What did Jesus mean when He said?

The Jews were super anal about not letting anyone do any work on the Sabbath. In fact, they would sometimes punish people quite severely who did. Jesus was saying that the Sabbath was not meant to be a burden. Rather, the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man.

It means that God gave the instruction of the sabbath rest for man's behalf. It was to allow a man to take time to rest and do what was pleasing for him. It was for the health of the body by winding down and giving the body time to relax. Jesus and the disciples where not working the whole field to harvest large quantities. they were hungry and so they gathered enough to eat and help their weak bodies. Jesus gives the example of David eating the showbread. Again it was to provide nourishment for the body and subsequently the overall health of the body that they did this. Jesus is saying that it is good to take time to rest, but that is not to keep you from doing anything at all. If your house is burning, it doesn't mean that you have to let your house burn because you cannot lift a pail of water to dowse the flames, which is how far the people would take the sabbath rest to the extreme. Jesus taught about farmers that had cattle fall into a ditch and how they wouldn't just let it die by struggling to get out. Summed up, it Jesus said this to let people know that they can still do things that help you in the long run and that it's ok to avoid danger and such and that you can protect your house and belongings and herds or livelyhood.

In historical context the Pharisees, Sadducee's and other Jewish religious groups of Jesus day made lots of regulations like how far you could walk from your house on the Sabbath and then made way to get around those regulations like for example if a rope extended out from your house that was part of your house and thus you could walk even farther by walking that distance from the rope. Or remember when Jesus healed that cripple on the Sabbath and the Pharisees went crazy cause he was healing/ working on the Sabbath and Jesus asked them if one of their ox fell into a well on the Sabbath if they would not get him out? Or how the Pharisees threw a big fit cause some of Jesus disciples shucked some husks off some grain and popped it in his mouth cause he was hungry and they got at him for working on the Sabbath. You had to go outside the city to poop because of the regulations of the time but you weren't allowed to walk that far on the Sabbath. It means that God wanted man to relax on the Sabbath, not to work so hard at relaxing that it was no longer relaxing. In Israel all the elevators in the hotels stop on every floor on the Sabbath because to push the button causes an electric impulse to go up a wire and that is setting a fire and it is unlawful to set a fire on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was made for the good of man.

That God had a relationship in mind when He created Man in the beginning and on that Sabbath Day they were to commune together, a rest for each other in each other. Each Sabbath that was ordained was to further that relationship and communion till the final and fullest form of it came in the Man Christ Jesus who is our Sabbath Rest!

Was the word made for God or was the word made for Man? The sabbath is referring to a law and a day of the week. God wants more out of you than just 2 hour of one 168 a week. you think.

That we should Honor the Sabbath and keep it Holy rather than just treating it as another day

The shaping of a day of rest and recourse must be reflective of what's best as resourcefulness---but as ideology,not as another minding operation. Whatever our greatest designs we may so boldly draw upon the crusted surface of our yard, of the swept-out, over-the-threshold into the outside--- congealing with mud, clay, and sand---our weekday constructions are best to be second-comings of Christian creativity originated in the sanctitude of being actual, and real, all atonce.. We reserve a day of seven just to test if it serves its purpose before Monday spends the money, and the news is askewed.

it means that the sabbath was made for all of mankind.

Isaiah 56, 6-8

6. And the foreigners (Gentiles) who join with the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, everyone who observes the Sabbath from profaning it and who holds fast to My covenant.

The True Sabbath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqUE49zYlXw&feature...

Truth vs Error - Leo vs T.D. Jakes (Sabbath)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyIR4efoMBk&feature...

Leo Schreven VS John Hagee (SABBATH) Truth VS Error

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5viQsQAJF4&feature...

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/

Historic Denominational Statements on the Sabbath

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/sabbath-history/denomi...

The Sabbath and the Mark of the Beast

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/faq/advanced-topics/th...

Colossians 2:16