Lord of the Sabbath

CLASS 4 ISSUES

Study Scripture: Matthew 12: 1 – 8

Background Scripture: Matthew 12:1 – 14;

Mark 2:23 – 28; Luke 6:1 – 11

Lesson 7     July 12, 2025

Key Verse

But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.

Matthew 12:6.

 

INTRODUCTION

We will now study the clear, plain, fateful and final decision of Jewish religious leaders not to have anything more to do with Jesus of Nazareth. The decided they had to kill Him. The leaders had made a personal inward decision to reject the Lord Jesus Christ and now came the outward rejection manifested. This would run its course and end in the crucifixion of Jesus Chrust on the Cross.

The modern religious leaders are no different for them and those that follow them have great difficulty to closely following the directions of God even as they claim to adhere to the teachings of Jesus.

Some modern commentators use innovative and in some cases anti Jewish unscriptural analysis of this incident in our Study to state their reasoning which conflicts with God’s clear command:

“It raises the question of the relationship between the ceremonial and the spiritual aspects of the law of Moses; the relative importanc of the ceremonial—the sacrifice and the offerings and the priesthood and things like that—as over against the spiritual and moral principles of the Old Testament”.

The nature of and authority of Jesus Christ the Son of God will be examined in this Lessson. It was the Lord that instituted the Sabbath and yet some like to state simply that it should be compared to what they call the ceremonial law which they say was done away with. In so doing they disavow the express command of Scripture that the Sabbath is a command with everlasting value and implications.

The Study Text deals with two of the confrontations that Jesus the Messiah had with the Pharisees on the matter of Sabbath observance. Since the passage deals with the greateness of the Son of God, some persist in trying to turn its clear meaning into controversy about the lasting nature of what some call the Jewish Sabbath, even though Scripture states the Sabbath was instituted at Creation and thus was not a Jewish Sabbath.

Scripture gives no support to it ever being changed before it merged into the perfect Sabbath of eternity where all believers live in the immediate oresence of God in the New Heaven and the New Earth with its capital at the New Jerusalem.

Some therefore today, who like many in Israel who rejected the benefits they would have gained in observing what was required in Sabbath observance, like to stress the Jewish history of not behaving in ways indicating they accepted the majority of God’s commandments, His testimonies and His statutes, present that the confrontation with Jesus came because Jesus violated “their Sabbath” because everything in what Jesus did violated their rabbinical traditions and struck a blow at the heart of their legalistic system.

The bold position of many adopting the modern argument of a “Jewish Sabbath” a “Sabbath” that Moses in Genesis had never intended to present or thought about, is explicitly stressed that “although God rested on the seventh day, God did not command men prior to the Mosaic Law to rest on the seventh day. That was in the Mosaic Law, that the requirement was first articulated. Then it became, in the Mosaic Law, a special covvenantal sign between God and Israel”.

You will therefore find famous evangelists and writers teach that though the Sabbath commandment is one of the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20, it is the only one that is a non-moral one. It is the only one that is a ceremonial one and it was uniquely between God and Israel. That is why it is not a binding law for the “church”, a ‘church” as they define “the church”.

This is the exact replication of the obstinate rejection of God’s commandements held by the Pharisees on some issues. We are faced with the strange approach of religious leaders and their interpretation of the word of God. Without any biblical support they simply toss any commandment they do not like into the “ceremonial law”, even if the laws also instituted with the Sabbath laws at creation, those laws like those on marriage, one wife and one husband, tithing, offering sacrifices to God (physical sacrifices then but now after the sacrifice of the Messiah the perfect lamb of God, spiritual sacrifices since all believers are now priests of God) can be accepted as foundational commandments.

Some cover their ideas by saying, not God’s explicit command, but “mercy” is to be our guide, as if this idea of  “mercy”was not taught by God very early in Genesis.

Despite what appears to be rather clear teaching, many today suffer from the errors of the Pharisees and have tried to confuse the issues raised in the Study Text either because they reserve to themselves the prerogative of saying as gospel what Scripture does not specifically teach, or because they have been convinced that they can retain the pagan practices of the apostate Roman Catholic mother church which mixes truth with pagan error.

It should be emphasized that when God speaks, everything must be interpreted in view of His nature, His authority, His perfect knowledge of the past, the present, and future, and the awesome nature of His holiness. God does not give commandments, teachings, or instructions without the most exalted of reasons, and so He warns us that we must be very careful not to alter anything that He has commanded. In fact, in Matthew 5:17-18 He used quite unmistakably clear language stating:

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For, assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the world till all be fulfilled.”

Note that the meaning of “all”. All the words are important, including the word “fulfill”. One writer notes in looking at the word “fulfill” in this verse 17:

“The Greek word pleroo, translated “fulfill” here, means “to make full, to fill, to fill up… to fill in the full” or “to render full” (Thayer Greek- English Lexicon of the New Testament 2005, “Fulfill”). In other words, Jesus said He came to fill the Law to the full- to complete it and make it perfect. How? By showing the spiritual intent and application of God’s Law. This meaning is clear from the remainder of the chapter where He showed the full spiritual intent of specific commandments”.

Then the writer warns:

“Some distort the meaning of “fuflill” to have Jesus saying, “I did not come to destroy the law, but to end it by fulfilling it”. This is entirely inconsistent with His own words through the remainder of the chapter, He showed that the spiritual application of the Law made it an even higher standard of behavior and thought, not that it was annulled or no longer necessary”,

Note verse 18 when Jesus warned that nothing would pass from the law till all be fulfilled.

“Here a different Greek word is used for “fulfilled”- ginomai, meaning “to become, i.e. to come into existence” or “to come to pass” (Thayer’s). Only after everything necessary would come to pass would any of God’s law pass from existence, said Christ.

Lest we try to misunderstand what Christ was saying verse 19 prevents all of that for Christ warned that anyone that broke even the least of the commandments and taught men to break any of these commandments they would be called least by those in the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand those that taught them would be called great in the kingdom of heaven.   It should be noted also that Christ would have sinned if He violated the law of God, for Scripture tells us that transgression of the law is sin. If He had sinned he could not be called perfect as He was named perfect in John 8:29, and which was affirmed in Hebrews 4: 15 and 1 Peter 2:22. What is even worse is that if Jesus had broken the law of God He would not function as a spotless sacrifice for our sins as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 1:18-19. The consequences of such a thing on Jesus’ part would be most dreadful for us.

It is also to be noted that neither Jesus nor the Pharisees argued about the importance of the Sabbath day but there certainly was serious disagreement as to how to keep it, honour it and keep it holy as God intended. Remember that God intended that keeping  His commandments would be a joy and not a burden. God’s commandments were not intended to restrict us but to bring us joy and peace so that mankind and the world would be a better place. In other words the commandments were not to be a burden and especially the prophets have told us the Sabbath was to be a delight.

The clear warning is however that the Commandments are not intended to be a burden that cripples, for as Jesus stated His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It is dangerous to do like the Pharisees who though they taught the Old Testament Scriptures, overlaid its required practices with many numerous regulations and rules that were not scrptural at all. These became known as the tradition of the Fathers, but which were definitely the teaching of the Word of God.

The “Sabbath” was really set up as a reminder to us of the grace of God. It reminds us that once we were nothing, had no real permanent existence and that the beautiful world and the creatures and plants in it did not exist.

The ‘Sabbath” keeps on reminding us of the magnificent work of creation which marks out the infinite beauty, wisdom and abilities of the sovereign Creator God and teaches us to whom we must submit and live in Him.

It is purely because of grace that the Creator God created the world and established the human race to have fellowship with Him. The Sabbath was intended to remind us of what God had done so that man would constantly be warned that we should not stray but keep our focus on Him. The necessity of and the critical importance of the Sabbath will remain until we see Jesus face to face and be with Him in the New Heaven and the New Earth.

One writer has an interesting interpretation of Sabbath and its worship as he examines how people nowadays including those who practice Sunday Sabbath worshiping. What is quite clear is that all have great difficulty in worship and rest as is exemplified in the Sabbath commandment. His position is:

“The Sabbath is a feast of remembrance and anticipation wrapped into a twenty-four hour period of tiem.During the Sabbath, we are invited by God to celebrate with him in the cool of the day.Sabbath is far more like hanging out with God in a french café drinking an expresso and talking about Simone de Beauvoir and listening to cool jazz. If that sounds like torture to you, then Sabbath is more like a country fair pig roast, after the judging of the calf competition”.

So he asks the questions we should think about when we look at what we mean when we consider Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath. They are:

1. “Where and when do we experience delight?
2. Why do we often flee from delight and lose the taste for it?
3. What counterfeits turn our senses from joy?
4. How do we learn to taste and see the goodness of God?”

In a Chapter of his book called “Seldom Sabbath” in which this writer describes the Sabbath as a taste of the Pleasure of God he explores why we do not observe the Sabbath by asking students about their Sabbath practice. A few (four out of thirty) set aside one day of the week as an intentional Sabbath.

Of the other 56 students, 90% view the concept of the Sabbath as simply another word for church. Seventy percent view the Sabbath as a day of rules and regulations that focus far more on what we aren’t to do than focussing on the spiritual, pious and God focused.

When asked why they did not observe the Sabbath the typical answer to why they did not do so was that they were too busy. It infringed on their work, schoolwork,socializing, and free time.

We modern people look amazingly like the ancient Jews who the prophet accused of longing for Temple worship services to be over so that they could put water in the wine, modify the weight on the scales and do other not quite godly things to make more money, while being happy doing what they liked.

Many are unaware of deeply analytic books written by persons like Arthur Elwin Main, who was Dean and Professor of Theology at the Alfred Theological Seminary.

The writer of a Book, The Story of Christianity reminds us of what many converts to Christianity seem to like to ignore in their rush to create a Gentile Christian stripped of any of what they call Old Testament teaching and commandments.The writer of the History states to remnd us:

“The early Christians did not consider themselves followers of a new religion. All their lives they had been Jews, and they still were. Thiss true of Peter and the twelve, of the seven, and of Paul.

Their faith was not a denial of Judaism, but was rather the conviction that the Messianic age had finally arrived.

Paul would say that he was persecuted “because of the hope of Jesus” Acts 28:20.

The early Christians did not reject Judaism, but were convinced that their faith was the fulfillment of the age-long expectation of a Messiah”.

This is why early Christians would worship at the Temple before the disobedient leaders of Israel rejected them, persecuted them, and threw them out from among them.

But note the Apostle Paul could say truthfully he did not reject the teaching, the true teaching and practices of the fathers.

We should keep in mind as we examine Scripture that the fathers beginning with Jacob, the prophets, and those who spoke as the mouthpiece for God, those who received the revelations from God and the promise of the New Covenant, as well as the Lord Jesus the Messiah were from Israel.

Note that does not make any Gentiles who believe in the Messiah any less beloved by God.

Obviously, the sin sacrifices in the Old Testament were a symbol of Jesus’ coming sacrifice for men and then when Jesus came and died these symbols cease to have meaning for Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient.

Remember the Sabbath was instituted by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit before sin came into the world. This fact should not be ignored for it clearly points out that the Lord Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us in the last two chapters of his book that when Jesus returns the Sabbath will be a day of rest and worship of God, the Lord Jesus Christ as it was at creation.

The reminders of Jesus’ sacrifice was not the Sabbath but instead He instituted special  reminders of His sacrifice, namely Baptism and Communion.

An examination of the four Gospels show that the word Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament sixty two times and in every case directly or indirectly these deal with the Messiah and His disciples and Apostles keeping the Sabbath holy.

Given the fact that both Jesus and the Pharisees had a high view of the Sabbath we should look briefly at how Sabbath observance has been changed since it was instituted in the Garden of Eden.

It was, like all the Commandments, neglected before the Flood and barely survived, even though we see traces of a distorted Sabbath practice among several pagan cultures before the call of Jacob and the creation of the twelve tribes.

The Sabbath observance was stressed by Moses who warned the people to “remember” it. They should not work and should rest as it was a day set apart for the Lord as the centre of attenton in all their life and activity.

But it certainly was dramatically transformed during the many centuries before the time of Christ for Israel did not listen to the words of God but forgot God and as a result the nation disintegrated and went into captivity. They constantly violated God’s Sabbath despite the many warnings to hallow the Sabbath day. See Jeremiah 17: 22- 27, Ezekiel 20: 12- 16, 22: 26. The nation suffered for their neglect of the Sabbath.

When the remnant of Israel returned from the exile they were determined not to make the same mistakes and so the religious authorities developed detailed regulations stating exactly what was allowed and what was not allowed on the Sabbath. The system became oppressive and legalistic and there were several hundred things that a conscientious Jew had to do to honour the Sabbath. Some of these regulations were unbelievable.

The Pharisees were diligent in studying the Scriptures and were the self appointed desciples of Moses. They gave interpretation of every word of Scripture and they were unequivocakl that their interpretation were correct. They said there were 39 different actions that were forbidden on the Sabbath Day for these actions were “work”. Instead of sticking to the Scripture as closely as possible and having as few definitions of work as possible, they had as many do today, overlay the Bible injunctions with a mass of traditions. The Scriptures did not say what they said but they insisted their word of the matter was sufficient.

To reap was to work but they said that taking ears of corn, rubbing it to get the kernels together to eat it was threshing. To take the corn silk from the kernel was winnowing. So if one simply took an ear of corn, made it ready to eat, it meant that person was reaping, then threshing, and then winnowing since they were preparing a meal. The Pharisees did not cite any Scripture but simply said it ws unlawfuli

Look at the following examples.

“For example, the prohibition about tying a knot was much too general, and so it became necessary to state what kind of knots were prohibited and what kind not. It was accordingly laid down that allowable knots were those that could be untied with one hand.

“The prohibition regarding writing on the Sabbath was further defined as follows: He who writes two letters with his right or his left hand, whether of one kind (of letter) or of two kinds… Is guilty. He even who should from forgetfulness write two letters is guilty. Also he writes on two walls which form an angle, or on the two tablets of his account book, so that they can be read together, is guilty”.

“The religious authorities redefined work completely saying for example that even spitting on the soil, something which could disturb the soil, was the type of plowing and was therefore forbidden. Women were forbidden to look into a mirror on the Sabbath, because they might see a gray hair and pull it out, and that would constitute work. Wearing nailed shoes on the Sabbath was prohibited because in the authorities view, the addition of the nails meant they were carrying an unnecessary burden. Even walking through grass was not allowed, because some of the grass might be bent and broken, which constituted threshing, one of the forbidden categories of work.

Religious leaders taught that if the house caught on fire on the Sabbath, its inhabitants couldn’t carry their clothes out of the house to spare them from the flames because that would be bearing a burden. However, they were allowed to put on all the layers of clothing they could wear and thus remove the clothes by wearing them, which was acceptable”.

One can sympathize with the efforts of the Israelites to avoid dishonoring the Sabbath and so avoiding the painful exercise of once again going into exile. But they kept their eyes off the ball and instead of sticking to following exactly what God said and what God clearly meant they began to institute the world of man-made rules and regulations. This of course led to a growing disaster.

We should not feel so proud of ourselves for we too have developed all kinds of man-made regulations which are contrary to the clear, simple word of God. We prefer to build great Cathedrals and spend our money developing massive monuments and programs which in fact do not help the needy and which in fact do not appeal to or attract the poor and the downtrodden. In fact, throughout history we see that their blood, the blood of the poor and many slaves have been shed in building many of our religious monuments which we so highly prize. We do not even have to mention the many wars, institutions such as slavery, seizing nations and their resources, which many Christian nations have done in violation of the commandments of God. So we doubt if we are much if any better than the Pharisees.

We too like to create rules of clothing, how leaders are to walk as they come to begin worship services, and all other kinds of extrabibilcal rules.

Note that the observance of the weekly Sabbath stood for justice and caring for every member of the society. None should be overworked but should have opportinuty to enjoy the fruits of their labour and set themselves apart to worship the Creator and Saviour. This day of resting is linked to resting the land and forgiving debts and restoring property to the rightful owner every seven years and in the year of Jubilee. The weekly Sabbath stands to reflect God’s intention for the people of Israel.

It was in this atmosphere in Israel that Jesus came and His teaching was designed to bring people away from the distortion of God’s Sabbath commandments as well as the distortion of other commandments. This of course led to many confrontations with the Pharisees, the excessively strict and powerful branch of Judaism and the other religious leaders.

In showing how the Sabbath was to be honoured it is clear that Jesus rejected the actions of these religious leaders who put binding, unauthorized, and hostile to God burdens on the people. The religious elite wanted to bring the disciples of Jesus under that terrible oppression. But Jesus would show consistently that not all labour on the Sabbath was condemned and that the purpose of the Sabbath law was for the benefit of man, and it was instituted as an act of mercy from God to refresh the soul.

THETEXT

Verse 1. Jesus always went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and preached the good news of the kingdom of God to the Jews that attended the synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus wanted to turn the people of Israel from the Sabbath observance that had become largely external and formal and which was more concerned with the letter of their contrived law than the needs of humanity.

Jesus and His disciples on the Sabbath were walking together through some cornfields. As they walked the hungry disciples plucked some ears of corn, and rubbed them together to get rid of the chaff and to ate.

For the Pharisees the question now was whether or not the disciples were breaking their law, and whether or not Jesus would find the actions of the disciples faultless.

Would the act by some hungry people of rubbing corn between one’s hands to get some nourishment be considered “forbidden and sinful work”?

Remember that the major principles that the Pharisees and religious authorities developed to determine what could and could not be done on the Sabbath, had gone so far as to forbid the paralyzed and helpless man which John 5 records that Jesus healed, from taking up his pallet and walking.

Verse 2. It would appear that these people with murder in their hearts  were following Jesus and the disciples around to find something with which ti accuse them. The Pharisees questioned Jesus about what the disciples were doing and we can conjecture they had also asked the disciples why they were doing what they did. The Pharisees did not directly accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath but they focused on what His disciples did. For these Pharisees the action of the disciples was not lawful for they interpreted Exodus 31: 13-15, the Exodus 16: 29 instructions, and the Exodus 34: 21 verse as outlawing grain picking on the Sabbath.

They held that the direction of those instructions did not allow people to do what Deuteronomy 23: 25 approved, that is, for people to glean from the fields as they passed through and it did not give permission to the disciples of Jesus to plunk, rub and eat the grain. They consider that rubbing the grains in their hands was the same as threshing and winnowing as well as preparing a meal, activities that they considered to be inappropriate for Sabbath observance.

Verse 3-4. Jesus dealt with the matter on behalf of the disciples in a very interesting way. He did not get into argument about what was “work” but assumed their position and then cited from Scripture, drowing  an analogy from Scripture to expose the inconsistency of His enemies. This is what we called an ad hominem argument.

Jesus turned to 1 Samuel 21 to show that the charges against the disciples were really based on a faulty interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Scriptures allowed exceptions to the law under certain circumstances.

Jesus recalled that when the anointed David was running for his life from the vengeful King Saul who was determined to kill him he had gone to the priestly city of Nob, and he and his men being extremely hungry asked the High priest Ahimelech for some food. David lied by saying that he was traveling in the service of the King. The priest however knew that David was the anointed one of God and he told David that the only food on hand were the twelve loaves of bread that were put before the presence of the Lord on a table within the Holy Place. Leviticus 24 states clearly that no one such as David and his men could eat this food. Only the priests could eat the bread that was placed before the Lord from the previous Sabbath.

This “shew- bread” symbolized the constant fellowship that the people of Israel had with their God as well as symbolizing that God was their source of food, fellowship, and life. The priest might have regarded David as the rightful King of Israel and felt that it was right to feed the anointed of the Lord and his men so that they could accomplish the mission on which God had sent them. Preserving the life of David was more important spiritually than the requirements of the Law that only the priests could eat that bread.

The law of right and wrong, namely mercy, taught that there were things necessary for the preservation of life that should be heeded. So this religious law which stated that only the priests could eat the shew-bread from the altar in the Holy Place was set aside and it was clear that this was acceptable to the Lord since God did not rebuke the High Priest or His anointed for what they had done. No moral law was broken, only the ceremonial law.

The Pharisees did not condemn the Highly Priest or David and since they did not they were most insincere in condemning the hungry disciples,

Verse 5. Jesus now questioned how much they understand Scripture. They needed spiritual learning rather than the learning prized by the Rabbis.

So, on the Sabbath Day the priests were very active and they did a lot of things the Pharisees would call “work”. Since two lambs had to be sacrificed on the Sabbath, the priests had to slay the lambs and prepare it according to the ritual. There had to be meal offering and drink offering prepared on that Sabbath Day and offered to God. In the Tabernacle then the priests had a busy day on the Sabbath and it involved a lot of “work” The priests, said Jesus, were profaning or disregarding the Sabbath law of “work”, but they were guiltless and were not sinning.

Remember therefore that for the Elders, Parsons, Deacons or Church Officers the Sabbath is not really all a Day of rest. One writer notes something we have either forgotten or sadly never knew:

“The activity that is for God, that is, an activity that is sanctified to his service takes precedence over the ceremonial and cultic laws, and the Old Testament teaches it itself.

The reason for this is obvious. The ceremonial and cultic is designed to point forward beyond itself. No ceremony is of any ultimate worth.

All ceremonies picture realities which are more important than the ceremonies. When, for example…we sit at the Lord’s Table and observe the Lord’s Supper, and we take the bread and we take the wine, the bread and the wine are not so important to us as the body and the blood of Christ.

The body and the blood of Christ is the important thing. The ceremony is only a means to the end. And so naturally, that which is real takes precednce over that which is unreal”.

Another crucial aspect shows itself in Jesus’ rebuke to the Pharisees twice, “Have you not read..”. Jesus is telling us that as one writer puts it, in order to truly read we must understand, and having the words of Scripture pass under our eyes in a mechanical fashion, that is not truly reading.

If you simply read the words of a chapter to get through the Bible reading program, and then someone asks you afterwards what the chapter said, and you admit you are not really sure, you are not really “reading” the Bible. One scholar states:

“If there is no understanding, there is no reading. That’s what he means. Have you never read? The priests lit the candlesticks in the tabernacle before they put the incense on the altar of incense because there needs to be illumination upon the divine activities if there is to be understanding, because understanding is what we need…We don’t read the Bible like we read the newspaper. We don’t read the Bible like we read poetry, to be dazzled by the flashing poetry of some outstanding literature.

When we come to the Word of God, we come to a book in which the Lord God of the universe sits like a crowned monarch in the pages, and we listen for his voice, and we ponder until we understand—that’s why we read the Bible”.

We are living in an age of superciality, in which people think that to read the Word is simply to read a chapter in the Bible. Our Lord’s illustration here should disabuse our minds here of that. In the reading of the Bible, incidentally, read all of the Bible, not simply the parts from which you get a blessing. But read the historical sections. You’ll be amazed at how much light there is in the historical sections of the Word of God if you will read it with a view to understanding.

Verses 6-8. The Pharisees did not seem to understand that the disciples were with the Son of Man, God, the promised Messiah, who was Lord of the Sabbath. The Pharisees and religious leaders should understand that it was God that created the Sabbath and that He, the Son of Man, the Messiah, had the authority to challenge them and to eliminate all the terrible burdens and erroneous traditions that they had developed around the Sabbath. He was the ultimate interpreter of all God’s law, including the Sabbath law!

Note that the word “Lord” indicates one who has full control of something and so it is good that Jesus had the right to exercise authority over all the rules and practices that govern the Sabbath.

He possessed the very nature of God and so He could determine how the activities on the Sabbath would be used.

Clearly then, the Sabbath law which was designed for the benefit of man showed the mercy of God. God knew that man needed a time of rest so that he could practice religious exercises so that his soul would be refreshed. The Sabbath is to be a time of blessing and help and rest.

Jesus could never have violated the Sabbath but He certainly could hit out against the regulations that became an end in themselves, rather than focusing on the end of benefiting man.

Hunger is a basic need that had to be met if people were to serve God the Father and the human needs of Jesus and His men took precedence over their erroneous and burdensome interpretation of the law. The Sabbath would on occasion be set aside in order to show mercy to the suffering. It was designed to make man look beyond and above their own self-interest. That was why man was told not to work on the Sabbath but instead worship the one true and living God.

Jesus had divine authority and He was not doing anything that violated the Sabbath laws. This He would never do for violating the laws written by God the Father would be sin, and He was never going to be guilty of sin. What the disciples did was perfectly sensible according to the laws God had given to the nation. They did not violate God’s Sabbath commandment but  they did violate the Pharisees man-made regulations.  What Jesus had done was highlight Hosea 6:6, and made the understanding of the portion of scripture clear.   God desires mercy from us and He desires us to have an understanding of Him and His laws.

Verses 9-10. We will now see the warning that there is a danger in creating human laws, ignoring of scriptural laws, hypocritcal approaches to the demands of God, formality of worship and a callousness of the heart.which inevitable follws departure from Scripture. We will also see the power of sovereign grace dealing with human inability and the separation of Justice from observing the Comandments of God. Peoples, individuals, tribes and nations will always ignore the calls for Justice when they ignore the Commandments of God. It matters not what their religious persuasion is.

This verse showed the authority of Jesus on the Sabbath and records that on another Sabbath Jesus as usual entered into the synagogue and taught the assembled. A man with a withered hand was present and this set the stage for Jesus to demonstrate His authority. Note that this was quite a severe handicap for the ailing man but it was not life-threatening.

Note carefully that Jesus was a miracle worker, but He was about to perform a miracle to emphasize the importance of teaching the truth. The miracle to be done now was not believed to help someone who is handicapped but to teach an important lesson about the Sabbath and about the nature of God as reflected in His Sabbath law.

The serious mental case of the religious leaders was now evident for they were looking for some incident that they could use to criticize Jesus publicly.

These people knew very little of mercy, except maybe as their own group members had some personal need that required their help. These were clearly murderous people for though they went to synagogue regularly and studied the law and Scriptures they did not really care for people.

They very well knew that a man with a withered hand was present. They also knew that most people were right-handed and in their culture the right hand was a symbol of power and strength. It was this hand that was used to bless others and it was the hand that was used to show authority. Fathers would pass on the mantle by placing his right hand on his son’s head.

This man could do nothing of that sort and he was never able to see the joy that came from using his right hand so he was not only physically handicapped but he was psychologically handicapped. The Pharisees knew that Jesus had a compassionate heart, and they knew that it was almost certain Jesus would heal the man. But for them that was not important. They wanted a incident to build a case to accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath.

The murderous Pharisees were at full attention. We know for sure that the tension was very high in that synagogue on that Sabbath morning. The Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day, for they fully intended to use what He would do to build a case against Him. The crowd probably knew that something dramatic was going to happen.

The Creator of the universe did not need anybody to tell Him exactly what was going on in the minds of the Pharisees. He knew what their intentions were, for being God nothing could be hidden from Him. To emphasize His deity and His authority Jesus provoked the conflict with the religious authorities in order to teach them a lesson, that they should pay attention to the needs of the people. Luke tells us Jesus called the man to rise and come forward and the man came and stood in the middle of the synagogue between Jesus and the Pharisees.

 Before doing anything else Jesus asked the Pharisees, who clearly were not there to hear the Word of God or to worship God,to tell the congregation their view of what should be done with this man. So He first asked them to give their opinion as to what they would do if a valuable possession of theirs was in mortal danger on the Sabbath Day. Would they help and save their possession or not help and lose something valuable? By this choice they had to make, they would be agreeing or disagreeing on whether it was good and lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. The related question which hung in the air before them was whether it was good and lawful to do evil on the Sabbath day.

The religious authorities were clearly called on to say whether or not the Sabbath was a special day to bring blessings to people. Their silence or other answer would expose who the Pharisees really were. Their heart was exposed by the questions Jesus posed.

Note that it is very likely that the people of Israel knew that the Pharisees were quite murderous and had no intention of treating people well. It is reported that the Pharisees loved money, recognition, praise and a seat in the high places and they looked down on the average person. Not only did they look down on the average person, they regarded them as inferior and just ‘sinners’. Anyone that was not a Pharisee had not come up to the right standard, and were really throwaway people. This was an awful time for the people of Israel.

It is strange that the mind of any person could become so warped that they knew that Jesus (or some other helper) could perform such a miracle because they were in unity with God and that they would not pity the one that required healing, ot hope that the faith of the congregants would be strengthened. They were only interested in making an accusation.

Notice that Jesus asked  if any of them had “one sheep”. This would tell the worshippers that as Lord of the Sabbath just as men possessed sheep He owned men

 Would they save the life of that “one sheep” they owned on the Sabbath or would they leave that sheep to die because their philosoply required them to behave in such a fashion and just pass their “one sheep” and not do anything about that hapless animal..

Verses 11-12. A man, a son of Abraham is more valued to God than a sheep. But note He does not just say it is good to heal on the Sabbat. Jesus states there is a broad principle, namely, to do good on the Sabbath. Ethical conduct is better. It is better to obey than to sacrifice. Mercy and goodness go together and supercdes ceremonial laws that they have misinterpreted and those they created.

Now note Jesus knew their mind and their history. A historian tells us:

“They regarded the breach of the Sabbath law as a very serious thing. And then in addition to the law of Moses, they had added to that Sabbath law a number of traditions of their own, and these were regarded as being on the same level as Moses and the Old Testament.

And the feelings they had about it might be illustrated in an incident that occurred in the time of Judas Maccabeus before the time of Christ. There were certain Jews who had sought refuge in caves in the wilderness, and Antiochus Epiphanes sent forth men to attack them. And when the attack was made, it was made on the Sabbath day. And because of the holiness with which the Jews regarded the Sabbath day, they made no resistace at all to the attack and died without any defiance of the men under Antiochus.

And then the Roman general Pompey was able to take Jerusalem because the Jews insisted on keeping the day of the Sabbath, and would not, even in the midst of attack, fail to keep the Sabbath day”.

In our days the modern state of Israel was always attacked on the Sabbath, and they soon learned that to survive they had to fight on the Sabbath. Hence they succeeded in the 6 Day war.

The response of the Pharisees was to keep silent. Their morality and their concern for the needs of people were nonexistent, just like the morality of many of today’s religious leaders. So Jesus turned around, looked at them, giving them ample opportunity to repent and to become good shepherds of the flock. But that was not to be; they still kept their silence. Another gospel tells us that Jesus was angry and grieved at the hardness of their heart. But Matthew does not deal with Jesus’ innermost feelings . He records that Jesus simply told the man to stretch out his hand and the man did so and his hand was restored. This in itself was a staggering miracle for remember that the man’s hand was withered and was useless. How would a withered hand be stretched out?

Verses 13-14. Jesus then at the silence of the Pharisees told the man to stretch out his hand and the man did. The hand was was mde whole.

Luke tells us that the man obviously knew that Jesus could heal him and he responded faithfully, despite the presence of the hostile Pharisees who would probably persecute him for accepting the healing from Jesus on the Sabbath. He had faith in Jesus just like the paralytic that was healed earlier.

The Text records that the heart of the Pharisees was on full display for we are told that they were filled with madness. They were filled with rage, violence, or senseless wrath. They then conspired among themselves to see how they could destroy Jesus.

They made nothing stick to Jesus. The kind of healings that the Lord Jesus performs were permanent. The man never went back to his paralysis

CONCLUSION

Jesus tried very hard to make the Pharisees understand that love for human beings was most important. Holy bread can be given to ordinary people when they are hungry. Holy times can be used to meet the needs of people. The Pharisees and ourselves should not be so worried about whether or not people are being extra scrupulous in avoiding certain things on the Sabbath. Instead it would be better if the focus was on properly regarding and worshiping the Holy One of Israel in the way determined by the Holy Spirit. Then the heart would be changed and things would begin to fall into place.

It should be well recognized that the Sabbath is rest. There is a perpetual Sabbath that will be on earth when the Lord of the Sabbath returns to earth. Until then we must acknowledge and recognize that the weekly Sabbath is the Sabbath. As well look forward to the eternal Sabbath that will endure throughout all eternity and to which the present weekly Sabbath points.

Do not make excuses and do your own thing, do activities to make money which are outside of work of mercy and sacrifice.

Those who say that we should not bother with the weekly Sabbath and simply focus on the time of Sabbath which is to come have fallen into the same trap as Israel of old. They knew that the Messiah was coming and would usher in a period of great blessing. But they forgot that until He came to do that work they were still required to cease their efforts, to rest and to worship and remember the God of heaven and earth.

Those who have forgotten this warning in the life of Israel have led the people of God into exactly the same kind of situation where people treat the God of Creation lightly, do whatever they want, and teach falsehoods to the community of faith, telling them to neglect the weekly Sabbath and the reminder of God’s sovereignty. They have fallen into the same trap that the people of Israel fell into simply because they have accepted pagan beliefs.

For those that have accepted Christ as their Saviour they have entered into the rest of God but that certainly does not mean that they can do whatever they want and simply ignore the Sabbath that was instituted at Creation. The Christian world has not proven by its history that they are showing the fruits of resting in God, despite what they like to say. The Christian church has been responsible for massive amounts of evil for they have forgotten that they must follow the commandments of God and worship Him on His holy day, reminding themselves of who He was and what is required of those that believe in Him.

Honoring the Sabbath involves doing good on the Sabbath and not evil. If you find yourself doing evil on the Sabbath, gossiping, blaming others, abusing others, inflating your status as the Pharisees did, being a hypocrite, and above all not meeting the needs of others on the Sabbath, you are dead wrong.

So we beg you to stop engaging in counterfeit Christianity and ask Jesus to teach you about His Sabbath rest, a lifestyle of resting in Jesus Christ, as well as meeting with the community of the faithful for the required period of time and helping each other to grow.

Jesus made it clear that not one or even the tiniest fraction of the commandments of God would be done away with. The prophet Isaiah in the final chapter of his book reminded us that when Jesus returns from Sabbath to Sabbath and from the new moon to another new moon men will go up to Jerusalem to worship Jesus the King in Jerusalem. So let us be reminded that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to do what God wants to do, and to refrain from evil. That is how we honour God.