Was Jesus a Lawbreaker?

Many Christians have been told that Jesus broke the Sabbath and that's why we don't have to keep it anymore. But if that's true, then Jesus sinned because breaking the Sabbath would mean breaking God's law and sin is lawlessness. So here's the question. Did Yeshua actually break the Sabbath or did he expose something else entirely? Stay with me because in this video, we're going to look at every time Yeshua was accused of breaking the Sabbath. And you're going to see from scripture that he never violated God's commandments. Not even one. In fact, he shows us the true heart of the Sabbath, what it was always meant to be. In the last video, we explored the origin of the Sabbath. But now, we're going to find out if Yeshua broke the Sabbath. The Sabbath command is simple. Rest, cease from labor, and remember the creator. But by the first century, the Pharisees had turned the Sabbath into a maze of man-made regulations. They added dozens of extra rules, including 39 categories of work, none of which came from the Torah. Which is why Yeshua said the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. He wasn't rejecting the Sabbath. He was rejecting their false religious traditions and restoring the original purpose of the Sabbath. The conflict wasn't between Yeshua and the law. It was between Yeshua and the traditions of men. One Sabbath, as Yeshua and his disciples walked through the grain fields, the disciples began to pluck heads of grain and eat. Immediately, the Pharisees accused them, saying, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." But was that a violation of God's law? Not at all. The Torah actually allows people to pluck grain by hand when they're hungry. When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor's standing grain. They weren't harvesting. They were just eating. The Pharisees considered that to be work, but the Torah doesn't. Yeshua responded to them by pointing to the story of David eating the consecrated bread, something only the priests were allowed to do. Then Yeshua said something revolutionary. Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Yeshua claimed to be greater than the temple and that he is the Lord who established the Sabbath. This was a claim to deity and it shows us his authority to define the Sabbath because he established it. That means the Sabbath belongs to him. In saying I desire mercy and not sacrifice, he was showing us the important role that grace and mercy play in keeping the commandments. And in saying you would not have condemned the guiltless, he shows us that they were not guilty of sin. Yeshua wasn't breaking the Sabbath. He was restoring it to its original purpose, which is rest, mercy, and fellowship with God. Now, let's look at the accusations made concerning him healing on the Sabbath. In John 5, Yeshua healed a man who had been crippled for 38 years and told him to take up his bed and walk. Immediately, the religious leader said, "It's the Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed." But the Torah never forbids carrying a mat on the Sabbath. That was part of the oral law, not God's law. When Yeshua was challenged, he replied, "My father's been working until now, and I have been working." His response infuriated them. Not because he worked, but because he was claiming equality with God. So the real issue wasn't that Yeshua broke the Sabbath. They're upset that he disregarded their tradition. But they were more upset about who he claimed to be. He was claiming to have greater authority than them. That was the problem. The religious leaders wanted everyone to obey them as the ultimate authority. But Yeshua was superseding their authority. In Luke 13, Yeshua healed a crippled woman who had a spirit of infirmity for 18 years. But when the ruler of the synagogue rebuked him for healing on the Sabbath, Yeshua said, "Hypocrite, does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his donkey from his stall and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, who Satan has bound, think of it, for 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath." The people rejoiced, but his adversaries were ashamed. Yeshua was showing us that the Sabbath was about freedom and healing and restoration. He wasn't violating the Sabbath. He was fulfilling it. In Luke 14, on the Sabbath, while eating in the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, Yeshua challenged the Pharisees by asking, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" But they remained silent. So Yeshua healed a man with dropsy in front of them. Then he challenged them again with another question, saying, "Which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" Once again, they could not answer him. But the answer was obvious. Mercy outweighs legalism. Every miracle Yeshua performed on the Sabbath wasn't an act of rebellion. It was an act of revelation. He revealed the heart of God and the true purpose of the Sabbath. So why were the Pharisees so angry about Yeshua healing people on the Sabbath? It was because Yeshua challenged their authority and exposed their hypocrisy. They elevated their own traditions above the commandments of God. And Yeshua challenged this and he even rebuked them for it directly. He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down, and many such things you do." The religious leaders didn't want the law written on people's hearts. They simply wanted to control the people's behavior. And Yeshua threatened that control. The real conflict wasn't between Jesus and the law. It was between the word of God and the religion of men. Now, let's settle this once and for all. The Bible says in Hebrews 4:15 that Yeshua was tempted in all points as we are, and yet he was without sin. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And 1 John 3:4 defines sin as lawlessness. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. If Yeshua had broken the Sabbath, he would have broken the law, and that would make him a sinner. But he was without sin, the spotless lamb of God. He had to be or else he couldn't atone for our sin. He didn't come to abolish the Sabbath or any part of the law. He came to fulfill it and to teach us to do the same. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tit will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Yeshua is the word of God, and he embodied the law and the prophets perfectly. He is our ultimate example of what it looks like to walk according to God's law. Yeshua never broke the Sabbath. His obedience to the law simply clashed with the Pharisees teachings about the law, showing them their errors. So, we see that Yeshua never broke the Sabbath. He broke man's traditions, not God's commandments. He walked in perfect obedience to the Torah, showing us how to keep it with compassion and truth. Now, my question for you is, if Yeshua kept the Sabbath, shouldn't his followers do the same? Post your answer in the comments below, then watch this next video. Should Christians keep the Sabbath? You might be surprised what the Bible actually says.