Once they happened to catch Jesus and his disciples picking ears of corn and mentioned to them that it was against the law to do that but Jesus then told them of the story of when David had no food and he fed his soldiers and himself on the holy sacred bread which was only edible by the high priest he then said to them “The Sabbath was made for man not man made for the Sabbath”.. By using one of the most important individual in their religion (David) he managed to silence them once again. (Mark chapter 2 verses 23-28)
Jesus states that in the Sabbath we should go out and do well not evil and to help people’s lives and not destroy them. That if someone’s dying in front of you and it’s the Sabbath you’re not going to turn your back because of a law.
In Marks chapter 3 lines 1 to 6 is “The man with the paralyzed hand” in this story Jesus goes in to a synagogue on the Sabbath as he is a practicing Jew and he too does what other Jews do on a Sabbath, but he does more; he heals a man with the paralyzed hand on a Sabbath when you’re supposed to “rest”. People were looking at Jesus to see if he was going to heal the man, and after he did Jesus went to them…”What does our law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone’s life or to destroy it?” After this act the Pharisees left the synagogue and met at once with some members of the Herds party, and made plans to get Jesus killed.
This tells us Christians that if we carry out important jobs like working in hospitals, police, fire fighters etc were not breaking the Sabbath law, instead you’re doing what Jesus was doing himself healing the sick on the Sabbath and you’re carrying out an important commandment which is love your neighbor.
“The son of man is lord even of the Sabbath” this means that us humans are more important then the Sabbath only if were helping humanity get better in anyway like healing and other good deeds, and not to work to gain extra money and collect more riches gaining more selfishness. (Mark chapter 2 verse 28)
Jesus was a practicing Jew because he taught on synagogues. In Mark chapter 1 verses 21-31 Jesus was teaching in the synagogue to the people who were attending the Sabbath. People in the synagogue were amazed at his teaching and were surprised to find that he taught like a rabbi. A man with a mental illness or an evil spirit as they thought stood up and shouted “What do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth??” “Have you come to destroy us??” ”I know who you are, the Holy one of God”. Jesus the sent the evil spirit away and everyone in the synagogue was amazed, even the Pharisees were shocked .At this time not one person objected to Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath , even in a synagogue. But after a while the religious leaders saw him as a threat to their authority.
Sabbath was very important to the Jews that even to bring spices and bury bodies of the dead around the hole day you would have to receive the permission of Pilate as Joseph had to do before the Sabbath (Mark chapter 15 verses 42-43), whilst both Mary’s and Salome had to wait till the Sabbath was over to bring over spices to anoint the body. That’s how important the Sabbath was to ordinary Jews.
(Mark chapter 16 verses 1 to 8)
Sunday is a special day for Christians because this is the day Jesus rose from the dead and it is one of the most important happenings in the bible. We worship this day with a mass and doing that little thing extra is always a good thing.
On marks last supper chapter 14 verse 12 to 25 describes how Jesus has his Passover with his disciples. This is the foundation of the Christian belief, the breaking of the bread to be Jesus body and the wine to be his blood; this is why many Christians have Holy Communion services. Holy Communion is practiced and understood in different ways in the Christian community. There are different services for different denominations for example the Salvation Army doesn’t have communion or mass and concentrate more on good works and helping people.
Some Christians do no celebrate Holy Communion because they feel it’s more important loving their neighbor and loving Christ instead of receiving his body and blood so they just pray and worship him without the Holy Communion, because as you can see in Mark chapter 12 verse 28-34 Jesus explains to a teacher of the law that the most important commandment is to love god with all your heart, love god with all your soul and love god with all your mind love god with all your strength.
Whilst the second most important commandment is love your neighbor as you love yourself. This shows that the main thing god cares bout is the love for your neighbor and the love for him doing this will assure your place in heaven, like all Christians go to church, worship god, love your neighbors and you will be accepted in to the kingdom of God.
Bruno Babolin
