Jesus & The Sabbath

​B I B L E  B I T S  &  B I T E S
Devotions For Families

2022 Theme: “Doing Life with Jesus”
Week 8: Jesus & The Sabbath
Weekly Bible Bite: Mark 2:23-3:6

Video lesson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YNtynWHCHM (The Chosen – scene concerning Jesus and the Sabbath)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3m2MMhikl8 (Superkids Bible Story – Jesus Heals a Man with a Withered Hand)

One of God’s ten commandments instructed people that they were to treat the Sabbath day as holy and not do regular kinds of work. The Sabbath was the seventh day of creation when God rested, which for the Jewish people was from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday. On the Sabbath they would not work and would instead go to the synagogue or temple in Jerusalem to worship God. Many Christian churches treat Sunday as the Sabbath—a time to go to church, to worship God and to spend time learning from the Bible with others.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day insisted that ‘doing no regular work’ meant no work at all, not even if it meant doing good; but Jesus had a different view of what kinds of work were not permitted. In fact, Jesus got into trouble with the Pharisees because he did do work which they thought he shouldn’t…like healing people. Being both man and God, Jesus knew what the commandment to honour the Sabbath meant; he showed people that it was meant to help people, not be something that made people’s lives difficult.

A number of times Jesus healed on the Sabbath. He showed us that it was good to do good on the Sabbath. When his hungry disciples were walking through a grain field, he showed us that the Sabbath’s rule about doing no work was not intended to prevent people from enjoying a meal, but was rather to be treated as an opportunity to take a rest from work and to focus on spending time with God. After all, the Sabbath was a gift from God to help people; it was not just another rule to follow.

Family goal:
What is a good thing your family can do to honour the Sabbath? ____________________
[Be sure to pick a measurable goal involving a task so that children will know when they have completed it.]

Weekly verses:
Mark 2:27, NLT – “Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.’”

Family activities:
• Colour the picture of Jesus and the man whose hand was healed.
• Create a hand-wreathe of some of the good things you could do.
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Prayer:
Thank you, God that you gave us the gift of the Sabbath, so we could take a break from regular work and focus on doing life with you. Help me to find times throughout my week, to spend time with you and to do good to others.