Mar 31, 2022
What did Jesus mean when He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath?
Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me today on the Follower of One Podcast. We're in the middle of a short series on some bold statements made by Jesus, that would help us to understand that He wasn't just a good teacher. He was Lord of the universe. He is Lord of the Universe. And his statements that he makes in scripture, often when we read them with Western eyes and modern eyes, we don't see the boldness of the statements.
Today, I'm reading Mark 2:28, "So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath."
The Pharisees were actually criticizing Jesus because He healed people on the Sabbath. The Sabbath day was a rest day. It was supposed to be holy. And the Pharisees had created this extremely complex network of rules that you could and couldn't do on the Sabbath so that you weren't working.
And they had decided what was lawful on the Sabbath, was to only walk a certain distance and to only do certain things. And healing people was not one of those things. And Jesus consistently ran in with the Sabba with Jesus consistently ran in with the Pharisees because he healed people on the Sabbath and he was doing that again here.
And this bold statement. So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. What he's telling the Pharisees is that he's in charge of everything. He's in charge even of the rules and the way they're interpreted. Jesus is Lord of all. And we sing that sometimes in songs. There are some older hymns that talk about Jesus being Lord of all.
Lord means boss; in control of, or in authority over everything. Jesus here is making a statement that will and not let us consider him just another good teacher. When Jesus says, "So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath," you can tell throughout all of the scripture he's referring to himself when he uses the title Son of Man.
And the comment that he's Lord, even of the Sabbath means that he's overall the rules. That kind of a statement made to the religious authorities is a very bold statement because He's saying "I'm in charge of all this." When he makes this statement, he's either crazy or he's lying, or he is the Lord of the Universe. He's in charge even of the Sabbath.
For those of us who follow Him, let's let that sink in. It means that he's in charge of how we do our job today. He's our ultimate boss. He's the person that we actually work for. He's the Lord, even of us. And therefore we do what he says.
And that's why our first daily activity on our Marketplace Mission Trip is punching in; it's saying the prayer, "Here I am, Lord. What do you want me to do today? Put me to work. Show me what you would have me do so that I can do that."
He wants you to do your job and he often wants you to do it very well. He also may ask you to do several other things like praying for the people around you and looking for ways to serve them.
As followers of Jesus, when we realize that Jesus is our ultimate boss, it changes the way that we work. It changes the way that we live. Let God make that change in us today so that he might become visible to our friends and our coworkers.
Thanks for being a marketplace minister, for listening to this podcast, and for considering how you might glorify God, by the way you live. Everything we do because we follow Him matters.
Thank you. Also, consider checking out our online community. We built a community of people so that we can help one another, remember, to live following Jesus in the world where we exist today. You can check that out at https://community.followerofone.org. Create a free profile there and join us on the next Marketplace Mission Trip, where we practice these activities every day.
Thanks very much.