The term Shabbat refers to the Jewish Sabbath: keeping the seventh day to rest and worship God. By Jesus' time it had become a huge weekly burden and Pharisees and Scribes were strictly enforcing Shabbat laws. Sadly, they missed the entire spirit of it, becoming experts in minutiae instead. In the middle of all that, Jesus gave a simple, memorable guideline: The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath! With those words, Jesus and His followers were headed for trouble... really BIG trouble.
