Did Jesus Break the Sabbath?
The argument from some trying to avoid loving obedience to their Creator is that if Jesus broke the Sabbath then so can we and hence also claim that it was not sin to do so as Jesus never sinned. (1 Peter 2:21-22; 2 Corinthians 5:21) In any case, how could anyone think that God would give a Commandment in stone and then consider it to be acceptable to break it and not be sin to do so?
1 John 3:4 informs us of what we should already be aware of which is that sin is transgression of the law. Thus if Jesus did break the Sabbath then he would have broken His own law and would be a sinner, and if Jesus had sinned then He could not have been our Saviour. Hence this is a very serious accusation some have made against our Lord and Saviour just to avoid loving obedience to our Creator.
Note in John 9:14-24 who is accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. So if one chooses to believe the accusation of the Pharisees, then one has to accept that they (and the others) are also correct in calling Jesus a sinner for doing so and that they have no Saviour.
The main passage in contention is John 5:18 where once again Jesus is found healing a man on the Sabbath, and so the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath yet again. When John wrote the words Jesus broke the Sabbath, he was describing Jesus' actions from the Pharisees' perspective (compare John 9:14-16) and we will see irrefutable evidence of this in a moment. But note first what Jesus had to say about the Pharisees. Matthew 5:20, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So whose words do you think we should listen to? The words of Jesus or the words of the Pharisees who also had Jesus crucified.
Note that the Pharisees also accused Jesus of blasphemy for making Himself equal with the Father. Were the Pharisees correct? They were no more correct on this allegation than they were on their accusation of Jesus breaking the Sabbath.
Here is the proof that this accusation was from the Pharisees and not John and that it was not breaking the Sabbath by healing on this day.
Matthew 12:10-12 “And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse him. 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is LAWFUL to do well on the Sabbath days.”
So once again the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath by healing on His day as in John 5:18. However, this time we have the words of Jesus Himself as to if doing good deeds such as healing on the Sabbath was lawful.
Why would the opponents of true Sabbath worship put their faith in the words of the Pharisees rather than the words of their own Lord and Saviour? What Christian that truly loves God would listen to the Pharisees that Jesus said would not to enter the kingdom instead of Him? And who would only quote John 5:5-18 but never mention Matthew 12:10-12 that says it was NOT unlawful to heal and do good on the Sabbath?
We can be very thankful that Jesus was not a sinner and never broke any of the Ten Commandments as He clarifies in this passage when He says “that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath,” such as healing the sick or pulling an animal out of a hole that would otherwise suffer. It saddens me deeply that there are some that have falsely claimed Jesus broke the Sabbath just to avoid spending quality time with Him on His Holy day. See also how do you keep the Sabbath.