I invite you to turn in The scriptures to Matthew chapter 12 as we continue. If you're a visitor, we're working through expositionally the book of Matthew. And we are today in verses 1 through 14 of chapter 12, Matthew, 1st Gospel of the New Testament. And we come today to this great section on the Sabbath. Let's give our attention to the Word of the Lord.
"At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath He said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, someone something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice," you would not have condemn the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to them, which one of you has a sheep? Who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out of—? How much more value as a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand And the man stretched it out, and it was restored healthy, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. May the Lord bless the hearing of His word this morning."
Well, just uh previous to this section that we read, Jesus gave one of the most comforting calls in the Bible: to come to him for rest. And of course, we know that Sabbath is all about rest, isn't it? That's a good thing. It's an honorable thing to rest this day in the promises of the Lord, or rest, as our Heidelberg says, from our evil works. But so many had heard the ministry of Christ in Israel. Remember, in the last section, the woes were pronounced on Bethsaida and Chorazin and Capernaum. They saw all these wonderful things that Jesus was doing, and they would not come to him for such rest.
Remember what he said: "Go, tell John what you see and hear. The blind have their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the this is one you could rewrite past the dead are raised up the poor have the good news preached to them, and blessed is he who's not offended because of me." And so, so after we considered last week his righteous judgment with this principle to whom much is given, much is required we saw that these entire cities had refused Jesus. And we looked at the importance of seeing how much blessing we have, enough to ensure that we're not refusing Jesus to come to him. And so, in the midst of this, that's exactly what he said: "Come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
"I I will give you rest from all your evil works. I i will give you rest from all of your burdens. I will take your anxiety and all your despair take it and receive my yoke upon you. I'm humble. I'll care for you. I'll bear you up on eagle's wings."
They knew what a yoke was among the Jews. The yoke was well physically that thing, that the wood, they would put on their backs to make carrying things easier. But the Pharisees had so laid it down that that yoke could not be carried anymore, so that it became to be known in Israel as the yoke of the Torah. It came to be known as the yoke of the commandments, and they made them unbearable for people.
The yoke was a wooden frame for carrying the load. Jesus says, "I'm not like that. I'm not putting you through that. I'm the one who reveals the Father. All things have been committed to me. It's been put into my hand. I am the one that will actually love you and care for you. Let me carry your burden. This is how it comes off. Let me carry your burden the burden of the law first let me carry the things that affect body and soul for you. I'm willing. I'm able. I've come, haven't I? You'll find rest. You'll find sap it
We now turn this morning to the greatest expression and testimony of Israel's claim to be the people of God: it was the Sabbath. And only the hardest of hearts will not come to him to receive rest. And he's pushing us to come.
So I want to tie this together with what Jesus said about the yoke. What did Jesus say about the leaders with regard to the yoke? Do you remember this? We haven't got to Matthew 23 yet, but it's really important: "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger." That's amazing! They're putting burdens all over you, but they won't carry them themselves. "Hypocrites," he would say. "You whitewashed tombs." Jesus got worked up about this. They make yokes great. And Jesus says, "But my yoke is light. My yoke is easy. I carry the burden."
Well, today we see the contrast of those who remain under the yoke that they will not want to be released from, and those who are released from that yoke, and what that looks like. Because they were under a yoke Israel that they did not want taken off them. And where it came to a head, where it came to great issue, is with regard to the issue of sabbath the fourth commandment the command to rest. the command to to come into rest
So we have this morning this sort of great Sabbath confrontation. And in the midst of it, Jesus will declare his authority as Lord over the Sabbath. And then he will give an exhortation as to what the Sabbath is all about, so you understand what it means to be free. The yoke would be taken off you, and that you would take his yoke upon you. So that's where we are. That's the connection to the two scenes.
You'll notice in verse one: "At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat." Matthew wants us to think about that. jesus everything he did was intentional. He had purposely led them into the grain fields these long walk through the grain fields on the sabbath And he knew they were hungry and as they're walking through somebody else's grain field, you know, if I came to some of you farmers and started picking your fruit, you might let the pastor get away with it, but if I just pulled up and started walking through your orange fields and started picking your oranges, you might kick me out.
They're hungry. So obviously at the permission of Jesus, disciples take their hands this is kind of an interesting tie here, by the way, because the hand in the next section is withered. You know, everything is thoughtful here. And they start plucking grain. Luke tells us they even did this: they're rubbing the grain through their hands, and then they began to eat the grain.
Now, this may may not seem like much important detail, but it certainly was in Israel. It's a very important if you understand the context of this. They're walking, they're plucking, and they're rubbing. They have just violated some major Sabbath rules in Israel. When they picked grain, they were considered to be reaping. When they remove the husks and the shell, they were said to be sifting. And when they rubbed it, they were said to be threshing. And according to tradition, that violated the Sabbath.
Now, immediately, the Pharisees are standing there. They must have gone on the long walk, I guess, and they come up to him: "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath."
Now, remember what I said: they were always finding a way to never come themselves. They were always trying to find something by which they could discredit the ministry. They were always trying jesus sitting with tax collectors and sinners: "Look, he's a drunkard!" Always an excuse. Always trying to find, finally, pick at something. That's the Pharisee. And boy, did they hate the idea of a light yoke.
I think it's an interesting move when people don't want the gospel and they refuse Christ. They hide behind a kind of pious, strict obedience to the law.
What I love about this particular passage is how we get a glimpse into the kind of Lord we have, the character of our Lord. And it's going to make some people nervous. It's going to make precisionists nervous.
Deuteronomy 23 25 said, "If you go into your neighbor's standing grain so if you walk into his field, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put your a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain." So, so, he's recognizing that the the need at some point that some people may be hungry. They did nothing wrong. They did nothing wrong. They just needed to eat. They're hungry, and Jesus cares about this.
But he begins to press the Pharisees in a surprising way a way that's going to make people uncomfortable right here, right now And it's intended to and he said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priest?"
I want you to hone in on that little statement. Focus on it: "was not lawful." Fascinating rebuke!
If you know your Bibles, you remember the same scene, by the way, is happening here. David is being attacked with his band of brothers, and he's on flight if by Saul. He's being attacked by Israel, and he needs to eat. Well, it's the same scene essentially here: is the greater than David. Here's his band. They're in flight centrally because the leaders are coming after and want to kill them. That's how this section ends.
So the greater than David has come, Samuel's being repeated. Remember what he did, says Jesus. He was with his servants, and well we know he went into the house of Abathar the high priest, and watch out we'll get ready he ate the show bread that was not lawful for him to eat, says Jesus. They were hungry, but they weren't supposed to eat it. Here we have the same scene well not totally. They've actually done something far worse.
The effect of the law itself said in Leviticus 24 9 "And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due." The law said it was for the priests only. Jesus said it was not lawful for David to go eat it. Jesus says, now feel this: "Do you forget that David did something not lawful?" We all want to explain this away at this point. You feel the offense of this?
I mean, if there was ever a moment that the Pharisee said, "This antinomian jesus says the greater than King David ate, and he gave it to a whole bunch of people of whom it was not lawful to eat. And what is the effect of that?" Well, it's kind of easy. They did what was not lawful. What do you think God thought about that when they did what was not lawful? Now, do you see why Jesus would have caused an uproar in Israel?
We're kind of coming against two different religions here, but are we? Really? They're just strict observers of the law. They would have unitedly said, "He's a lawless rabbi, teaching people to break the commandments of the Lord."
Now, here's the hard aspect to the sermon today. Be compromised people want to stand for nothing. So they love this, because they think Jesus isn't requiring on anything. Well, we'll get there.
We are not in a scrupulous age of people who are really more prone to legalism. We are in our own way, but we're kind of in an age of lawlessness. So this thing just sets well for us right now, doesn't it? But what I want you to think about is how it captures the human heart, which resides in all of us me here They had built on top of the law a fence around the law, which came with all these extra burdens, which is the yoke Jesus was talking about. They do this in Matthew 15, when the disciples do not wash their hands correctly when they ate bread, according to the tradition of the elders. That's coming.
And so in chapter 24 of the Talmud, you had: keep in mind, you could only walk on the Sabbath 1,999 steps and no more than 3,000 feet from home. So they've already broken what would come to be common tradition. The rabbis hem themselves in, and and they they they did try to find one way around it. Further, if at the 3 000 foot mark you placed a foot there, it was considered an extension of their home, so they could go another 3 000 feet. It's just dumb. This is dumb.
Edersheim, who's a one who wrote a lot on Jewish history, first century history, says that an egg that was laid on the Sabbath could not be eaten. Why? Because it was not destined for a weekday. So the egg didn't exist then. But if the hen was kept not for laying but for fattening, to be eaten, the egg could be eaten as part of the hen that fell off.
I'm not joking. This is like real history. I'm glad I got you to chuckle. It's just like, it's absurd.
What's interesting here is that Jesus didn't go to he will in Matthew 15, he didn't go to the extra burdens yet of the hand-washing tradition of the Pharisees. Here he goes to the law itself. The ceremonial law. They are raising with Jesus an extra-biblical man-made Sabbath regulation here in their rubbing and sifting. But Jesus goes to David and to the actual written ceremonial law. The showbread was only for the priests.
Pointing to David is a big move. What does it really show about our Lord? Well, I mean, it's really kind of precious, isn't it?
In the sermon on the mound, he loves to feed his sheep. He's Lord. Do I not have the ability to feed you? Will I not care for you? Will you if you ask your father for bread, will he give you a stone? Don't, don't be anxious. I'm going to feed you. He's Lord of the feeding. He's Lord of caring for you. He's concerned about their eating. They're out on the ministry of the Gospel, and they're hungry, so they walk up to the actual showbread. Says Jesus, "Should should David and his servants not eat because the law said don't Oh, we're pressed here. We are pressed here. You see, it was only for the priests.
"Have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple here you go here's another here's another example how about verse five: "Have you not read in the law, okay, we're not talking extra burdens, the fence stuff yet have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guilty?"
The priest had to work on the Sabbath. And they profaned it by working. You see how I want to explain all this away right now? No, he's mint. He's jarring to them.
You know how much work Pastor Gordon does on the Sabbath? I would love to do what you do sometimes. Do you know that? I don't know what you do, but I want to do it. As a pastor, I'm up early. I wake up my family for you. I work all day. Now, does the law give me a provision?
Listen carefully. When I read the Fourth Commandment today: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. In it you should not do any work you nor your son or your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who's within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that's in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Now, if you want to follow directly from the Fourth Commandment, I should not be working. I'm a violator. I'm a Sabbath breaker. And Jesus says, "People find stuff like this all the time to avoid coming."
The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guilty. Well, are they?
Jesus wants us to wrestle with that. See what's happening here? Here's something exposed here of how people relate to the Lord. Isn't that the issue? They live under the law, the ceremonial laws here. The Pharisees would take and beat down the people with them, when the fine precision distinctions. They sat around arguing about all the different interpretations, and the rigidity of the Pharisees on this and the emptiness of their whole religion. They set nobody free, you see.
So that they could attack Christ here, who's the Lord of the Sabbath, who gave the Sabbath. And they added all these other laws on top of it to hymn it in and protect it. Jesus says, not even God's written divine law was intended in the ceremonial law was intended to be done and performed with such rigidity that would produce this kind of legalism, that would create this kind of burden, that would create this kind of emptiness in people.
They're not under the yoke of Christ. "Come to me, my yoke is easy and my burdens lie." They're not under the yoke of Christ. They're not set free. I wonder how many people stay away from Christianity because of this, right here. Creating burdens of people who aren't free.
Now, do you think that means freedom to lawlessness, which is what a lot of people think? No, no, no.
Notice how it's emphasized again: "and he entered the synagogue next scene, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched jesus notice they're just watching him, they're just watching him to see whether he would heal him." on The sabbath so They might accuse him they probably planted him there the man's hand was dead they believed that any healing by a physician could only be done on the Sabbath if it was a life and death manner. They had sat around and debated about this. They had the different schools of thought, wrestled with what kind of medical help could be given on the Sabbath, and they came to conclusion: "It's only if somebody's dying can you do anything."
Here's the Lord of the hand. He's the Lord of the hand. He cares about your hands, cares about using those hands to pluck grain, to eat. Can't be done. To make a comparison, if we drove out outside of the church today, and over here on Broadway, some guy's tire pops, would we stop and help if he needed it? I think we probably would. Or would we want to make sure at least no church people saw us? I mean, we would kind of think, "The guy can wait for Discount Tire till tomorrow, can't he?"
"Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm? To save a life or to kill?" What's lawful? What's the aim of the Sabbath? Silent. Is it okay to do good? Can a doctor treat a patient? Can a fireman come if your house is burning?
Why do you think we have a Sabbath?
Jesus, "Stretch out your hand," and immediately it's healed. And the text ends by saying they want to kill him. They sought to destroy him.
I remember in Linden what everyone had come to think about the Sabbath. This is what I'm trying to get at here. What did everyone think about the Sabbath? What was the single thing that everyone said about the Sabbath? It had nothing to do with coming up to worship.
The prevailing view of the Sabbath anyone who held to the Sabbath was: "Don't get caught mowing your lawn on Sunday."
See what we did to it? See what you've done to the Sabbath? You've made everyone hate it. They're not free to observe it. They're not free to want to observe it. You've missed the intention. This is what we've done. And it's happened here.
Because the yoke, when we think about it, on the Sabbath, we think, and we have come to believe, that it's just about rigidity, hemming us in so that there's no joy. That's the lie we've bought into.
I have a different yoke. But it's not what you think. It doesn't mean to set it aside now. It's to come and enjoy it and be at worship. You're still not free. That's why you kick hard against the goads.
How sad it is when someone was hungry that they made it so that they could not even eat, but God wanted to feed people. "I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Go, learn what this means." That's what I desire. "I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm telling you of its intention: the law and the Sabbath was to be a gift for you. God didn't create man to be a slave to honor the commandment. This is important. I made the Sabbath. I created the Sabbath. I designed the Sabbath for you to be a blessing."
What does that mean? I desired now this is where if anyone says Jesus doesn't teach on the Sabbath and there's no obligation on the Sabbath, that's what he's saying right here. You've misunderstood the Sabbath. Of course, it's important. I gave it to you as an opportunity to do what? Well, you're a busy people to rest? You mean I get to rest. You get to rest. you get to do this. Can you believe it? Every Sunday you should spring up out of, somebody said, "I think I saw somewhere, you know, you got an extra hour today." That's why you're very alert right now, right? And somebody said, "Can you believe it? Some people might actually get to church an hour earlier, and it would be disastrous."
You could come and you could pray and prepare your heart. What was the design of the Sabbath? Would you, if a sheep fell into a pit, would you not lift it out of there on the Sabbath? And do good? You're so much more valuable than sheep. What do you think I'm here for?
Here's where, you know, if you're one of the Pharisees here we all are, by the way you think of the Sabbath as a burden. You think, "When when when the pastor says you need to be at worship, you think, you see, that's legalism Well, no, no, no, no, that's not legalism. You're worshiping God. That's that's that's what he's setting you free to do.
It's all backward. You're not free yet. It's intended for you to be set free and make the day a delight to worship him and to love your neighbor and to serve your brothers and sisters. That's the design of the day. The design of the day is to actually do the works of serving one another, doing good on the Sabbath.
I'll close with this. Joey Pipa, in his book on the Sabbath, I've always liked this. I just think it's helpful. It gives a very instructive analogy. And it goes like this, a little story:
One day, there was a king who had built a splendid city. In the middle of the city, the king designed a beautiful park with ponds, fountains, and springs, magnificent trees from all over the world, inciting stretches of lawn. Weekly, the king met with his subjects in the park, and his people delighted in the time with him and one another.
One day, the king had to go away. And in his absence, the rulers let the park become run down. And it was overrun with weeds. And trees were not pruned. Everything was in ruins.
A new group of rulers came in who were concerned to restore the park to its former beauty. They pulled out the weeds. They replanted. They pruned the trees. But they were fearful. Here it is. They were fearful that it would fall again into disrepair. In order to protect the park, they put a fence around the park's border and along the pathway, so that the people could only look at the beautiful sights, but they couldn't actually use the park.
Then one day, the king's son came, and an anger tore down the wall and said, "Enough of this. The park is for the people and the city to remember my father and to enjoy him. But you've kept them out of the park."
Jesus: "Come to me, all you who are weary, heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. What are you doing? My yoke is easy and my burden is light. You'll know what honoring the Sabbath is. You'll know it in joy. You'll know it in happiness. That complaining spirit will go away. Those burdens you're carrying, like the stubborn Israelites in the wilderness, come. Come to me, and Sabbath and enjoy communion with God and with one another. That's the kind of God I am. Don't let them do that to you, to me, or to you. You come, and you rest."
What a God! Amen.
Lord, thank you for your mercies to us. Thank you for drawing us to You gently. May we come to Jesus Christ and rest and fellowship and enjoy You. Bless us, O Lord, with this perspective. We see what we are prone to, then try to establish our own righteousness before You by perfectly, we think, keeping the law. May we, O Lord, take this yoke upon us. The one who is meek and lowly in heart. May we find rest for our weary souls. In Jesus' name, amen.