The Divinity of Jesus the Point of Contention
The cities where Jesus
ministered “repented
not” in that they denied Jesus’
Divinity. “The
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the leapers are cleansed, and the
deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to
them. And blessed is whosoever shall
not be offended in Me. ... Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein
most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not.” Mt11:5-6,20.
First in significance were
not the beneficiaries of Jesus’ ministry; most important was Jesus and the
Truth of Who He was. Jesus’ ‘mighty works’ were the prerogative of, and the possible
for, no other than ‘The Mighty’, ‘Elohim’. The One who did those ‘mighty works’ and spoke
those words of Life, indeed was the Mighty Yahweh, the God of Israel.
The Truth of Jesus’
Divinity was rejected from the beginning. While the people rejected John the
Baptist’s prophetic announcement of the coming Messiah, they, like they “received not Elias which
was to come”, received not the Messiah
who was to come. “What
went ye out for, to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a
prophet!” Mt11:9.
As stupendous an
undertaking from a human point of view to try ‘prove’ Jesus’ Divinity is the
Grand Theme of all the Gospel, as futile is it to try persuade another to accept
will he not. Then to attempt with the
extra factor of the Sabbath’s involvement, becomes double as difficult if not
impossible. Easier rather is it to
reason, What sense is in it the Sabbath-anecdotes of healings and disputes mention
the Sabbath but it not further, emphasized and proved Jesus Divinity? Could the mention of the Sabbath be purely
degrading and derogatory? Rather the
opposite— were the Sabbath the point of contention! My argument is through the Sabbath’s being
mentioned at all, over and above not being mentioned as in all the other
incidences of Jesus’ works of life’s restoration and betterment, it received in
the Gospels the Lord’s first claim upon it, and thereby received restoration
and betterment as the healed and the hearers of the Gospel received restoration
and betterment.
Then by having reserved by
God for the Sabbath Christ’s resurrection from the dead, that day was favoured
by its Maker above any and all other days, and was invested with sanctity and
blessing as never before it had been invested with through the works of God
upon it.
As Everett Harrison quotes
James M. Robinson to have written, “(H)istory
... presented in its unity as the eschatological action of God, prepared by
John the Baptist, inaugurated at the baptism and temptation, carried on through
the struggles with various forms of evil, until in his death Jesus has
experienced the ultimate of historical involvement and of diabolical antagonism. In the resurrection the force of evil is
conclusively broken and the power of God’s reign is established in history.”
(‘Introduction to the New Testament’, p 192)
Bring into play – as do
all four Gospels – the Sabbath Day and its Divine Sanctity over against the
Jews and their diabolical antagonism, and the stage has been set for the scene
of the Great Controversy between Christ the Divine, and Evil the Antagonist of
Christ’ Divinity— completed and closed with the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead.
Therefore, No, by the
involvement of the Sabbath Day in the disputes and battles between Jesus the
Divine and the representatives of Evil, the Sabbath in no way was reduced in
meaning, holiness, blessing, or divine origin and maintaining— for no moment
was it given over to evil in the process. The Sabbath was elevated to a level
of good and virtue like it never before received because God drew it in into his
undertaking to redeem men from sin. The Sabbath was drawn in not only because
it since creation has been the Day of God’s finishing of all His works, but it
was drawn in, in order through Jesus Christ to have received eschatological
purpose and end. Something happened to the Sabbath like something happened to
mankind different from anything before or after. Both found their true reason
for being; their ultimate creation; their everlasting Covenantal relationship. “Therefore
the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath Day” is not the abolishment of the
Sabbath, it is its creation ... “the Sabbath was made”!
While
there are so many recordings of healings without mention of the Sabbath it
would be senseless to make mention of the Sabbath but it was not divine or it through
its being mentioned was not enhanced in its divineness.
Christ
proclaimed his Divine Lordship of the Sabbath, declaring, “For the Son of Man
is Lord even of the Sabbath”. Were the one – Jesus’ Lordship – not divine,
neither was the other – the Lord’s Day. One does not prove he is able to lift
200 lbs by lifting 100 lbs. By Divine Lordship Jesus exerted Divine Power over
what was divine, even the “Sabbath of the LORD your God”. Only by Divine Power
– through this his very own Divinity – could Jesus while proving Lordship over
the Sabbath Day, heal the man with the withered hand. By exerting Messianic Power
of healing and restoration on the Sabbath Day of the LORD, Jesus proved by
demonstration, his Power of Divinity— His very own Lordship not only over, but
of, the Sabbath Day. Christ exerting Lordship over the Sabbath proved both Himself
and the Sabbath Day, divine. (Each
in his own way and true to his own nature. The Sabbath is ‘divine’; Jesus is
‘Divine’; Jesus is, Divinity, the Sabbath is not.) Only Christ Divine able to exert Lordship over the divine Sabbath,
was Christ able to heal the man with the withered hand. The fact Jesus did this
miracle on the Sabbath Day as much demonstrated and proved His Messiaship and
Divinity as did His healing of the man in itself. The two things don’t oppose each other or
diminish or cancel out the one the other, but support, and contribute to, each
other in demonstrating and proving Jesus’ Divinity. Only Christ Divine able to exert Lordship over
the divine Sabbath, was Christ Divine, able to heal the man with the withered
hand. A Christ not Divine or a Christ Lord over but a Sabbath of less than
divine, could not heal or restore— could not save or redeem! Therefore only a
Christ who is Divine by his Lordship over the divine Sabbath, is able to heal
and save; because He is Divine and able to be Lord of and over the Sabbath. The
Sabbath is divine therefore— it is “the Sabbath of the LORD your God” – of Yahweh
Elohim “I Am who I Am The Mighty”. Therefore was Jesus The Able, to “say to the
man, Stretch forth thine hand!” And could the man “stretch it forth”, and could
his hand be “restored, whole, like as the other”.
“Jesus exerted His lordship
over the Sabbath by offering Messianic healing and restoration on that day”, says Samuele
Bacchiocchi. But Jesus not by ‘offering’ merely, but by
‘exerting’ both His Messiaship and Lordship over the Sabbath, healed
and restored— by nothing in any respect less or inferior! By exerting Divinity,
Jesus both healed and restored and swayed Lordship. Everything was about the
Divinity of Christ. It was not a matter that could be brought to fulfilment or
end in anything less than the Lordship of Divinity over both good and evil,
over both Sabbath Day and ailment and death.
See
Christ in Fullness of Power and Authority of God Victor, the Power and Authority
of Full and undiminished Divinity in healing ministry. That’s why Jesus chose
the Sabbath Day for to evoke offence and stumbling. It was not enough to
believe in Him as a great miracle worker and teacher and prophet. Elias the
great miracle worker who came before the great day of the Lord was not the Lord
yet. Jesus must not be known for his miracle-working, but for Who He Is, God.
Faith in Christ the Son of God saves; not faith in the Worker of wonders.
“Until now the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent (miracle
workers) take it by force”, “Even so,
Father!”, “God said to my God, Sit on my
right hand.” Jesus praying to the Father
is Divinity in Fellowship with Divinity. Only from here, Matthew 11:27, “No man
knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal” ... Himself, The Son of God, God
with God. Now only, his Divinity
conditional and axiomatic, does Jesus invite, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn
of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” This is God the Father revealed in Jesus. Unless Jesus’ Divinity be
established can faith; unless the Father is believed through Jesus Christ, the
lowly and meek, can any come to Him and live. By such Authority of Divinity only “I say unto you, That in this
place is One Greater than the temple”, who is “Lord, even (above everything
else) of the Sabbath Day”. Where is greater elevation of the Sabbath Day? Where
is greater elevation anything other than the Sabbath herein received? For the
object thus elevated is brought into the sphere of the jealous God’s own interests!
“Thou shalt make no image nor worship it!” But, “Thou shalt remember the
Sabbath to keep it holy!” (The monstrous scope of the Sabbath Commandment!
Barth.)
No,
I, do not understand. I stand astonished; I see, and I adore the Lord and
Father, the Meek and Lowly, the Son of God, who, “Being the brightness of (God’s) glory and the express image of his
Person, upholding all things by the Word of his Power when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hb1:3-4. Jesus taught nothing nor
availed nothing except in and while “Being the
brightness of (God’s) glory and the express image of his Person”. Everything in
all the Gospel, is about Jesus’ Divinity. There is no other message to be found
in the entire Word of God. And the Sabbath received a very special part to play
in this very revelation of the mercy of God.
The
further prostrated and the lower descended into humiliation the higher Christ
rises in stature of Divineness. The closer hidden His Divinity, the brighter
its Glory.
Samuele Bacchiocchi: “It is noteworthy that all the seven Sabbath healings
reported in the Gospels ... (are)
intentional healing acts performed by Christ on the Sabbath on behalf of
incurable persons serve to demonstrate how Jesus fulfilled Messianic
expectations nourished by the celebration of the Sabbath.” ‘The Sabbath in the New Testament’, pages
74 to 85.
Celebration
of the Sabbath nourished Messianic expectations and Jesus fulfilled those
expectations. (Says Bacchiocchi.) But
did the Sabbath ‘nourish’ ‘celebration’, because the Sabbath, nourished Messianic
expectations? For this was the ‘fullness
of the Sabbath’, that it typified the expectations of Messianic glory. There
was no other sense in either the Sabbath or ‘Sabbath celebration’.
Now
some people have progressed so far as to admit festive note about the Sabbath,
but most others – especially the Seventh Day Adventists, dogmatically have
thrown the cart in reverse gear and to this day deny the Sabbath’s ‘Messianic’ or
‘divine’, ‘meaning’.
That
was an unhappy thing to have happened, and therefore it was an unhappier thing
that Bacchiocchi – who so far progressed in his appreciation of the Sabbath
that he came to realise the Sabbath’s true meaning was not merely a strict
‘keeping’ but a ‘celebration’ of it, and even more, a ‘celebration’ because of
“this
redemptive / Messianic understanding of the Sabbath” – it was an
unhappier thing that Bacchiocchi also threw the cart in reverse gear and denied
the Sabbath’s ‘Messianic’ or ‘divine’, ‘meaning’ to its full consequence and
extent, and in its fullest fulfilment by the resurrection of Christ from the
dead “On the Sabbath Day” (Mt28:1). No!
Bacchiocchi could never admit that much; he shall restrict Christ’s ‘Sabbath
healing ministry’, to his miracles before the cross. Not the resurrection as
well, never the resurrection as ultimate and pinnacle of Jesus’ ‘Sabbath
healing ministry’ or ‘redemptive / Messianic understanding of the Sabbath’!
For Bacchiocchi and the Adventists, as
for the whole world of Sunday-sacredness and their own Mrs E.G. White, the
celebration of Jesus’ resurrection should not be permitted the Seventh Day
Sabbath; the Sabbath may never become the New Testament Lord’s Day! That honour
at all costs must never be surrendered; it belongs to the First Day of the
week. “What a day is this to the world!” The disciples’ mistake should not be
repeated, “The day that was a day of rejoicing to all heaven was to the disciples a day of
uncertainty, confusion and perplexity.” DA/9 “Why Weepest Thou”.
More
noteworthy is it Bachiocchi refers to “seven”, “intentional”, “Sabbath”, “healing acts”. The ‘eighth’ ‘Sabbath healing reported’ in the
Gospels, Jesus’ resurrection, as though it never happened and as though the day
it happened on is not also ‘reported’, Bacchiocchi simply and intentionally, ignores; says no word
of; throws no hint in the direction of.
He ignores the ‘healing episode’ of Jesus’ resurrection as happened it
per accident on the day it happened on and as though its occurrence held
nothing for the day it happened on; that’s why he doesn’t say anything about
it. For Bacchiocchi it seems Jesus’
resurrection in itself had no ‘healing’ power for ‘incurable persons’, nor
could demonstrate or fulfil ‘Messianic expectations’ of healing from the incurable
sickness of sin and death. How else could he never mention or in any way
consider the Resurrection, as an ‘intentional healing act’ of Jesus or of
God? Because it occurred on the Sabbath Day? No, because Bacchiocchi believes it would give Sunday all the wonderful
meaning he wanted to show the Sabbath
received! Bacchiocchi underestimates the common sense of
any common Christian, but he was intelligent enough to have noted Mrs White
obvious capitulation to Sunday sacredness ‘understanding’.
That
Sunday sacredness ‘understanding’ is well illustrated in Bacchiocchi’s referral
to “Donald A
Carson”,
who “... notes
that the healing of the man with the withered hand “pictures Jesus performing a messianic healing on that day. Is this not part and parcel of Matthew’s
fulfilment motives? The rest to which the Sabbath had always pointed, now was
dawning.””
Conclusion. This indicates how the Old Testament Sabbath
Rest held the Promise of Jesus Christ and was being actualized in Christ the
Promised Messianic Rest of God and from God – actualized ultimately and
all-fulfilling through the resurrection of Him from the dead. The Sabbath episodes reported, by their
references to mercy and service, qualified the meaning of the Sabbath-rest as
ultimately fulfilled in the Messianic Redemption and Restoration of Jesus’
resurrection from the dead. In the light
of a redemptive Messianic understanding of the Sabbath, it becomes clear how at
all the Sabbath came to be observed by the Community of the Apostolic Church
and how at all eventually came to be mentioned in the New Testament legacy of
the Gospels in ‘redeeming-episodes’ like the Sabbath-healing anecdotes.
Gerhard Ebersöhn
Private Bag X43
Sunninghill 2157
http://www.biblestudents.co.za