Matthew 12:1-8

Introduction

Matthew 11:28–30 (NASB95)

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

We Studied Those Words of Jesus Last Week

Jesus was Offering the Jewish People of His Day Something Better Than What They Currently Had

They Were Exhausted and Burdened Under the Yoke of the Strict Traditions of Their Religious Authorities

But Jesus, as a Gentle and Humble Teacher and Master…

Offered Them a Good and Light Yoke to Carry

The Opportunity to Walk with God and Not Become Exhausted and Burdened

The Opportunity to Experience the Rest that a Relationship with God Provides

The Word “Rest” to the Jewish People was Always Connected to the Sabbath Day

The Sabbath Day is the 7th Day of the Week, When God Rested From His Work

In the Old Law, He Commanded His People to Imitate Him and Rest On the 7th Day

It was a Holy Day of Worship, Rest, Trusting in God to Provide

Today, We Take it for Granted that We Typically Get at Least One Day Off of Work

Most of Us Would Be Upset if Our Employer Decided to Take Away Our Weekends

But in the Ancient World, it was the Opposite

Most People Worked Everyday

Not Just Because that was What was Expected…

But Because, for Many People, that was the Only Way to Keep Food on the Table

But God Commanded His People to Be Holy/Different

Instead of Working Everyday, He Wanted His People to Take a Day Off

For Us that is an Easy Command to Keep

But for Them, this Took a Lot of Faith

“But God, if I Don’t Work, How Will I Feed My Family?”

God’s Answer was Always, “Trust Me, and I’ll Take Care of You”

The Sabbath was Always Meant to Be a Blessing, Not a Burden

This Idea Sums Up How Our Relationship with God was Always Meant to Be

“Stop Striving to Save Yourself, and Just Let Me Save You”

"Stop Burdening Yourself, and Just Let Me Give You Rest”

I Love the Gospel of Matthew

He Has Brilliantly Structured the Book so that it Flows So Well From Thought to Thought

Last Week We Saw the Burdensome Religion of the Pharisees…

And the Restful Relationship of Jesus

And Matthew Immediately Transitions to Jesus Dealing with the Burdensome Traditions of the Pharisees…

Concerning the Day of Rest

Matthew 12:1-8

Matthew 12:1 (NASB95)

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.

This Verse is Just Setting the Scene for What’s About to Happen

The Important Details are:

It’s the Sabbath Day

The Disciples Were Hungry

They Picked the Heads of Grain to Eat

Matthew 12:2 (NASB95)

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.”

First, What Were the Disciples Doing that was Unlawful?

Was it Picking Grain in Someone Else’s Field?

No, This was Allowed According to the Law in Deuteronomy 23:25,

The Problem Wasn’t with What They Were Doing…

But When They Were Doing it

Let’s Talk About the Jewish View of the Sabbath for a Minute

Sabbath Keeping was One of the Most Important Markers of a Faithful Jew

It Pointed Back to God’s Creation of the World

It was a Sign of a Special Covenant Relationship with God

It Set Them Apart From All the Other Nations

It Foreshadowed the Eternal Rest They Awaited in Paradise with God

Under the Old Law, if Someone Rebelled Against Keeping the Sabbath…

They Were to Be Put to Death

So, it Wasn’t Just a Happy Suggestion By God, it was a Command

And When You Have Strong Commands Like That From God…

It’s Natural to Want to Take Extra Precautions So as Not to Break that Command

We Tend to Build Fences Around Sin, So that We Don’t Come Anywhere Close to Committing it

This is Wise When Done Individually

But Things Get Out of Hand When it Moves Beyond the Individual to the Collective

What I Mean is:

It’s Perfectly Fine for Me to Set Up Boundaries for Myself, to Keep Myself From Sin

But When I Start Setting Up Boundaries for You, I’ve Gone Too Far

When it Came to Sabbath Regulations, God Wasn’t Very Specific

God Didn’t Go Much Further Beyond, “Don’t Do Any Work On the Sabbath”

So Naturally, the Jews Would Ask, “What Exactly Constitutes Work?”

So They Began Coming Up with Their Own Answers to that Question

In the Mishnah (Collection of Jewish Oral Teachings)…

We Find 39 Areas of Work that They Explicitly Forbid On the Sabbath:

Sowing

Plowing

Reaping

Binding Sheaves

Threshing

Winnowing

Selecting the Good From the Bad Crops

Grinding

Sifting

Kneading

Baking

Shearing Wool

Washing Wool

Beating Wool

Dying Wool

Spinning Wool

Weaving Wool

Making 2 Loops

Weaving 2 Threads

Separating 2 Threads

Tying

Untying

Sowing 2 Stitches

Tearing in Order to Sow 2 Stitches

Trapping a Deer

Slaughtering a Deer

Flaying a Deer

Salting a Deer

Curing its Hide

Scraping it

Cutting it Up

Writing 2 Letters

Erasing 2 Letters in Order to Write 2 Letters

Building Anything

Tearing Anything Down

Putting Out a Fire

Starting a Fire

Hitting with a Hammer

Transporting an Object From One Place to Another

And These Were Not Even All of the Sabbath-Keeping Traditions that They Bound On the People

These Kinds of Traditions Had No Basis in Scripture

The Mishnah Itself Even Stated That:

The laws of the Sabbath, festal offerings, and sacrilege— lo, they are like mountains hanging by a string, for they have little Scripture for many laws.

Though Their Sabbath Laws Were Mostly Man-Made Instead of God-Given…

They Considered Their Traditions as Binding as Law

They Took Them So Seriously That We Read in 1 Maccabees:

That Many Jews Were Slaughtered Because They Refused to Defend Themselves On the Sabbath Day

The Jews Took the Sabbath Day and Their Traditions Concerning it Very Seriously

So Getting Back to Our Text

What Was it Exactly that the Disciples Did that the Pharisees Accused Them of Breaking the Sabbath?

They Picked the Grain…

And (Luke Tells Us) Rubbed Them in Their Hands to Separate the Kernels From the Hulls

To the Pharisees, this Constituted Reaping and Threshing On the Sabbath

They Said this was “Not Lawful”

But Jesus is About to Remind Them of Something that was Truly “Not Lawful”

Matthew 12:3–4 (NASB95)

But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?

Jesus Begins By Saying, “Have You Not Read…?”

This is the 1st of Many Times He Will Ask the Religious Leaders of His Day this Question

Over and Over Jesus Points Out Their Neglect to Follow What the Scriptures Actually Say…

Because They are Too Concerned with Their Own Traditions

Jesus Reminds Them of the Time David Ate the Show Bread in the Tabernacle

According to the Law, Only the Priests Were Allowed to Eat this Bread

So David Did Something that was Against the Law of God

Now, There are 2 Ways that People Typically Interpret What Jesus is Saying

Jesus is Pointing Out the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees

“David Broke an Actual Law According to Scripture, But You Let Him Off Easy”

“But My Disciples Only Break Your Traditions and You Judge Them as Guilty”

I Don’t Really Like this Interpretation

Jesus is Pointing Out the Spirit of the Law

“It Wasn’t Lawful for David and His Men to Eat the Show Bread”

“But They Were Hungry and in Need of Food”

“And What’s More Important to God:”

“Keeping Proper Ritual/Law or Showing Compassion to the Needy?”

I Believe this is Jesus’ Point

Some Laws are Weightier Than Others

If Keeping the Law Causes You to Turn a Blind Eye to the Needy…

Then You’ve Missed the Whole Point of the Law

You’ve Kept the Letter of the Law, But You’ve Missed the Spirit of it

Instead of Judging Jesus’ Disciples, They Should Have Shown Compassion for the Hungry

Matthew 12:5 (NASB95)

“Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

He Starts with that Same Question Again, “Have You Not Read?”

But This Time He Directs Them to the Law/Torah/Pentateuch

Under the Old Law, the Priests Were Required to Work On the Sabbath

Even Though They Didn’t Keep the Sabbath Regulations…

They Weren’t Guilty of Breaking the Sabbath

Under the Old Law, the Temple and the Work of the Temple Were Extremely Important

So Important that Even the Sabbath Laws Were Secondary to Them

The Work of the Temple Redeemed and Reconciled the People to God

Not Even the Sabbath Should Stop that From Taking Place

Knowing that Gives Jesus’ Words So Much Power

Matthew 12:6 (NASB95)

“But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here.

The Temple was the Meeting Place of God and Man

But it was Only a Foreshadow of Jesus…

The True Meeting Place of God and Man

If Keeping the Sabbath is Less Important than the Duties of the Temple…

Then What About Something Greater Than the Temple?

Through Jesus and His Kingdom Work…

People are Truly Being Redeemed and Reconciled to God

Sin, Evil, Disease, Death and the Curse are Being Defeated

If the Old Temple Work was Important Enough to Break the Sabbath…

Then You Better Believe Jesus and the Work of His Kingdom are Important Enough

Matthew 12:7 (NASB95)

“But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

This is Jesus’ 2nd Time Quoting this Passage From Hosea 6:6

This Verse Doesn’t Teach that God is Against His People Making Sacrificial Offerings

It Teaches that Sacrificial Offerings aren’t at the Top of His Priority List

He Desires for Us to Show Mercy/Compassion to Others…

More Than He Wants Us to Offer Sacrifices to Him

Showing Love, Grace, Compassion, and Kindness to Others…

Is More Important Than Getting the Rituals Right

And Besides That, The Sabbath Itself was Meant to Be a Mercy From God…

So that His People Could Experience Rest and Rejuvenation

But the Religious Leaders Had Turned it Into Another Duty From God

The Pharisees had Turned the Day of Rest into the Day of Exhausting and Burdensome Requirements

In Their Attempts to Keep the Letter of the Law…

They’d Completely Ignored and Forgotten the Spirit of it

We Should Strive to Keep Both the Letter and Spirit

But if Circumstances Pit the 2 Against Each Other…

It’s Better to Break the Letter in Order to Keep the Spirit

In Mark’s Account of this Passage, Jesus Said:

Mark 2:27 (NASB95)

Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was Given to Serve Us…

Not So We Would Serve it

Matthew 12:7 (NASB95)

“But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

If the Pharisees Had Their Priorities in Line with God’s Priorities…

They Would Not Have Condemned the Innocent Disciples

They Were Doing Absolutely Nothing Wrong According to God

The Pharisees Simply Have the Wrong View of the Sabbath

Matthew 12:8 (NASB95)

“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

The Pharisees and Other Religious Leaders are Not Lord of the Sabbath

And the Sabbath is Not Lord Over God’s People

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath

Jesus has the Authority to Rightly Interpret the Sabbath

And Only He Has the Power and Authority to Offer Sabbath Rest to Those Who Submit to Him

Application

Some of Y’all Aren’t Going to Like the Application I’m Going to Make Here…

But I Believe it is Absolutely True and Important to Understand

One of the Main Reasons the Pharisees Hated Jesus…

Was Due to the Fact that He Cared More About the Spirit of the Law Than the Letter

He Cared More About What the Law Meant, Than What it Said

We are to Be a Compassionate People

The Law was Supposed to Make God’s People More Compassionate

But Instead, People Became More Arrogant and Judgmental Toward Each Other

People Sought the Letter of the Law Without Consideration for the Spirit of the Law

While Abiding By the Letter of the Law, We Better Make Sure We are Also Abiding By the Spirit

But So Often We Get Distracted By the Trees and Miss the Forest

We Focus So Much On What the Law Says, that We Miss the True Meaning Behind it

I’ll Give Some Examples:

We Miss the Spirit of Christianity When:

We are More Concerned With How We Worship Than Who We Worship

Both Matter, But One is More Important than the Other

We are More Concerned With What We Must Do to Be Saved Than Who Saves Us

Both Matter, But One is More Important

We are More Concerned With if We Assemble Together than Why We Assemble Together

Both Matter, But One is More Important

We are More Concerned with the Person Who Raises Their Hands in Worship to God…

Than the Person Who Always Sits with Their Arms Crossed and a Frown On Their Face

We are More Concerned with the Person Whose Foot Came Up Out of the Water When Baptized…

Than the Person Who was Fully Immersed But Doesn’t Love Jesus

We are More Concerned When a Person Claps and Shouts Hallelujah in Celebration of a Baptism…

Than When People Don’t So Much as Even Speak to Their New Sibling in Christ

We are More Concerned When a Person Believes a Minor Error…

Than When a Person is Living in Error

Keeping the Letter of the Law is Important

But if We Do So at the Expense of Keeping the Spirit of the Law…

We’ve Missed the Forest for the Trees

We’ve Kept the Letter But Completely Missed the Spirit