In Matthew 24:20, we have a very interesting statement by Jesus: "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath."
I believe that Matthew 24 is about the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. However, for any person who holds that He is describing the end of history, its significance is even greater,
First, when He says "your flight," of whom is He speaking? Christians. Note that His comment is in response to the questions of His disciples in verse 3, and spoken privately to them.
Second, He explicitly states "Sabbath."
Therefore, logic requires that we take His statement to mean that he expected the Sabbath still to have significance to Christians in the future, a minimum of forty years after He made His statement. A minimum of two-thousand years if you place the events at the end of history.
This clearly disproves that the Sabbath was only for Jews, or was a Mosaic ceremony that ended with the cross work of Christ. It is a permanent ordinance, not a typological ceremony, disproving the oft-repeated but never-proven assertion that "Jesus is our Sabbath."
Of course, how can Jesus *be* the Sabbath if He be *Lord* of the Sabbath? (Mt 12.8)? He's explicitly "other" from His Lordship/Dominion of the Sabbath. Further, He apparently said at the same time (Mk 2.27) that the Sabbath was made for man. I've not noticed an end to humanity!
ReplyDeleteGood post on your part!