jesus also teaches us the right idea about the Sabbath Day.

So let us attend to our text and consider


The truth about the Sabbath Day we find in Jesus' Word in the Bible. We must attend to Jesus' Word about the Sabbath, not to man's word.

When people do not know Jesus' Word they substitute man's word and man's rules. That's what these Jewish Law teachers did. They criticised Jesus and His disciples because they taught that Jesus' disciples were breaking the Sabbath Law. (verses 23-24) They were not breaking God's law, but man's.

What were the disciples doing on the Sabbath Day? They were walking with Jesus by a grain field and they became hungry. So they grabbed a head of wheat, rubbed away the chaff, and ate the kernels. The Jewish Law Teachers saw this and immediately blamed Jesus and His disciples for breaking the Sabbath. The Jews had 39 laws prohibiting working on the Sabbath Day, many of which they themselves had made, not God. One of their Sabbath laws forbid “harvesting wheat" on the Sabbath. But were the disciples “harvesting” wheat? No! When you harvest wheat you cut and bundle wheat all day. The disciples only picked a few heads of wheat to satisfy their own personal hunger. The disciples were only eating and preparing a little food on the Sabbath. That's not working. The disciples were not breaking God's law, and really not the Jewish law either.

This shows how fanatic men become when they stray away from Jesus' Word. They become terribly strict and unreasonable in their laws and rules. They make laws that hurt the people rather than help them. God gave the Ten Commandments to help people and to protect them. So, also, the Third Commandment, the Sabbath law, God gave to help the people. In the Old Testament lesson which I read to you before God explains that He commanded the Sabbath law so that the Jewish people would have one day each week to rest and relax, which is good for man's health. God also commanded them to rest one day each week so that they would have time to worship Him because He had helped them and freed them from slavery in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15) Those who attend to God's Word and obey His laws receive great blessings. But those who do not attend to God's Word make laws and rules that hurt and destroy nations.

The puritans of New England during the 17th and 18th centuries had such laws, the Sunday blue laws. A soldier was arrested and fined forty shillings because he was fixing his shoe on Sunday. The shoe was hurting his foot. A sailor, Captain Kimble of Boston, in 1656 was arrested and put in the public stocks for two hours. Why? Because when he came home from a voyage on the Sabbath he kissed and embraced his wife who had run out of the house to meet him. A man on the way to church slipped and fell into the creek, so he went home to change and dry his clothes. The police came and arrested him, and the judge found him guilty of breaking the Sabbath because he did not go to church and they whipped him in the city square. ("The Blue Laws of New England," Liberty, Jan-Feb. 1963, pp. 18-19) The Puritans did not attend to Jesus' Word, they made their own laws which were terribly strict and unreasonable, same as the laws of the Jews. When men stray away from Jesus' Word they always make terrible laws and rules.

Jesus' Word also defends His followers from those who criticize them and try to take away their freedom. When the Jewish Law teachers criticised Jesus' disciples and accused them of breaking the Sabbath law Jesus defended them with the Old Testament story about David and his soldiers. (verses 25-26) David and his soldiers broke the Sabbath law because they were hungry and weak and needed to eat the bread from the altar. Jesus' Word teaches that man's need is more important than the Sabbath law. Jesus says to the Jewish Law teachers, "God made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath." (verse 27) Jesus means that love and mercy are more important than laws. In His Word Jesus defends His followers from those who because of ignorance and no love or mercy criticise.

Today some people and churches criticise us Lutherans because we go to church on Sunday instead of Saturday. They don't know Jesus’ Word. Jesus' Word teaches that we are free to rest on any day of the week and to worship God on any day. (Colossians 2:16-17) Our rest day is Sunday because that's the day Jesus arose from death. God doesn't care which day. One day is as good as another. The spirit of the Sabbath law is that we rest one day in the week and that we have a day when we are all free from work so that we have time and opportunity to worship our wonderful God. Jesus' Word defends His followers from those who ignorantly criticise. So we should read and study Jesus Word diligently. Then we will know the truth about the Sabbath Day.

Another important truth about the Sabbath is that we do not receive true rest by obeying the Sabbath law. We are sinners and therefore cannot keep or obey any of the Ten Commandments, also the Third Commandment. (Give examples) Only one Man perfectly obeyed the Ten Commandments, the Man Jesus! He also perfectly kept the Sabbath law and always loved and worshipped God with perfect heart, mind and soul. This even we Christians cannot yet do, because we still are sinners. So Jesus kept and obeyed the Sabbath law for us, in our place. And He did more than that. He suffered the punishment of our Sabbath breaking for us when He suffered and died upon the cross for us, in our place. Therefore we are saved by God's grace, not by law works. We receive true rest and peace by faith in Jesus our Savior. In Jesus we have the REAL SABBATH! (Colossians 2:16-17) The Sabbath law cannot save us or help us. Jesus is our real Sabbath and only rest, He gives rest for our guilty souls now and forever. He gives us rest from God's curse.

Jesus gives us this rest in our worship services through the Gospel preaching and the sacraments. As God commanded Israel to rest on the seventh day so that they would have time to gather in His house to worship and remember how He freed them from slavery in Egypt and gave them rest, so He wants us today to gather in His house on Sundays that we may worship Him and hear again and again the Good News of our salvation, that He has freed us from the terrible slavery of sin and guilty conscience through Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection.

Jesus teaches us the truth about the Sabbath. And the truth is that He Himself is the Real Sabbath! The Sabbath is not Saturday, nor Sunday. The Sabbath is not a day;it is a Man, the Son of Man. In our text Jesus says to the Jews, "The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath Day." (verse 28) The real Sabbath Day will be in heaven which Jesus has won for us by His death and resurrection. (Hebrews 4:4) This is the truth about the Sabbath.

This truth makes you free. (John 8:32) Free from ignorant critics, free from sin and guilt about the Sabbath law, free to worship God on any day and every day. Free to wait for the Sabbath in heaven with joy and confidence and free to be patient with those who do not yet know the truth about the Sabbath.

Remember the Sabbath Day, keep it holy.

Amen.