The Pharisees made the Sabbath a strait jacket that inhibited the Jews, though the rabbis conceded that some activities superceded Sabbath observance. [1] Jesus pointed out that God gave the Sabbath as a good gift. He designed it to free His people from ceaseless labor and to give them rest. Sabbath observance had to contain enough elasticity to assure the promotion of human welfare. Jesus" point was the following. [source][source][source]
"Since the Sabbath was made for Prayer of Manasseh , He who is man"s Lord ... has authority to determine its law and use." [2][source]
Only Mark recorded, "The Sabbath was made for Prayer of Manasseh , not man for the Sabbath" ( Mark 2:27). One of his concerns in this Gospel was the welfare of mankind. [source][source][source]
Since in the Old Testament the Sabbath was the Lord"s day in a special sense, Mark"s statement about Jesus in Mark 2:28 identifies Him again for the reader as God. [3] Jesus had the right to determine how people should use the Sabbath. As mentioned previously, there is some question as to whether the words in this verse were those of Jesus or of Mark (cf. Mark 2:10). [source][source][source]
". . . the exousia [4] of Jesus manifests itself vis-a-vis the rabbinic tradition, the religious hierarchy, and the temple tradition. Foremost here is Jesus" reinterpretation of the Sabbath ..." [5][source]
"With this word Mark drives home for his readers the theological point of the pericope. These things were written that they may understand Jesus" true dignity: he is the Lord of the Sabbath." [6][source]
One writer sought to prove that the New Testament teaches Sabbath observance for Christians. [6]4 I do not think it does (cf. Romans 7:4; Romans 10:4; Romans 14:5; Galatians 4:10-11). [source][source][source]