(Text and Audio)
Title: Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath (Part Three)
Today we conclude our 3 week study on this passage from the beginning of Matthew 12 on how Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and what, exactly that means for us today.
I also promise that at the conclusion of today’s message we will answer Daisy’s question from last week as a matter of practical theology and look at how we, today, ought to observe the Sabbath.
Let’s begin, shall we?
(read/pray)
Recap of what we’ve learned so far:
- From our first sermon: We must respond scripturally (as Jesus does here) when the practice of our faith is brought into question.
- From the second sermon: When defending ourselves, we cannot pick and chose Scripture out of context.
- From the second sermon: The way that Jesus addresses the issue with the Pharisees, he’s actually challenging them to identify Him.
(Now onto the last two ways we see Jesus defend himself)
- One greater/I desire mercy /Lord of the Sabbath
In verses 6/7 Jesus uses three ideas back to back that are quite profound if correctly understood.
First Jesus tells the Pharisees that “In this place there is one greater than the temple”
Obviously, this is Jesus alluding the fact that the Temple was a symbol that pointed to the true Emmanuel (meaning: God is with us) Well, Jesus has fulfilled that. He is the actual temple that the symbolic temple was pointing to.
(Show slide of the BMW roundel, and then an actual BMW, ask Zeb which he’d rather have? And why?)
The Pharisees were arguing from a position of wanting the symbol of the temple more than the temple itself!
Jesus’ pronouncement naturally leads to what He says next.
Jesus tells them, “If you had realized that the Messiah was standing right in front of you, you would understand what Hosea meant in 6:6 with his judgment against this very way of worship!”
And listen to what Jesus is quoting from here:
Hosea 6:4b-6
For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
and like the early dew it goes away
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of my mouth
And your judgements are like those that go forth
For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings
Jesus condemns the misuse of the law by the Pharisees. The Sabbath was given by God as a help to humanity, but he Pharisees were perverting this purpose by turning the Sabbath against those in need and making it a burden. (J.I. Packer)
And, finally, Jesus offers a reminder that “The Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.”
I am sure this shocked the Pharisees and intensified their urge to kill him. Jesus reminds them that the dominion of the Messiah is not limited. He is sovereign over creation, redemption, and justice, so surely he is sovereign over the Sabbath.
And the Pharisees issue wasn’t necessarily to argue whether the messiah had this authority, they just refused to believe that Jesus was the actual messiah. They hearts were darkened, their understanding was not illuminated.
So, we’ve now looked exegetically at the entire passage, and I’ve given you 3 ways that we see Jesus use scripture to defend himself. Yet I promised you there were actually four. So where is the missing exegetical argument? Did anyone catch it? It’s short, it’s subtle, I won’t spend a lot of time explaining it because it’s really straight-forward, but it’s arguably the most powerful of all these arguments.
Anyone?
It has to do with the original accusation in this passage that the Pharisees bring against Jesus
- The original accusation has no O.T. basis
The O.T. never condemns picking grain on the Sabbath in order to eat. These disciples of Jesus were not farmers engaged in the work of the harvest. The Pharisees were objecting based on their own oral tradition which didn’t understand the true purpose of the Law.
Consider Deuteronomy 23:24-25
When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container. When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use the sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.
The point being that you were allowed to partake of your neighbor’s harvest, but you could not plunder it as your own. The fact that the Pharisees build their argument on something that isn’t prohibited in the O.T. shows just how far they had fallen in their understanding of the Law.
Close:
Let’s close this week by returning to Daisy’s very good question from the conclusion of last week’s message:
How, then do we observe the Sabbath?
- From this passage we learn: We do not observe it legalistically.
- From Romans 14:5 (One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.) We learn: We observe it with personal conviction, which means there must be ongoing discussion with the Spirit.
- people who can’t worship on Sunday morning b/c of other circumstances
- people who feel they ought to do no work
- people who feel they should only worship
- From Mark 2:27 (The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath) This is particularly fascinating because of where this verse comes from. In Mark’s account of this very same story we see a shorter, more condensed version of the passage. (as we often do with Mark) Except for this one recording of Jesus’ words which appear in Mark, but not in the other Gospels. Why Luke and Matthew chose to omit this is a discussion for another time. It still appears in our scriptures as the words of our lord and savior, so we are bound by them.
Here we learn that the purpose of the Sabbath was to meet our need for rest and relaxation. The Lord saw that it was good for us to have a break, to take rest, to enjoy leisure. Certainly Solomon came to the same conclusion in Ecclesiastes when he says, “I know this: nothing is better for men to rejoice, and enjoy all the good of their labor, for it is the gift of God.”
Prayer/Q&A