We are moving into chapter 12 in our study of the gospel of Matthew. We begin here to see the full-on rejection of Jesus by the Jewish religious leaders. In the middle of chapter 11 we saw the indifference of the people of Israel, but here in chapter 12 we there is a more intentional rejection as the growing unbelief of Israel begins to emerge as hatred. This movement begins with a particular incident focused around the Lord’s actions and teachings on the Sabbath day.
Understanding what the Sabbath day meant to the Pharisees and religious Jews of Jesus’ day introduces outsiders to what it really meant to be a Jew. There were three primary things that defined Judaism in the minds of the Pharisees, three areas of law that were foundational; and that was circumcision, keeping kosher or the dietary laws, and keeping the Sabbath. The same is largely true today among Orthodox Jews. There is a wide variety of traditions and beliefs within Judaism, much like the many different denominations in Protestant Christianity. Much has to do with cultural background, where that line of Orthodox Judaism grew throughout the centuries; and a large part has to do with the rabbinical schools and traditions that they follow; but what defines what makes someone a religious or Orthodox Jew as compared to just being a cultural or racial Jew is those three areas of circumcision, dietary laws, and keeping the Sabbath.
The lengths that the Jewish people would go in order to keep the Sabbath are almost unbelievable. They were so intent on not working on the Sabbath that during the Maccabean rebellion in the years before Christ when the Jews were fighting against their Greek conquerors there was an incident in which Jewish rebels hid in caves in the wilderness. When the commander of the Army sent to destroy them, Antiochus Ephiphanes, ordered his men to attack on the Sabbath day, the Jews would not lift their swords to defend themselves and simply allowed the enemy to kill them with no resistance. A similar scenario happened when they were fighting against the Romans in the middle of the first century B.C. The Roman commander, Gen. Pompey knew of their dedication to the Sabbath and so waited until that day to order attacks on Jerusalem knowing that many of the defenders would refuse to take up arms and that is exactly what happened, allowing Jerusalem to be sacked and bringing the area around Israel under Roman occupation.
If that seems extreme, it is really just the tip of the iceberg of Jewish adherence to the Sabbath. The traditions of the scribes and Pharisees had grown to a tremendous length concerning the Sabbath laws. There were laws upon laws they got to ridiculous levels. You were not allowed to plow a field, that was considered work, that kinda makes sense; but to make sure you did nothing like plowing a field, you were not allowed to drag a chair across the dirt floor of your house because it might make a furrow in the ground. You are not allowed to carry a load heavier than a dried fig; you were not allowed to throw an object in the air and catch it with the other hand, the hand you threw with was fine just not the opposite hand. You are not allowed to travel more than 3000 paces from your house, though there were ridiculous exceptions like, if you had a piece of furniture placed outside 2999 paces away that counted as your house as well and so you could go an additional 3000 from there. You are not allowed to plow the fields, reap the harvest, thresh, window, grind grain, or even make bread.
This morning we are going to look at the Jewish understanding of the Sabbath and how Jesus interacted with the people of his time. When Jesus began His ministry, the Old Covenant was still in effect and all of its requirements were still binding on the Jews. It is important to understand this interaction in their context and not look at it anachronistically. As the people of God on this side of the cross we have a different relationship with the Sabbath. Next week we will focus on how the Christian is to understand the concept of the Sabbath and how we apply the principles of the Old Covenant Law to our lives today without being subject to the Law itself. It is an important topic and one that deserves its own message. But before we can do that, we must understand the way God meant for the Jewish people to observe the Sabbath.
With that in mind let us read our passage for today, Matthew 12:1-14 as Jesus begins to confront directly the most sacred traditions of the Pharisees, those concerning the Sabbath. Read.
“At that time Jesus went through the grain fields 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 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, ‘I it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ so 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 our 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.”
There is a reason that this section comes immediately after Jesus’s statement in 11:28-30. Because the Pharisees had placed upon the people a burden that they could not carry. Jesus will say to them in chapter 23 that they “tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.” The Sabbath was meant to be a day of rest, but it became the most wearying and burdensome day of the week for a religious Jew. It was meant to be a day of ceasing from labor in order for one’s body to recuperate and in order to focus on God through the reading and teaching of His Word and to spend time in worship. Instead, it was more tiresome than the six days devoted to one’s occupation. The Sabbath was anything but a time of rest and the tradition of the Pharisees had imposed upon the people an ungodly, legalistic system that had caused them to be weary and heavy laden.
Matthew begins this interaction with the phrase “at that time” which does not necessarily indicate that the events he is about to describe occurred directly after those just mentioned in Chapter 11 but in the same general time. However, what is clear is that he is drawing a direct connection between the teachings of Jesus. As Jesus and his disciples were traveling as part of the Lord’s ministry, they needed to eat and so they took advantage of the welfare system that God had commanded in the Mosaic law. They were not rich, they had no wealthy benefactor to pay their way and even if they did, restaurants or inns were not common in that area and so as they grew hungry they took handfuls of grain from the fields that they were passing.
This was allowed for in the Old Testament law as a way of providing for the poor and for travelers. Roads in the region, or better described as paths, often went directly alongside planted fields and travelers were allowed to take a handful of grain or grapes or whatever was being grown. They were not allowed to put any in a bag or basket to take with them, only enough to feed themselves while they were walking by, and they were not allowed to use any tools it had to all be by hand. So this was all allowed by the Mosaic law in Deuteronomy 23. Where the Pharisees became incensed at seeing Jesus and his disciples doing this was their interpretation of “working” on the Sabbath.
The fourth commandment in Exodus 20, in case you were unaware begins in verse eight with “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work.” In chapter 34 it is described a little further in verse 21 “you shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.” Even in the busiest seasons when there was a severe time crunch to get fields planted or harvested, they were to do no work. The Pharisees took these simple commands and turn them into ridiculous restrictions. According to rabbinic tradition if you rubbed grain together in the hands to break off the outer layers that was a form of threshing, if you blew away the chaff that was a form of winnowing.
So the Pharisees think they have Jesus in a “gotcha” moment and point out in verse two “look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” “See, you are breaking the rules, you cannot be the Messiah, you are not really a good person.” You have to wonder how the Pharisees were out in the grain fields themselves to see Jesus doing this if they were not allowed more than 3000 paces from their house. I suppose they could have prepared the day before by taking chairs and stashing them around town but who knows. But their accusation was itself sinful as they were attempting to saddle Jesus and His disciples with human tradition that overstepped even the law of God’s own Word.
Jesus destroys this silly attempt with a simple example from the Old Testament, which he begins with “have you not read.” He has said something like this before, if you remember back to chapter 9 as he was calling Matthew, when the Pharisees tried to take him to task for eating with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus quotes to them the same passage from Hosea 6:6 that he will in verse 7 that we will see in just a minute. Jesus said to them “go and learn what this means.” “Have you not read?” Do not you know Scripture? You claim to be the teachers of the law, the experts, and yet you do not even know this simple principle or this story about one of your greatest examples, King David.
While David was on the run from King Saul who is trying to kill him in 1 Samuel 21, the anointed king and his men came to where the tabernacle was located and they asked for food because they were starving. The priest, Ahimelech, gave them the consecrated bread of the presence which was not lawful for David to eat but only for the priests according to the Mosaic law. And yet neither David nor Ahimelech are condemned for this action. Why? Because, as Jesus was trying to point out to the Pharisees, the law of God was primarily about two things, what Jesus summarizes as the two greatest commandments in Matthew 22. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and the second is to love one’s neighbor as yourself. That is what the law was designed to promote, not mindless obedience. God never meant for his law to be abused in such a way that people would suffer needlessly. And Jesus is making it clear from the example of David that if God makes allowances for his own law to be broken under certain circumstances for the welfare of his people, he surely would permit foolish man-made traditions to be broken for the same reason.
Jesus continues this example with that of the priests who serve in the temple. Every Sabbath they broke innumerable pharisaic and rabbinical traditions in the service of the temple. Lighting fires, preparing animals, killing animals, picking up things that weighed more than a dried fig; and yet they are never accused of breaking the Sabbath. Their busiest day of the week was the Sabbath, I understand how that goes. Sunday is not exactly a day of rest for me.
Now that does not mean we go looking for reasons to break God’s law. They were extreme circumstances. Meant to show that God cares more about adherence to love and mercy over ritual. It is also clear that these examples are centered around the ceremonial aspects of the Law and not the moral. We are never to excuse a lifestyle sin for the sake of “loving” someone. Because to leave them in that sin is the most unloving thing that we can do. It is the prioritizing of love and mercy over ritual that Jesus is referring to with His quotation of Hosea 6:6 in verse 7 which he again introduces with a rebuke “but if you had known what this means,” I have said it before, I made it clear to you back in chapter 9 but I guess I have to say that again, “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice.” By sacrifice, Jesus means the entire Mosaic system of ritual and ceremony which was always secondary and temporal in God’s plan, only ever meant to point to Jesus, a shadow of what was to come.
“If you understood that,” Jesus says here in verse 7, “if you understood that then you would not have condemned the innocent.” But the thickheaded Pharisees would not let go of their traditions, of their presuppositions and so they try again to trap Jesus.
The Lord walks from the field after confronting the Pharisees straight into their synagogue. Notice that in verse 9 “he went into their synagogue.” This is the synagogue where the Pharisees were the leaders, he walks into their home turf, in front of their followers and students. Though it is not stated, it is implied that the man with a withered hand was planted there by the Pharisees as an attempt to trap Jesus. So, they ask him in verse 10, “is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
This goes down another rabbit trail of rabbinic teachings. Part of the Sabbath rules stated that you could stop a man from dying but you could not heal him in any way; how do you make that distinction in an emergency? If someone got a large cut or burn you could put a bandage on it to stop the bleeding, but you were not allowed to put any ointment on it that might lead to healing. The Pharisees chose this man with a withered hand because it was obvious that his disability was not life-threatening. There is no indication as to what caused it, but if a body part is withered that denotes a period of inactivity such that the muscles would atrophy. In other words, this guy is not going to die because his condition and everyone knew it.
And you just have to wonder what is going through Jesus’ head at this point. “Guys, we just talked about this. What did I say two minutes ago before we walked in this building? Okay, let us try another route.” “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into the pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lifted out?” The way Jesus asked this question indicates that there was some loophole that allowed this. In either case, the obvious answer is assumed. Any Jew, including the Pharisees would find a way to rescue his sheep from suffering. The Pharisees did not argue the point with Jesus demonstrating his assumption that was correct.
“So if you do that for a sheep,” Jesus adds, “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” None of these Pharisees would have argued that the sheep was more valuable than a man who was made in God’s image and yet the Pharisees treated other men with less respect, with less love, with less mercy than they treated their own animals. In their hearts, they had no love for their fellow man, even their fellow Jews trying to subjugate all life and welfare to their religious traditions.
It is amazing how heartless people can be toward other people and yet seem to care so much about animals. In Hinduism animals are considered sacred and protected at all costs because they are reincarnated people, and yet the poor and destitute people are treated with contempt because the religious traditions teach they are suffering because of past karma and so it is best to let them suffer and learn their lesson. We see similar mentalities with people who would rather save animals then those who are starving around the world, or fight for the right to kill a baby in the womb so that their lives might be a bit more convenient.
Jesus ended that accusation with a statement, “So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” It was not a question, it was a statement that they could not argue against. Mark adds in his account of this interaction that after this statement the Pharisees “kept silent.” They stayed silent because there was nothing to argue, no way of debating the point. Luke adds to their silence saying that they “were filled with rage.” They were beat and they knew it. And then Mark adds “after looking around at them with anger, and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, ‘stretch out your hand.”
Could you imagine? The anger mixed with the disappointment Jesus would have felt in that moment. These were His people; they had the law. They studied the diving Revelation of God for hours every day. They were the leaders of the people, the shepherds, the pastors. He knew their hearts, he could see their thoughts and I am sure their faces were clear enough in their expression that his divine omniscience was not even needed. They were so full of self-righteousness that there was no room in their heart for mercy; so set on their traditions that even though they were trapped in their illogic response, it was not enough for them to question their own presuppositions but simply look at Jesus with hatred and fury. As they watched the man stretch out his hand, they watched as it was restored to normal. In the simple motion of raising this atrophied and the useless appendage, the life and strength was restored to normal, just like the other good hand.
And instead of being amazed and praising God, “the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.” They could not disprove the truth of what Jesus said, they could not argue His simple and foundational point, they could not explain away the miracle he performed, the power he possessed, and so they went out to find a way to destroy Him, to ruin Him, to kill Him.
Jesus was challenging everything that the Pharisees stood on as the foundation of their self-righteous pedestal that allowed them to tower over others in their self-made traditions. He demonstrated from simple logic and consistency that their traditions were inconsistent and undefinable. And then he showed them irrefutable evidence of his power and authority and all it did was turn their hearts to harder stone filled with more hatred for him.
The hearts of men are filled with the hatred of God and in verses 6 and 8 Jesus was making it clear that was exactly who they were dealing with. “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.” Jesus had frustrated the Pharisees by pointing out the inconsistency in their legalistic thinking. David could break with the stated law of God when he was starving, something higher than their man-made traditions and it was considered acceptable because of the situation. But someone greater than David was standing before them, something greater even than the temple and the Pharisees knew that nothing was greater than the temple than God himself.
He had already made several statements about his deity but in case there were any doubts about what he meant in verse 6 about their being something greater than the temple present, in verse 8 he says, “for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus was making it very clear where his authority to challenge their traditions came from. He was greater than the temple, greater then the law, he was greater then the Sabbath itself. He was God, the Son of Man, the divine Messiah, the one to whom all the law and the rituals of the temple pointed to.
Because the Lord of the Sabbath had come, the shadow was no longer required. Jesus had already said as we saw in chapter 5, in the sermon on the Mount that he had come to fulfill the law. In Hebrews, especially chapter 8 we see that all of the Mosaic law, all of the Old Covenant was merely meant as a shadow of heavenly things, and Jesus stands before them as the perfect picture of that reality.
He is Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day, as we read about in Exodus 31, was designed as a sign between God and the people of Israel, a sign of the Old Covenant and a picture of the perfect and eternal rest that they looked forward to. As the Lord of the Sabbath Jesus appeared to them in order to usher in that rest. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
The Pharisees did not want the rest he was offering. They wanted their system, they wanted their traditions, they wanted their self-righteousness. They wanted nothing to do with God. There are so many people today, so many people caught up in the social justice movement who are looking to fill their own systems of self-righteousness. Whatever they have to do, repeat some phrase, hold up a sign, bow down before a person of color and ask for forgiveness, virtue signal. Laws upon laws and rules upon rules and there is no relief from that guilt, no end in sight, no freedom, no rest.
There are so many people who go to church every week and are in the same danger. They have their traditions, their taboos, their rules to stand by. They are doing everything they can to earn the forgiveness of God, to work off, to pay off their sin and their guilt, to earn that extra bit of grace they need. There caught up in their system of the religion that tries to save them their own works and it is impossible. If you are in that place, working to relieve your guilt, if you are tired of toiling and striving, then look to the Lord of the Sabbath who wants to give you rest. Let go of your man-made systems that bury the heart of God under a pile of legalism.
For believers, for Christians, why are you here this morning? Why do you come to worship? We are going to spend sometime next week looking at what Sunday for a Christian is meant to be about. The Christian and the Sabbath. But for now, are you here because you think it is your duty? Are you doing it because it is required of you or so that you can check the box for the week? Are you defining your spirituality in terms of the little things that you do or do not do? Or do you understand that all of this is simply things God has instituted in order to facilitate our loving and serving him and you come to express the joy and freedom and relief you have found in his forgiveness and love?