Lord of the Sabbath

Introduction

Last week we saw that Jesus is a caring and gentle Saviour who takes the heavy burden of sin and guilt away from those who come to him with childlike faith and a humble heart. Jesus promises that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. In our text today, this invitation to a gentle Saviour with a light and gentle burden is contrasted with the heavy and unbearable weight that the strict observers of the law gave. It is fitting that, in showing himself to be greater than the Jewish traditions and even greater than the law itself, the issue at hand is the Sabbath.

The Sabbath means rest for the people of God, a time when everyday work was set aside and the rest found in the worship of God was prioritized. Although it was a command to be observed, Jesus reveals that the Sabbath day is actually a gift that symbolizes the rest that is found when we come into the presence of God and walk in Christ. Jesus proclaims himself Lord of the Sabbath to show that this rest is ultimately found in him and that he is the one who interprets not only the Sabbath command, but the entire Old Testament. This is because he is both its author and the one to whom all the OT Scriptures pointed to. As we study this text, we will see much more than merely a unique interpretation of the Sabbath commandments; we will see Jesus giving rest through his mission of mercy, expanding the theme of rest for the weary that was introduced when Jesus said, “come to be all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” ‘

Eating in The Grain fields

Our text begins in a grain field at that time, that is, not necessarily right after the previous events but around the same time in Jesus ministry. It is a Sabbath day when Jews were limited in how far they were allowed to travel, and Jesus and his disciples are walking through grain fields and the disciples begin plucking heads of grain, rubbing the grain out of the husk in their hands, and eating the grain. Only Matthew records that they did this because they were hungry, although this is assumed in both Luke and Mark.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this practice; it was not considered theft to eat standing grain from someone else’s field. The law made it so that anyone who was hungry was allowed to eat from a field they might be passing by,

Deuteronomy 23:25 ESV

If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

This was a way in which all Jews were obliged to be generous to the hungry, although people were not able to take advantage of this by harvesting food for later. So it was not the eating that the Pharisees have a problem with, but the fact that they were doing this on the Sabbath day.

It must be clearly understood that the Pharisees are relying on a specific interpretation of the Sabbath command. They considered the plucking of grain to be harvesting, which was work that was explicitly banned by the Sabbath law. Food was to be prepared the day before so that so work would be done. In fact, a man had been executed in Numbers 15 for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. The rules of the Pharisees were so strict that you could not spit on the ground because that was considered irrigation, which was farming and thus work. The outward performance of the Sabbath was important to them and strictly enforced, and what we see in this text is that in this strict enforcement the meaning of the Sabbath had caused them to lose sight of the purpose of the Sabbath, which was to be a day of rest for God people by focusing their attention, not on work, but on the worship of God.

Carr points out:

The Gospel according to Matthew

“If sabbatical observances prevented men from satisfying hunger, the Sabbath was no longer a blessing but an injury to man.”

As Jesus says in a parallel passage in Mark 2:27

Mark 2:27 ESV

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

In other words, the Pharisees have misinterpreted the purpose of the Sabbath. It was a rule, not to oppress people or make life more difficult, it was not meant to be a sacrifice or a difficult task to do in order to please God, it was meant to be a help to God’s people, a time of rest and peace and worship in the presence of the Lord their God.

The Purpose of the Sabbath

The command to observe the Sabbath is based on the seventh day of rest that God took at the end of the week of creation.

Mark 2:2 ESV

And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.

How is it that God needed rest at the end of the creation week? After all, God had merely spoken the world into existence, its not as if the God of all power and infinite strength needed a rest from speaking. Rather, this rest is for our sakes, and there is a reason that the seventh day is the only day that does not have an evening and morning. The point is that the seventh day did not end, but rather was the beginning of an era of rest for God’s creatures, his image-bearers, to dwell in that rest in the presence of God. This is what we just read about together in Hebrews 4:9-10

Hebrews 4:9–10 ESV

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

And why David is able to say in Ps 95:7

Psalm 95:7 ESV

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

The author of Hebrews highlights the word today and connects it to the rest that the unbelieving Israelites would not enter. Ps 95:11

Psalm 95:11 ESV

Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

The implication, then, is that the rest of God may be entered today, and thus the Sabbath of God remains to be entered into. The establishment of the Sabbath day in the Mosaic covenant, the covenant made when the law was given on Mount Sinai when the Ten Commandments were given, was a ritualistic way to implement the people of God partaking in this mystical rest. That is why it is both a day of rest from work and a day of worship for the people of God. The purpose of this command was never to become a burden on the people of God, one of a list of rules to keep in order to work your way into God’s favour, rather, it is a command that reminds the people of Israel, still living in the dispensation of shadows and types, to rest in their God. Being united with God through his covenant means resting in God. This establishes that the point of the Sabbath was to create a rest for God’s people in his presence and the worship of God; to delight in God and his service rather than being consumed by the work of everyday life. So that Sabbath was created as a means of rest and peace with God, not as a burden in a works-based system of religion.

So as we get back to our text, we see Jesus defend his disciples, not by criticizing their extremely strict exegesis of the Sabbath command, but by putting into question their entire understanding of the purpose of this day of rest. He does this by citing two examples, one of David breaking another one of the ritualistic commands for the sake of the his hungry followers and another of the way the priests are commanded not to keep the Sabbath in order to carry our the services of the temple.

The argument Jesus’ uses was a common way of reasoning among Rabbis; an argument called qal wahomer or the light and the weighty. Jesus uses a smaller or less important example to establish a greater truth. Morris writes,

“Here David is the less important and Jesus, the Son of David, is more important.”

David had come to the Tabernacle, likely on the Sabbath since that was the day that the bread of preparation was made, and ate it and gave it to his hungry companions. This was in direct contradiction to the Levitical law, which states,

Leviticus 24:9 ESV

And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”

Jesus draws attention to this example because the Scriptures never frame what David did as wrong or unlawful. The point that Jesus implies in this example is what he concludes in verse 7, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” which is a quote from Hosea 6:6. It shows us that there is a priority with God, that he is more concerned about human vitality than he is about the keeping of the ritual practices of worship. This in no way lays the seriousness of those commands aside, and to take those commands in the OT as unimportant had serious consequences, but God lays those rituals, all shadows of deeper spiritual realities, aside when it comes to showing compassion to human need.

Leon Morris writes,

The Gospel according to Matthew 4. The Use of the Sabbath, 12:1–14

if these men’s hunger set aside a divine regulation without blame, how much more should the hunger of Jesus’ disciples set aside a rabbinical rule!

The lesser to greater argument is in full force here. David laying aside divinely inspired law for the sake of his companions who were hungry was justified by the human need and the compassion being shown to them which overrides these rituals. How much more can Jesus, the fulfillment of all these types and shadows and the Lord of the Sabbath (vs 8) have compassion on his disciples and their hunger and allow them to set aside a human interpretation of the Sabbath command.

Carson:

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke (a. Picking Heads of Grain (12:1–8))

Jesus’ point is not simply that rules (have) exceptions but that the Scriptures themselves do not condemn David for his action; therefore the rigidity of the Pharisees’ interpretation of the law is not in accord with Scripture itself

The purpose of the Sabbath was to give God-glorifying rest to God’s people. So if God’s people are hungry, it is in accord with the purpose of the Sabbath commandment to give them food, even if it requires work, since the purpose of the law is to give rest.

Jesus next example makes an even stronger case. Jesus refers to the way the priests work on the Sabbath in order to fulfill the needs in the service of the temple.

Numbers 28:9–10 ESV

“On the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering: this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.

It was clear in the law that temple service is more important to observe than the Sabbath, since the priests were commanded to work in the temple on that day. The word Jesus’ uses that is translated profane in the ESV in verse 5 means to defile, violate, or desecrate. Jesus uses this strong word to bring to mind the reality that what the priests were doing on the Sabbath was real work, hard labour, and to hold to a strict view of the Sabbath as the Pharisees did would mean that these priests were not only making themselves unclean, but doing the temple work in an unclean manner. And yet, this is exactly what was commanded in the law. This is even more evidence that the way the Pharisees were viewing the law is inaccurate.

In verse 6, Jesus again brings weight in the lesser-to-greater argument by saying that something greater than the temple is here. Jesus here refers to himself and the Kingdom of God that comes in his coming. If the service of the temple is worth profaning the Sabbath for, what happens when the Son of God, our great and heavenly high priest, comes? This implies that Jesus has authority to override the Sabbath command because he is greater than the temple. This will give weight to Jesus’ claim that he, the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath.

The term Son of Man refers to more than simply Jesus’ humanity. It is a reference to Daniel 7:13-14

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

This is a bold claim that Jesus make. Keep in mind that this whole time, Jesus could have simply contradicted the strict way in which the Pharisees interpreted the Sabbath. Instead, he takes the time to show his own identity and the authority he has over how the law of God is interpreted and practiced. Jesus is not merely disagreeing with their interpretation of the law, he is making a personal claim that he alone has the authority to tell the Pharisees what the Sabbath means, because he is Lord over it.

Jesus, again, also makes the point that the Pharisees have missed what is important in the service of God: namely, mercy.

Mercy is central to God’s character when it comes to how he communicates with his people. All of God’s interactions with his people are characterized with mercy. In fact, one of the beatitudes is blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. When it comes to the Sabbath command, and in fact the entire law, it is an expression of God’s mercy as God spelled out the way that God made for his people to be with him in holiness. The Sabbath itself is merciful, giving people rest and inviting them into the rest of God. The coming of Christ, as we saw last week, was a merciful coming to show mercy in love. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in their misunderstanding of

Hosea 6:6 ESV

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Jesus says the Pharisees have condemned the guiltless because they do not understand this. How careful we must be that we do not judge our fellow brothers and sisters based on our own ideas and interpretations of God’s commands rather than viewing the commands of God as an expression of his mercy, and that mercy is more important than the outward visual rituals of following God. When we tell people that God commands us to come to church regularly, we should not say that in a legalistic way, but in a merciful way. We encourage each other to come to church every week because it is a place of mercy, a means of grace, and every command is also a way in which God mercifully brings us closer to himself for our good. God doesn’t desire the outward motions of worship, but the inward work of the heart that leads someone to a merciful attitude towards others since they themselves have received mercy from God.

Healing in the Synagogue

The second scene in this text takes place in a synagogue in an undisclosed town. We are not told whether this is on the same Sabbath or a different one. They refers to the Pharisees and scribes who see a man with a withered hand. Their thought process shows how far mercy is from their hearts. When they see this man with the withered hand, their first thought is a hope that they will trap Jesus by seeing if he will heal the man or not, rather than being burdened by the suffering of this man. So they ask Jesus if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus points out their willingness to help a sheep that has fallen into a ditch on the Sabbath. While not all Jews would believe that pulling the sheep out of the ditch is lawful on the Sabbath, they would at least agree that finding a way to help the sheep was lawful, such as putting straw in the muddy ditch that would help the sheep gain a foothold to make their way out. Most, however, would find it permissible to lift the sheep out of the pit.

Once again, Jesus uses a lesser to greater argument. The saving of an animal from a ditch is obviously much less important than the healing of a human being. Even though the man with the withered hand is not in immediate danger, which no one would disagree with healing in such a case, Jesus in his mercy argues that the man’s suffering ought to be eased as soon as possible. Jesus concludes that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. When we are serving others in the name of Christ for the glory of God, we are participating in Sabbath rest.

The theme of opposition to the Gospel peaks with the Pharisees going out without an answer to Jesus’ argument and instead conspire to kill him. This foreshadows the death that Christ would die at the hand of these jealous Jews. It shows us that their motivation was not to truly follow the Torah, but rather to prop up themselves in self-righteousness which Jesus is tearing down by revealing their misunderstanding and misapplication of the law.

Jesus: Our Sabbath Rest

In both of these accounts, Jesus shows himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath and if we pay close attention, we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. He is the source of our rest in the New Covenant. Jesus is the one giving rest to his disciples by letting them eat the standing grain on the Sabbath, and it is Jesus who heals the man with the withered hand. Ironically, although he is breaking the Sabbath in the eyes of the Pharisees, he is actually giving rest to these individuals showing that he is the one who gives Sabbath rest. This plays on the theme of the previous passage, which was an invitation to those who labour to come to Christ and find rest for your souls.

Sabbath rest was pictured in the observance of a day in the OT, and today it is fulfilled by coming to Christ and dwelling with him. Coming to the people of God and worshiping corporately is also a fulfillment of the Sabbath, since here we experience the graces of God together than impart to us the rest of Christ.

But ultimately, the Sabbath rest that we are invited to join into is received by faith. When we come to Christ and walk with him in this life, we rest from the labour of working under the law. Taking a day off of work and going through the motions of religious activity will not give you rest, only throwing yourself upon the loving arms of Christ.

Are you resting in Christ today? Have you come, humble and burdened, to him who gives an eternal Sabbath rest for your soul? Or do you continue to labour in works, works which may include keeping the Sabbath day? Be sure that you are keeping the Sabbath in a Spiritual sense: through rest by faith in Christ.

Be careful that you do not fall into the trap of judging others by your own understanding of the Word of God. We are to be merciful to one another, not casually allowing sin, but rather having a merciful disposition to others who don’t understand the Word of God the same way we do. We believe, as Baptists, that Presbyterians who are baptized as infants do not properly follow the baptism commands of Jesus. However, instead of being judgmental towards our brothers and sisters, we should be merciful, remembering that Christ is merciful towards us and patient in dealing with us. We are obligated to be merciful towards our fellow believers because Christ is the one that gives rest and peace to those who trust in him, and as Lord of Sabbath rest he has the authority to give mercy and rest to sinners who trust in him and follow him.

Again, this is no excuse for biblically explicit sin, quite the contrary. It only emphasizes the need we have to focus on the mercy of Christ and honour him as the source of our rest in God. Let us seek to walk in that rest, remembering the warning Hebrews gives us by quoting Psalm 95 that those who do not obey God and do not trust his merciful hand will not enter into that rest.

Today is the day that we have this rest offered to us. Do not harden your hearts, do not take another day for granted. Rest in the true, eternal Sabbath and dwell in the merciful heart of Christ.