Shabbat: Lessons From Matthew 12:1-14

Introduction

Read Matthew 12:1-14

What is this passage about? Story about the Pharisees’ rejection and opposition to Yeshua as Israel’s messiah.

Your bible may have a title like ‘ Sabbath questions’ as NASB or ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ as TLV. But don’t rely upon those titles without carefully reading the context because often they miss the thrust of the narrative. It will be helpful to read the ESV introduction to the gospel:

The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. The account alternates between Jesus’ activities of healing and casting out demons, and major blocks of his teaching, including the Sermon on the Mount (chs. 5–7), the Parables of the Kingdom (ch. 13), and the Olivet Discourse (chs. 24–25). The Sermon on the Mount includes the Beatitudes (5:3–12) and the Lord’s Prayer (6:5–15). The book closes with the Great Commission (28:18–20). A recurring theme is the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, culminating in his pronouncement of “seven woes” upon them (ch. 23). As do all four Gospel accounts, Matthew focuses on Christ’s three-year ministry and his death and resurrection. Matthew probably wrote his Gospel in the 50s or 60s a.d. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Our passage follows a rebuke against the towns where his miracles had happened “it will be more bearable for the land of Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you” (Mt 11:24).

We should also notice that our passage starts with the accusation of the Pharisees and closes with the note in vs 14 that “the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.”

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So we have a story about a rebellious generation (here the promised king, healing and casting out demons showing his authority over the supernatural realm, fulfilling eveything expected of the coming one before their eyes, and they reject him.

It should be noted that not all pharisees were unfaithful, but in general the pharisees are used as a the voice of the rebellious leaders.

Some misunderstand this passage

It is not uncommon to hear our fellow Christians refer to this passage and draw from it the conclusion that Jesus taught that we don’t have to keep the legalistic old testament law. They might say something like “Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and so we no longer have to observe it”. But this is a surface and flawed reading of the passage.

This mistake is easy to make if one is not careful to allow the text, particularly narrative passages that describe a story, to speak for itself. We have to resist putting our words into the Scripture, but we must allow it to put its words into us.

To read this passage as suggesting that Yeshua taught that the law is no longer important comes from a reading that is not careful or respectful of the words of the Bible, not attuned to the 1st century Jewish context, and not sensitive to the subtleties in the passage.

Many of the commentaries have in fact picked up that this text is deeper than Yeshua stating the Shabbat is no longer important. It is quite the opposite actually.

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The Importance of Shabbat (vs 1-2)

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What is the debate about? If you read carefully you will see that the debate is not IF the Shabbat should be honoured, but HOW it should be honoured. Did you catch that? The passage assumes that everyone invovled understands the importance of Shabbat.

The Pharisees understood the importance of Shabbat and so they bring the charge - “your disciples are doing what is not permitted on Shababt.”

And Yeshua said to them, ‘you are fools, don’t you know the Shabbat is no longer important but what is important is beleiving in me’. Did Yeshua say that? No, Yeshua didn’t say that.

Yeshua understands and agrees with the importance of Shabbat. This is why he argues that the HOW his disciples are keeping it is in line with Scripture. This is a point to consider, have you noticed that Yeshua consistently uses the Scripture to justify his actions? We repeatedly see this throughout the Gospels. Yeshua doesn’t use the Apocrypha ‘as Scripture’, he doesn’t use rabbinic teaching ‘as Scripture’, but he uses the Hebrew Bible ‘as Scripture’.

So, the debate and argument centers around the charge that the disciples are breaking the Shabbat and Yeshua takes the position to defend their actions.

Is the Shabbat all that Important?

The Scriptures regularly emphasize the importance of Shabbat for the people of God. We of course read this in many places in the Torah.

We of course know that the Sabbath was a covenant sign and the penalty for breaking the Sabbath was death. (Ex 31.13-14)

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Root is שׁבת

in the verb form it means to cease, stop, rest;

in noun form it means Shabbat (Sabbath) ie: seventh day of the week.

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So we read in Genesis 2:2-3:

Genesis 2:2–3 TLV

God completed—on the seventh day—His work that He made, and He ceased—on the seventh day—from all His work that He made. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He ceased from all His work that God created for the purpose of preparing.

Here in Genesis the word ‘ceased’ is the verb from the root.

So the idea is that God ceased from His work on the Seventh Day and it is therefore a pattern for us to cease from our work on the Seventh Day. God purposely ceased.

And God blessed the seventh day - וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ. To bless in the Hebrew Bible doesn’t mean to say a few nice words, rather it means “to endue with power for success, prosperity, life, longevity, etc.” In other words God has injected into this day something that produces power and life not only for man but also for creation itself.

This is interesting because it is in our ceasing on this day, not any other day, that we find abundance. We hear ‘oh, any day can be my day of rest’. But this entirely misses the point - God has not injected success and power and life into every day, it was specifically the Seventh Day. It was this day that he has distinguished and sanctified, from the other days.

If you think about Years, Months, Days, and then think about weeks, what is unique about the week? It is an artificial time marker. There is no astronmical distinction of the week. Everything else is determined by the sun, moon, and seasons. But the reason we have a week, seven days, is because The Almighty sanctified it. Shabbat marks the week and is important to this very day. May we forever sanctify this day and not desecrate it.

This passage in Genesis is of course a foundation for other commands to observe the Shabbat. We read the 10 words or 10 commandments as part of our liturgy.

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Exodus 20:8–11 TLV

“Remember Yom Shabbat, to keep it holy. You are to work six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat to Adonai your God. In it you shall not do any work—not you, nor your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your cattle, nor the outsider that is within your gates. For in six days Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Thus Adonai blessed Yom Shabbat, and made it holy.

The ten words are the founding principles of the teachings that the children of Israel received and we can see that Shabbat has a prominent role to play.

We can see here that the emphasis is that God’s people are to not engage in work on Shabbat. The reason given here is because we are patterning our lives after God Himself. The obvious quesiton then is ‘what constitutes work?’

In this commandment there are two different hebrew words underlying the english word ‘work’ in this commandment.

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The first word is עֲבָד (avad) and the second is מְלָאכָה (melecha). These don’t shed any specific details on the type of work as they can be broad terms.

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This is of course the likely charge of the Pharisees - that the disciples were working on the Shabbat. The Mishnah lists 39 types of labour prohibited on Shabbat. These would include things like sowing, ploughing, reaping, sifting, kneading, baking, combing, tying a knot, writing, etc.

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Qumran (CD 10.14-11:8) are also strict in their interpretation and list out various rules, including not discussing business or work to be done on the next day, cannot eat anything unless it was already prepared, cannot send a gentile to do your business on Shabbat, caregiver can’t carry a baby coming in or out, no one should lift an animal that falls into a pit on the Shabbat, and no human that falls into a body of water or cistern shall be helped out with ladder, rope or tool.

If you are reading our passage carefully, you will notice that no where does Yeshua challenge them on their interpreation of plucking the grain as being an incorrect definition of ‘work’. The story doesn’t say “Yeshua said your definiton is wrong”. On the contrary, he goes on to make the point that some work is permitted on the Shabbat.

Some take the view that the disciples were permitted to eat the grain because it was a matter of life or death, and this type of situation was allowed according to halacha. But there is no indication that this was a matter of life or death, and every indication it wasn’t.

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Shabbat Was Made for Man (vs 3-5)

Yeshua makes his argument by using two illustrations. The first relates to David who was on the run from Saul in 1 Sam 21 and the second relates to the priests in the temple.

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In the first illustration Yeshua says: Mat 12.3-4

Matthew 12:3–4 TLV

But He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he became hungry, and those with him? How he entered into the house of God, and they ate the showbread, which was not permitted for him to eat, nor for those with him, but only for the kohanim?

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What was Yeshua’s point here? There are perhaps a few ways this can be understood and so the details can be debated. But the overarching point seems to be that certain laws were outweighed by a higher mission; and the importance of that mission extended to the men that accompanied David.

So, contrary to some opinions, Yeshua’s point certainly wasn’t that the law or the Sabbath is no longer important.

In the story of 1 Sam 21, David is on the run, and has just left his friend Jonathan, and arrives at the Tabernacle. David lies to the Preist and tells him that King Saul sent him on a secret and important mission. This is why the priest provides David the bread unlawfully. It was the presumed authority of the king that gave authority to David’s request.

So Yeshua can use this Scripture to demonstrate to the Pharisees that they were looking at things the wrong way! They were looking at the situation as a normal one, but it was anything but normal.

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This was the very Son of David, the anointed one, and his disciples were accompanying him on his mission from the Father and therefore the normal rules of order were outweighed by the mission at hand.

Remember, this is a story about the Pharisees as representative of the rebellious generation who are rejecting the promised king of Israel, the messiah of Israel.

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In the second illustration he says:

Matthew 12:5–6 TLV

Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the kohanim in the Temple break Shabbat and yet are innocent? But I tell you that something greater than the Temple is here.

What is Yeshua’s point here? This is another situation where the normal order of things is outweighed by a higher mission. The priests ‘break’ the Shabbat but they do so in order to facilitate the functioning of the Temple - the mission of the temple outweighs the Shabbat.

And what is the purpose of the Temple? So that God might dwell in the midst of his people.

This is why Yeshua says something greater than the temple is here! John says,

John 1:14 TLV

And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Here we then we have a kal v’chomer - from a light to the heavy. A rabbinic method of interpreation meaning if the least important thing is true how much more is the most important thing true.

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In other words, if the priests in the temple can break the Shabbat in order to facilitate the mission of establishing God’s presence, how much more, should the disciples that facilitate the mission of Yeshua’s Kingdom in their midst forever.

His kingdom results in the very presence of God, who was there in the flesh. You can ask questions of and receive answers without intermediary, laugh with, cry with, watch God in the flesh throughout the day, gaze upon a sinless human to see exaclty how we should live. Indeed his mission is greater than the temple because his kingdom will establish the prescence of God permanently.

The pharisees accepted that the annointed king David was innocent, they accepted that the annointed priests were allowed to work on Shabbat, so how much more should they accept that the very mission of the Son of God would outweigh the regulations of Shabbat.

Yeshua’s Statements (vs 6-8)

We’ve already looked at one of Yeshua’s statements of significance - that something Greater than the Temple is here.

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But there is another statement he makes to make his point. It is a quote from Hosea 6.6

Hosea 6:6 Brenton LXX En

For I will have mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than whole-burnt-offerings.

The greek is quoted above and uses the word mercy to translate the hebrew word chesed. Chesed refers to ‘covenant loyalty’.

In Hosea, Adonai is upset with Israel because she thinks she can play the harlot with foreign gods and yet continue to offer sacrifices to Adonai as if nothing is wrong.

Yeshua quotes this to the Pharisees because they have the appearance of faithfulneess and covenant loyalty through their strict observance, but in fact their loyalty is shallow.

A fully functioning sacrificial system looks great, smells great like a big BBQ but there is no love and faithfulness underlying the party. God does not want that, he’s not after that. That is what many of the Pharisees had manufactured in Israel - the appearance of holiness but the lack of true covenant loyalty.

They had turned the sign of the covenant into the covenant.

The covenant is faithfulness to God, the Shabbat was a means of expressing that, not a means of establishing it. When they left Egypt God didn’t say ‘keep my sabbath and then I’ll deliver you’. He said ‘I am the God of your fathers, trust in me’. And then He led them to the wilderness and said here are my Shabbatot as a sign of our existing relationship.

This doesn’t mean the Shabbat isn’t important, it means that observing Shabbat is only pleasing to God if done within a context of loyalty to God. Here the Pharisees demonstrated their lack of faithfulness through their rejection of Yeshua’s mission.

What does Yeshua mean when he says ‘For the Son of Man is Lord of the Shabbat’? He does not mean what we sometimes hear. Namely, that now that Yeshua is come he has changed the law so that we don’t need to keep it. That is not what Yeshua is saying.

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For me, further clarity comes in the synoptic statement in Mark.

Mark 2:27–28 TLV

Then He said to them, “Shabbat was made for man, and not man for Shabbat. So the Son of Man is Lord even of Shabbat.”

It seems to me then that his argument is another kal v’chomer - how much more. If the Sabbath was made for man, how much more, should it be made for the Son of Man - he should be considered Lord of it. Your translation says ‘even’ of Shabbat, but I’m inclined to read that Greek word kai as ‘indeed of Shabbat’.

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In other words, the Shabbat was ultimately given to serve man’s benefit, therefore it should certainly serve the quintessential man’s mission (ie: the Son of Man which is a messianic title). The authority of Yeshua and his mission came from the Father.

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Matthew 9:6–8 TLV

But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to pardon sins …” Then He tells the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your cot and go home.” And he got up and went home. When the crowd saw it, they were afraid and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

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Doing Good on Shabbat (vs 9-13)

The narrative continues to describe another run in with the Pharisees and this situation related to healing on the Shabbat.

I think the main thing we should take note of is the hardness of their hearts. They are using a man who needs healing as a political pawn. Here is the Son of Man whom they have witnessed healing many people and they are more concerned with their position than they are about their fellow covenant member. This is the point of the story and this is what we are meant to take away from it. These people are rebellious, faithless Israel and it is sad that the children of the kingdom would act this way.

Mark 3 describes Yeshua’s internal emotions. He was angry with them, greived at their hardness of heart.

Yeshua of course heals them but take note of the Scriptural basis for doing so. If a sheep falls into a pit on Shabbat their halacha allowed them to remove it.

It is remarkable that we have writings from Qumran, a strict sect, that stated the exact opposite.

There was obviously halachic debate on this issue in the first century! Therefore, Yeshua points out their hypocrisy again with another Kal V’chomer. If you’d remove that poor animal from its sorry state how much more should you do it for a brother?

Yeshua’s conclusion is that it is lawful to do good on Shabbat.

Application

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Our relationship with God starts in the heart - that is where covenant loyalty is seeded. Don’t be like the Pharisee (vs 14).

These two stories are about the Pharisees’ rejection of Yeshua, not about the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was simply the context that was used to illustrate their hearts. Their hearts were hard and insted of rejoice at the healing of their brother they sought to destroy Yeshua.

The Pharisees didn’t apply the Scriptures honestly; they knew about the exceptions but preferred their agenda. Let’s ensure we are not a people that put our agenda above the Scriptures.

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Let’s appreciate the significance of Yeshua’s mission in our lives and communities.

We shouldn’t be looking back at the Torah and saying ‘oh, the good old days’. An entire generation died in the wilderness.

We shouldn’t be looking back at the Torah and simply asking ‘what does God allow me to do’, we should be asking ‘what does God want me to do’.

Moses wrote in the Torah about divorce, but Yeshua says Moses didn’t command this but permitted it because of the heardness of hearts. Moses accommodated a sinful people.

In other words, there is still yet a better future we hope for. This is what the Torah and prophets emphasized and this is what Yeshua has begun to establish through his resurrection.

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Don’t treat Shabbat as common - it is important to honour Shabbat.

The very fact that Shabbat was a matter of debate shows that it was an important topic of the day and Yeshua didn’t dismiss it as insignificant.

The Torah doesn’t provide a formula or complete Shabbat for dumies guide to honouring the day, it doesn’t give a full definition of work. So neither will I. However, it is important to set some basic defintions and the most basic defintion of work is this - Shababt is not a day for you to continue in your occupation. That is for the six days.

If your employer wants you to work on Shabbat, then I’d say it’s time to find another job. “But God put me in this Job!” Yes, and now He’s wants to put you in another one, will you trust Him with that?

The lesson of Shabbat is found in the Manna. Would the children of Israel trust that God would provide a double portion on the 6th day so that Shabbat could be rest unto Adonai? This is the same lesson for us.

Is the Shabbat a day to go out after service and buy a Tim Hortons for the drive home? Or is God asking us to cease from the economy of earth and focus on the economy of heaven?

Some might be thinking, but it is lawful to do good on Shabbat - going to the movies for family time is really good. Is this the type of ‘good’ that Yeshua was referring to when he healed a withered hand?

On one of the podcasts I listen to there are occasionally Christian scholars who speak about how they observe Shabbat. One scholar said he doesn’t read any heavy theological books on Shabbat becuase that is what he does all week. There have been others with various approaches. But the point is I could hear the genuiness with which they asked themselves the question how can I honour this day better?

Perhaps for some of us it is to stop electronics, don’t use social media, no TV, etc. We may each have a different way of approaching but the point is we should have the posture of honouring God on this day.

There are always exceptions to the rule. ER Doctors, firefighters, police and other occupations that are important for the emergencies of modern society.

And there will be grey areas in life. Your employer or a client calls urgently, I really need you to help today due to totally unforseen events, otherwise I’ll lose my business. Then that sounds like a legitimate situation to assist.

But the more likely scenario you’ll get - you’ve helped out in the past and I’m short a few people on Saturday can you pick up the slack? A gentle no, but I can help another day.

What about a funeral? Or a wedding? Should we attend those? Depending on the context perhaps but yes, I think we should.

You are usually diligent to fill up for gas before Shabbat but you forgot and are now heading to fellowship? In my opinion you fill up for gas and ask forgiveness for lack of prepartion.

You have no other means to get to fellwoship unless you take transit? Take transit.

Do you think Moses had all the answers? No, he had to learn it as well. When there was a man caught gathering sticks on Shabbat, Moses and the team had to inqurie of God as to what to do. That is a lesson for us that we can inquire of God as well and ask, Lord, what do I do?

And there will be times in life where we can’t obey perfectly, but that isn’t a license to diminish the importance of Shabbat. A son who can’t cut the grass because of no gas in the lawnmower stays and so throws his hands up an does nothing vs. a son who says, well at least I can do the edges with the trimmer and at least does that because he knows the father likes it. Which son is God after?

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Looking for the principles in Torah is important for understanding and applying wisdom.

The Pharisees failed or more likely were unwilling to do this. We’ve spoken before about looking for the principles of the Torah and here we can see Yeshua applying this interpretation method in vs 11-12. But Yeshua finds something permitted for an animal and assumes that the principal therefore applies to people as well.

We need to be a principle based people, not simply a rules based people. We need to practice reading the Scripture this way.

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Here’s an example:

Exodus 21:33–34 TLV

“If one uncovers a pit or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in, the owner of the pit must pay compensation. He is to give money to the owner, and the dead animal will be his.

What’s the principle here? The principle is that if you negligently cause damage to something your neighbour owns, you are responsible to make it right for your neighbour.

Through these princples the Torah speaks into our lives in much greater depth than a simple rule about an ox or donkey that none of us own.

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Conclusion

Having walked through the passage I hope you will now have a better appreication for the mission of Yeshua and how Matthew presents him in this dialogue with the Pharisees, as one on a mission as the Son of Man and holding the authority given by the Father.

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And from that, these are four points of application I wanted to draw out for you.

Our relationship with God starts in the heart - that is where covenant loyalty is seeded.

Let’s appreciate the significance of Yeshua’s mission in our lives and communities.

Don’t treat Shabbat as common - it is important to honour Shabbat.

Looking for the principles in Torah is important for understanding and applying wisdom.