Grahame Walker

Jesus heads to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival. These festivals were very important in Judaism. The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. Leviticus 23: 1-2. Verse nine tells us that the festival was the Sabbath. This was a weekly festival observed in homes and synagogues. As we will see there are strict guidelines around this festival. It’s also what causes a fair bit of controversy with the Jewish leaders. The religious leaders of the day had taken the Old Testament and calculated that it contained 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions, one for every day of the year. To be a person of faith you had to obey every single one of them. All 613. Just to make sure we are clear, there were rules about the rules, to absolutely ensure that the main commandments and prohibitions will be kept.