Jesus and the Sabbath

Some of the sharpest exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes in the beginning stages of Jesus' ministry related to proper observance of the Sabbath. The Pharisees followed traditional customs which mandated against physical activities, even including healing. Jesus, we can suppose, usually lived by similar customs (as He goes to the synagogues on the Sabbath) yet also argued for a wider interpretation of what the Sabbath was about. The Pharisees observed the Sabbath as a way to honor God, and also as a means of expressing their loyalty to God over against those who didn't observe it as strictly as they did. Absolute rest (as physical non-exertion) proved their loyalty.

Jesus however had a different view of what "rest" was really about, and there is plenty of scripture that Jesus could have drawn upon to back up His viewpoint. In the Old Testament, all the way back to Genesis 1, "rest" is often used as indicating things being in their proper order: God is on the heavenly throne, Israel is properly ruled, and the land and people are cared for. We see this in the following scriptures:

Deuteronomy 12:10-11
 ¹⁰ When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety, ¹¹ then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.

Judges 3:10-11
The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel; he went out to war, and the Lord gave King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim. ¹¹ So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel son of Kenaz died.

1 Kings 8:54-56
Now when Solomon finished offering all this prayer and this plea to the Lord, he arose from facing the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven; ⁵⁵ he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice: ⁵⁶ “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised; not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke through his servant Moses. 

Rest in all of these instances did not mean that all activity ceased, but rather that things were set right. The Sabbath then could be interpreted as a sign of the world set right, as it was right in the very beginning (Genesis 1). Jesus' entire ministry could be viewed as giving the world rest then, as He said in Matthew 11:29, "Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest." Viewed like this, Jesus' healing on the Sabbath was exactly what the Sabbath was meant to point to: God's order established in the world (and the Kingdom of God as an unending Sabbath). So Jesus does not disregard the Sabbath, rather, He fulfills it.