Biblical Contradiction: Jesus broke the Sabbath:

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Biblical Contradiction Explained: Jesus broke the Sabbath:

God commands that all observe the Sabbath:

For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

Exodus 31:15

Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Numbers 15:32-36

Jesus and his disciples broke the Sabbath:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

Matthew 12:1-5

For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

John 5:16

Explanation:

Jesus was not trying to “violate” the laws of the Sabbath. Instead He was only pointing out the hypocrisy among the priests regarding the laws of the Sabbath.

Further, by eating the grain on the Sabbath Christ was only imitating what is done by the priests on Sabbath. We see this when we read further into Matthew 12:

Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Matthew 12:5-8

In essence Christ is saying: if the priests are permitted to eat the grain on the Sabbath, then certainly the Son of Man is permitted. Christ goes on to further antagonize the priests by healing a man on the Sabbath:

Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

Matthew 12:9-14

Consistently throughout Jesus’s ministry He frequently challenges legalistic implementation of God’s law by the priests; arguing that they have lost sight of the meaning of law.

Never does Christ condone work on the Sabbath. However, He does not condemn the work of God on the Sabbath. In the time of Christ all work, even the work of God, was considered forbidden on the Sabbath.