Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Matthew 12:8

Matthew 12:8. For the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath. This crowning thought occurs in all three narratives. The emphasis rests on the word ‘Lord.' The term ‘Son of man' implies His Messiahship. The Jews admitted that the authority of the Messiah was greater than that of the law of the Sabbath, hence this declaration would serve to increase the hostility of the Pharisees. Still the more prominent idea is this: as Son of man, Head and Representative of renewed humanity, our Lord is Lord of the Sabbath. As such He has the right to change the position of the day, but the language points to a perpetuity of the institution. It implies further that a new air of liberty and love will be breathed into it, so that instead of being what it then was, a badge of narrow Jewish feeling and a field for endless hair-splitting about what was lawful and unlawful, it becomes a type and foretaste of heaven, a day when we get nearest our Lord, when we rise most with Him, when our truest humanity is furthered, because we are truly made like the ‘Son of man.' See, further, on Mark 2:27. Lange: ‘Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, being Himself the personal sabbath: all that leads to Him and is done in Him, is Sabbath observance; all that leads from Him is Sabbath-breaking.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Matthew 12:8

Old Testament

New Testament