Lord of The Sabbath
Notes
Transcript
This Easter we are still in the process of talking about Jesus life and things he did and stood for
Pray
Matthew 12:1-8
Matthew 12:1-8
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck off heads of grain and eat them. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Behold, your disciples are doing what it is not permitted to do on the Sabbath!” So he said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those with him, how he entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the presentation, which it was not permitted for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the sanctity of the Sabbath and are guiltless? But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! And if you had known what it means, ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Jesus and his disciples are walking through a grain field. Not theirs. This is not uncommon. There were not as many roads. Three were not as many fences. They are hungry so disciples take a handful eat it
“When you come into the standing grain of your neighbor, then you may pluck ears with your hand, but you may not swing a sickle among the standing grain of your neighbor.”
In Deut. 23:25 you are allowed to do as you passed though a neighbor’s standing grain. Just can’t use a sickle or anything. You don’t get to harvest his grain.
When the self-appointed religious police see this they go after the master. Disciples actions are a result of the master or rabbi’s teaching.
We should take not in this. If you claim to be a disciple of Jesus that is a christian. Your actions are the result of the master. If you do right or wrong. They reflect the Master.
These men argue that it is not promoted on Sabbath to harvest even a handful of grain. But Jesus argues that the needs of humans are more important than Sabbath. Jesus uses an argument from the life of David found in 1 Samuel 21:1-6
Even the priest were permitted to set aside Sabbath laws in order to carry out the ritual sacrifices (Numbers 28:9-10).
For I desire goodness, not sacrifice; Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.
Jesus says that something greater is here, the creator of the Sabbath. A quote from Hosea 6:6
For I delight in HESED (Mercy, Loyalty, love, tender kindness) rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
For you do not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. With a burnt offering you are not pleased.
The same sentiments found in a Psalm of David. Psalm 51 after David had sinned and was repenting, God looks at the inner and wants faith not rules.
What is the Sabbath
What is the Sabbath
What is the Sabbath that Jesus is claiming authority over here
On six days work can be done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy day for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death. The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant. It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered.”
That Shabbat is not a day filled with restrictions and is not a day of prayer.
Restrictions
Restrictions
It does have restrictions on it but what ritual does not? In the bible there are three.
Don’t do any regular work (the Lord’s work is excluded in this as seen in numbers)
Don’t kindle any fires in your dwellings (though you can keep them going if you have the wood available and don’t have to work to get it)
Don’t forsake to assemble together (because it is an important part of our worship of God of all creation not just our little personal god)
By the time of Jesus there were many other laws determining what was work and proper ways to do this and that. Today, if you are Jewish there are more. But those are not in the Torah. And it was these that Jesus had issue with.
Shabbat is not a day of prayer
Shabbat is not a day of prayer
Christians like to think of Sunday as a day of prayer. This is to be known as a house of prayer after all. But a Jew would not say Sabbath is a day of prayer because Jews pray every day.
Day
Day
The Shabbat starts Friday night and went to Saturday evening.
Christians have changed to Sunday for various reasons ( I’m not so sure we were right)
Easter was on a Sunday.
Paul in Acts, said that the Jewish Christians would meet on Sunday after work to discuss Jesus
Anti-Semitisms (anti Jew)
Syncretism
The worship of the Sun - sun day
Sabbath is a gift
Sabbath is a gift
Shabbat is a gift, a precious gift of God. A great eagerly awaited gift It is a day to set aside all of our weekday concerns and struggles and devote ourselves to higher pursuits.
It is the most important ritual observance in Judaism. It is the only ritual observance in the 10 Commandments, the absolute laws, that all other laws were based on. Shabbat is a day of rest. In modern America we take the 5 day work week so much for granted that we forget what a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient times. The Greeks though Jews were lazy because they insisted on having a “holiday” every seventh day.
Sabbath isn’t treated as a gift often.
We ignore it. We work through it. I know there are times when people have to work on Sabbath and don’t have a choice and there is a fine line we have to walk between legalism and honoring God’s Holy Word. I know many people that take their Sabbath on Monday because that is the end of their week. The point is that they take Sabbath seriously when there Seventh day comes around
It just doesn’t match up with our week days
But that being said many just ignore the Sabbath and they don’t have to work they do because they don’t stand up and say, “no, I will obey God”.
On the opposite side of that coin are those who take it too “seriously”.
By that I mean not that they respect it but it becomes not a gift but a chore and Sabbath should never be a chore. It should be about YHWH.
Robert Grave’s Poem, “ The boy out of church”
As Jesus and his followers
Upon a Sabbath morn
Were walking by a wheat field
They plucked the ears of corn.
They plucked it, they rubbed it,
They blew the husks away,
Which grieved the pious pharisees
Upon the Sabbath day.
And Jesus said, 'A riddle
Answer if you can,
Was man made for the Sabbath
Or Sabbath made for man?'
I do not love the Sabbath,
The soapsuds and the starch,
The troops of solemn people
Who to Salvation march.
I take my book, I take my stick
On the Sabbath day,
In woody nooks and valleys
I hide myself away.
To ponder there in quiet
God's Universal Plan,
Resolved that church and Sabbath
Were never made for man.
Robert Graves
I do not love the Sabbath, The Soapsuds and the starch The troops of solemn people who to salvation march.
We have lost this gift of a day when we can reconnect to the HOLY and recharge our spiritual batteries you could say. The struggle of work that never ends that will eat you, beat you and defeat you
–but the man who minded his own business and did his work-why, they would “speed him up” till they had worn him out, and then they would throw him to the Gutter.
- Upton Sinclair – The Jungle-
Some call it the rat race, the trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat. - Lily Tomlin
We need time to refill the cup of anointing from the Lord.
We must enjoy this gift
Not burden it with extra rules that chain a person down
But enjoying the Gift of the Sabbath and all its glory in REST. And to provide rest to others. To do Good in this world. Helping and ministering. Uplifting our breather
IT is not about is something allowed or is this not allowed But about lifting up the Trinity and pursuing YHWH with all that we are for one day dedicated to him in REST
Pray