"At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, 4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? 5 Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
9 Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him. 11 And He said to them, "What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, 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 to normal, like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him."
In my experience as a pastor, I have found that people tend to cling to rules about the
Sabbath more than to other commandment of Scripture. I remember hearing so many rules about
what to do and what not to do on Sundays. Over the years people added and subtracted from those rules and unfortunately, traditions handed down have become more important than the original teaching itself. Jesus was very careful not to break Old Testament laws, but He didn’t care so much about breaking traditions. Jesus was no sinner, but He certainly didn’t mind breaking what the religious leaders set up as rules.
As we continue our series in the Gospel of Matthew, here in the first part of the twelfth chapter, we begin to see the full manifestation of the hatred of the religious leaders towards Jesus. And, in the last half of the chapter, we have the blasphemy that follows their rejection. Much like those in the church today, more and more people are starting to oppose the true teaching of Jesus. As they continue to manipulate and twist the Word, there is an unwillingness to acknowledge they've totally got it wrong. In doing so, they're making sure everyone else does as well. As the Gospel is being presented, they claim to follow Jesus yet continue to reject Christ by living in disobedience to His teaching. Hardened by their sin living a life of indifference to sin. Just as Jesus didn't go half way to the cross, there is no way to half way follow Jesus!
By the way, though Sunday is the Lord’s Day and the day when most Christians meet for worship, there is no biblical evidence that the early church observed the Sabbath on Sunday. Today, there are no requirements of observing the Sabbath on Saturday, Sunday or any other particular day. Sabbath means a complete cessation, a stopping of doing something they did on other days. Rest is still a gift from God and ultimately our rest is found in Jesus Christ. The Sabbath commandment is the only commandment that is a non-moral one. It is a ceremonial rule between God and Israel. It's important to note, that all of the other Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament, but not observing the Sabbath, much like circumcision. Because it is not a binding law for the Church. Serving Jesus fulfills the Law.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
We ask and pray this in Jesus name, for His sake and Your glory
Amen
Today's Message: Jesus Christ Lord of the Sabbath
As we’ve been moving through the Gospel of Matthew, it’s become more than apparent that their frustration with Jesus has been growing. Jesus has confronted them on numerous occasions and they have in return attacked Him. This time it is a Sabbath Day issue.
The Pharisees and other religious leaders had created so many laws regarding the
Sabbath making it more difficult to rest than it was to work the other
six days. I couldn’t even begin to tell you all of them, it would take a
lifetime. In one section alone of the Talmud, there are 24 chapters
listing all the Sabbath laws. A scribe could not even carry his pen
because he might write. You couldn't carry a book because you might be
tempted to read. You couldn’t even take a bath for fear it would spill
onto the floor and you might be tempted to clean it up.
Everything from sewing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, sifting,
grinding, sifting with a sieve, kneading, baking, shearing the wool,
washing it, beating it, dying it, spinning, putting it in the weaver’s
beam, making two threads, weaving two threads, separating two threads,
making a knot, undoing a knot, sewing two stitches, tearing in order to
sew two stitches, catching deer, killing, skinning, salting it,
preparing its skin, scraping off its hair, cutting it up, writing two
letters, scraping in order to write two letters, building, pulling down,
extinguishing fire, lighting fire, beating with a hammer, carrying a possession from one place to another, they literally go on and on, it's utterly ridiculous. In other words, they had made what God intended to be a day of rest a royal pain in the neck.
Today, there are hotels with three elevators and one of those was designated as the Sabbath elevator, which
stops on every single floor automatically, all the way up and all the way down, because to press the button on the elevator is considered to be work.
"At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how
he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which
was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the
priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there
whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, "Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them, "What
man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on
the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then He *said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him."
Let's look at verse 1, "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat." "At that time," here we again have the Greek word "kairō," which does not refer to a day but a season in Jesus ministry. He was moving through the villages of Galilee, healing, casting out demons, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. The Pharisees believed that Jesus and His disciples were violating God's Law, He shouldn’t be going places on the Sabbath. The problem is God's Law didn't say that!
So here we have Jesus going "through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat." Now you’ve really got a problem! The grain in that area grain usually ripens in the spring. The farther east you go from there, it ripens later. Because there weren’t really any roads to speak of, as you traveled on your journey, there would be fields of grain on either side of you. In Deuteronomy 23, the Lord made a wonderful provision for the traveler in Israel.
You don't need to turn there, I'll just read it to you, "When you enter your
neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand,
but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain." If you have ever been on a farm, you've probably rolled the heads of wheat it in your hands to clear the kernel out, thrown it in the air to removed the chaff and eaten the grain like you were eating nuts. Jesus and the disciples were not in violation of the Word of God at all. They didn't really carry anything with them when they traveled, they lived by faith and the kindness and generosity of others to feed them.
The Pharisees had taken the concept of not reaping on the Sabbath from Exodus 34, and made it so that even if a person was starving to death, he couldn't pick a handful of grain. Of course, I imagine they would have actually had to determine for themselves, what qualifies as starving to death. Calculating how long it had been since a person had eaten. Then there's the issue of how long would he live and if he would actually die if they didn’t give him some food. That's how ridiculous they were. So the Lord provided for the hungry traveler.
Now that you have the idea, let's look at verse 2. "But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." Clearly, this was not what God had intended with the reaping command in Exodus 34, which says "You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest." Let's face it, the Pharisees followed Jesus everywhere, lurking in the shadows, just looking for anything with which to accuse Him. Even to the point of splitting-hairs! I'm certain the Pharisees were thinking to themselves, "We've got them red-handed now!" Even with the standards that has God and all that Christ's Lordship implies, it doesn't compare to that of the legalistic Pharisees! They had made was to be a day of rest a day excruciating, back-breaking hardship.
In verses 3-4, Jesus did not address the Pharisees’ interpretation of the law or the law itself. Instead, He points out that if the lesser is true, then the greater must be true as well. I love His sarcasm."But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?" "Haven’t you read?" Of course they had read, the implication is they don’t know what it means. Jesus instructs them by giving three principles to show the true meaning of the Sabbath.
First, He points out that David and his men were truly in need, we remember that he was fleeing for his life, Saul was after him. When he came to the tabernacle, he went in to talk Ahimelech, the high priest, and told him he was hungry. He gave him the showbread to eat, from the table in the tabernacle, which was considered sacred to be eaten only by the priests.
Leviticus 24 says "Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord. Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever."
So the Sabbath was never intended to restrict deeds of necessity. The Pharisees had it all wrong! The Sabbath was to reflect; love toward God and love toward your fellow man. After all, that’s what the Ten Commandments are all about, right? Deuteronomy 6 says "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." The law was never intended to stand in the way of meeting people’s needs. That's why He made a provision for overriding the law if it requires that to meet someone's needs.
The second thing is the Sabbath was never intended to restrict service to God. Much like today, when most Christians meet for worship, pastors work unselfishly on Sunday's, to minister to the people of God. God works on the Sabbath. Because God is loving, He is concerned about meeting the needs of people, even on the Sabbath. That is the heart of God. I believe that's something the church had ought to carefully consider today.
In His Word God made provisions for overriding the law, that why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, "But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace."
So, in verse 5 Jesus says "Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?" I love that. "Or have you not read in the Law." Of course they had read the law, they didn't understand it, that was the issue. Once again Jesus sets them straight, which He was really good at. This time by pointing out that the all functioning priests profaned the Sabbath all the time, because they worked every Sabbath. It's difficult to provide a sacrifice if they didn't light a fire or kill an animal. Then, they had to lift the animal up to put it on the altar, which by the way, weighed more than a dried fig. If the priests and David can violate a divine law, then can not one greater than they
violate a rabbinic tradition to express the heart of God in meeting
need?
Service to God is a higher priority though it actually violates the Sabbath, every pastor works on Sunday's. I am not aware of any pastor who has been accused of violating the Sabbath. Though maybe now, someone having heard this will.
Listen to verse 6, "But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here." "One greater than the temple," Jesus is saying, "I am greater than the temple," can you imagine the look of shock on their faces? This had to be a devastating blow to them because the temple was everything to the Pharisees; it represented the holy presence of God and God Himself. Today, it's hard for us to really understand that because God is everywhere but in that day God dwelt in the temple. In a bold statement, Jesus is saying "If the tabernacle and the temple tolerate it, then I am allowed to do it because I’m greater than both of these."
So often, we hear people say that Jesus never actually claimed to be God, well, let me tell you something, that statement is a claim to deity; God became flesh in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:1 says " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And, in verse 14, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Even the strict letter of law cannot stand in the way of God Who created the law! If they had really known God at all, they would have known that God wanted mercy, not ritual. But because of because of the hardness of their hearts they didn't understand that there are times when kindness, self-sacrifice, mercy override the law.
They indicted Him, now He really turns it around on them and lays this out strong indictment in verse 7 "But if you had known what this means, "‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent." In other words, "Since I initiate the Sabbath, let Me interpret it for you!" The Sabbath was His yet they thought they knew more than Him. In order to reveal His merciful heart, God sets aside that law and aren't we glad? The Sabbath is the Lord's Day, of all days you would think we would show others mercy in meeting others needs.
Look at Romans 9:15 "For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Because we’ve all sinned, in many instances we should be dead. God set
aside His standard in order to show His mercy. By the way, that is His
prerogative!
Verse 8, "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus is saying "I am in charge of the Sabbath, not you! You really don’t know what it means to worship God." He was no longer going to tolerate their perversion of His intended purpose. This must have been another shocking indictment for the Pharisees who held themselves in such piety regard. Jesus is kind, loving, gentle and compassionate but make no mistake, Jesus is not a push over.
By the way, Christ fulfilled the Sabbath. Look at Hebrews 4, verse 10 "For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." We’ve entered into rest because of Christ. The Pharisees ruined that day of rest with all their additional laws, which made it impossible. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." The Pharisees made the burden unbearable to carry. Since Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath, it’s not a big deal any longer for us to keep it. It's more of a personal choice, some do and some don't. Just don't offend some else because of their choice.
Paul tells us in Colossians 2, "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ."
In verses 9-13, Jesus really gets under their skin with another illustration. "Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them, "What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then He *said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other."
Because the synagogue was the center of religious learning and fellowship, it must've have been natural for Jesus to be there. Just as it was for Him to want to heal the man with the paralyzed hand. He wanted to illustrate the lesson He just gave them. They knew Jesus could heal, so that didn’t faze them. The law stated that you could only help a human in need on the Sabbath if his was in danger. The man with a paralyzed hand was not life and death. He was not going to die. In verse 10 they questioned Jesus, asking, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—so that they might accuse Him. They thought they had Jesus cornered this time.
Verse 11, He asks them "What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?" This wasn’t quite the same. So Jesus was pointing out they would have figured out a way to get that sheep out of there. Verse 12, He says "How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." To them sheep were better than men.
We know the Pharisees were obviously not happy with Jesus. Now they’re stuck. You would think that they would have learned their lesson by now, but they didn't. I imagine they were so frustrated by their inability to trap Him, that's why they decided to have Him killed instead. The Lord was always compassionate, quite frankly, they didn’t care if the man was healed or not. To have the ability to do good for someone who is made in the image of God and to not do it, is evil. Doing good overrides following a list of rules. God's love is greater than legalism. So in His loving compassion for the man Jesus did the only thing He could do, He healed the man.
Verse 13, "Then He *said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other." Mark records it this way in chapter 3 verse 5 "After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored." Jesus connected the Sabbath with the heart of God rather than the ceremonial law. I can imagine the joy of the man who was healed and that with the exception of a gasp, there was a chilling silence from the Pharisees.
That brings us to verse 14, "But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." The Sabbath was created to illustrate the heart of God, benevolence, mercy, kindness, goodness. The Pharisees completely missed it. They were enraged. They were so legalistic they violated the heart of God. Ritual and tradition can never stand in the way of serving God, meeting the needs of others. They were so caught up in the system of religion, the traditional law that they didn't have a relationship with God. That’s what pride, arrogance, and sin will do to you.
In Closing..
God shows His love and mercy through Jesus Christ. He is greater than every law, every church building or church tradition, and every pastor. Jesus didn't violate the laws of God, He fulfilled them. Jesus isn't saying that God’s laws don’t matter but we don’t need to add to them. And apart from Christ we can’t follow God’s law. We need Jesus!
Jesus’ lesson is very clear; Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, means meeting the needs of others on the Sabbath and every other day. Because God wants mercy to be shown to those in need. Sabbath rest is good, but it’s lawful to do good on the Sabbath. God pours out His grace, goodness, mercy, kindness, compassion, and benevolence and tenderness to us in Jesus!
There are many people who know about Jesus, or some distorted version of Jesus but they really don’t know Jesus in Scripture. If you don't know Jesus, I'd like to encourage you to turn to Jesus and His great grace who wants to give you rest today! If you have recently given your life to Christ, I'd love to hear from you. I pray that God will work mightily in your life.
I proclaim to you today the same message which Jesus proclaimed to the Pharisees; love is greater than legalism. We are never more like Christ than when demonstrate the love of God.
May it be so..
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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