Fred Zaspel continues chapter 13, now looking at the Sabbath in the NT. In the OT, the fulfilment of the promised rest was associated with YHWH’s Servant and “with ideas of redemption and eschatology”. For the sake of brevity Zaspel limits his look at how this is fulfilled in Jesus by restricting his scope to passages where “Sabbath” is mentioned explicitly.
Zaspel observes that while Christ pushed the Decalogue further in the heart and thus made it more exacting, he was far more liberal and lenient with respect to the Sabbath. He uses Matt. 12:1-8 as a test case (cf. Mark 2:23-28; and Luke 6:1-5):
1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (ESV)
Instead of arguing with the Pharisees that they have over-extended Moses, Jesus turns to 1 Sam. 21:1-6. This “exceptional case” (p227) involving David and the showbread leaves the Pharisees in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between their traditions or their revered King David. Zaspel observes that the:
…justification for the actions of David and his men, and by extension, the actions of Jesus’ disciples, is still unexplained. Jesus makes mention of David’s hunger, thus demonstrating a parallel situation. David “needed” to eat and so now do Jesus’ disciples. But this is not the point at issue, really, for unlike David’s men, the disciples of Jesus were not hungry to the point of exhaustion. David’s was an extreme case; not so for the disciples of Jesus. (p227)
Consequently, as Zaspel points out, one may reason that if the Sabbath were a part of God’s unchanging moral law then such an exception like this would prove difficult to maintain. The Sabbath is not unchanging moral law, and Christ’s insistence on this led him into conflict with the Pharisees. The main point is found in verse 8, i.e. that Jesus is “Lord of the Sabbath”. Jesus is not controlled by the Sabbath but controls it. If King David had a right to make an exception on the Sabbath, how much more the Son of David?
Christ’s second illustration in verse 6 and 7 refers to the priests. The priests “profane the Sabbath” by working harder than anyone on the Sabbath. Yet they are guiltless because the authority of the temple surpasses that of the Sabbath. Now with Christ, “something greater than the temple is here” v7. Jesus’ authority surpasses the temple and thus the Sabbath.
Zaspel points out that Jesus lordship over the Sabbath implies his right to excercise some kind of change. He explains:
..there are some contextual clues as to what changes the Sabbath would undergo. In the preceding paragraph, Jesus offers “rest” to those who are weary (Matt. 11:28) and it is in connection with this (“at that time,” 12:1) that Jesus asserts his lordship over the Sabbath. Matthew seems to imply that the “rest” which Jesus offers is that to which the Sabbath pointed. Here, in Jesus, the Sabbath finds its true meaning. (p230)
Zaspel makes other important observations: Jesus’ works of healings on the Sabbath caused most controversy; Jesus’ preference for Sabbath healings illustrated “rest” from Satanic bondage; Jesus’ work on the Sabbath (John 5:17) presupposed an eschatological view of Genesis 2:2-3 and pointed towards his “finished” (John 19:30) work in providing rest.
I don’t have time to go into Zaspel’s treatment of Hebrews 4; this post is already way too long. I finish with Zaspel’s conclusion that Sabbath observance today consists in resting in Christ alone for salvation and not profaning this rest with our own work. Thus the Sabbath is every bit as typological as circumcision, the temple, the Passover, etc.
Next, some critical Sabbath texts.
[...] Part 9 – the sabbath in the nt [...]
[...] Part 9 – the sabbath in the nt [...]