"It was wrong of Jesus to break the Sabbath Law." Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.?

Question

This relates to the story of the man with an evil spirit when Jesus broke the Sabbath Law.

Answer 1

Suppose you saw a child that fell in a pool! would help him/her out! or would let them die! on the Sabbath?

Jesus helped a person in need, he didn't break any laws.

Answer 2

In looking over the answers, I am amazed at the lack of knowledge and understanding related to the issue.

Jesus indeed broke the letter of the law, for the prohibition is against any work. There is no exception in the law in this regard. Any means any.

Jesus even admits he worked on the sabbath.

This drives legalists crazy, and they come up with all sorts of constructs in order to make the case that he really didn't break the sabbath.

What everyone overlooks it that there is the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law. Which is more important -- complying with the letter, or fulfilling the law through love? His acts on the sabbath were acts of love and compassion. In their hardened hearts, the religious leaders of the time could not see past the letter, and they administered the law with an unrelenting brutality.

Keeping the law does not demonstrate love. Fulfilling the law demonstrates love.

Keeping the law can result in sins of omission by refusing to do good.

The letter of the law makes way for the spirit of the law.

Focus on the letter, and you will never comprehend the spirit. You end up insisting everything be spelled out to you, and judging others for any infraction, regardless of motive.

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Answer 3

The Sabbath law can ALWAYS be broken for "pikui nefesh", which means "to save a life". This is Jewish law, both then and now.

So if Jesus did whatever he did in the story about the man with the evil spirit, to save his life, he did NOT commit a sin by breaking the Sabbath.

And if this was the case, and the story goes on to have the Pharisees yelling that he broke the Sabbath, then you know the story is not true, or there is an ulterior motive to the story, most probably to demonise the Jews. The Pharisees or any other Jew would never have accused Jesus of committing a sin by breaking the Sabbath in the case of "pikui nefesh".

EDIT: To gotta-be (and whomever else): Jesus did not set you free from the law. You as a non-Jew were never under the law to begin with. There were no punishments nor penalties for non Jews who broke Jewish law, because Jewish law didn't apply to non Jews. Therefore you could not have been freed from something you were never bound by in the first place.

There ARE certain laws that ALL mankind was/is under, Jew and non-Jew alike, and these are called the 7 Noahide Universal Laws. You can find them here: http://www.noahide.org In addition, the Jews had/have 600+ more laws, but the non-Jews do not.

And we do not follow our laws in order to be saved. We do not even have such a concept, never have. This is yet another church ..ahem...inaccuracy. We follow our laws for the same reason any other group or society follows THEIR laws, for social peace and justice, and to bring compassion and kindess into the world.

While we're at it, it is not true that nobody could follow all the laws, again, another church....inaccuracy. Nobody has EVER had to follow all the laws. There are laws for men, laws for women, laws for teachers, laws for farmers, laws for priest, laws for every profession and justice system. A teacher wouldn't follow the laws regarding the priesthood. A farmer wouldn't follow the laws regarding a judge in the court. It's much the same as today, there are general laws that all people followed to keep society fair and justice done, and then there are laws specific to each profession, etc. Nobody EVER had to follow all the laws, for these reasons. There is no concept in Judaism, and never has been, of "following the law to be saved" or "doing good deeds to get into heaven". This is a church invention, and they have taught it, incorrectly, to christians for two thousand years. But that's NOT the way the law works, and that's NOT what it was ever for, in Judaism.

Answer 4

The sabbath Law was corrupted from the intent of the Law in the books of Moses, to an imposed letter of the Law that placed the people under bondage to the laws of men. All the Law says in Scripture was to rest and not to kindle a flame, or do labor. Today, the extreme orthodox has a list of the 39 categories of activities that can not be performed... including taking a warm shower (might ignite a flame in the hot water heater), brushing your teeth (that's smoothing a rough surface), ripping toilet paper (that's manual labor) etc. In the day of Jesus, the Rabbi's had corrupted the Law and suppressed the people with equally burdeonsome laws of men, that were not the intent of the Law of Moses. Jesus called for a return to the SPIRIT or INTENT of the law, rather than the letter of the laws of men. Jesus only broke the statutes that the Rabbi's had imposed on the people, and He did NOT break the spirit of the Law of Moses. His response is that God is still God of the Sabbath, and that it is proper to do good on the Sabbath. If we become so incumbered by our little boxes that we try to stuff God into, and if we honor our construct of God more than we honor God, then we lose perspective of His character and our relation to Him and to one another. The same Law of Moses tells us to love others, to do good. To follow man's interpretations that add more to the Scripture than is actually there is dangerous, and in this case with Jesus, prevented the people from walking in love and thus fulfilling the other commandments of the Law.

Answer 5

The problem revolves around varying interpretations of what constitutes 'work' in the sense of the Mosaic law. Some things are spelled out, like you must not light a fire (so, no cooking!) and you could only walk a certain distance. But myriad things were worked out by the Scribes and Pharisees as their INTERPRETATION of what was meant, so that every possible aspect of daily living fell into either the 'do' or 'do not' category. This, in itself, went beyond God's Law.

Secondly, Jesus' enemies were looking for any way they could to trip him and stop him. He rebuffed them every time they wrongly claimed he was violating the Sabbath. It's interesting that this critical spirit is still abroad today, even on such a site as this! Jesus' enemies abound as much now as ever. But the Bible says he is Lord of the Sabbath!

Further, the Genesis account shows that by saying 'God rested' on the 7th day, it meant he stoped creating. He did not stop working in the sense of activity. But he knew it was for our own good that we observe a 7-day cycle, with 6 days for our own work, and 1 day specially for 'resting in the Lord'. Legalists kill the spirit of this law, but those who love God delight in the Lord's Day, publicly and silently showing a disbelieving, and disrespectful world, that God comes first in a tangible way.

Answer 6

It would be so much easier if you provided the reference.

But basically the point is that Jesus did not break the Sabbath law by healing anyone! That he was so accused demonstrated to God and to Jesus the state of disapproval the Jewish leaders existed in.

Jesus wasn't working! He was by means of God's power, by the express will of God healing people by unimaginable miracles. That this would be vulgarized and profaned by calling it work -- was actually a sin against God's Holy Spirit that caused these healing.

Answer 7

“This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:18

It was the unbelieving Jews who reasoned that Jesus was attempting to make himself equal with God by claiming God as his Father. While properly referring to God as his Father, Jesus never claimed equality with God. He straightforwardly answered the Jews: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” (John 5:19) It was those unbelieving Jews, too, who claimed that Jesus broke the Sabbath, but they were wrong also about that. Jesus kept the Law perfectly, and he declared: “It is lawful to do good on the sabbath.”—Matt. 12:10-12

Answer 8

Doing good is never wrong. The spirit of the law was to give man a day of rest, you could make the same argument, if you cut your self it would be work to tie a bandage around and stop the bleeding, so then you would die. So no, to help is never wrong.

Answer 9

I don' think he did break the religious law. Jesus Christ didn't receive new laws and had to follow the laws in Old Testament. However he received wisdom to implement the law.

Messengers of God never violate the law unless they have very good and urgent need to do something much more important for the moment..

Answer 10

You are talking about the Mosaic Law.

Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Law, this law was only there to lead the Jewish nation to the messiah. Once Jesus arrived then the law was complete, here Jesus was demonstrating another law, the law of "love your neighbour as yourself".

You are right in thinking that the law still existed, yes it did until Jesus was murdered. The bible tells us that the Mosaic Law was then nailed to the torture stake with him. Colossians chapter 2 verse 14

Answer 11

Is it wrong to do good on the Sabbath? The Creator of the universe says no.
The sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath.