Jesus Christ Is Lord

Of The Sabbath

By

The Twelve Apostles

The Lord Of The Sabbath

Another Sabbath Day had come, and Jesus and the twelve walked through a field of ripened wheat. As they were hungry, they took the heads of wheat, and in their hands threshed out the grain and ate. Among the people who followed them were Pharisees of strictest sect, and when they saw the twelve thresh out the wheat and eat, they said to Jesus, “Sir, why do the twelve do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath Day?”

And Jesus answered, asking, “Have you not heard what David did when he and those who followed him had need of food?
How he went to the house of God and from the table in the Holy Place took bread of the presence and ate, and gave to those who followed him?
I tell you people, the needs of man are higher than the law of rites. And in our sacred books we read how priests profane the Sabbath Day in many ways, while they are serving in the Holy Place, and still are free from guilt. The Sabbath Day was made for man. Man was not made to fit the Sabbath Day. The man is son of God and under the eternal law of right, which is the highest law, he may annul the statute laws only when necessity so demands.

“The law of sacrifice is but the law of man, and in our law we read that God desires mercy first. And mercy stands above all statute laws. The son of man is Lord of every law. Did not a prophet sum the duties of the man when in the book he wrote. ‘In mercy follow justice, and walk humbly with your God?’ ”

At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"

But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him?

How he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests

Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?

Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."