Matthew 12:1-21 (Click title for audio access)
"Just Reading This Makes Me Tired!" • 8.22.10 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro
- Last week, we looked at some responses that the common people had to Christ's ministry. We saw doubt in the life of John the Baptist, criticism from the masses and indifference in general.
- Jesus ends that chapter still inviting those who sought rest and the knowledge of God to come to Him. He would give them rest and fit them with a yoke of service.
- In chapter 12, the tone of opposition to Christ's ministry continues, but this time, it begins to come from the religious establishment of Christ's time.
- Jesus has offered to give rest, so it appropriate that the first subject on the table would be the Sabbath, a day that had offered anything but rest.
Text
• Matthew 12:1,2 : "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, 'Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!'" : Jesus and His disciples are out on tour. They have been on a mission. Their mission had them out together in a grainfield on the Sabbath.
- The Sabbath, or Shabat, happens every Friday evening and extends to Saturday at sunset. In the Jewish mind and on their calendar, this was the 7th day.
- God set aside the 7th day as a day of rest for His people in commemoration of the fact that He rested from His creative labors.
- The Biblical data on the Sabbath was simply this: Don't work, don't carry a burden. Just rest!
- It is a day set aside by God to rest from human labors, to be with Him and to enjoy what His presence meant to them.
- There are several indications that this was meant to give more than rest. It was meant to give rest from laboring and grow trust in the Lord.
- When the people of Israel were given manna in the wilderness, they were told to collect twice as much on Friday morning, because it would not come on Saturday.
- They were to rest in the fact that for that day, the manna collected would be enough to feed them for Saturday, even though the temptation would be to go out for manna that morning.
- Later on in their history, the people were told to give the land a Sabbath rest in the 7th year, again trusting that the Lord would provide for them.
- Sabbath is as much about rest, as it is about resting in His concern for them.
- Now, fast forward to the intertestimental period where there was no prophecy or prophet from God to His people. During that time, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes sought to fill the void.
- They brought the people back to God's word and sought to teach what God had said. Unfortunately, they overcompensated, making new regulations for every law.
- At this time, the Sabbath had become one of the most complicated of the laws due to their interpretations. The examples could take the whole rest of our time together!
- It has been cited that all Sabbath laws can be simplified into 39 prohibitions, all ending with the suffix "ing." Writing was prohibited, as well as erasing.
- My favorite prohibition is extinguishing a fire. This one continues to this day, as firefighters in Israel still have to call their Rabbi to find out if they can fight a fire on the Sabbath!
- The disciples were were guilty of at least 3 prohibitions! They were reaping, separating, and ultimately, preparing a meal for themselves!
- The Pharisees, themselves in the grainfield, see this horrible travesty of justice and choose this time to confront the Lord. "Look, they are not doing what is lawful on the Sabbath!"
- The irony is that they also were not doing what was lawful on the Sabbath! They were judging! They were seeking to find fault, which is the first principle of being religious.
- It has to be remembered at this point that the disciples were not transgressing God's law, they were transgressing man's interpretation, his tradition.
- In fact, the law had this very scenario in mind when the law was codified.
- Deuteronmy 23:24,25 specifically says that they could take what could be carried in their hands when they came through fields like this.
- The disciples were well within Sabbath obedience perameters.
• Matthew 12:3,4 : "But He said to them, 'Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?" : Jesus answers first from the life of David. To ask them if they had read this must have infuriated them. They had read David's story.
- But they had not understood it's meaning. Jesus is referencing a story that can be found in I Samuel 21. David is on the run from King Saul and stops by to see Ahimilech the Priest.
- He gives a cover story about being on assignment and asks for bread. The priest tells him that all he has is holy bread, which causes David to reply, "the men I'm with are holy!"
- The priest then gives the showbread to David, who is not only not a priest, but is indeed a fugitive! David ate of this and later became King.
- The point that Jesus makes is this: Human need doth supercede!
- When it comes to basic human need, hunger being one example, the higher law of God is to care for the human being.
- Additionally, I might also join in with a few commentators who believe that this took place on the Sabbath when the showbread was replaced. David got the week old bread.
- The priest did the right thing by seeking to alleviate David's hunger.
• Matthew 12:5 : "Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?" : The Sabbath day was a busy day for the priests.
- One could say that they worked the hardest on that day when work was prohibited! There were sacrifices to be offered and many other "violations."
- They carried large animals, cut them into pieces, started fires. In many ways, being a priest was more like being a butcher! But this was given in the law of God for them to perform.
- Their actions constituted a violation of man's regulations, but nobody ever thought to say anything about that. Jesus is saying, "Why don't you call those guys out!?"
• Matthew 12:6-8 : "Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'" : Jesus tells the Pharisees here that He is greater than the temple. The temple was the place where people went to meet with God. Jesus was God in the flesh!
- To say that He was greater than the temple would have been an incredibly shocking statement to make.
- Jesus continues His onslaught against their Bible knowledge. Jesus tells them that they do not know what Hosea 6:6 means. They had read that verse but did not understand God's heart.
- This is the second time that Jesus challenges the Pharisees with this verse. Back in chapter 9, in the face of their challenge that He sat with sinners, He quoted this same passage.
- Just so that we do not fall into the same trap, listen to that verse translated in the NLT: "I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that's more important than burnt offerings."
- The Jewish people had come to the conclusion that their relationship with God was in all their external activities, sacrifices and rules. God above all, wanted them to express His heart to others.
- God is not impressed when externals have no connection to our lives. It doesn't matter what happens in here if you have lived with no consciousness of God out there!
- A heart after God will be merciful towards others.
- If they had understood this, they would have recognized the hunger of the disciples took precedence over man's traditional rules regarding the Sabbath.
- They also would recognize that Jesus, the one greater than the temple, David and the Sabbath was among them. Make no mistake, Jesus is being clear that He is God!
- He says that He is greater than the temple and that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, literally, the Lord of rest!
- When Jesus says this to them, He is saying that Sabbath was His idea and that He knows how to govern it!
- Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ, as He is the one that we are to enter in. We are to be at rest because Jesus has fulfilled all of the requirements of the law.
• Matthew 12:9,10 : "Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, 'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"—that they might accuse Him." : Both groups had come together as they were traveling to church! The conflict had erupted along the way, but it did not stop there.
- They came into the synagogue, specifically the synagogue of these Pharisees. No sooner had they come in when a man was presented to Christ who had a withered hand.
- The original word points to his hand being dried up, without any life, ie. blood flow within it. It was dead and shrunk from the lack of blood.
- Some legends have it that his hand had been crushed as a result of working as a stone mason. His hand was lifeless.
- He was in the synagogue to seek after the Lord, but the Pharisees used this occasion and this man to attempt to trap Jesus. Could it be lawful to heal this man on the Sabbath?
- They wanted to see if He would heal this man, not so that they could glorify Him. They just needed a case that could be made against Jesus.
- They did not care about this man. They had no compassion for his ailment. They did not care whether Jesus had the ability or not. They simply wanted to accuse Him.
- The word "accuse" comes from the word where we get our word "category." They wanted to categorize Him as a law breaker, specifically a Sabbath breaker.
• Matthew 12:11,12 : "Then He said to them, 'What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.'" : Sheep, much like sparrows, were not highly valued, especially in light of how a man might be valued.
- If just one lamb fell into a pit on the Sabbath, nobody would hesitate to lift it out. Incidently, this is one of many sheep, not the only lamb.
- Jesus is saying that to help a lamb was an instant, good response.
- The Pharisees in their legalistic blindness, had learned to outlaw even good things that would be done on this day. Even good things were unlawful in their minds!
- In the economy of God, everyday is a good day to do something good! Religion has to make sure to regulate even that!
• Matthew 12:13,14 : "Then He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him." : This miracle was something else. Jesus spoke to this man and he was healed.
- Notice that He did not touch him or carry him. He just spoke and it happened. Technically, Jesus did not do anything, visibly that is! But the miracle was real nonetheless.
- When the crowd saw this, they all celebrated and stood in awe. The Pharisees got on their faces and repented of their ridiculous religions, swearing allegiance to Jesus!
- Unbelieveably, this miracle performed in the presence of these Pharisees had the opposite effect. Jesus did it to turn their hearts from religion to Himself.
- When they saw the man's hand come to life, they did not celebrate his healing or coronate the Lord. They did not proclaim Him Lord, they went out to plot against Him.
- Literally, they held a council to figure out how they might kill Him! These supposed men of God have just witnessed a miracle and their response was to find a way to kill the one the Lord used?
- I wonder if conspiracy to murder was alright to do on the Sabbath?
- Can anyone make sense of that!? Yet, this is what they did.
• Matthew 12:15 : "But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all." : Jesus saw their hearts. He saw their intentions toward Him, so He withdrew from there.
- That is a sad statement isn't it, but it's true. Over and over again, I am impressed by the Lord's response to those who did not want Him.
- He left! Here, He withdrew. He will not stay where He is not wanted. For those that do not want Him, I am saddened and stunned. How is that possible? How could you not want Jesus?
- Yet, I am not compelled to continue banging my head against the iron walls of their hearts. Jesus moved on and the ones that followed Him were healed.
- In fact, as you can see, great multitudes followed Him!
- Those that sought Him out, those that believed that He would heal, had Him heal! Which would you be? I want to be the one that He heals. I don't want Him to withdraw from me!
• Matthew 12:16-21 : "Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; And in His name Gentiles will trust.'" : When Jesus healed the multitudes, He told them not to make it known.
- Jesus was on a redemptive timetable. He came to deal with the problem of our sin, which involved the cross. People wanted Him to be their king in a different way.
- They wanted Him to crush the oppressive Roman government. They wanted Him to be their physical healer. They wanted Him to be their provider, as in free breadsticks!
- But that was not His mission, nor was this on His timetable.
- Matthew asserts that this covert activity was done in order to fulfill what Isaiah wrote about the Messiah hundreds of years earlier in Isaiah 42.
- The first part had already come true. God has attested to Jesus at His baptism when He said that this was His Son in whom He was pleased.
- At Christ's baptism, the Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove. These things had happened. God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit, unique, but united!
- God approves of His Messiah Jesus, in spite of the fact that some who met Him in the flesh did not. Their criticism and heated anger does not change God's perspective.
- When Jesus faced these things, He did not react to them. He wasn't out for a fight. He was not out to be contentious with people.
- Isaiah says that He will not quarrel or cry out. The NLT renders this verse, "He will not fight or shout; he will not raise his voice in public."
- He is gentle, not attempting to make a show of Himself. He's not argumentative or reactive toward those who would reject Him. On the other hand, He is helpful to those who receive Him.
- A reed we have mentioned before, was a shoot that grew along the banks of the sea of Galilee. A bruised reed was one that was bent. One would easily break this.
- Not Jesus. When confronted with bent out of shape people, He did not wish to break them.
- The parralel thought was the smoking flax. The smoking flax was the wick of the candle. It was smoking and He won't stifle it. He won't suppress that.
- He would be for the bent, a gentle restorative agent and for the hopeful, a constant encouragment, until such time as His victory was accomplished.
- What causes a man or woman to be bent out of shape? The world's consistent sad news. The difficulty that every Christian faces in this world. Jesus' presence will keep them from breaking.
- That's a promise to you and I. We might bend and be bruised, but we will not be broken!
- What causes a person to come close to discouragement? The same issue. The overwhelming imbalance of a world where the travesty of justice is the rule, not the exception.
- Christ encourages that candlestick to keep burning in light of it's circumstance. Why? Because His victory is coming!
- This last verse cements it all: In His name, the Gentiles will trust. That will be the ultimate victory. Those who had fought against God's people would soon be God's people!
- God would reach out to the world and many from the world would believe upon Him.
Conclusion
- Jesus wants to save us from religion. There is no value in it. Matthew writes these things to remind us that trusting in Christ is the rest that religion will never give us.
- As we take communion, we re-affirm that we have trusted Him and that we will rest!
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