And by the Pharisees rules this was not allowed. However Jesus did not agree with this and thought it wasn’t right that the Pharisees should have such power, especially over himself. One Sabbath day Jesus was asked to heal a man with a withered hand (Mark 15:42-47) he performed this action without question although it was quite obvious that this wasn’t allowed. When questioned on this matter Jesus replied,’ The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’ He meant by this that god did not create the Sabbath to do harm to us he created it for the benefit of us and so the rules the Pharisees created were often not applicable. This shows Jesus had power over the Pharisees.
Although a big part of the catholic and Christian religions are based around Jesus’ teachings he himself was a Jew. This was because the religions did not yet exist in his times. We know Jesus was a Jew as he worshipped in the synagogue which was a Jewish place of worship.
The Sabbath is a big part of the Christian religion and is based entirely around the resurrection for Christians, it tells Christians today that something amazing and magnificent as the resurrection must be honoured and working on this day is not doing that. It enables us to truly appreciate and be thankful for Jesus rising from the dead.
Different denominations of the religion celebrate the Sabbath and other important days in there religious lives differently. The different denominations include; Jewish, protestant, catholic, Eva angelical, Church of England, united reformed and Jehovah’s Witness’. They all celebrate things slightly differently. For example, where as Christians and Catholics celebrate by attending a mass and receiving communion, Eva angelical celebrate through dance and music and coming together as a community.
Another denomination of Christianity such as, Jehovah’s witnesses celebrate things differently, although they too celebrate the Sabbath on the seventh day as we do, their beliefs on this matter are very different. They believe when god created the world, the six days leading up to the Sabbath consisted of 1000 years each and the seventh being the millennium, they also believed that the ‘Armageddon’ would come in 1975 and when this did not happen they blamed miscalculation and are still in belief that it is right around the corner. Jehovah’s witnesses may also be "disfellowshipped" for a variety of reasons, such as attending a Catholic or Protestant church or receiving a blood transfusion. This means that according to their law, they must be isolated from everyone, and everyone including their family must act as if they do not know the person.
Mormons, which is yet another denomination of Christianity celebrate the Sabbath from home. This involves creating an atmosphere so they can be close to god in their own home, and although this normally takes place on a Sunday, there is no set law so families who find it difficult to celebrate on this day are able to move it to a more appropriate day of the week.
This shows that although the many different denominations beliefs are more or less the same, (we all believe in the same god) and celebrations take place in similar circumstances, there are many differences in how we celebrate the Sabbath ranging from small and insignificant to ones of great importance.
Sunday to Christians however will always remain the most important day and this will never change as in this religion the resurrection is of great importance.
Christians all over the world celebrate Sunday by keeping the Sabbath holy. They attend mass and receive communion. Some may go to confession but every Christian will try and rest on that day to honour Jesus rising from the dead.
