“Challenging our Religion”
Matthew 12:1-14
Eventually the ministry of Jesus was sure to cause great controversy. After all, Jesus challenged all of the religious leaders of the day. The Pharisees, the Saducees, anyone who was teaching tradition over truth. Jesus was never afraid to challenge the religion of man whenever it interfered with the grace of God. This is the difference between religion and Christianity.
(1) Religion is man reaching up to God. Christianity is God reaching down to man.
(2) Religion is all about works and trying to earn favor with God. Christianity is all about grace and what Jesus did for each of us on the cross.
So Jesus came to challenge and to change the way people think. And as He continued to challenge religion His ministry led Him to a variety of places. We see two of them today. (1) The first challenge takes place out in the community...in a grain field. The setting scripture tells us is that it was the Sabbath Day. The disciples were hungry and so as they passed through the fields of grain they picked some of the grain and began to eat it. To understand what was taking place here and why this was a problem we need to look at the laws of that day. Some of you will remember “blue laws.” When I was a child most places were closed on Sundays. If they were open there were limits as to what you could buy. For example as a teenager I worked in a grocery store. Half of it was for groceries and ½ of it was a clothing store. On Sundays the store was open but no clothing could be sold, only groceries. If you came in for instance to buy a pair of work gloves you could find these on the grocery side but you couldn’t purchase them.
Ladies hose were on the grocery side but ladies couldn’t buy them. Why? Because it was Sunday. Of course all of this has changed now. Not really for the better. It has simply changed. Sunday is now the 2nd busiest shopping day of the year. In the day of Jesus, traditions were very rigid. Let me give you 3 examples: (1) If a man’s ox fell into the ditch he could pull it out but if the man fell in, tough luck..he had to stay there. Billy Graham once said, “Jesus tells us it is OK to help your ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath. But if you ox gets in the ditch every Sabbath, you need to either get rid of the ox or fill up the ditch. (2) Taking a bath was forbidden on the Sabbath. Water could splash on the floor and you might wipe it up. That was mopping/work. (3) A man could look into the mirror but a woman was not allowed to do so. The man might see a gray hair and he’s just like, “oh well.” A woman sees a grey hair and it’s coming out buddy.
So what was the problem here? They picked grain, rubbed it in their hands and ate it. (1) the problem was not theft. People were allowed to pick grain at the edge of a field. So the problem was not theft. (2) The problem was not trespassing. Often the road went right through a grain field and they were allowed to pick the grain from the edge of the road. (3) The problem was this was considered to be work. They plucked it, they rubbed their hands together so they were threshing it so they could get to the kernel. But the Sabbath was a day of rest. Your animals were not to work-your servants-no one was to work. The day was for rest and worship and of course this was based on the 4th commandment. Now here is a BIG teaching that Jesus was giving them at this time. Write it down. The Sabbath was never meant to restrict necessities.
At this point Jesus is like an attorney and says let me give you three reasons why this is true. First Exhibit A. Vv. 3-4. This is the example of the temple bread. Jesus describes a time in the OT when David was running from Saul..... he was hungry so he took 5 loaves of bread from the temple-this bread was only to be eaten by the priests-but he took it and gave it to his companions. In man’s eyes this was wrong. In God’s eyes it was fine.
Next Exhibit B. Look at v. 5. This was the example of the priest. Throughout the OT God had jobs He gave to the priest to perform on the Sabbath so that others could worship yet the priest was never declared as guilty for working on the Sabbath. Why? The Sabbath was never meant to restrict necessities. There are certain people who we need to work on Sunday. If I call 911 I don’t want to get an answer that says, sorry this is the Sabbath, call back tomorrow. If I go to the hospital I don’t’ want to see a sign that says closed for the Sabbath today. Here is what Jesus was saying...If these men/priests in the OT could break the Sabbath inside the temple, pastors work on Sunday...if they could break the Sabbath for the purpose of doing something good...for the purpose of worship, then certainly the one who was being worshiped could do the same. The temple was made for God. Jesus puts it this way. “I tell you that one greater than the temple is now here.”
Next Exhibit C. This is the priority of mercy. Jesus takes them back to an OT scripture and says if you had known what these words meant: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, then you would not have condemned. Jesus is saying it is 1 thing to know the scripture-it is another thing to know what it means.
In the OT book of Micah 6:6-7. Man could bring all of these things-these would be wonderful sacrifices but none of them would be what God wants from us. Look/listen to what God wants from His people. 3 things. Write them down. What does the Lord require of us? (1) Act justly (2) love mercy and (3) walk with humility. When you take action, do it with justice. Love mercy, don’t despise it. If someone needs it give it to them. (3) In your daily walk, be humble. In other words, make very sure that what you say that you believe affects how you live. If you’re gonna talk the talk you have to walk the walk.
Now the 2nd challenge after Jesus leaves the grainfield is that He now challenges the religion of the church. V. 9.
Now we see as we are following the footsteps of Jesus that He is now on a path where there is no turning back. His response to these two challenges-the one in the community and now the one in the church places Him at a fork in the road where He can do one of these two things (1) he can be accepted by the religious leaders of His day or (2) He can choose to really rock the boat. Make waves. Guess which one He chooses!
In the congregation on this particular Sabbath day there was a man with a withered hand. The scribes and Pharisees were hoping that Jesus would heal the man so they could accuse him-it’s possible they even arranged for this man to be in the synagogue. Luke tells us that this was the man’s right hand that was withered. The Jews used the right hand to greet people, they used it to bless someone and they used it to eat. The left hand was actually considered to be unclean. So since His right hand was withered this gave him a great handicap.
Mark tells us then that Jesus looked around at them with anger because he was grieved by the hardness of their hearts. We don’t see this often that the scripture tells us that Jesus was angry but we do see it several times. The truth is all of us get angry at one time or another. Old, young, rich, poor. All of us have the capacity for anger. Paul says ne angry, but in your anger, don’t sin. In other words, watch your motive for being angry.
Jesus then calls for this man to step forward-there was reason-Jesus wanted this to happen right out in the open. Certainly He could have healed him in private. In his anger Jesus then asked the question “is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?
Look at verse 11. It was on this day that the Sabbath day took on a completely different meaning for this man. He stretched out his hand and his hand was completely restored. It was just like the other.
A little girl went to visit her grandmother out in the country. She laughed and played and had a great time and everything was fine until Sunday. The grandmother went to a very old-fashioned church that observed the Sabbath by forbidding all work, play and fun. The little girl woke up Sunday and started right off playing and laughing as she had done every day she had been there. Her grandmother immediately got onto her and fussed at her for breaking the Sabbath. The little girl quieted down, went to church and later went out for a walk by the barn. She went over to an old mule, droopy eyed, long, sad face, she looked at the mule for a moment and she said Mr. Mule you look so sad, do you go to grandma’s church too?
What does the Sabbath day mean to you? For hundreds of years worship was held on the Sabbath. Jesus changed it when He came because He wanted it to be a day of joy... He was crucified on a Friday, then on the third day he arose. That was a Sunday. The early believers were so excited that they celebrated on that day and they started celebrating every Sunday. And our day of worship changed. Let me tell you something. A lot of people haven’t gotten the message yet. The Bible says to be transformed. Instead we look like we’ve been chloroformed. We do everything on Sunday but the one thing we are called to do-worship. And as someone has said we worship our play and play at our worship.
Jesus went to the cross to change all of this. You know, when you challenge something or you challenge someone, there are consequences. Look at verse 14. This was the beginning of His walk to the cross.
