When we last heard Jesus, He was inviting people to come to Him to find rest. Now, the scene is the day of rest, the Sabbath, and what takes place between Jesus and the religious leaders.
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12.1-2).
Circumcision and the Sabbath were the two most distinctive features of the Hebrew people. The Sabbath was so important that scribes made an extensive list of requirements to observe it.
Some went so far as to describe these regulations as putting a fence around the law so that nothing could be broken.
Rudy Ross points out in today’s YouTube video that what Jesus’ disciples were doing was no different than reaching out and picking up a loaf of bread in someone’s home.
Picking up a loaf of bread was perfectly acceptable, and raking off a few grains of wheat also should have been the same. However, the Pharisees took exception to this activity.
If the disciples rubbed the husks of wheat against their fingers to get rid of the outer layer, it may have been considered harvesting. That technicality put them in violation of the law.
Jesus’ Response
The religious leaders sometimes referred to Jesus as Rabbi or Teacher. Jesus assumed the role of the teacher, took them back to the Hebrew Scriptures, and used them to explain his behavior.
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
“How he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests?” (Matthew 12.3-4).
When Ahimelech gave David the bread of the Presence, he did not give it to an ordinary man. He gave it to the man God had anointed to be the king of Israel.
Jesus implied that the authority to allow his disciples to eat wheat on the Sabbath was similar to David’s. His next statement makes this abundantly clear.
“Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless?
“I tell you, something greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12.5-6).
The temple was a place of sacrifice. When we think about priests serving God in the temple, it was much more labor-intensive than serving communion on a Sunday morning.
Temple sacrifices involved large animals that were killed, butchered, and offered to God. The priests expended far more effort than what was required to rub wheat husks off the kernel.
What Jesus said to the Pharisees implied that His disciples, who were serving in the kingdom of God, were doing God’s work just as much as those who served in the temple.
Just as circumcision and the Sabbath were significant symbols of Israel’s identity, so was the temple. When Jesus said that “greater than the temple is here,” he took aim at one of the major symbols of the Hebrew faith.
The temple was the place where heaven and earth met in the Holy of Holies. When Jesus said that greater than the temple is here, he was stating that he was the place where heaven and earth would meet with humankind.
We can praise God for the truth of that statement, but for the Pharisees that was a stretch beyond their capacity to accept.
The Son of Man
As a teacher, Jesus again interpreted the Old Testament. He quoted from Hosea 6:6 and asked them to consider the disciples’ actions in the light of its message.
“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 of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12.7-8).
This is the second time that Jesus quoted from Hosea. In an earlier instance discussing eating with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus encouraged the Pharisees to think about that verse and their attitude toward his love and acceptance of sinners (see Matthew 9.10-13).
Jesus accused the religious leaders and said, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4).
In every age, the pharisaical spirit is guilty of placing burdensome requirements on people and not helping them to accomplish what is demanded.
Jesus meets people where they are, shows them abundant mercy, transforms their hearts, and helps them through the power of the Holy Spirit to become the people that God wants them to be and that they ultimately desire to be.
It’s easy for modern readers of Matthew to casually skip over Jesus’ statement that He is the Son of Man. However, that statement did not escape the notice of His opponents.
This was Daniel’s prophecy about the Son of Man.
I saw one like a son of man
coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One
and was presented before him.
To him was given dominion
and glory and kingship,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not pass away,
and his kingship is one
that shall never be destroyed. (Daniel 7.13-14)
As the Son of Man, Jesus has the authority to be the Lord of the Sabbath. He also has the authority to declare his disciples to be guiltless.
Today’s Lesson
There are two extreme ends of the religious spectrum that need to be avoided.
One end emphasizes mercy so strongly that a man could say, “God and I have a deal. He likes to forgive and I like to sin.”
The other end of the spectrum picks up the pharisaical attitude toward life. They place demands on other people, usually determined by their own values, but don’t offer help in following them.
How do we navigate this religious spectrum?
I believe the best way to do so is to be thoroughly informed of Jesus’ attitudes and actions by continually reading the Gospels. Then, we need to be humbly led by the Holy Spirit.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
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