Never On a Sunday
SBS: It is good to be back. Good for me I mean. I have really missed being able to give the word to all of you. It is not so good for you. You have heard some good sermons the past few weeks and now . . ., well now its like going home after you have been staying in a really nice hotel. Your house is OK, but it just can’t measure up to the Breakers
Prayer
Continental Divide is the name given to the North American portion of the mountainous ridge which separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems which drain into the Atlantic Ocean. If you pour water on one side of the divide it will drain into the Pacific. Standing in the same place but pouring water onto the other side, the water will end up in the Atlantic Ocean. Have you ever come to a moment in your life that was like that? A moment when a very small decision has changed your life in very large ways forever?
The incident that we read about this morning is just such a moment in the life of Jesus. What could be less provocative or subversive than walking around on a Saturday morning? Yet this walk will change the outcome of the life of Jesus and his followers forever.
BECAUSE IS WILLING TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN THE FACE OF CRITICISM SO MUST HIS FOLLOWERS BE WILLING TO DO THE RIGHT THING IN THE STORMS OF CONDEMNATION.
I. THE CRISIS. VV. 1 + 9-10a Hunger and Sickness
These are age old problems that are never solved. We face them every day of our lives. Some face physical hunger, others spiritual hunger.
II. THE CRITICISM. V. 2 +10b-
Not all the Pharisees were like this but in Matthew the ones that we meet were. They were the people who shot first and asked questions later. They were the people who in the 6th grade told the teacher that she had forgotten to assign homework. They had all the answers. They were like John was driving home late one night when he picked up a hitchhiker. As they rode along, he began to be suspicious of his passenger. John checked to see if his wallet was safe in the pocket of his coat that was on the seat between them, but it wasn’t there! So he slammed on the brakes, ordered the hitchhiker out, and said, “Hand over the wallet immediately!”
The frightened hitchhiker handed over a billfold, and John drove off. When he arrived home, he started to tell his wife about the experience, but she interrupted him, saying, “Before I forget, John, do you know that you left your wallet on the counter this morning?” Those were the Pharisees that we meet in Matthew
Sabbath was one of the biggest commandments for them. In the Mishnah there are all kinds of rules about what one can and cannot do on the Sabbath. Rules like [on the Sabbath] one should not search his clothes [for fleas]. In fact in Shabbot 7.2, there is a list of the 39 things that one is not allowed to do on the Sabbath. In the Qumran materials we learn that the writers were much more strict than the Pharisees, there are commands like (CD X.17 “on the Sabbath no one should say a useless or stupid word.” In XI.15 “if an animal falls into a pit or a well a man should not take it out on the Sabbath>
The Sabbath should be a delight, not a burden. Shaloam from TALife who with His wife walks 14 miles to Madison Square Garden, when the rangers lose, “we should have driven” The Most Famous Man: Henry Ward Beecher.
III. THE REPLY VV. 3-8 + 11-14
A. Jesus is Lord of the Synagogue. Notice “their synagogue” v. 1
B. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath v. 8
C. Jesus is Lord of His Sheep. V. 11 Christ alone owns you. Christ alone will take care of you.
CONCL: Jesus name is controversial. Change in dating from BC and AD to BCE and CE.
I saw a News item getting national attention on Friday from Martin County. A food-bank for the homeless and poor dealing with increased need and decreasing giving decided that a name change was in order. The organization was called “Jesus’ House of Hope.” It is now called “House of Hope.” The question is, of course, can there be any hope in any house apart from Jesus? This organization came to a continental divide in its life and decided to drop the name of the controversial Jesus. You may be standing at such a divide in your life right now. Depend upon the Lord for there is no hope in any other house.