Not only is Jesus the “Sabbath rest” himself (Matthew 11:28-30), Jesus embodies what he means by being the Sabbath rest in 12:1-8 (where Torah expresses mercy and love of others) and in 12:9-14 (where he shows that showing mercy to others is the point of life with Jesus). Missional Jesus is merciful and summons his followers to be merciful.
Matt. 12:9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10 a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
1. Being missional then means above all things to be merciful to others. Love of others, the second half of Jesus Creed, forms the heart of Torah so that genuine Torah is the Torah of love.
2. Torah is not just law; Torah involves interpretation, and the way to understand Torah is to understand it the way Jesus did.
3. Missional Jesus draws negative response from the religious zealots of his day.
I said this before: one of the ways to define a Pharisee is by seeing them as opposed to the kind of missional work Jesus envisioned for the kingdom of God.