Jesus as Sabbath

This is the final in a three-weeks series of focus on the Sabbath and rest as Senior Minister, Carol Cavin-Dillon, preaches her last sermons before her three-months sabbatical. Today she begins by reviewing that series on rest. Today’s passage from Matthew is the familiar scene wherein the disciples, being hungry, pick grain on the Sabbath and are confronted by some Pharisees. Jesus responds with some examples from scriptures in an attempt to reorient their understanding of the Divine, and today the sermon focuses on Jesus and honoring the Sabbath. In saying, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath,” Jesus is saying that humans aren’t slaves to the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for humans. Jesus, in effect, is the Sabbath, and this is a call for us to release ourselves from heavy burdens that inhibit us and to come to Jesus for rest. We need to walk with Jesus in an open and attentive way for renewal and reorientation.