The words Sabbath Sticks, Stones, and Sacraments sound strange as a title for an article, but let me explain. The Old Testament contains the disturbing story of a man stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. A millennium and a half later the Lord Jesus addressed the matter of Sabbath Law violations (Matthew 12:1-8). Despite this, many today still read 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 as an early church example of a sticks-and-stones judgment. However, this time for violating a sacrament. In this article, I am attempting to deal with these troublesome passages from a Jesus perspective. Hence the title, Sabbath Sticks, Stones, and Sacraments. The Jesus Perspective If you have read my books and articles, you will know that I am a passionate champion of Christocentricity. In essence, this word signifies a focus on the Lord Jesus Christ as the ultimate revelation of the Godhead. What I refer to as the Christocentric Principle is an approach to biblical interpretation that seeks to understand all parts of scripture from a Jesus-perspective.  In other words, it is a way of interpreting scripture primarily from the perspective of what Jesus taught and modelled, and from what He revealed concerning the nature, character, values, principles and priorities of the Godhead. Raising a red flag In terms of this principle, when we encounter things in life or in the scriptures that do not seem to conform to what Jesus revealed, then we need to ‘raise a red flag’. By raising a flag, I mean that we should recognise that we need to understand more about the troublesome text or circumstance. What Jesus said, did, and revealed of the Godhead is the standard against which we weigh everything. So, we need to rigorously interrogate anything that appears contrary to this.

If, at this point, you want to understand more fully what I mean by Christocentricity and why I hold this view, then please read my academic article HERE. The man stoned for picking up sticks on the Sabbath I have commented on this incident before in a post titled ‘The Bloodthirsty Warrior God of the Bible’ but here is the gist what I wrote:

Numbers 15:32-36 reads: ‘While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.”  So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses’.

We don’t know why the man was violating the commandment not to work on the Sabbath. Perhaps he needed to make a fire to cook his food, but had been too sick to gather the wood earlier. We just don’t know. However, it seems that Moses enquired of God what to do and believed that God’s answer was that the poor man should be stoned to death! Now, what are we to do with this?

Perhaps God was setting an example of what would happen to defiant Sabbath-breakers? But hang on a moment... didn’t Jesus Christ later say; “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”? (Matthew 12:7-8) Moreover,He also said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). Jesus teaches on Sabbath violation Matthew 12:1-8 contains the full account of this event: Jesus and His band of disciples had been travelling through some grainfields on the Sabbath. This in itself was problematic for the religious teachers of the day because their theologians had ruled that walking anything more than a few paces on a Saturday was a violation of the commandment not to work on the Sabbath. Yet Jesus’ disciples went one step further (excuse the feeble pun) by picking heads of grain to eat. Now they were not only travelling on the Sabbath, but they were also harvesting!