Jewish Sabbath Laws and the Practice of Jesus - Thesis Example

Jewish Sabbath Laws and the Practice of Jesus There are explicit indications throughout the gospel that Jesus’ manner of observance of Sabbath laws was controversial. The relevance of Sabbath keeping and Jesus’ interpretations of Jewish law have been a bone of contention for centuries. Many people believe that Jesus ended the Jewish Sabbath by fulfilling the law, and therefore the legalistic Sabbath is of little relevance now. Another argument is that Jesus was a true Jew and his observance of Sabbath was perfect. Although modern thinkers are deeply at odds with Jesus’ practice of Sabbath, all evangelists have unanimously stated that it was customary for Jesus to visit the Synagogue. Evidently, Jesus found nothing unusual about partaking in the religious and cultural practices of his community, and what made the difference was that the strict legalistic interpretation and the practice of the law was not his prime objective when adhering to the Jewish law. Referring to the views of Giorgio Jossa, Stuart argues that there existed a distinct difference in Jesus’ teaching and it was partial regarding the practice of Sabbath. The author points out that Jesus’ views were distinct and unique from those of others in terms of keeping laws (145-147). Most people consider the Sabbath as the day on which Jews refrain from all sorts of work so as to comply with God’s law. However, in real sense (though often undermined), Sabbath is a day of great joy, celebration and rest rather than a day for learning the rules and keeping them. In other words, it is a day on which the Jews can relax being with family, study, pray, and reflect. The Hebrew word Shabbat actually means “rest”. According to Torah, which is the main source of information on Sabbath laws, the celebration of Sabbath intends the remembrance of two important events; the creation of the world and the Israel’s liberation from Egypt. These two events indeed are the central aspects of the Jewish belief, and according to the tradition, people ought to remember those events avoiding all kinds of usual activities. Admittedly, the day is more important than a normal holiday, and hence the restrictions on activities on the Sabbath are also a bit stricter. The prohibited activities include but not limited to cooking, washing clothes, building, mending, writing, cutting, making a fire, fishing, climbing trees. Obviously, many of the listed activities need extensive interpretation to figure out what they actually stand for or to what extent they are applicable in the present day religious practices. In this regard, perceptions do matter a lot. And hence, how Jews observe the Sabbath prohibitions widely differs from conservative Jews to Reform Jews. While Orthodox Jews pay higher attention to keeping rules in their literal meaning, many Reform Jews ignore the restrictions and give importance only to the Friday night Sabbath service. According to the Jewish belief, the Sabbath begins at sunset. Sabbath candles are lit and prayers are recited within 18 minutes of sunset. The woman of the household performs this ritual, and here two candles that represent two commandments are being lit. After this, a gathering of families take place on Friday night with a grand dinner. The dinner is followed by small talks and torah reading before sleep. As described in Seth, the Sabbath day itself is observed actively by morning prayers, studies on scriptures, meals and so on (21). A close look into the bible reveals that God blamed the Israelites on not keeping Sabbath genuinely. Through Ezekiel God says that the people have adversely defiled Sabbaths (Ezekiel 22:26). God just wanted the people to observe Sabbaths to rest and to remember the wonderful things he did for them in the past. But the clergy made Sabbath a burden and assigned more legalistic things for the believers. Almost same were the faults Jesus found with the Jews of his time. Sabbath intended delight for human beings. And this delight may include a rest and the retirement from ones’ daily work. But as Pharisees maintained, if the law meant complete rest from work, even the journey to the temple of God for worship also would become violation of the law. Many other activities like listening to the hymns and learning the Holy Scripture are no exception here. God loved the people and He wants them to have peace of mind. However, once the actual concept of the law had been found misinterpreted, Jesus called the Pharisees the blind guides (Mathew 23:16). He found that Pharisees were wrong in several aspects and the way they observed the Sabbath was one among them. To illustrate, until the time of Jesus, Sabbath practices underwent drastic changes. During the exile of Jews, Sabbath was regarded as a way to show the loyalty to god. According to Bible, gradually Israel forgot the commandment of god, which resulted in the captivity by Assyrian and Babylonian invaders in the eights and sixth centuries B.C respectively. The most disgraceful sin that eventually led to national captivity was the disobedience to God’s Sabbath. Evidently, disobedience in this context refers to wrong practice of the law that undermined the actual spirit of the commandment. In other words, wrong interpretation and wrong practice of the law is as fatal as the violation of the law. Jews ignored even the least possible virtuous deed just for the sake of keeping Sabbath laws. As John points out in his article The Historical Jesus and the Plucking of the Grain on the Sabbath, Jesus condemned this wrong conviction and performed many good deeds including miracles (561). The result was inevitable that he was counted as an outlaw. There are numerous instances that indicate the way Jews practiced the Sabbath did not comply with the conventions of the Jews. A close look into the Old Scriptures also points to the fact that Jesus’ views in this regard were not new. Regarding Sabbath, Yahweh kept giving further clarification through prophets (Jeremiah 17:21-22, 27). In Ezekiel one can find God saying; “I also gave them my Sabbath, to be a sign between them and me that they might know that I am the lord who sanctifies them. Yet… they greatly defiled my Sabbath… they despised my judgments and did not walk in my statutes, but profaned my Sabbaths”. Evidently, the Jews failed to distinguish between right and wrong regarding Sabbath. Although Pharisees claim themselves to be the proponents of the Sabbath, Jesus finds only corruption and hypocrisy in them. As Weiler argues, if Jesus was very picky about the particular activities of the celebration, he would have appreciated the Jews for being so orthodox (39). In the gospel according to St. Mathew, when Pharisees accuse the disciples of Jesus that they gathered food on Sabbath and violated the law, Jesus justifies his disciples by saying,: “For son of man is lord of Sabbath” (Mathew 12:6). Jesus is convincing them about his authority to give right interpretation on the laws. Obviously, the one who gave laws knows the actual sense of the laws better than anyone else. The same reference can be found in the Old Testament also; messiah comes not to change the law but to magnify the law (Isaiah: 12). Several times Jesus insists his disciples to keep the laws; “do not think that I came to demolish the law or the prophets, I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). The word ‘fulfillment’ itself indicates that the old laws required amendments. It does not mean that God erred while giving the laws. Law is subject to improvement depending on the situational change. Situation in this context refers to people’s knowledge, culture, socio-economic and political conditions which are always prone to incessant change. For instance, laws of the modern world would not be digestible to the people of the ancient times as the above said factors largely varied between these two periods. Laws of the Old Testament were apt to the living conditions and knowledge of the people lived then. A good ruler understands that laws should par with the intellectual levels of the subjects. As the knowledge gets enhanced, laws can either be made simpler or more intense depending on all spheres of social life and the way the prevailing laws are practiced. Moreover, a genuine ruler will always comply with the laws by himself so as to be a model for the people. This is what God intended through Jesus, for Jesus not only interpreted the laws but also demonstrated the best way of keeping them. He said, “if you love me, keep my commandments” (john 14:15). God is love, and therefore his laws solely intend to help people to experience the heights of his love. Everything that goes against love is the violation of god’s commandments. As Paula purports, Jesus found that the way Jews practiced Sabbath often discarded love, and for him that was an obvious violation of the law (75). Changing the law of God itself is impossible. However, interpretation of the law is always highly essential and only an entitled expert can perform this role effectively. And there was no authorized personal other than the Son of God to take up this task. We see Jesus performing a lot of miracles and teaching on Sabbath day all with great authenticity (Luke 4:31-32). To point out their misunderstandings regarding Sabbath Jesus often quoted Old Testament (Mark 2:25-26), (Mathew 12:5). Jesus proves that king David was blameless before God when he entered the house of god and ate the holy bread. Jesus questioned the strict legalistic approach regarding the Sabbath by saying, “the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2: 27). Jesus clarified certain times his obedience toward his father; the son of man can do nothing of himself, but what sees the father does; for whatever he does the son also does in like manner (John 5:19). He criticizes the Pharisees; “you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens thy can hardly carry and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them” (Luke 11:46). According to Hagerland, a distinction should be made between moral repentance and ritual Repentance (39). Ritual here is more legally bound. Obviously, there has been always a clash between morality and law. Jesus’ primarily objective was moral repentance. Morality is out of will and law is out of responsibility. During the time of Jesus, there was no change among his disciples regarding the Sabbath practices as they all were born and brought up in strict Jewish culture. This also shows that Jesus was not against the Sabbath. In the early church, some Jewish Christians also continued to observe Sabbath practices (Acts 21:21). Paul himself was a Jew who studied the Jewish law thoroughly. So it proves that the early Christian communities’ especially Jewish Christian communities observed them without a complete shift from Saturday to Sunday. As Amy-Jill explains, as a liberation theology, it was assumed that lord preferred the poor, oppressed, the underclass and the marginalized (20). The oriental churches considered Sabbath as a festival in third and fourth centuries. In the fifth century the people of Constantinople observed Sabbath on last day of the week as well as the first day of the week. In the seventh century in Celtic churches in Scotland and Ireland churches took rest from the labor on Saturday. It followed the same trend up to 16th century with a lot of controversies. Although the Christian celebrated the first day of the week as Lord’s Day, the Jewish tradition of Sabbath prevailed to a great extent especially in Jew dominated area. As Harrisburg indicates, Jesus’ tradition assaulted Jewish dietary laws, purity codes, and abandoned Jewish calendar. Eg: female uncleanness, miracle on Jairus’ daughter (172). Like any other Jew, Jesus often visited the Synagogue and the Temple but always causing grueling debate over various things. Such events were not accidental. He intentionally provoked others’ opinions on religious matters and gave further clarifications on disputable matters. He found that temple and Synagogue were the most appropriate venues where he could easily get a large audience. For him, the calmness of wilderness or the peaceful ambiance of mountains offered better mood for worship. The Christian communities ought to understand that the works one does will be assessed by the intensity of charity implied in them. According to the Christian interpretation, salvation is not the result of strict obedience to god. “He saved us, not because of righteous thing we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5). Jesus cured the sick, performed miracles, supported his disciples and showed that the spirit of Sabbath was not broken by charity. Michael indicates that more than being legalistic, law should have a humanitarian dimension (57). In total, Jesus was a true Jew who observed Sabbath in its real spirit better than any other Jews of his days. He knew that love is the core of God’s commandments and everything including the wrong practice of the law that obstructs love would be a clear violation of the law. He proved that any deed could be substantial even on the Sabbath provided that they enhance love or reflect charity. The followers of Jesus must understand that keeping God’s commandments does not mean that one should be very particular about rituals and traditions. Work Cited Amy-Jill, Levine. “Misusing Jesus”. The Christian Century (2006), 123, 20-25. Hagerland Tobias. “Jesus and the Rites of Repentance”. Department of Religious Studies and Theology, Göteborg University (2006). 52, 166-187. ProQuest. John P, Meier. “The Historical Jesus and the Plucking of the Grain on the Sabbath”. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly (2004), 561-581. Mikeal, Pearsons C. “Between Text and Sermon”. Interpretation (2005), 59. 1. 57-60. Paula, Fredriksen. “What you see is what you get: Context and content in current research on the historical Jesus”. Theology Today (Apr 1995) 52 (1), 75-97. Richard, Vinson B. “Inculturation of the Jesus Tradition: The Impact of Jesus on Jewish and Roman Cultures”. Journal of Biblical Literature, (2002) 121 (1), 172-175. Seth, Ward. “The Presentation of Jesus: Jewish Perspectives on Luke”. Shofar (2003),21. Stuart D, Robertson. “Jews or Christians: The Followers of Jesus in Search of Their Own Identity”. Shofar (2009), 27. 2 : 145-147. Weiler, J H H. “The Trial of Jesus”. First Things (Jun/Jul 2010), 204, 39-46. Read More