Behold Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.
1. It is no new thing to see men who are otherwise learned, and are in account for their holiness in the church, to be adversaries unto Christ, and His disciples.
2. Christ’s disciples readily shall be misconstrued, do what they please; their plucking ears of corn for their hunger doth not escape censure.
3. Hypocrites do urge ceremonies and external observations more than the greater things of the law.
4. When the mind of the Lawgiver and the intent of the commandment is not contravened, the precept is not broken, this is the ground of Christ’s defence.
5. Not reading nor considering the Scriptures, whereby the meaning of the law may be understood, is the cause of error in duties.
6. Whatsoever bodily work is necessary for providing of the service and worship of God upon the Sabbath is not a breaking of the Sabbath; for the priests did bodily work in the temple on the Sabbath day, and were blameless.
7. As the body is above the figure, or shadow, so is Christ greater than the temple. (David Dikson.)
The observance of the Sabbath
Christ came not to abolish the Sabbath, but to explain and enforce it, as He did the rest of the law. Its observance was nowhere positively enjoined by Him, because Christianity was to be practicable to all nations, and it goes to them stripped of its precise and various circumstances. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” seems to be the soul of the Christian Sabbath. In this view of the day, a thousand frivolous questions concerning its observance would be answered. We are going to spend a Sabbath in eternity. The Christian will acquire as much of the Sabbath-spirit as he can. And, in proportion to a man’s real piety in every age of the Church, he will be found to Lave been a diligent observer of the Sabbath day. (Cecil’s Remanis.)
The Sabbath a day doing good
The performance of so many miracles on the Sabbath day seems to intimate its being the most “acceptable time” for our doing good to the souls and bodies of men, after the pattern of Christ’s example, as we have opportunity. And it is this perhaps, that may especially expose us to the unkind remarks of those who make the Lord’s day a day of mere Pharisaic formalities, or one of idle and selfish indulgence, by doing their own way, by finding their own pleasure, and by speaking their own words. (J. Ford.)
Rabbinical Sabbath scruples
The Rabbi Kolonimos was innocently accused of having murdered a boy. It appears that he knew the assassin, and to prevent himself being torn to pieces, he wrote the name of the culprit on a piece of paper, and laid it upon the lips of the corpse. By this means the rabbi saved his own life, and the real murderer was exposed. But, alas! Kolonimos had written that name on the Sabbath day, and he spent the rest of his life in penance. Not content with this long atonement for his sin, the rabbi gave orders that for one hundred years after his death, every one who passed by should fling a stone at his tomb, because every one who profaned the Sabbath ought to be stoned.