<p>2:27 <em>And he said to them: The Sabbath was designed for man, and not man for the Sabbath</em>- Mark alone records this. The allusion is surely to the fact that at creation, man was made NEV &quot;designed&quot; just before the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made afterwards, so that man could rest. The Sabbath, the seventh day, came <em>after </em>man's creation on the sixth day. It was therefore for man. It was for man's blessing, and therefore it was wrong to add legislation to it which made it an utter pain for man rather than a blessing. We can almost read in an ellipsis- the Sabbath was made for man's blessing. Man was not made in order to keep a pre-existing legal code about the Sabbath. The laws and institutions of God were intended for human <em>blessing</em>; and yet human legalism has meant that so often, they become a curse and frustration to man. Man is not made or designed to keep legal codes- man was not made to keep &quot;the Sabbath&quot; as it was being presented by Judaism at that time. The Sabbath was made for man's blessing, not in order to trap him. This same argument can be applied to so many of the trappings of religion, from dress codes to statements of faith.</p>