No, for all who are subject to God are bound to obey his laws, but God is not bound by them. Jesus, being greater than the temple, is God, and so is exalted above the law’s binding force. As Lord of the Sabbath, he may use it for his divine purpose: to bring rest to all who are weary and burdened, even in the distant towns. In this way, he fulfills God’s goal for the law.
This text is not a rejection of the Sabbath command, or even of the Pharisaic regulations for it. As a child, Jesus kept these rules—not slavishly, but as their Lord. In his humiliation, as a servant and a man among men, he honoured the Sabbath, while occasionally showing that his obedience was not from necessity, but sprang from his willing humiliation. In the flesh, he was Son of Man under the law, but also always Lord over all, so he now uses the Sabbath in the service of God’s mercy
No, for everyone who is subject to God is bound to obey his laws, but God himself is not bound by them. Jesus, being greater than the temple, is God and therefore exalted above the law’s binding force. He is the Lord of the Sabbath and may use it for his divine purpose: to bring rest to all who are weary and burdened, even in the distant towns. In this way, he fulfills the very goal of the lawgiver.
We should not read this text as a rejection of the Sabbath command, nor even as a disdain for the Pharisaic regulations surrounding it. As a child, Jesus observed these rules—yet not as a slave, but as their Lord. In his humiliation, as servant among servants and man among men, he honoured and kept the Sabbath. But from time to time he revealed that his obedience was not from necessity, but sprang from his willing humiliation. In the flesh, he came as Son of Man under the law, yet at the same time he always remained Lord over all. He now simply employs the Sabbath in the service of God’s mercy.1
7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.