The Lord of the sabbath.
Sabbath observance had been exalted into the chief position in the Jewish religion, so that to "sabbatize" was a proverbial expression, used to describe the following of Judaism, even among Latin writers, it was not the Law, it was the trivial and yet burdensome additions to the Law, that marked the later Jewish keeping of the sabbath, Many of these observances were as lax in spirit as they were strict in regard to the letter, and thus it was that the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees was nowhere more pronounced than in their treatment of the sabbath.
I. CHRIST IS SUPREME OVER ALL ORDINANCES.
1. By reason off, is Divinity. Here he speaks out of the calm consciousness of his Divine authority.
2. Through his human brotherhood. Christ speaks as the Son of man. He teaches us that the sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). His rule is wise and beneficent because of his large human knowledge and sympathy. Our business is not to follow narrow laws like the Galatian Judaizers, but to follow our Lord and Master.
II. OUR LORD GREATLY SHOCKED THE RELIGIOUS CLASSES BY HIS DARING INNOVATIONS. He did not take pleasure in paining any one, nor did he wish to offend religious prejudices merely for the sake of producing a sensation, merely to astonish people with novel practices. He was far too kind and earnest for any such conduct. But he said. and did what he felt to be right quite regardless of the fact that it would stir up a hornet's nest of prejudices. It must be painful to a sensitive, devout mind to be accused of irreligion. Yet our Lord knowingly provoked this accusation. Truth is higher than any respected religions observance. It is more important to please God than to please the most worthy religious people. It may be a duty to offend good people in upsetting injurious customs. Men are not always the worse for having their cherished notions rudely shaken.
III. GOD EXPECTS US TO BE HUMAN IN OUR RELIGION. St. James has shown us that the highest religious ritual consists in deeds of charity (James 1:27). We can best serve God by doing kind deeds to our brother-men. St. John reminds us that if we do not love our brother whom we have seen, we cannot love God whom we have not seen (1 John 4:20). From these principles it follows, a fortiori, that any religious observances that involve unkindness to other people must be very displeasing to God. We only mock him when we offer him the formal rites he cares nothing about, and for the very sake of doing so restrain the charity that he really loves, or even perform directly unkind actions.
IV. WE CAN ONLY KEEP THE SABBATH ARIGHT WHEN WE DO SO IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST.
1. Negatively. It is not to be kept for its own sake, as an ordinance valuable in itself; it is not to be kept in the letter to the neglect of its spirit; it is not to be so kept that it interferes with higher duties.
2. Positively. It is to be kept as Christ, kept it. It is not left to our caprice to decide how we shall use the privilege of the sabbath day's rest. Although we are not under the letter of the Jewish Law, the eternal principles of it are binding on us. Leisure from toil and an opportunity to "lift up our eyes" we all need. Only they who follow Christ can use the sabbath in the best way. We best keep it when we help our brother-men on that day.—W.F.A.