Matthew 9:24

Pharisees said. This is Christ’s fourth recorded encounter with the scribes and Pharisees since the opening of His Galilean ministry (see vs. 6, 16, 18; see on Luke 6:6).

Not lawful. Upon any other day of the week than the Sabbath the action of the disciples would undoubtedly have passed unchallenged, for OT law specifically provided that a hungry person could eat of the fruit or grain of a field as he passed (see on Deut. 23:24, 25).

Christ’s approval of what His disciples did here, and His own acts of healing upon the Sabbath day, are often misunderstood by modern writers as proof that He neither observed personally nor taught His disciples to observe the OT laws and regulations in regard to Sabbath observance. Some also assert that the stand Christ took with regard to these matters is to be interpreted as a rejection by Him of the fourth commandment. The facts are that Jesus personally adhered to the requirements of the law of Moses and the Decalogue in every respect and taught His followers to do the same. He repeatedly affirmed the eternally binding nature of the moral law (see on Matt. 5:17, 18; John 15:10; etc.), and recognized also the validity of the ritual law of Moses as applicable to Jews at that time (see on Matt. 23:3). Jesus, of course, was a Jew.

But throughout His ministry on earth Christ was in conflict with the Jewish leaders over the validity of man-made laws and traditions (see on Mark 7:2, 3, 8). Toward these requirements, which apparently many of His contemporaries had come to regard as even more essential to piety than the laws of Moses and the Decalogue, Christ took a position of uncompromising opposition (see on ch. 2:19). The most cursory examination of many of these requirements makes their absurdity evident, yet the Pharisees sternly taught that salvation was to be obtained through the rigorous observance of all these rules. A pious Jew’s life tended to become one endless and vain effort to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, incurred when the least detail of these purely human requirements might have been disobeyed inadvertently. This system of righteousness by works was in mortal conflict with righteousness by faith.

The Mishnah lists 39 primary, or major, types of labor prohibited on the Sabbath day (Shabbath 7.2, Soncino ed. of the Talmud, pp. 348, 349). The first 11 of these were steps leading to the production and preparation of bread: sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting (sorting what was unfit for food from what was fit), grinding, sifting, kneading, and baking. The next 12 apply to similar steps in the preparation of clothing, from the shearing of sheep to the actual sewing of garments. These are followed by 7 steps in preparing the carcass of a deer for use as food or for leather. The remaining items listed have to do with writing, building, the kindling and extinguishing of fires, and the transportation of articles from one place to another.

These general regulations were further explained in minute detail. In addition to these major regulations there were countless other provisions concerning the observance of the Sabbath. Most commonly known, perhaps, is the so-called “sabbath day’s journey” of 2,000 cubits — somewhat less than 2/3 mi. (see on p. 50). It was also counted as Sabbathbreaking to look in a mirror fixed to the wall (Shabbath 149a, Soncino ed. of the Talmud, p. 759), or even to light a candle. Yet the same regulations permitted an egg laid on the Sabbath to be sold to a Gentile, and a Gentile to be hired to light a candle or a fire. It was counted unlawful to expectorate upon the ground, lest thereby a blade of grass be irrigated. It was not permissible to carry a handkerchief on the Sabbath, unless one end of it be sewed to one’s garment — in which case it was no longer technically a handkerchief but part of the garment. Similarly the regulation concerning the distance one might walk on the Sabbath day could be circumvented by hiding portions of food at appropriate intervals along the way one expected to take. Technically, then, the place where one’s food reposed could be considered as another “home” of the owner. From each such cache of food it was then possible to take another Sabbath day’s journey, on to the next similar cache. Such were but a few of the “heavy burdens and grievous to be borne” (Matt. 23:4) that had been placed upon the pious Jews of Christ’s day.

By thus straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel the Pharisees were continually employing the letter of man-made laws to destroy the spirit of the law of God. The Sabbath, designed originally to afford man an opportunity to know his Maker through a study of the things He had made, and to reflect upon His love and goodness, became, instead, a reminder of the selfish and arbitrary character of Pharisee and scribe. It effectively misrepresented the character of God, by picturing Him as a tyrant.

Nature declares the wisdom, power, and love of God, and it was to these things that the Sabbath was designed in the beginning to direct man’s attention, lest man become so absorbed in his own activities that he forget the One who gave him his being and who constantly exerted divine power for his happiness and welfare. The problem some modern Christians find in determining what may or may not be appropriate as a Sabbath activity is readily solved once the purpose of the Sabbath is clearly in mind. Whatever draws us closer to God, helps us to understand better His will for us and His ways of dealing with us, and leads us to cooperate more effectively with Him in our own lives and in contributing to the happiness and well-being of others — this is true Sabbath observance (see on Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:27, 28).