Episode Transcript
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But won't you stand with me once
more as we turn to our text for
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this morning, Matthew Chapter Twelve.
Matthew Chapter Twelve, beginning in verse one.
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Listen, for this is the word
of the Lord. At that time,
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Jesus went through the grain fields on
the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry
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and they began to pluck heads of
grain and to eat. But when the
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Pharisees saw it, they said to
him, look, your disciples are doing
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what is not lawful to do on
the Sabbath. He said to them.
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Have you not read what David did
when he was hungry and those who were
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with him, how he entered the
House of God and ate the bread of
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the presence, which it was not
lawful for him to eat, nor for
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those who were with him, but
only for the priests? Or have you
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not read in the law how,
on the Sabbath, the priests in the
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Temple Profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than
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the temple is here, and if
you had known what this means, I
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desire mercy and not sacrifice, you
would not have condemned the guiltless, for
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the son of man is Lord of
the Sabbath. He went on from there
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and entered their synagogue and a man
was there are with a withered hand,
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and they asked him is it lawful
to heal on the sabbath? So that
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they might accuse him. He said
to them, which one of you who
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has a sheep, if it falls
into a pit on the Sabbath, will
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not take hold of it and lift
it out? Of How much more value
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is a man than a sheep?
So it is lawful to do good on
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the Sabbath. And he said then
he said to the man, stretch out
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your hand, and the man stretched
it out and it was restored healthy like
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the other. But the Pharisees went
out and conspired against him how to destroy
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him. That's for the reading of
God's word. May he bless it's to
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us he may be seated. In
our passage this warning, we read of
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not one but two classic confrontations.
Twice in our passage, the Lord is
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confronted by the Pharisees. They first
bring a charge against him and his disciples
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and then, layer they lay a
trap for him, hoping that Jesus will
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walk right into it. And as
you can see, these two confrontations are
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closely related. For not only are
they related in their both confrontations by the
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Pharisees, but in both cases the
topic is also the same. What is
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lawful to do on the Sabbath.
And so in the first showdown, in
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the first confrontation, the Pharisees bring
an accusation against Jesus disciples. And yet
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make no mistake, it's Jesus who
is ultimately being challenged. I mean,
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look at who the fair address.
They say, look, your disciples are
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doing what is not lawful to do
on the Sabbath. But by doing so,
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ultimately they are coming to Jesus to
challenge him. They're challenging his teaching,
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they're challenging his leadership. I don't
want you to hear this is a
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serious charge. Right. Either Jesus
has no control over his disciples, so
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he's incompetent, or he's approving of
their, quote unquote, lawlessness, and
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that makes him just as guilty.
Right. So is he trapped as the
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Pharisees Challenge Jesus and the disciples?
Maybe this is it, maybe they've finally
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found right, maybe they finally found
a way to get him. Can they
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just now prove he's a lawbreaker.
Can they finally dismiss Jesus as being irrelevant?
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Well, if you picture what's taking
place in this scene, it's a
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little bit insane. If you think
about it right, Jesus has a attracted
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this following, such a whatever he
does, wherever he goes, he is
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being so closely watched. All eyes
are on him, and not only him,
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even his disciples. What they do, what they are saying, how
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they're acting, all of it's up
to public scrutiny and debate, to the
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point that here we have the disciples
walking through a field plucking grains of seed
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and eating and this becomes a point
of contention, this becomes a point to
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debate over. And what we see
is Jesus is on the move right with
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his disciples. They've got places to
go, there's there's ministry to be done.
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His disciples are hungry, they're on
the move. They require energy,
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so they're plucking grain and eating it. So are the Pharisees correct? Are
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The disciples actually doing what is not
lawful to do on the Sabbath? The
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law forbids harvesting on the Sabbath,
but truly, this doesn't count as harvesting.
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In fact, the law makes a
distinction between harvesting with tools and plucking
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by hand. It even wasn't even
considered stealing to walk by someone's field and
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and take by hand what's needed to
survive. So are they actually breaking the
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Sabbath law against harvesting by taking a
few grains by their hands? Well,
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that would be a stretch. And
yet this is exactly what the Pharisees are
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skilled at. They're skilled at stretching
the law. This is what they were
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known for. If there were any
uncertainties or any gray areas not specifically addressed,
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then the Pharisees would say, well, isn't it safer? Isn't it
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better to sort of air on the
side of caution, even if it's not
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explicitly forbidden? Isn't it better to
show restraint just in case? And the
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Pharisees would come up with all sorts
of extra rules to serve as hedges,
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to serve as fences further out around
the and beyond the specific laws of scripture.
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After all, the thinking goes,
if if the law is good,
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then more laws is even better.
And so, given this kind of challenge,
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to present it to Jesus over something
very minor or fringe about obeying the
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law on the Sabbath. How does
our Lord respond? What does Jesus do
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when the Pharisees are so clearly reaching
beyond the scriptures to make their challenge?
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Does he just dismiss him? No, you're wrong, move move away,
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move along right. No, he
responds by taking them back to the scriptures.
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And yet he probably doesn't take them
to where they were expecting to go,
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or where we were expecting to go. For rather than addressing this specific
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issue of grain and what one does
with it on the Sabbath, he goes
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to the core of where their disagreement
truly lies. For, you see,
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our Lord doesn't take their bait.
He doesn't start getting into what does or
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what does not constitute Sabbath observance or
Sabbath disobedience. For Jesus refuses to be
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a doctor who only gives band AIDS
and sutures after the damage has been done.
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Rather, he chooses to go to
the heart, to the root cause
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of these disagreements and problems. He
takes the Pharisees to the Scriptures to see
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where their fundamental problem truly lies.
In fact, I love this. He
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says, have you not read whoa
right already. Jesus is being incredibly offensive
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here. Asking Pharisees, have you
not read? That is not an innocent
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question, it is a cutting rebuke. It'd be like telling a singer,
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have you seen the musical scales,
telling an engineer, do you know how
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to add or subtract their pharisees,
of course they've read the scriptures. That's
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their job. They study, they
apply the scriptures. That's what they do.
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It's in their job description. So
Jesus levels this cutting rebuke against the
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Pharisees. Look where he turns in
the Scriptures. He says, have you
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not read what David did when he
was hungry and those who were with him?
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He entered the House of God and
ate the bread of the presence,
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which was not lawful for him to
eat, nor any of those who are
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with him, but only for the
priests. He's The bread of the presence,
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which was kept in the Tabernacle,
was lawful only for the priests to
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consume. And yet Jesus takes us
to a place where David and his men
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were starving. They ate the bread, and yet they were not judged for
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it. Here Jesus takes us to
an exception to the rule. Jesus is
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identifying what happens when the sharp edges
of the law rub up against those sharp
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circumstances of life, when the law
runs up against real life situations, it
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creates needs for exceptions. For here
we find two compelling laws at play,
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a law which values human life,
a law which values mercy. And when
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it runs up against the ceremonial law, which one wins? Which Law Bends
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in service to the other? Jesus
applies this dividic exception when he quotes from
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Josea six, as he tells the
Pharisees, if you'd known what this means,
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I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
you would not have condemned the guiltless
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notice. This is also the theme, then, of the Pharisees next challenge
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to our Lord. In the synagogue, they attempt to trap Jesus by bringing
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to his attention a man with a
withered hand. They ask him is it
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lawful to heal on the sabbath,
so that they might accuse him, accuse
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him of breaking the Sabbath. But
Jesus isn't falling for it. He refuses
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to act according to their expectations because
he answers their question with a question of
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his own. He says to them
which one of you who has a sheep,
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if it falls into a pit on
the Sabbath, will not take hold
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of it and lift it out?
So that earlier in the field, Jesus
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directed the Pharisees to exceptions from the
Scriptures itself, here in the synagogue Jesus
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directs them to exceptions even in their
own practice. Not only do the Pharisees
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not fully read, not only do
they not fully understand the law, they
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also themselves are inconsistent and when applying
it, they've set up such high and
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lofty requirements on top of the law. And yet this only serves to further
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highlight their own disobedience even to their
own man made scruples. So he reminds
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them of how much more value is
a man than a sheep. So it
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is lawful to do good on the
Sabbath. Then he said to the man,
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stretch out your hand, and the
man stretched it out and it was
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restored healthy like the other. Do
you see here when the fourth commandment is
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confronted by the sixth commandment, which
one holds sway, for Jesus, human
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life is more important, and that's
highlighted here to a great extent. This
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man wasn't on the verge of death, was he? He'd had a withered
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hand for a long time. He
could surely survive another day. If you
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just wanted to come back and heal
him then, and yet to prove his
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point, to show the Pharisees the
meaning of love, the meaning of mercy,
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Jesus heals the man and ironically,
he does so without much work.
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He does it with a word.
Stretch out your hand and his hand was
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restored. So, both in the
fields and here in the synagogue, Jesus
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highlights the necessity of mercy which overrides
the ceremonial or external obediences of the law.
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And in our passage, Jesus points
out another exception to the rule.
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In Verse Five, he says,
or have you not read in the law?
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How, on the Sabbath, the
priests in the Temple Profane the Sabbath
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and are guiltless. Write. The
priests in the temple were called to work,
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they were called to Labor on the
Sabbath, though the day was to
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be a day of rest. There
was no rest for the sacrifices which were
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being offered. and Jesus applies this
exception by saying, I tell you,
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something greater than priests is here with
you. No, he says something greater
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than the temple is here. So
if priests had an exception for their labor
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in the temple made with hands,
how much more of an exception for those
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who labor in and for the True
Temple? In Christ? The True Temple
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has come. The Old Temple had
signified God's presence with his people. Their
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God dwelt in the midst of his
people of Israel. Now, in Christ,
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our Lord has come in the flesh. Christ is the fulfillment of the
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temple, because he is Emanuel,
he is God with us. And so
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Jesus directs the Pharisees False accusation to
find its answer in true mercy, in
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true who worship. And if you
play close attention, it's a little odd
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in that these exceptions that Jesus goes
to, they don't seem to apply to
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the disciples situation, do they?
David and his men were on the verge
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of starvation, with the disciples that
hungry. Likewise, though, Christ is
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the fulfillment of the Temple of God
with us. How does there eating grain
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fulfill some priestly act or priestly worship
or sacrifice. After all, remember,
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if the disciples are not really guilty
of breaking the law in the first place,
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why is Jesus even talking about exceptions
to the law? That's like getting
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pulled over for going fifty five miles
an hour in a fifty five mile an
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hour zone and when the police asks
you, what are you doing, saying
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giving reasons for why you're in such
a hurry. Why not tell the Pharisees
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they're wrong? Well, he's highlighting
their misunderstanding. He knows they're wrong,
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but he's highlighting their misunderstanding because they
claim to be experts in the law,
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and so Jesus shows them how they
fundamentally do not understand it. They are
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not reading the scriptures properly, because
the point is not that if they were
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reading properly, they'd know what is
and what isn't lawful to do on the
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Sabbath. The point is that if
they were reading properly, they'd know who
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it is they're addressing. You See, our Lord directs us not to more
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nuanced policies, but to a person, for reason that truly at the heart
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of their disagreement, these questions,
these these challenges, these are not born
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out of a love for God or
a love for their neighbor. They're born
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out of their own hatred for Christ. For while the Pharisees would blame the
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disciples for eating on the sabbath or
try and trap Jesus for healing on the
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Sabbath, look what they themselves do
on the Sabbath. In verse fourteen,
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the Pharisees went out and conspired against
him, how to destroy him. Is
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that lawful to do on the sabbath
or any other day? And so in
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our passage, is Jesus here just
casting aside the Sabbath, is he?
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Is he just doing away with the
fourth commandment? No, he doesn't say
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it's okay, we no longer have
to keep the Sabbath Day holy. What
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he does instead is remark coble,
is that he directs us to himself.
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Jesus says he's greater than the temple. Jesus says he is the Lord of
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the Sabbath, and that means not
only that he has authority to judge what
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is and isn't lawful to do,
but greater than that, who Jesus is
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affects how we rest on the Sabbath
Day were. You See, a part
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of me with just love to to
turn to more practical concerns of what it
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looks like to obey the fourth commandment
and light of Christ's finished work on the
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cross, and we could get a
list going right of what is and isn't
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lawful to do on the Sabbath.
As much as I want to address the
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differences that exist between all the new
testaments, wouldn't that be a disservice to
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do so from this passage? It's
a good and important questions to consider,
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especially that transition from the last day
of the week right to the first day
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of the week worship. But notice
here that our Lord doesn't take us to
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the particulars of what is and what's
not lawful to do on the Lord's Day.
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Doesn't mean he doesn't care about what
we do. Rather, he's addressing
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the heart of the matter. Let's
make sure we go also to the heart
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of what our Lord is saying,
for our Lord grounds his teaching for us
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in Verse Eight, when he says
that the son of man is Lord of
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the Sabbath. To hear what Jesus
is saying when he says this. What
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Jesus is claiming is an authority,
not only to teach or instruct things about
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the sabbath, but primarily he's claiming
to have an identity, and not just
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any identity. For who is the
Lord of the Sabbath? Who created the
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Sabbath? Right? Think back to
genesis too. After finishing his work of
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creation, our Lord says that on
the Seventh Day God finished his work that
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he had done and he rested on
the seventh day from all his work that
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he had done. So God blessed
the seventh day and made it holy because
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on it God rested from all his
work that he had done in creation.
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To Be Lord of the Sabbath is
to be the Lord who rested on that
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seventh day of creation. To Be
Lord of the Sabbath is to be the
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one who created all things then and
set aside this day of rest. From
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the beginning of time bound up and
then, who we are as image bearers
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of God, as part of our
very nature, is that we were created
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to work and to rest. But
I love that Jesus doesn't just say I
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am Lord of the Sabbath. There's
what he says, the son of and
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is Lord of the Sabbath, for
Christ is fully God and fully man.
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Christ himself is not just God present
with us, but God in the flesh,
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son of God and a son of
Adam. For the rest that God
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entered into on the seventh day is
a rest that Adam never fully achieved,
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though made in God's image, Adam
was to work in the garden and to
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rest in the Lord and yet,
because of sin, his work was incomplete
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and the work of his children would
remain incomplete. As the sabbath rest followed
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God's people even into the promised land. The Promised Land itself was to be
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a land of peace, a land
of rest. And yet Hebrews tells us,
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and Hebrews for that if Joshua had
given them rest, God would not
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have spoken of another day later on. So, then, there remains a
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sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has
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also rested from his work, as
God did from his. For Jesus,
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to say that the son of the
the son of man, is Lord of
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the Sabbath means that a son of
Adam has done what Adam could never do
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or never did, that a son
of man, a son of Adam now
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rules over the Sabbath. And how
does he rule? How does he reign
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as Lord of the Sabbath? Well, this is the same Lord who has
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anticipated these events by announcing in the
verse directly prior to the One I read
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at the end of chapter eleven.
Notice what this Lord of the Sabbath has
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to say to you. Come to
me, all who labor and are heavy
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laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you,
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learn from me, for I am
gentle and lowly in heart, and you
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will find rest for your souls from
my yoke is easy and my burden is
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light. What does it look like
for us to then rest on the Lord's
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Day? At its heart, it
looks like receiving. Since Christ is our
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rest, since he is our peace, then our rest is first and foremost
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a gift from God, for in
Christ our rest has been won, it
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has been achieved, and as Lord
of the Sabbath, he has obeyed where
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Adam failed. As Lord of the
Sabbath, he now bestows the blessings of
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Heaven upon his people. As Lord
of the Sabbath, he calls us to
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rest, not simply from this activity
or from that activity, but primarily to
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rest in him. And as we
gather each and every Lord's Day, we
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gather to a place of rest,
a place of refreshment, for we remain
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pilgrims on our way too, our
eternal rest. And yet is Christ meets
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with us, here, we're also
given a foretaste of that great and final
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day where we will truly be at
rest, where we will be united fully
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and finally as the people of God. Therefore, as we gather among each
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other, as we respond to the
Lord in prayer, in confession, in
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faith, with gratitude, we don't
do these things out of any prideful arrogance,
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but let us come as weak,
let us come as those needing rest,
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for here, with Christ, we
find true and lasting peace, as
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were called to place our faith not
in ourselves but in Christ. He is
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the Lord of the Sabbath because he
has entered the Sabbath Rest and he bestows,
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he gives that rest to you.
Amen. Let's pray
