Lord of the Sabbath

If you have a bible open it up Matthew 12. I have titled the message this morning Lord of the Sabbath. Pray with me.

So I think by now we can clearly see that Jesus Christ is different. And he has a unique authority the world has never seen, and with that authority has come great conflict. It seems as we study the gospels Jesus is always being questioned for various things, and today in this gospel we see that Jesus is in fact going to cause quite the stir. Let me read you the text this morning, and we will break down the idea of what makes Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath and why that matters..

Matthew 12:1–14 ESV

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” 9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Now after reading that text what I want you to see as our main idea is this..

Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath shows his authority through the word and His deeds.

Now before we get to far in the sermon we need to know what is going on to begin… Why are the Pharisees acting this way? To understand this properly we have to go all the way to Exodus 20.

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Now what they did was they took this text and added a bunch of rules to what they deemed work to be. And in doing so they became very legalist on the Sabbath day about many things, and what actually constituted as work.

Listen to the law of their day. The Mishnah (which is a compilation of these oral traditions) lists thirty-nine classes of work that profane the Sabbath, "including those we might expect, such as plowing, hunting, and butchering, and those we would not such as tying or loosing knots, sewing more than one stitch, or writing more than one letter'" . Some of these novel rulings bordered on the ridiculous. For example, one rule stated, "If a building fell down on the Sabbath enough rubble could be removed to discover if any victims were dead or alive. If alive, they could be rescued, but if dead, the corpses must be left until sunset."

These rules were out of control and it was so bad if you violated those rules you could possibility be put to death.

So with that mind they thought when Jesus disciples go and pluck heads of grain to eat they are violating the law here, but that is not the case, and like he has done over and over again he is going to expose their legalism by the power of his word a word they should have already knew well.

Few points I want you to take note of the first is this.

Jesus shows us he is Lord of the Sabbath through the Word of God not man made traditions.

We have touched on this already a few times but The Pharisees gave their traditions the same if not more authority then the scriptures. And Jesus does not care for that. He as we know is the Word and he does not like it when people put traditions over the word of God and he does not like when the pharisees or any of us take his word and make it say what we want it to.

Now first and foremost the pharisees should have know what the disciples were doing was not wrong. Now according to word in Lev 19:9 which says..

In Lev 19:9

Leviticus 19:9 ESV

9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.

The farmers were to do what here leave the edge left un touched. Another verse

Deuteronomy 23:25 ESV

25 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.

Per their law you could pick some of the unharvested crops up on edge so you could eat if you were in need. . They should know this, but they choose tradition over the word of the God time and time again, and Jesus knowing they were doing that comes at em, and says Have you not read. That would be somewhat insulting. Because these men are suppose to be the best scholars in the world. So The first example he gives is from David. Listen to the story in its Original context.

1 Samuel 21:1–6 ESV

1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

So what the priest do here he made the decision to show mercy even by breaking the letter of the law he had compassion on these people who were hungry even though they were not suppose to eat of this bread. And Jesus uses this story because in this story the word neither approves nor condemns of this act. So in turn the Pharisees should know that what David did was far more extreme then what Jesus and the disciples were doing and the word does not condemn for it and as great as David was he was no Jesus and Jesus shows that his disciples nor himself should be condemned, and he does not stop there. He keeps using the word.

This time he is talking about the priests he references Numbers 28:9-10 which says

Numbers 28:9–10 ESV

9 “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: 10 this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.

It might seem odd at first what Jesus is trying to do here, but he is making the point that the priest work on the Sabbath. When everyone else is not working the priests are hard at it, and they are without guilt. Yet in verse 6 he lays it down. I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. Listen to what one commentary said.. Now, if the Pharisees had a chance to interject between verses 5, 6 they could have said, "Okay, Jesus. True enough. Temple work trumps Sabbath rest. Your second use of Scripture is correct. But what's your point?"

But then it dawns on them. "Whoa. Now what? Do you think you are equal not just to a king but also to a priest?" And to that Jesus says, "Oh no, I'm not equal to a priest. I'm greater than a priest. I'm greater than the priesthood. Hold on to your pants here! 'I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. Jesus is not merely greater than the priesthood; he is greater than the place where they "work"!

Can you hear the robes start to tear? Can you hear the word "blasphemy" being breathed throughout the crowd? Do you get what Jesus is getting at here? Do you see how the whole argument holds together? If what King David did trumps the temple, and if the temple trumps Sabbath rest, then it follows logically that if someone greater than David (cf. 1:1) and greater than the temple is here embodied in the person of Jesus-then Jesus' disciples can have a little wheat snack on the Sabbath.

Jesus claims to be the fulfillment and embodiment of the Sabbath day, the sanctuary temple, and even the Scriptural Law, the three realities dearest to the people of God. And thus salvation comes not through keeping the Sabbath, perfect obedience to the Law, or temple sacrifice, but only through faith in Christ. Salvation comes (do you remember the last chapter?) only to those who rest in Jesus, who come to him, weary and heavy laden, for final Sabbath rest.

And yet Jesus is still not done here. He opens the word again on them showing them he is Lord of the Sabbath. He quotes Hosea 6:6

Hosea 6:6 ESV

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

What is he saying here by using Hosea 6:6. Loving people is greater than sacrifice. You cannot just have this devotion to God and do the things of God and not show mercy. The Sabbath was made to show mercy on those who work, and the Sabbath as we learned last week came to give us that real rest. And Jesus is Lord of all including the Sabbath and we see that through the word.

second point is this.

Jesus shows us he is Lord of the Sabbath through his work.

As we read on in the text we see Jesus do yet another incredible miracle, and we know based on their law you could not heal someone of a broken limb or a deformed body part on the sabbath. So knowing who Jesus is and what he often does they ask him a question looking to accuse him of something they ask Jesus is it unlawful to heal on the Sabbath.

Now Jesus does not heal this man instantly and we see him do something he does often which is asks a question in response to a question. Because he wants them to think with their brains for a second what they are actually saying. So he uses this illustration for them to get a point through their head. What does he say.

Matthew 12:11–12 ESV

11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

He is telling them come on guys how legalist are you going to be. Because you know good an well you are going to save your sheep, but better yet you know good and well that people are far more valuable than any old sheep. Remember the Lord of the Sabbath desires mercy over sacrifice. He is telling them you can do good things even on the Sabbath. You don’t have to be so legalist.

So he goes and heals this mans hand. Luke 6:6 tells us it was his right hand. Most people are not like brother Nathan who are left handed he most likely needed that hand to work.

But what makes this miracle so unique is Jesus did not even move. All he said was 4 words and that miracle provoked the Pharisees showing them he was Lord of all things including the Sabbath. And to even add to that Jesus heals this man who did not even asked to be healed. Which is very fascinating one commentator I read said there is only three stories in all the gospels where this happens. All the rest are asking Jesus to heal them.

The same commentator would say.. Why did Jesus do this then and there?

He did it because his mission was the cross! And we see the shadow of his own stretched-out hands begin to form in verse 14 with the Pharisees' response to Jesus' miraculous mercy: "But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him" (v. 14). Here the conversation of the cross starts to form in the back room, and now in Matthew's Gospel the action intensifies as the clash of authorities gets louder and louder. Soon even the crowds, who now stand amazed at Jesus, will join in the cleric-stirred chant, "Let him be crucified!" (27:22, 23).

This text is not merely a record another Sabbath controversy. This text is not primarily about Jesus' interpretation of the Sabbath—the Pharisees have it wrong, and he has it right, so he corrects them, first in word and then in deed. But I am here to tell you church there is more to it than that. This is a passage about Jesus as the merciful King. He is Lord of the Sabbath, and he uses that Lordship to do good, to show God's mercy in healing a man's withered hand, and he shows mercy by taking the sins of the world upon his own hands and feet and side. The Lord of the Sabbath shows us who he is by his work, and the greatest work was the cross, where he showed everyone that his death fulfilled this law that no-one could follow that even the pharisees failed at daily, and through that death and resurrection he showed that he was greater then the bread greater than the temple that was built by human hands, and that he himself is Lord of the Sabbath who showed us great mercy not only to the man with the withered hand but to us by becoming the sacrifice a sacrifice that was Holy Perfect and Good in fact it the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the perfect gift because it saves those who believe.

So if you have not believed in the one who was merciful do that today by repenting of your sin, by coming to Christ by faith and you will be saved.

Now I want you briefly to take note of how this text challenges us as Christians today with one final point is this..

Christians are to know the Word of God while seeking to be merciful to others.

I have touched on this idea of mercy in our study of Matthew already but I see the pharisees had two problems one they did not know the word of God properly. If they did they would not need to make all these separate laws that are not in line with the word in order to act like they know who God really is..

A big problem i see with our denomination with other denominations is those who are outside of the faith see us as nothing but hypocritical legalist people just like the pharisees, and I would never and I mean never argue against what the word says, but I tell you we do not need to add anything to the word, like we have making rules outside of scripture we just need to know the bible and we need to live it. Because our lives and our faith depend on it.

Second problem the Pharisees’s had and we have as well is we dont often have the heart of Christ to be merciful to others.

.Now we as Christians can learn alot from verse 7. And verse 7 is not just being kind. In fact one commentator said… mercy is more than kindness; it is covenantal knowledge of God. The poetic parallelism of Hosea 6:6 places "steadfast love" in parallel with "knowledge of God." Hosea says: I desire steadfast love ( or mercy )and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Clearly, mercy is more than kindness. Mercy represents the covenantal knowledge of God that drives all right action, action that coheres with his moral excellence.

When the Lord revealed himself in Exodus 34:6, he declared himself to be "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Because he knows the Father's mercy, grace, and love, Jesus also knows it is right to act mercifully on the Sabbath. And I would say Jesus knows its right to act mercifully any day.

For example if you were on your way to church or something else and he put it on your heart to feed the homeless, or give someone something in need to change a tire or whatever don’t you think God wouldn’t mind if you extended his love to show mercy to others. Does not mean you give up your call as a Christian to the church or the things of the Lord, but make sure you show mercy all along the way.

Because Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and Lord you you can live a life knowing the truth about God, and living a merciful life.

Let us pray.