Notes on Matthew 12

In this chapter Jesus is using Old Testament Scripture to assert that He and His ministry are so central to what God’s doing in Israel that Jesus cannot be in violation of the Sabbath. What Jesus will show is that what truly matters is knowing who Jesus is and following Him, rather than interpretation of the Sabbath. So the real issue is the proper understanding of Jesus.

Verse 1: The first 14 verses of this chapter are Matthew’s only focus on Jesus’ own activity on a Sabbath day. This verse also shows that this event happens around the time of the events of chapter 11. Though this verse shows that it is Jesus Himself walking through the grainfields, it is His disciples who are plucking heads of grains to eat.

Verse 2: We’re not told why exactly the Pharisees are present for this situation, but they are. Their words do draw out the fact that the Pharisees hold on to the Tradition of the Elders much more than to God’s Word when it comes to the Sabbath. The Old Testament is relatively brief and basic about what it says concerning the Sabbath, but the traditions have become so elaborate that the Sabbath becomes a burden. (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15) (Exodus 35:3, Numbers 15:32-36, Jeremiah 17:19-27, Nehemiah 13:15-22) The latter set of texts shows examples of what it means not to rest on the day of rest. The focus was becoming more on the “how” to keep the Sabbath, rather than the “why”.

Verse 3: Beginning here, Jesus will show who He is and the authority He claims for Himself. He starts by giving the example of David and his men in 1 Samuel 21:1-6.

Verse 3: The question Jesus asks in this verse and in verse 5, in the Greek, both expect a “yes” answer. The question Jesus asks accuses the Pharisees of not understanding the Old Testament Scriptures they have read. Also leads to the fact that Jesus’ teaching/actions reveal how they should be read.

Verse 4: What David would have violated was the law that the showbread was only for priests to eat, which David was not. The day David does this wasn’t necessarily a Sabbath day. What Jesus is really driving at here, and especially in verses 5-6, is the need to truly appreciate the significance of Jesus. Since the son of Jesse was anointed king of Israel and was in need (and thus he and his men are justified in violating one of God’s commandments), much more can Jesus’ disciples ignore a Pharisaical interpretation of the Torah because the One who gives true Sabbath rest is present.

Verse 5: Jesus points out the simple reality that the priests worked on the Sabbath constantly, yet were not in violation of God’s commandment.

Verse 6: There are some Greek manuscripts that will read part of this verse as saying “someone greater”, though the best evidence is for “something greater”, possibly wrestling with the tension of saying something rather than someone, since this refers to Jesus. What Jesus says in this verse is that, since those priests weren’t in violation of God’s Law, much more are the disciples not in violation of what the Pharisees teach, since something greater than the temple is there. Jesus is also not saying the temple is bad, since that’s where God is found and where forgiveness is proclaimed, but that Jesus is the fulfillment of what the temple was meant to be.

Verse 7: This verse draws from Hosea 6:6, just as it did in Matthew 9:13. This has the sense of “I desire mercy even more than I desire sacrifice.”

Verse 8: This is Jesus sharing the reality that He cannot be fit into the old categories of Jewish tradition/interpretation of the Old Testament Sabbath. Jesus is claiming that He is the embodiment of the Sabbath, for it is in Him that we find our rest.

Verse 9: Matthew generally depicts how the Jewish nation, for the most part, rejects Jesus. In Matthew, the synagogue is not only where Jesus teaches, but also where the Jewish leaders display hypocritical behavior, and persecution of missionaries.

Verse 10: Since Jesus has been making such a bold claim concerning the Sabbath, the Pharisees decide to pounce on an opportunity to try and catch Jesus in a trap and thus accuse Him of violating the Sabbath commandment.

Verse 11: The phrasing of the question in this verse also expects a positive answer. Jesus does once again what He tends to do: make an argument from the lesser to the greater. This time speaking of a sheep falling into a pit on the Sabbath. Since sheep were quite valuable to the Jewish people (food, sacrifice, etc.), it was likely that people would’ve saved the sheep even on a Sabbath day.

Verse 12: Now the other shoe drops in Jesus’ statement: people are more valuable than sheep. Whether Jesus is pleading with them to understand, or is boggled at their blind resistance to Him, is not known from the text. But Jesus does show that going good is lawful on the Sabbath. Since Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, He knows how to rightly understand it.

Verse 13: Jesus now shows an example of doing good on the Sabbath by healing the man’s hand. It would be appropriate to draw from this the reality that Jesus restoring the man’s hand on the Sabbath is a foretaste of what will happen to all God’s people upon their bodily resurrection on the Last Day.

Verse 14: The Pharisees are starting to become hardened in their opposition to Jesus, which will only be drawn out more throughout the rest of Matthew.