Q. What does it mean when it says the “Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath?”

A. Let’s go to Luke 6.1-5 where one of the accounts is written and analyze what is going on so you will understand why he said this. In v 1 it says this was “on the second chief Sabbath” literally in the Greek. So there are several possibilities. This was during the feast of Unleavened Bread and the second chief Sabbath of that week was the feast of First Fruits when the barley can be eaten. The first chief Sabbath was the 15th of Nisan, the first day of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23.7). The other possibility is that this was the second Sabbath of 7 leading up to the feast of Shavuot and you were to count them off (Lev 23.15-16). Whatever the day, it was a sabbath and he was passing through the barley fields and they were picking some of the heads and rubbing them together to eat them. The Pharisees saw this and accused them of breaking the Sabbath by “reaping” in a field. The Pharisees had 39 categories of work that was prohibited on the Sabbath and reaping was one of them so this was part of their “halakah”(how to walk in the commandments). These categories are still in existence today and many still follow the Pharisees in this. Modern halakah today follows the Pharisees and sadly many messianic believers in Yeshua still follow this too. In v 3 Yeshua asked them about the story of David and how he ate bread that was consecrated only for the priests. This bread was changed on the Sabbath in the Mishkan/ Temple. David and his men were fleeing from Saul and hungry. Achimelech the High Priest gave them permission to eat the bread (1Sam 21). So, here is the point of all this. Yeshua is our High Priest and he sets halakah for a believer. He created the Sabbath and he is the one who sets the rules. He can do what he wants and his followers can do what he allows them to do, just like Achimelech did with David without violating the heart of the law, which was to preserve life. So Yeshua is Lord of the Sabbath day and people come first. When he says Sabbath day he means the seventh day Sabbath (Saturday) and the feast days as prescribed in Leviticus and other places. These days have not been done away with. Man does not have the authority do that no more than the Pharisees had the authority to make the rules. If Yeshua is saying that man can’t make the rules for the Sabbath because he created it and can make the rules (it’s his day) how much more evil is it to say the whole day has been changed to another day in violation of what he said and created?. Those that keep Sunday as the Christian Sabbath have now said Yeshua is not their Lord. He already said he is Lord of the seventh day, not the first day of the week or any man-made holiday. People who keep Sunday have a different “lord” otherwise they would not be observing it. He did not authorize anyone to change the day to Sunday so to do it means you did it without his authority and so he is not their “Lord”. He said himself “why do you call me Lord and don’t do what I tell you?” It’s true he is Lord of all the days of the week but there is one day of the week he has set apart to himself and he calls “His Day” and that is the seventh day and that has never changed (Gen 2 1-3; Lev 23.1-2; Isa 58.13; Lk 4.16; Rev 1.10). This also applies to the biblical festivals as well. In Leviticus 23.2 he calls the Sabbath day and festivals “the Lord’s appointed times” and they are his days. Those that say that the Sabbath and the festivals listed in the Bible are “Jewish” are mistaken. So that’s why he said he was Lord of the Sabbath. It’s his day and he makes the rules as opposed to what man says about it, Pharisee or otherwise.