Did Jesus Change the Sabbath?
By Luella A. Harmon
“Why no, of course, He did not make the change,” some one says, “but after He was raised from the dead the apostles changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day in commemoration of His resurrection.” Do you mean to say that the apostles, after all Jesus had taught them by example and precept, after His return to heaven, set about to change the Sabbath to suit themselves; thinking they had a better reason for making the first day the Sabbath than God had for making the seventh day the Sabbath? We will investigate, and see if those apostles did make such a change. It seems very strange that they tried to overthrow the Saviour’s teaching and to change God’s unchangeable law. The first day is mentioned but eight times in the New Testament; let us see if it is called a Sabbath: Read all the texts cited above. 1. Have you noticed that never a one of the New Testament writers says anything about the change of the Sabbath? Nor do they call the first day of the week the Sabbath. 2. Mary did not go home and keep that day for the Sabbath. She with Joanna, and Mary the mother of Jesus, ran back to tell the other disciples. 3. The disciples did not believe Jesus had risen, “and their [the women’s] words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” Luke 24:11; Mark 16:11, 13. Peter and John ran to the sepulcher to see, and then returned home, but Mary remained at the tomb weeping. 4. That same day two disciples took a long walk to Emmaus, and back, about fifteen miles. Luke 24:13. They did not know in the afternoon of that day that He had risen. 5. Jesus did not meet with the apostles until the evening after that day, while they were eating their evening meal. They met during the last hours of that day; the meal and the coming of Jesus were later. They were terrified when He came in, for they thought He was a spirit. The day had passed, and they did not yet believe He had arisen. He had to let them handle Him, and see the nail prints in His hands and feet; and to further assure them that He was not a spirit, He ate some of the fish and honey from their supper, then they believed. Luke 24:36-43. Now we know they did not keep the first day as a holy day; for some of them were traveling on that day, while the majority of them did not believe He had arisen until after the evening meal, and had not seen Him once during the whole day, and, as all know, the day ended at sunset.