Blinders

When it comes to certain people in our lives, people that we truly love, we can have blinders over our eyes.

Take a couple who is just starting out in love: Their friends and family see many red flags; however, all they can see is there love for each other. They have blinders.

The same thing can happen to us in our churches. We can become so use to do something the same way for so long that we have blinders towards trying anything new.

Our own wants, desires, and preferences can blind us to the truth of what is right in front of us if we are not careful. We can put our traditions on the same level as doctrine

Today we are going to look at a passage where the Savior of the world is standing right in front of the Pharisees and they were not able to see Him because their tradition caused them to have blinders.

Do we have blinders on to what Christ wants to do in His church?

That is not how we do it (1-2)

Matthew 12:1–2 NKJV

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”

Our passage takes place on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was a big deal to the Jews as it should be

Genesis 2:1–3 CSB

So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

Exodus 20:8–11 CSB

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

After God created the Heavens and the earth He took time to rest. This idea of rest became one of the Ten Commandments

For the Jews, the Sabbath would have been on Saturday for it was the last day of the week.

On this day, they were to cease from ordinary work

This leads to the question then, what is defined as work?

The New American Commentary: Matthew 2. Opposition Experienced in Christ’s Mission (11:1–12:50)

Their accusations stem from the oral Torah, which included reaping as one of thirty-nine activities specifically forbidden on the Sabbath

The Pharisees had their own Oral tradition as to what was work.

CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 12

First-century rabbis divided work into thirty-nine categories, each having many subcategories.

Thus, the Pharisees were determining what work was based on the Oral tradition of 1st century rabbis rather than the written word of Moses

The disciples were hungry

Matthew makes a point to let us know that the reason the disciples were eating the grain was because they were hungry

The problem for the Pharisees was not the fact the disciples ate grain from someone else’s field for this was allowed

Deuteronomy 23:24–25 CSB

“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want until you are full, but do not put any in your container. When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck heads of grain with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

The problem was the fact that this went against what the Pharisees thought was right or wrong to do on the Sabbath

The disciples clearly had a legitimate human need. They were hungry. You would think to eat some food would not be a reason to attack Jesus’ disciples

The heard heart

What we see here is the heard heart of the Pharisees.

Their focus was on their tradition rather than the need of the person

How often do we allow our traditions to trump the real needs of people?

The Pharisees saw what the disciples did and their response was that is not the way we do things

How often have we heard this in the church?

The response that Jesus would give to the Pharisees is a response that we need to here today as well.

Take off the Blinders (3-6)

Matthew 12:3–6 NKJV

But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.

Jesus brings up David

Jesus begins His defense by bringing up the great hero and king of the people, David

He starts by saying “have you not read” The Pharisees were referring to their tradition and Jesus takes them back to scripture

How often do we allow tradition to dictate our standards over scripture?

Often I have allowed my own personal opinions and preferences to determine what should be done over what the word of God says to do.

At some point, we need to get back to the basics of what the word of God says and live by it as best as we can

Jesus says, this is what David did

This takes us to 1 Sam 21:1-9 where David was fleeing from Saul and comes to the priest of Nob and asks for food. The only food that was there was the food that was set aside for the priests

Leviticus 24:8–9 CSB

The bread is to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a permanent covenant obligation on the part of the Israelites. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, for it is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the Lord; this is a permanent rule.”

David had a real need. He and his men needed something to eat. The only food available was the food that was sit aside for the priest.

So the priest gave David and his men this food and they ate, yet the Pharisees did not hold this against David

Jesus brings up the priests

Jesus then brings up the priests who were highly respected

He points out that the priests work every Sabbath. They are the ones who are responsible for the sacrifice and so each Sabbath they are there to do the work of the sacrifices on behalf of the people

Jesus says, they do this, yet are innocent

The Pharisees had challenged Jesus that what His disciples did broke the law yet they had nothing to say about what David did or the priests did

How often do we pick and choose the commands that we want to follow and the ones that we want to let slide?

Someone greater is here

Jesus tells them that someone greater than the temple is before them.

The Pharisees are having an encounter with someone who is greater than David, greater than the priests, and greater than the temple yet they don’t see it.

Jesus wants them, as well as us, to see who He is

There are times where we need to take the blinders off our eyes (I know I do), and see what Jesus wants to do in our hearts and our lives

It may be different than anything we have every done and that is ok as long as we let Jesus lead.

See who I am (7-8)

Matthew 12:7–8 NKJV

But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mercy over Sacrifice

Jesus cites Hos 6:6 for a second time here in Matthew. He also cites it in Matthew 9:13

The Pharisees were very strict with the law. For them keeping the law was more important than people. They were what we would call legalists.

By Jesus citing Hos 6:6 He is showing that people are more important than rituals.

When we say things like we have never done it that way or we have always done it this way, we are saying that doing it our way is more important than reaching people. It has become about ritual rather than mercy.

Our job, our joy as the church is not to simply come in and go through the motions.

We are to show great love for God (Worship)

We are to show great love for each other (fellowship)

We are to show great mercy for each other (Stewardship)

We are to show great love for His word (Discipleship)

We are to seek to meet the needs of those around and point them to Jesus (Evangelism)

All that we do as a church should fall under of these five categories.

We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus showing the world that He loves them and so do we.

If we are not careful, we can get so wrapped up in our traditions that we are blinded to the needs around us. We can become focused on sacrifices that we miss mercy

After quoting Hos 6:6 He tells the Pharisees if that had known this they would not have condemned the innocent. He thus said His disciples did nothing wrong.

O the times that I have condemned the innocent because they did not do things the way I thought they should. As I wrote this sermon I had to stop and take some time to repent.

This does not mean that we do not speak the truth of the word of God. We need to make sure we speak the truth in love

Ephesians 4:15 CSB

But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.

Truth without love is legalism

Love without truth is liberalism

We don’t want to be neither of these

Truth and love go together.

Lord of the Sabbath

Jesus ends this section by stating that He is Lord of the Sabbath

He has shown that He is greater than David, the priests, and the temple. Now He shows them that He is greater than the Sabbath

As we think of this we need to understand the purpose of the Sabbath.

The Hebrew word for Sabbath means to cease or rest.

Thus, the people were to stop their normal stuff, rest, and focus on God.

After God created the heavens and the earth, He stopped to rest

It was never meant to be a day of religious rules and regulations, it was meant to be a time for the people of God to stop and rest and see all that He has done for them

I bring all of that up to bring home this point: When Jesus says He is the Lord of the Sabbath, He is helping us to see that He is our ultimate rest.

Preach the Gospel

The Pharisees had standing in front of them their ultimate rest and they were not able to see the truth of who He was because they were more focused on their tradition.

Conclusion

I have to ask myself how often I have allowed my own bias to place blinders on my eyes to keep me from seeing the truth that is right in front of me.

Jesus is everything we could ever want or need. We need not add any burden on someone other than to show them mercy by helping them see their need for Jesus

What blessings could I be missing because I have blinders over my eyes?

What truth does God want to open our eyes too today?

As we close today, I want us to take a few minutes to repent.

We may need to repent for the times we have been more religious than righteous

We may need to repent for the times we have not shown mercy.

We may need to repent for putting our wants over others needs

We may need to repent for some other blinder

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, He is our rest, and we need to live and love for Him.

Let us take off our blinders and see our Savior for who He is and the Love that He has for us. By doing this, we will see the Love that we are to have for each other and mercy that we are to show.