Law is made for man
In Mark 2 Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath." It must be true that Gentiles and nominal Jews, for whom the Torah means little or nothing, would have had a hard time grasping what a jolting remark this statement by Christ is. Jewish scholars remind us that the Sabbath observance was one of the chief markers of the difference between Israel and the nations and that it expressed the self-understanding of the Jews as God’s elect more forcibly than any other ordinance or practice. To say something that looks like it is demeaning the Sabbath must surely have shaken devout Jews and especially people like the Pharisees.But I wonder what the wider ramifications are, if any, about the laws God has laid before his human family and his elect in particular. What if he were to say, "Baptism is made for man not man for baptism"? Or, "Holy Communion is made for man not man for Holy Communion"? Clearly for those who think little of baptism or the Lord’s Supper there’d be little emotional impact but what of those who take these ordinances very seriously indeed?
The nation was called to observe the Sabbath just as the NT church is called to practice baptism and engage in the Eucharistic meal. None of these was the invention of the people to whom any of them was/is directed; they are the expressed will of God and consequently have the nature of commandments. So what are we to make of the statement by Christ?
A moment’s thought will tell us that a commandment by God is made for man. He commands nothing that is not ultimately for the benefit of the hearer so we aren’t to set "commandment status" over against "benefit status". Deuteronomy 30:11-20 makes this crystal clear.
But what does Christ mean when he says that the Sabbath was "made for man"? I’m certain we’re supposed to understand that God himself is the one who "made" the Sabbath for man. But God didn’t make it for angels nor did he withhold it after he had made it; he gave it to man (in this case Israel). If we can imagine God fashioning something and an angel asking him what he was making then we can imagine him saying, "I’m making a thing called ‘the Sabbath’." The angel might ask, "And who are you making it for?" and God would say, "I’m making it for man to whom I will give it."
Whatever else is true, the fact that God made it "for" (dia—on account of) man and gave it to him, gives the Sabbath a "gift" nature as well as a command status. But while Mark would agree with the truth that God made it as a gift his point is a bit more specific than that. Mark wants us to understand that when Jesus said that, he was contrasting what God did with the Sabbath and what legal experts had done with it. God gave it as a command that ensured blessing. As if a mother might say to a sick child, "Here, drink this soup that I made for you!" It is no command designed to test his obedience but one that is given in light of his needs. It’s true of course that I’m isolating one aspect of God’s Sabbath command but that’s the one I think Jesus is stressing in his Mark 2 utterance.
By the time the Torah experts were done with it the Sabbath had become a barrier to God’s intention. They misunderstood the nature of the Sabbath (in part) because they misunderstood the nature of God and his purpose toward his children. Matthew seems more concerned to make the point that Jesus (his disciples) had not broken the Sabbath since he speaks of "guiltless" and of deeds done on the Sabbath that didn’t break it. Matthew seems to be saying that the Pharisees didn’t understand what "keep the Sabbath" meant while Mark seems to be saying that they didn’t know what the Sabbath was for. Of course being ignorant as to what the Sabbath was for would affect how they thought the Sabbath was to be kept.
Matthew wants us to know that Jesus never broke it and Mark wants us to know that the legal experts never understood it. But both Matthew and Mark converge in saying Jesus and his disciples were guiltless and Mark implies something similar when he speaks of David eating what was "unlawful". They further converge in saying, each in his own way, that man was not to be burdened and that mercy and kindness were paramount. Matthew reminds them of Hosea 6:6 and Mark speaks of the Sabbath being made for man rather than as a burden on man. With a hard heart these Pharisees weren’t able to understand Hosea 6:6 which called for mercy (hesed) rather than sacrifice.
So what are we to gain from this confrontation?
Jesus nowhere suggests that the Sabbath was not to be observed! Nor would he have tolerated for a moment anyone making light of the Sabbath or the need to observe it. See Matthew 5:17-20.
I think we should understand that while commandments never cease to be commandments that they are gifts from God to mediate life to us. So that the issue should never reduce to "do I have to obey them in order to have life?" It’s in the way of obedience that life is to be found. In that very definite sense, keeping God’s commandments is a "condition" to be met if we are to have life but it isn’t as though commandments are arbitrary tests. The commandments have a character that is in keeping with the nature of the life we seek and need, and that life is relational.
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