WWUTT 2003 Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8)

WWUTT Podcast

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Jesus and his disciples went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and they began to pluck the heads of grain and eat them.

00:08

The Pharisees said they were breaking the Sabbath by doing so. Were they? When we understand the text.

00:25

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

00:30

Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

00:38

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we're jumping into chapter 12 today, a little bit longer chapter, but we're just looking at verses 1 through 8, seemingly a straightforward section.

00:53

However, Jesus says some things here that have been the subject of much debate. I'm sure you're surprised by that.

00:59

I'll be reading here from the Legacy Standard Bible, Matthew 12, verses 1 through 8.

01:04

Hear the word of the Lord. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the

01:09

Sabbath and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.

01:15

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a

01:23

Sabbath. 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?

01:42

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

01:48

But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means,

01:54

I desire compassion and not a sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

02:00

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. So we see here a particular problem arises that the

02:10

Pharisees accused Jesus and his disciples of breaking the Sabbath. Jesus responds to them with three

02:17

Old Testament references. You have the reference to David and his companions. You have a reference to how the priests would break the

02:26

Sabbath in the temple, and yet they're innocent. And then you have a reference to Hosea 6 .6,

02:32

I desire compassion and not a sacrifice. Now keep in mind the context of this particular story.

02:38

This comes right after Jesus had just said in Matthew chapter 11 at the close of chapter 11.

02:46

He said, 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.

03:01

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus talking about rest here.

03:08

We rest in Christ. And here we have this account from Matthew about Jesus being

03:13

Lord of the Sabbath. He is our Sabbath rest. And that's the connection between what we had at the end of chapter 11 and then going into this account at the start of chapter 12.

03:24

When we come back to chapter 12 next week, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. That's the next story, the next account.

03:31

But for now we have this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees concerning he and his disciples eating as they're walking through the grain fields.

03:42

So at that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. So this was on a Saturday.

03:48

It's a day of rest. It's a day when they should not be working. Now Jesus and his disciples are not.

03:54

They're not working. But in the last few hundred years, the Pharisees, as the rabbinical priesthood came to prominence, they have added to the law or they put a hedge around the law is the term that we sometimes use.

04:09

So they're adding laws to laws. That way you don't break the laws that are around the laws.

04:15

Therefore you won't break the laws that those other laws are protecting. Does that make sense?

04:21

So you put it, it's called putting a hedge around the law. The most prominent example of this is in the garden of Eden.

04:29

The very first command that is given, you may eat of any tree that is in the garden, but you must not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

04:37

For in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. When the serpent tempts Eve and says, did

04:43

God say you must not eat of any tree that is in the garden? Eve responds by saying he didn't, he didn't say we couldn't eat from any tree.

04:51

He said, we must not eat from that one, nor can we touch it or we will die.

04:58

She puts a hedge about the law. God didn't say anything about not touching the tree. He just said, don't eat from it.

05:04

So you're putting laws around laws to try to protect you from the main law that's being given, but it doesn't make you more holy.

05:11

It just adds burdens. It becomes more burdensome. So we go from Jesus saying, my yoke is easy and my burden is light to now this example of the

05:20

Pharisees in the way that they would strap heavy burdens on people. They would add to the law.

05:26

So here Jesus and his disciples, they're not working. They're just walking through the grain fields. And by the way, these would have been most likely public grain fields in the sense that these were fields that were owned by multiple people, perhaps several families.

05:41

And it was the grain would have been collected for the community, for community consumption.

05:47

So Jesus and his disciples walking through the grain fields and plucking the heads of grain off were not robbing anybody of anything.

05:56

There probably were many others that did the same walking through these grain fields. So they're plucking the heads of grain and they began to eat.

06:04

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a

06:11

Sabbath. Now it would have been enough for Jesus to say to them, well, point to me in that point to me in the law where it says that we're in the law, does it say that we can't plug ahead of grain and eat it?

06:23

But instead he gives them these three examples from scripture to show them something greater to do more than just, well, point to me in the law where I'm breaking the law.

06:33

He wants to show them that they should be having mercy and compassion on others, which the

06:39

Pharisees don't do. So in verse three, Jesus said to them, have you not read what

06:45

David did when he became hungry? He and his companions, how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread that is the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone.

07:01

Now let me come to that story Jesus is referencing here. This is in first Samuel 21 and this is right after Jonathan, Saul's son has warned

07:11

David that Saul wants to kill him. And so Jonathan is sending David on his way, telling him to flee.

07:19

And so here we have David running away for his life from Saul in first Samuel 21.

07:26

It begins when David came to knob to a Himalaya, the priest and a Himalaya came trembling to meet

07:32

David and said to him, why are you alone? And no one is with you. And David said to a

07:39

Himalaya, the priest, the king has commanded me with a matter and has said to me, let no one know anything about the matter on which

07:46

I am sending you and with which I have commanded you. And I have directed the young men to a certain place.

07:53

So now what do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand or whatever can be found.

08:00

And the priest answered David and said, there is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread.

08:06

If only the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest and said to him, surely women have been kept from us as previously when

08:16

I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey.

08:22

How much more than today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him consecrated bread for there was no bread there, but the bread of the presence, which was removed from before Yahweh in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

08:37

Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day detained before Yahweh and his name was Doeg the

08:43

Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds. And David said to Ahimelech, now is there not a spear or a sword on hand?

08:51

For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand because the king's matter was urgent. Then the priest said, the sword of Goliath the

08:59

Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.

09:06

If you would take it for yourself, take it for there is no other excepted here. And David said, there is none like it.

09:13

Give it to me. So that's the conclusion of that narrative in first Samuel 21.

09:20

Now there's a couple of things that are controversial about this particular story. First, it appears as if David is alone, that he has nobody with him.

09:30

And yet Jesus says in Matthew 12, three and four, have you not read what

09:36

David did when he became hungry? He and his companions, well, what companions? He doesn't have any men with him.

09:43

It's reasonable for us to conclude that there were men with David. They were not physically with him when he went to the tabernacle to talk to Ahimelech.

09:54

They were exactly as David said, they were sent to another place and he was going to be meeting up with them.

10:00

Now they would have been few in number because again, David is fleeing from Saul. He doesn't have his army with him.

10:07

That doesn't come until later. So this is just a few men, a few companions who are with him. And therefore the few loaves of show bread would have fed them all.

10:17

Of course, David is being dishonest here. He is not actually doing something for the king.

10:22

He is running away from the king. But if he had been telling Ahimelech that the king seeks to kill me, would

10:30

Ahimelech have betrayed David and told Saul that David was there?

10:36

So David says that he's on an urgent matter for the king. Now Jesus doesn't say anything about David's character here with regards to that.

10:46

That's not the purpose of why he brings that up with the Pharisees. He just simply says that David 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.

11:03

Only the priests could eat the consecrated bread. And it was after the new bread would be taken in and placed before Yahweh and the old bread, when it's removed, it would be consumed by the priests.

11:15

Only the priests could eat it. But here the bread is being given to David and he's not being struck down.

11:20

He's not dying. It doesn't make him ill. He's not cursed in any way. It was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat it, but here

11:27

David is eating it. So what's the point? Well, I'll get to that here in just a moment. But there's

11:32

Jesus' first account, his first Old Testament reference, and he's not mistaken about the story as we read it in 1

11:40

Samuel 21, David indeed would have had a few men with him. So then in verse 5,

11:46

Jesus makes his next Old Testament reference. He says, or have you not read in the law that on the

11:51

Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

11:58

Now likely here, Jesus is being hyperbolic because the priests in the temple did not break the

12:07

Sabbath. They were doing what they were commanded to do on the Sabbath. The point that Jesus is making here is they were working even in the temple on the

12:16

Sabbath. So are you going to say of them that they were doing something unlawful because they were working, they were fulfilling the responsibilities that God had for the priests on that day?

12:26

There were still sacrifices that were being done in the temple on the Sabbath. So that's the reference that Jesus is making there.

12:34

So have you not read that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the

12:40

Sabbath and are innocent? It would have been like the equivalent of Jesus using air quotes. They break the

12:46

Sabbath the way that the Pharisees are accusing Jesus and his disciples of breaking the

12:51

Sabbath. Those priests that were in the temple sacrificing were doing even more than what Jesus and his disciples were doing.

12:59

Son of David, who is Jesus. Anyway, continuing on, verse 6, but I say to you,

13:04

Jesus says, that something greater than the temple is here. And of course, that's in reference to himself.

13:12

The temple was where God dwelled. The temple was where God was with his people.

13:17

But now it is in Christ. God is dwelling with us or tabernacling with us, and everyone who draws near to Christ draws near to God.

13:27

Something greater than the temple. Jesus will make reference to himself being a temple a little bit later on, where he talks about how he'll tear down this temple and rebuild it in three days.

13:36

And that was in reference to his death and his resurrection. So then in verse 7, here's our third

13:43

Old Testament reference. He says to the Pharisees, but if you had known what this means,

13:49

I desire compassion and not a sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

13:56

Who are the innocent? That's Jesus and his disciples. In referencing this particular passage, what

14:02

Jesus is saying is that it is better to alleviate human suffering.

14:08

It is more important that the hungry are fed than it is following the letter of the law.

14:15

If somebody is hungry, give them the showbread of the presence. And David was on a difficult journey, all right?

14:22

He was not just a few miles from home and kind of got hungry and wanted a snack.

14:27

He was fleeing from Saul, no idea where he was going to end up, that somebody wouldn't know him and therefore try to turn him over to Saul.

14:37

Or one of his own messengers would have heard what it was that David was doing and therefore would have reported back to Saul.

14:44

We know that Doeg the Edomite would report back to Saul exactly what had happened there between David and Himalek in the tabernacle.

14:54

So yeah, Saul had his messengers, his spies everywhere. David didn't know where he could stop and get food.

15:00

So this bread was literally helping him survive, him and the men who were with him.

15:06

So I desire compassion and not a sacrifice. It is better for you to help those who are in need than that you keep every letter of the law.

15:16

So yes, David, it could be said that he broke the law, but those in need received mercy.

15:24

He broke the law even for his own companions. So Jesus, it appears here, the way that he talks about David eating the show bread, he was innocent in the matter, for it was to feed not just himself but his companions who were with him.

15:39

Now, with regards to whether or not he was dishonest with the Himalek, that's a totally different matter, but that is not what

15:45

Jesus has in view here. Tying this in with Hosea 6 -6, I desire compassion and not a sacrifice.

15:52

It is better to take care of one another. And remember that the sum of the law and the prophets is to love

15:59

God and love others. As Jesus will say later on in Matthew 22, on these two commandments hinge all the law and the prophets.

16:07

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

16:12

So as David is feeding his men, as a Himalek is feeding David, they are keeping the obligations of the law.

16:21

They're honoring God, and they're even loving one another. But Jesus is,

16:27

I mean, he's confronting these hypocritical nitpickers here. These guys are accusing

16:32

Jesus and his disciples of doing what would have been significantly less than what

16:39

David did, and yet the Jews held David in high regard. They believed that a

16:44

Messiah was coming who would be born in the line of David and sit on David's throne. So the

16:50

Jews didn't think that David was doing anything wrong in that particular narrative. Yet what

16:55

David did was even greater. It was a deliberate going against what the law says, because the law said only the priests could eat the showbread.

17:07

There's no law that says Jesus and his disciples can't pluck the heads of grain and eat them. In fact, there is a law in Deuteronomy 23 -25.

17:16

It says, if you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

17:25

So there you go. In the law, it even permits that Jesus and his disciples could have been walking through the grain fields and plucking the heads off the grain.

17:33

Of course, this is on the Sabbath in particular, and that's what the Pharisees are trying to get him on.

17:39

But again, Jesus says, I desire compassion and not a sacrifice. So if you were truly keeping the law, if you truly understood the purpose of the law, if you were not adding to the law and putting a hedge around the law, then you would have known that what we were doing was perfectly fine.

17:58

The Pharisees would not have condemned David, who actually broke the law, but they were willing to condemn

18:05

Jesus and his disciples for doing something that was perfectly fine. The Pharisees had a higher opinion of David than they had of the

18:16

Son of David, who is Jesus Christ. And so Jesus points out to them in verse 8, for the

18:22

Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. You hold David in high regard, but here one who is greater than David is standing before you.

18:32

He's even greater than the Sabbath. Jesus is in a sense standing before them saying,

18:37

I'm the one who wrote those Sabbath laws, and you're going to tell me I'm the one who has broken them?

18:45

But once again, we come to understand, just as we read yesterday in Matthew 11, that Christ is our

18:52

Sabbath rest. In Jesus, we can rest from our works. We have rest with God, peace with God, because our sins have been forgiven.

19:01

We have fellowship with God, so he is our rest. It is not by our works, it's not by ceremonial keeping that we are going to enter into the kingdom of God, but only through Christ, by resting in Christ, who is

19:16

Lord of the Sabbath. In Colossians chapter 2, it says in verse 16,

19:22

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a

19:29

Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

19:36

So even the laws pertaining to the Sabbath were pointing to someone greater who was to come, the

19:44

Lord of the Sabbath. All of these things belong to Christ. And so in Christ, we have our

19:51

Sabbath rest. Let us finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the forgiveness that you have shown us in Christ our

19:58

Lord, and may we learn to rest in him. Not trying to work our way to perfection, to salvation.

20:06

Not trying to impose our rules on other people, or making up our own rules to make ourselves look more righteous.

20:14

But we rest in Christ. We turn from our sin. We love Jesus who died on the cross for us, who rose again from the dead, so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

20:28

He who rules over all of creation, who is even Lord of the Sabbath, is our

20:33

Sabbath rest. So teach us to rest in you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

20:40

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

20:47

New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.