Readings: Matt 5:17-20, NC lawmaker; John 5:1-23; Matt 12:1-8; Mark 7.1-23; Agency exemplified by Sabbath, food laws non-keeping!
Intro: Biblical Agency explained
Malachi 3-4 and others show that application of OT texts about God applied to others does not they are God.
Sarah's saying: shared titles, names, attributes does not mean the same ID.
https://thehumanjesus.org/2023/02/14/biblical-agency/
https://thehumanjesus.org/2024/12/05/speaking-for-and-as-god/
Malachi 3: Messengers of the NC
John and Jesus both fulfill and as a result replace the OC Law system.
Luke 16.16 and Matthew 11.13 the Law and the prophets in effect or in force until John (as some translations say). NOTE this does not mean until Jesus finished his work, i.e., died on the cross!
John’s NC baptism-ministry marked the beginning of the end (as it were) of the Jewish Temple system as a whole. Think of him as the opening act, not the headliner.
And the headliner Jesus is the new covenant lawmaker READ: Matt 5:17-20
Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Jesus did not say: I did not come to abolish Torah but to KEEP the Torah! The word “fulfill" needs to be understood in its proper CONTEXT: Jesus came to give Torah its full and complete meaning/understanding, not simply to REPEAT it.
The New Living Translation paraphrase nicely captures the sense:
Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.
Mat 5.19, the least of these commandments maybe reference back to the beatitudes and what will later follow.
Jesus as supreme agent, God’s Son embodies and completes the law’s purpose by his NC preaching and practice (Mat 5 beginning of Law of Messiah).
And Jesus practiced what he preached. To not do so would mean he was a hipocrite, like the Jews he constantly criticized.
You cannot accuse Jesus of being a sinner, i.e., lawbreaker when he was not subject to that Law of Moses.
The Gospels present him as Moses redevivus, the NC lawmaker! NOTE the blood/cross itself is not the NC!
The Sabbath: Agency exemplified
https://jesuskingdomgospel.com/did-jesus-break-the-sabbath-or-human-traditions/
Read: John 5:1-23
Most believe Jesus remained Torah-observant and never broke OC laws like the Sabbath but only “human traditions” or later additions by Jewish scribes and Pharisees.
But if we look back to the OC Sabbath Law and what God had originally required from the Jews, we see no such "humanitarian exemptions."
Ex 16:22-30, before Sinai and the 10 commandments: "Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today."
Ex 20:8-10, at Sinai, the giving of the 10 commandments: "You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates." Cp. Lev. 23:3; Deut 5.12-15 where the 10 are repeated.
Later prophets like Jeremiah 17:22, 24 and Nehemiah 13.19 add: "You must not carry a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day or do any work."
The Rabbis confirmed this understanding by saying that carrying anything from one place to another is the last of 39 works forbidden (Mishnaic tractate Sabbath 7:2; carrying empty beds is implicitly forbidden in 10:5).
First, note that throughout the Gospel of John Jesus repeatedly claims to be the Messiah, i.e., the prophet God had told Moses about back in Deut 18.18-19. NOTE: he was to be a prophet like Moses and not a repeat Moses.
The prophecy explains why Jesus, in John 5:17, doubles down on the Jewish charge of breaking the Sabbath by saying:
“To this very day [i.e., the Sabbath day in question] My Father is at His work, and I too am working.”
Again, Jesus stood there on the Sabbath day and declared that he was “working” on that Saturday!
John rightly concludes:
"For this reason they [the Jews] tried all the more to kill" Jesus because he was "breaking the Sabbath"!
As a result, Jesus was "making himself equal with God," i.e., Jesus was putting himself on par with God when it came to the Sabbath law.
The NET Bible on v 18 notes that:
In claiming the right to work even as his Father worked, Jesus was claiming a divine prerogative (I.e., authority) as 5:18 goes on to state explicitly for the benefit of the reader who might not have made the connection.”
So "making himself equal with God" has nothing to do with some metaphysical statement regarding the nature or being of Jesus or God.
John's simple, yet profound point, has to do with Jesus “working on the Sabbath” (as Jesus himself admits) and as a result “breaking the Sabbath” (as John himself was witness to).
As unique agent, NC lawmaker Jesus makes "humanitary exceptions" the rule: READ: Matt 12:1-8.
Food laws: Agency exemplified
Jesus uses his criticism of the tradition of the Jewish elders (about "common hands" and things, 7.2,5) to make a further comment regarding food laws, Mark 7:14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
Mark 7:15 "Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile make them unclean, koinos."
Mark 7:19b, most translations: “In saying this Jesus declared all foods clean [katharizon].” Cp. parallel account in Luke 11.41 GNT “But give what is in your cups and plates to the poor, and everything will be ritually clean [kathara] for you.”
NOTE unclean animals came to be called "common" during the Maccabean period, BC times.
Hence, in the NT Greek koinos common is synonymous with akarthatos unclean used in LXX of Leviticus:
Jew-Gentile Table-fellowship
Jesus practiced what he preached, he ate with “sinners," i.e., Jews or Gentiles who did not meet the demands of the purity regulations of the Torah: Matt 9:10-17; Mark 2:15-22; Luke 5:29-39.
Jewish ID markers removed by Jesus meaning non-Torah keeper and Gentile inclusion in the Messianic banquet: Luke 13:
28 “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29 People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.
Verified by Historian Dr. Luke: Acts 10.14b NASB 1995 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy [koinos] and unclean [akathartos].”
Acts 11.8b NIV “Nothing impure [koinos] or unclean [akathartos] has ever entered my mouth.”
And the Apostle Paul: Romans 14.14 “I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean [koinos] in itself.” Romans 14.20b “All food is clean [katharos]."
Verified by Apostolic church, Jerusalem Council.
Gentiles should not be circumcicsed, i.e., not keep the Law of Moses! Acts 15.19
“And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”
Almost 10 years later in Acts 21:25a
“With regard to the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter containing our decision and concluded that they observe no such thing.”
Summary
Only Jesus could declare, time and again, that human needs are now of greater value than Sabbath-keeping.
Only Jesus, as God’s only-procreated Son, could free both Jews and Gentiles from the unqualified, strict obligations of that Old Covenant Sabbath law.
And only Jesus could say that his followers “break the Sabbath and yet are innocent”! Mat 12.5.
Theological Dictionary of the NT: In Mark 2.27 man and his needs are said to be of greater value than the commandment. The absolute obligation of the commandment is thus challenged…. The second saying in v. 28 goes much further: “The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” The Christian community is confessing Jesus, the Son of Man, who as [lord Messiah] decides concerning the applying or transcending of the Sabbath. In His lordship Sabbath casuistry comes to an end.
