We saw yesterday Jesus’ wonderful words “come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). We saw that Jesus is offering eternal rest. Today we see that he also offers weekly rest (Matthew 12). What a blessing the Sabbath was designed to be.
Think what a joy it must have been to enjoy the first Sabbath after being slaves in Egypt! For 40 years, there had been no rest. Now God says, you are going to get to have a day for rest and worship every week! What a kind and loving God to provide for His people this way.
Sadly the Pharisees turned this day of delight into a burden. They made so many extra rules about what could never done on this day that you were more worried about getting it wrong than being able to rest and worship. Jesus knew what a great day the Sabbath was to be, He was enjoying a walk with His disciples when they are interrupted by the Pharisees (Matthew 12:2). What have they done wrong? The disciples have plucked some grain to eat as they walked through a field. This wasn’t stealing, the law gave explicit permission for eating grain in a field (see Deut 23:24-25). What was the problem? The Pharisees had added to God’s law, and they considered that the disciples were reaping and harvesting by doing this! Why hasn’t Jesus stopped them, they ask.
Jesus, who is gentle and lowly with His people, fiercely defends them from those who persecute them. Jesus shows the Pharisees that they missed the purpose of the law.
Next Jesus shows what you should do on the Sabbath – meet with the people of God for worship. But even there, he finds opposition, people waiting to trap him. At the synagogue is a man with a withered hand (Matthew 12:10). Here is a man with a disability that affects his ability to work. They know Jesus has power to heal, but they think this would be working. Again Jesus answers by asking questions to show their misunderstanding. If the religious people would be happy to pull a sheep out of a ditch on a Sabbath, how much more should Jesus heal a man! Jesus rightly tells them the man is of more value than the sheep and so he heals Him. What a Sabbath that must have been for that man, true restoration that made him look forward to the day when Jesus would make all things new.
What does the Sabbath mean for us? It is to be a weekly reminder of the eternal rest that Jesus offers to those who belong to Him. It is to be a day for rest and worship, but there are works of necessity and mercy that can and should be done. We are not to make the day a burden by adding in extra rules. However, not many today are in any danger of this, we have gone to the opposite danger of not seeing anything different about the Sabbath day. So many, even Christians, miss out on the blessing of the weekly Sabbath. A whole day set aside for worship and rest.
Someone who didn’t miss the blessing of the Sabbath was the Olympic sprinter Eric Liddell. A hundred years ago in Paris, he refused to run the 100m because it was on a Sunday. It wasn’t that he’d added in a rule to make the Sabbath a burden. It was simply that he knew the Sabbath was to be a day for rest and worship and competitive sports were neither of those. What an example to us, to enjoy the Sabbath as a day of worship and rest. If you want to think more of this, see this book: https://lightandmomentary.org/2024/06/30/call-the-sabbath-a-delight/ or “Worship, feasting, rest, mercy, the Christian Sabbath” by Daniel Howe.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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