Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath | Matthew 12:1-14

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work,

neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals,

nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens

and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. But he rested on the seventh day. Therefore

the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. The second reading is from Matthew

Matthew 12:1–14

chapter 12 verses 1 to 14. At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the

Pharisees saw this they said to him, look your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the

Sabbath. He answered, haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which

was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Well haven't you read in the

law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?

I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these

words meant, I desire mercy not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent,

for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Going on from that place he went into their

synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges

against Jesus they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? He said to them, if

any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold

of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful

to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. So he stretched

it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went

out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Good morning everyone. It's great to be back. I haven't been here for a couple of weeks.

Howes and I had the dreaded flu that is going around. I don't highly recommend it, that's

my feedback on that. Also last week I had the privilege to go up to Yanship and preach

at New City Church. They say a big hello and please don't forget us because we're north

of the river. We should be praying for them. Lovely congregation, lovely people. Also just

want to let you know in a few weeks from the 9th to the 16th of March we have Trinity Bible

College coming to do a missions week with us. So on the 9th of March one of the lecturers

is going to be preaching for us. I've seen him preach before Mike Webb, a passionate

evangelist and missionary. And on the 16th we're going to have Nick Wood from Providence

Church I think in the city. But during the week they're going to be doing mission with

us. They're going to be doing practical ministry in the church and in Armadale. So please be

in prayer for them. In saying that why don't we pray together now before we come before

the Lord's word. Father God we thank you for your word. And this morning we would ask that

you give us ears to hear, eyes to see, that your spirit would work on our heart and the

Lord Jesus Christ would be held ever so high in our midst. And we ask for this in Jesus

name. Amen. I don't know if you remember years ago those 3D books which you could only get

the picture if you had those special red and blue glasses on. They were a huge sensation

when I was young because you could stare at those pages for as long as you'd like. But

unless you had those special glasses that came with the book you would never get the

whole picture. You just simply never see it. Well very much like those 3D books you can't

get the whole picture of the Sabbath unless you view it through a particular lens. And

that's exactly what Jesus does for us here in the text that we're going to be looking

at this morning. He gives us a pair of gospel glasses in which to view the fourth commandment

which if we didn't have we'd probably end up looking at the whole thing wondering what

it was all about. But first just a bit of context to get us into our passage. Right so the

thing in which we find ourselves this morning is meant to be understood on the back of chapter

11 where our Lord calls all those to come to Him who are weary and burdened as His yoke

is easy and His burden light. Essentially what Jesus means there is that in contrast to the

religious system of the day the one peddled by the Pharisees Jesus offers another way of

living to please God without all the inventions and the traditions of men. And Matthew our

evangelist here he chose to place this very event that we're going to look at this dispute

over the fourth commandment the Sabbath to illustrate this very point to us. Now admittedly

with the scene that we have here not a lot of us may be able to draw a direct experience

in our own lives like Jesus like the experience Jesus and His disciples had with these strict

Sabbatarians. I mean along with circumcision and dietary requirements this was a national

identity for the Pharisees and they would have you whipped and possibly jailed if you

broke with their standards. But just so we can make some sort of connection with our context

here let me just point it out to you that their strict legalism came from a place of absolute

fear not reverence for God and they would do anything to protect their traditions. You see one

of the main reasons that Israel was sent into exile was that they didn't observe God's Sabbaths

and it seems that when Israel came back from Babylon after exile that a whole load of theologians

were determined that Israel was never going to make that mistake again. And so over the period

of a few hundred years a whole bunch of rules had developed around how one was to properly

observe the fourth commandment with hundreds of bylaws being added to the original instruction.

In other words, pharaceutical Sabbatarianism was heavy and a real burden to keep. All this to say

the guys that were going to encounter in these verses that we're going to be looking at this

morning weren't ultimately concerned about enjoying God's gift and understanding what it was

given for but were all about keeping strict rules, stringent rules so that they would think

that they were pleasing to God. And Jesus uses this very scenario to do three things simultaneously.

First, he exposes what sits at the very heart of legalism. Second, he gives the true approach

to what the Sabbath was given for in the first place. And third, Jesus points to his own divine

authority as the true interpreter of the fourth commandment as he is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Right, so with all that said let's just have a look at the first couple of verses that we find

in chapter 12 here. We read at that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees

saw this they said to him, look your disciples are doing what's unlawful on the Sabbath.

Right, so just to set the scene for you, Jesus and his disciples, they're walking through

some grain fields on the Sabbath on the way to synagogue. And as they're walking, Jesus's

disciples become hungry and they start to pick heads of grain and eat. And when the Pharisees

see this, they're absolutely livid. Now right off the bat you might be a bit surprised by this

whole scene. I mean what's the problem with making Whippics before going to church you might

wonder? What's the problem that these guys have here? Well you might be thinking that they had a

problem with the disciples stealing as they were walking through somebody else's field when all

of this happened. Well not so fast. You see in Deuteronomy 23-25 God actually made provision

for his people that under the law they were allowed to go into people's fields and eat from the

outskirts of the harvest. And so that's not the problem. Now the problem as we read here at

least as the Pharisees see it is that under their strict understanding of the law, Jesus was

allowing his disciples to break the fourth commandment as they saw this whole thing that they

were doing as reaping and harvesting. They were in other words accusing the disciples of

working on the Sabbath. Now to get into the nitty-gritty here it wasn't exactly like they had

some tools out and were reaping a massive harvest. Now as we see here they were simply picking

some heads of grain because they were hungry. And we know that they didn't break the law because

Jesus himself, he says to us there in verse 7 that they were completely innocent of doing

anything wrong. That didn't matter to the Pharisees because they were looking for any

opportunity to attack Jesus and bring him down in any which way. And so it's clear from the

very first few words here that these guys wanted to use God's law to try and accuse Jesus of

breaking the law. Now to come as no surprise to you to hear that in Western Australia we have

speed limits and when you go over the speed limit you're breaking the law. In other words

you're a law breaker. Well did you know that when an ambulance goes hooning down the freeway

with its lights blaring that the speed limit doesn't actually change for them? No technically

they're not sticking to the speed limit but this is the thing. Our government won't charge

paramedics with breaking the law because it's understood that they're getting to their

destination and saving people is much more in line with the spirit of the law which is

protecting lives than breaking it. So technically within WA at least as much as I read on the

forums paramedics aren't considered law breakers if they're responding to something called a

code one emergency. It's not a perfect illustration but that's the sort of thing that we see here

with these Pharisees. They knew the law and they wanted to charge Jesus with breaking it. In

other words they wanted to bring him down with their strict interpretation of things. It was

their way or the highway sort of thing. And so Jesus while defending his disciples actions

he takes this opportunity by drawing on the scriptures to show these hard-hearted legalists

that they've completely missed the spirit and the intention of the Sabbath. And Jesus does this

by drawing on two examples from the Old Testament. First he draws on something that King David did

in 1 Samuel 21. We read in verses 3 and 4 here Jesus answered, having you read what David did

when he and his companions were hungry. He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate

the consecrated bread which wasn't lawful for them to do but only for the priests. So let me set

the scene. David and his men were fleeing from King Saul who wanted David dead. And as they were

on the run they were starving. So they went to the tabernacle in a place called Knob and the

priests there, well he gave them, all of them, David and his men the consecrated bread to eat.

Now if you read back in the Old Testament particularly in Leviticus 25 you'll quickly see

that this bread had ceremonial significance. It wasn't ordinary bread, it was consecrated in

that it represented God's presence and his provision for his people. After it served

its purpose in the tabernacle only the priests could eat that bread, that was the law. And so

David and his men doing what they did is a big deal but this is a thing. Nowhere in the Old

Testament does God condemn either the priest or David for what took place that day. And that's

because the weightier matters of the law were more important here. In other words if we think

about the big picture of the Bible, the love of neighbour, determine that even though a ceremonial

ordinance like who and who couldn't eat the bread was in place it could be surpassed so that a

whole load of men would be saved from certain death. And Jesus draws on this passage to say

that the legalists they've ignored the weightier matters of the law and have accused the innocent

because they've been more concerned about technicalities rather than compassion. So what I think

our Lord is saying here, the weightier matters of the law like love for one's neighbour doesn't

just get pushed aside because ceremonial practices are in place. And if that was okay for David

and his men then surely it is acceptable for Jesus, the Messiah, the King of kings, the Lord of

lords to set aside pharistical traditions in order for his own disciples to be sustained. And so no,

no law of the Sabbath had in fact been broken. And then second Jesus drives this point home by

drawing on a practice that was actually written into the law regarding the priests who worked on

the Sabbath in the temple saying in verse five, or haven't you read in the law that the priests on

Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and are yet innocent. Now admittedly this is very

interesting because our Lord's point is essentially to say that if the whole point of the Sabbath was

to do no work whatsoever, then how was it okay for priests to mix spices, slit throats, drag carcasses,

sprinkle blood and move ashes as technically acceptable. The priests, they worked really hard

on the Sabbath, they desecrated it, not the law, mind you. Notice what Jesus says here, and God doesn't

condemn them for it. And so again Jesus' point is how can anyone condemn his disciples who were doing

the work of the one who as we'll see in a moment is greater than the temple itself.

Church this is quite a difficult passage to understand, but essentially our Lord is teaching us that

religious obedience is never an excuse to ignore or set aside love for others. I remember when this

really hit home for me the first time, I was on the way to a prayer meeting on a Sunday night, it was dark,

the weather was bad and it was raining, and as I was driving to church on the side of a road was a woman

who had broken down, she clearly needed help, but because I was running late I drove right past her to get

to the prayer meeting on time. It's prayer commanded in the Bible, yes. Are we to meet with one another on the

Lord's day, yes, but at the expense of ignoring someone in real need? Will you be the judge?

Now if we think about it, the Ten Commandments, they were written on two tablets of stone when they were

given to Moses. The first table is our responsibility before God and the second table is our responsibility

towards others. And what Jesus is pointing out here is that our responsibility of loving God was never

designed to be an excuse to ignore our responsibility of loving others. Loving God with all that you are

and loving one another, that's how our Lord sums up the law, well it was never designed to cancel each other out.

And so we should never use the excuse of loving God to not love others. I think that's what our Lord is

exposing here. He exposes religious hearts and minds that become so fixated on traditions and rules that they

end up condemning the innocent and ignoring their responsibility, a divine ordinance to love their neighbour

as they love themselves. And it's here that Jesus does something absolutely phenomenal. In these three verses,

he gives us the gospel glasses that we desperately need by revealing how the temple, the law and the sabbath are

to be understood. Notice it, verse 6, I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. This is amazing

if you think about it because Jesus is saying where the presence of God dwells, where he promised to be with his

people, well I am greater than that place that stands there in Jerusalem. For in me God dwells among you.

This is an essence of John 1 here. Essentially Jesus is saying that the temple it was a type of something to come

which was being fulfilled in their very presence. This is an amazing, a phenomenal statement of Christ's divinity here.

Second in verse 7, Jesus claims that legalists, these Pharisees haven't even begun to understand the spirit and the heart

of God who gave them the law in the first place. We read in verse 7, if you had known what these words mean,

I desire mercy not sacrifice, you wouldn't have condemned the innocent. Now the thing that the Pharisees

were so proud about was their theological pedigree. They thought that they had the right interpretation of the law which they

cemented in their traditions. But here Jesus takes a sledgehammer to it by pointing out to them that they've missed

the whole point of what it is to please God. Hosea 6.6 which Jesus quotes here shows them that our God is compassionate

and more than that he expects that his people will show compassion, not just outward religious ritual.

In other words, those that really are living in a way that is pleasing to our God, well they're living in a way that emulates

our God's love and compassion. To put it simply, the true children of God seek more than just formal religious

obedience. They walk as he walks, says the Apostle John. And then third in verse 8, Jesus says, for the son of man is Lord

of the Sabbath. Now church, this is the key that unlocks the door as to how Jesus is able to tell us what's lawful on the

Sabbath. Because as he says here, it is his day. That's what Jesus means by telling us that he is in fact the Lord of the

Sabbath. It's his day. And here's the one who determines what is lawful to do on it. Now this isn't to say that Jesus

just ignores the importance of the Sabbath or is downplaying the fourth commandment in any which way. He came to fulfill the law.

No, he's simply giving us here the gospel glasses that we so desperately need. And as we see here, Jesus reveals to us that it's not

a day all about outward religious formalism, where we get the day off to ignore people around us so that we can get to church

or prayer meetings on time. No, Jesus is against traditions that take the law and develop an outward show, which all the while play

down the need for love and compassion. Now again, we have to remember the context of our passage this morning. We have to remember

what's come before. Our Lord's yoke is easy and his burden is light. And I mention that because that's the big difference between

man made rules and walking in the freedom that Jesus gives to all his disciples. Man made rules around this particular commandment

have always been heavy and burdensome. But as we see here, Jesus has freed us not to be a lawless people, but to obey his example

of holiness, of love and compassion, which become more apparent in the next section of this passage that we have before us this morning.

We read in verses 9 through to 14, going on from that place, he went into their synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there

looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus. They asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? He said to them,

if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable

is a person than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. And he said to the man, stretch out your hand.

So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. The Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Now, brothers and sisters, we're not going to spend as much time in this section, but I want you to just see two things. First, the Pharisees

have absolutely no care or love for this man in their midst. And he was in dire need. You see, in context to have a crippled hand would usually mean

that your working options were pretty limited. And the Pharisees, they knew that Jesus had a powerful healing ministry

and that anyone who came to him was fully restored. They knew that about him. But look at the whole focus of the Pharisees here.

It wasn't on this man and joyfully being excited to see his burden finally healed by our Lord. No, their whole focus was on if Jesus was going to stick to the rules

that they had set. And they did this because second, they wanted to accuse Jesus of breaking the law so that they could take him down.

Again, this scene really shows us who cares more about the heart of God and the intention of the law. I mean, on the one hand, you have these

Pharisees who have all these stringent rules around the Sabbath. They seem so committed. But if you look at what they're doing,

they ignore the real needs of this poor guy in their midst. They don't just have a lack of compassion. They even weaponize the Bible

so that they can take Jesus down. And then on the other hand, you have Jesus, whose whole attitude is to show the love and compassion of God

to others wherever and whenever. The Pharisees, they're blinded by their own self-righteousness. I mean, they had no problem working to rescue an animal on the Sabbath

as we see there in verses 11 and 12. But they wouldn't even allow Jesus to climb down into the proverbial ditch and rescue this man.

This whole scene exposes a massive contrast between a legalist mindset and the heart of God. And the two don't go together. Jesus is healing and showing compassion and love

while the Pharisees are conspiring in how to destroy the very presence of God in their midst. And it's here that I think our evangelist, Matthew, wants us to ask a question

in light of all of this. Who do you think that God is pleased with here? Who do you think that he sees as getting the heart and the spirit of the law?

The Pharisees with their lopsided religious rigor, which blinded them to the responsibility of loving God's sheep, of loving their neighbour as they love themselves or Jesus,

where every step of the way looks for opportunity to bring real rest to the burdened and to the downtrodden.

Brothers and sisters, I truly think we see something here this morning and it's this. Jesus teaches us that showing compassion, it's always the right thing to do.

Yes, yes, we have duties and responsibilities in the Christian community that are very, very important, no doubt, but we must never use those commitments as an excuse to cancel out our responsibilities that we've been given by God when it comes to others.

God's designed for it to go together. And isn't this whole picture captured so wonderfully in the parable of the Good Samaritan?

I won't get you to turn there, but it's there that Jesus tells the story of a priest and a Levite who saw a beaten down, broken man on the side of the road who they thought was probably dead.

And so if they went over and touched him, they would be ceremonially unclean to go and do their duties that day.

That was the law of the Old Testament and so they ignored this broken, beaten down man.

But as you read on in the parable, Jesus insinuates that those men, though unclean for the day, should have shown compassion on that beaten and broken man.

They should have shown that they were prepared to get down and dirty with the defiled in order to show the compassionate heart of God to their neighbor.

It's what God wants from his people.

And no more clearly do we see that than in the perfect man of Jesus Christ himself.

The perfect, sinless prophet, priest and king, the very temple of God's presence among us, the Word made flesh.

He came to the unclean, broken and defiled sinners so that we could be pulled out of the pit, restored, healed and find our eternal rest in him.

Jesus, brothers and sisters, he gives us the gospel glasses that are needed to understand what this fourth commandment was pointing us to.

Without him, we'd just be staring at that blank page trying to imagine what the whole picture is meant to look like.

No, he shows us that our duty to God never cancels out our duty to fellow man.

They work hand in hand.

Now admittedly, there's much discussion around what the Lord's day looks like for the Christian.

Paul says one esteems one day while another esteems all days.

We're each accountable to the Lord with our own convictions on this, but I want to leave you with this thought as we close this morning.

When was the last time you showed real godly compassion on someone else?

When was the last time you saw great need and got down into the pit and showed the love of God to the downtrodden?

The Pharisees, they had real need in their midst, but they missed the opportunity because they were so focused on their traditions.

Just getting to church on time, serving and keeping your day of rest, blind you to the real needs that are in and among us.

Has your duty of doing things at church become an excuse for ignoring someone in great need?

Well, our Lord sets the example.

It is good and right to get together, to hear from the Word, to sing praises, to pray together, to encourage each other.

That is not to be neglected, but we must never use those things as an excuse to ignore or cast aside our responsibility of showing love to our neighbors.

Duty and compassion church, they go together. They don't cancel one another out. Let's pray.

Father God, we are so thankful for the gospel. We are thankful for that the Lord Jesus Christ is the fulfillment and that we are a people that live under this wonderful new covenant.

This morning we asked that as we have come to your word, that as we have heard these words, your Holy Spirit would continue to hold Christ high in our midst.

Lord, we ask that we would be a people that wouldn't be so lopsided the other way where holiness doesn't become a thing to us, that we become social warriors.

Lord, we ask that your Spirit would lead us to love you and to love others as the Lord Jesus Christ has shown us.

May you be the one that leads and guides us in what you have set for us to do.

Might we be a city on a hill, a light in the city of Armadale, making disciples of you?

We ask for this in Jesus' name and for the sake of the church. Amen.