For instance it was not allowed to write down two letters together on the Sabbath, but it was allowed to write in the dust with your foot. It was alright to carry a loaf into the street if two people did it but not one. Healing was not allowed on the Sabbath so that it was wrong to sip vinegar to help your toothache.
The devil does not want the Sabbath, the sign of God's Creatorship to be remembered wholeheartedly. First he tried to spoil it through idolatry and confused worship, then through laxness, as the sacredness of the day was treated lightly with buying and selling. Now another ploy was tried - to surround the Sabbath with so many rules and regulations that it became a burden, and an impossibility to keep. What had been intended as a delight and a refreshing became a day to dread. Jesus made it clear that this kind of Sabbath-keeping was a meaningless round of ceremony and tradition. The man-made elements surrounding the Sabbath to ensure it was remembered had masked the true day and its purpose. It was a long way from the purity and freshness that it had when it was new..
It was into this scene that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth. Who was Jesus? What authority did He have for things that He preached and did?
Jesus had been the Creator at the very beginning; He had designed the world. He knew the purpose that He had for the world. He had given the Sabbath to the world. He had promised, when Adam and Eve sinned, to come as a Saviour into the world. And now 'He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. John 1:10. He came to us because He loved us. The Maker of heaven and earth took |
