In our message today, we will see how Jesus taught the Pharisees that forgiveness and grace toward others is a necessity before worship. The capacity to extend love and mercy is something that must be present in a person’s heart before he or she is able to worship the Lord in spirit and truth, as the Father is seeking (John 4:23). According to Sinclair B. Ferguson, the ability to share grace is only obtained as we consider the grace that was extended to us. He stated,
The way to open our hearts to others is by receiving afresh the grace of God and appreciating what it means: seeing our own need of Christ; coming to receive His mercy; [and] sensing how undeserved His love for us is . . . Then we will see that the heart which is too narrow to receive a fellow Christian is too narrow to enthrone the Lord Jesus Christ. But the heart that is opened to receive the grace of Christ will learn to welcome all those whom Christ Himself has welcomed.(1)
In our passage, Jesus taught the Pharisees how He desires sincere love for people over meaningless ritual, and how He desires grace over legalism. He also taught, as Sinclair emphasized, that those who place ritual and tradition above worship will fail to “receive a fellow Christian,” and therefore be “too narrow to enthrone the Lord Jesus Christ” in worship.
Jesus Understood Practical Human Needs (vv. 1-2)
1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
Jesus had just commissioned His disciples to preach the gospel (Matthew 10:1, 5-8); and as they were departing for their evangelistic efforts, two of John’s disciples approached Him asking, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). Jesus, therefore, slowed His momentum, paused for a moment, and began to share with them how He (Himself) had fulfilled numerous messianic prophecies (Matthew 11:1 ff.); and as He was teaching, some of the Pharisees were standing by listening, hoping to find a reason to accuse Him.
Matthew 12:1 states, “At that time Jesus went,” meaning that He had concluded His discourse, and had resumed in departing with His disciples. Where He went was into the grain fields. The Pharisees could not find any fault in His words; therefore, they jumped at the opportunity to criticize His behavior. We read how “His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat” (v. 1). They were fueling up for the long journey ahead; but when the Pharisees observed their action, they had a problem with it, because it was the Sabbath day. They considered picking grain as labor, and Old Testament law forbade working on the Sabbath.
Exodus 20:8-11 states, "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 of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates."
It is unclear whether or not what the disciples were doing could be considered work. In the Old Testament, the Israelites had been commanded to prepare their food well in advance, so that no one would have to do any cooking on the Sabbath day (Exodus 16:23). The disciples, however, were not gathering this grain in order to take it back and grind it into meal, and then prepare it and bake it into bread. They were eating straight from the actual stalk, and no preparation was required.
The Pharisees spoke up and said, “Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath” (v. 2). If they had truly been working, then this was indeed correct. When the Sabbath was first instituted under Moses, a violation was punishable by death (Exodus 31:14). There is an account found in Numbers 15:32-35 that serves as a prime example. This passage says, "Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp'.”
The line between working and basic living was hard to define. In the account from Numbers chapter fifteen, the man was “gathering,” just as the disciples were gathering. However, one could point out that sticks were heavy and would require straining and hard effort in order to carry them. The disciples, on the other hand, were gathering grain only in small handful portions, which was probably light-weight and required no straining or hard effort.
Defining what should be considered “work” can easily become a legalistic issue. What about standing up to get out of bed in the morning? Getting up can require straining, especially for an older person. What about bending over to pick up something dropped? These two examples demonstrate effort, yet they can hardly be considered work. They are just basic motions associated with daily living. A few verses later in this chapter, in Matthew 12:11-12, Jesus challenged the Pharisees by saying, "What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
Jesus knew the law concerning the Sabbath day, but He also understood that His disciples were hungry and in need of sustenance; therefore, He did not try to stop them. Jesus realized that there are certain actions associated with basic living and the necessities of life; things like food in order to sustain a person on their long walk to a neighboring town. Jesus understood that practicality is more important than religious practices and legalistic ritual.
When I recall attending church as a child, I remember how some members would criticize the hay farmers who would occasionally miss a worship service. Many of the farmers made their income by bailing hay. These farmers might have cut their field on a Thursday or Friday, anticipating attending church on Sunday, and then bailing their hay on Monday. However, if rain were in the forecast for Monday, then they would have to miss church and bail it on Sunday instead. They couldn’t risk losing a crop of hay and seeing their family suffer from that lost income.
In Mark’s account of this scene (Mark 2:23-28), we read how Jesus replied, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Lord set aside the Sabbath day for our benefit. We were not made to serve the Sabbath, but the Sabbath day was set aside in order to serve us. It was provided as a much-needed day of rest and time of worship. Rest and worship are extremely beneficial, for “rest” provides us with physical renewal, and “worship” provides is with spiritual renewal. However, these benefits are cancelled when we become encumbered by a heavy load of legalism.
Jesus, in His foreknowledge, had anticipated the Pharisees’ reaction. The very last statement that He made back in Matthew chapter eleven, immediately preceding the Pharisees’ criticism seen in Matthew chapter twelve, was this. He said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
In Jesus, a person is not forced into a heavy load of legalism; and in Jesus, one is not forced into subservience to the Sabbath. In Jesus is found true, unencumbered rest; the kind rest that God intended when He initially instituted the Sabbath. Jesus is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), not heavy-handed and arrogant like the Pharisees; and His yoke is easy and His burden is light (11:30), not life-strangling and crushing as the Pharisees’ unbearable weight of legalism.
Jesus Desired Sincere Love Over Ritual (vv. 3-8)
3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus asked the Pharisees had they not read about where David and his men ate the sacred showbread in the house of God, the bread reserved only for the priests (vv. 3-4). He was referring to how David had approached Ahimelech the priest for help, when he was fleeing from king Saul. Listen closely as I share a small excerpt from the account, as told in 1 Samuel 21:2-6:
So David said to Ahimelech the priest . . . “Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”
Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was sanctified in the vessel this day.”
So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.
At first, Ahimelech objected to David and his men eating some of the sacred bread. However, David replied that “the bread is in effect common” (v. 5), and verse six states, “There was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place.” The bread that David requested from Ahimelech was what had been sitting around for a while, and that which had been removed to be replaced with fresh bread; therefore, it was no longer considered holy.
Within the Torah . . . the showbread is described as twelve cakes baked from fine flour, arranged in two rows on a table standing before God; each cake was to contain two omers of flour (Leviticus 24:5-6) . . . The cakes were to be left on the table for a week, and then be replaced with new ones on the Sabbath, so that there were always fresh loaves on the table, and those that had started going stale were removed.(2)
David not only requested some old showbread, but he approached Ahimelech for this bread on the day that it was changed out, which was actually the Sabbath. David had approached Ahimelech alone, for he informed him, “I have directed my young men to such and such a place” (1 Samuel 21:2). Because David was alone, he therefore had to carry these loaves of showbread back to his men, and this carrying required effort, and it was done on the Sabbath day; and David never got in trouble, for feeding his men was a necessary and practical matter.
Jesus then asked the Pharisees, “Have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?” (v. 5). He was basically saying, “Have you forgotten that the priests must work to change the showbread on the Sabbath, and work to perform their rituals?” King Jehoiada once commanded the priests and Levites, “This is what you shall do: One-third of you entering on the Sabbath . . . shall be keeping watch over the doors” (2 Chronicles 23:4); therefore, some of the priests even had guard duty on the Sabbath. When applied in today’s context, Jesus was saying, “Haven’t you noticed that pastors and ministers work on Sundays while performing their duties?”
Jesus then told them, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless” (v. 7). This statement originated back in 1 Samuel chapter fifteen, where the Lord commanded King Saul to destroy all the Amalekites, their king, and their animals. Saul, however, refused and kept the king alive as a trophy and paraded him through the streets, and he kept the best of the livestock all for himself. When the Lord confronted him about his disobedience, Saul replied that he had kept the livestock as offerings unto the Lord. The Lord responded, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22).
The Lord desires holiness and obedience foremost over religious ritual and empty worship. In the eyes of God, all worship is meaningless if a person’s heart is not right before Him. In Amos 5:21-24, the Lord told His people that He did not want to smell the aroma of their sacrifices, and that He would not accept their worship until they sincerely sought the knowledge of God; for disobedience combined with worship is seen as pure hypocrisy in His eyes.
Hosea declared, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). The knowledge of God is more important than worship, and the Pharisees demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about the true nature of God. In Psalm 86:5, David declared, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” The knowledge of God includes an understanding of His nature; that He is a God of mercy, grace and forgiveness.
Echoing David, Nehemiah stated, “But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness” (Nehemiah 9:17); and Jonah declared, “For I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm” (Jonah 4:2).
Time of Reflection
So, let me ask you. How do we respond whenever we see someone outside doing yard work on Sunday morning? How do we treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who miss a worship service for some unforeseen circumstance? Are we ready to pardon, and full of mercy and grace? J. C. Ryle said, "The man who has nothing more than a kind of Sunday religion – whose Christianity is like his Sunday clothes put on once a week, and then laid aside – such a man cannot, of course, be expected to care about growth in grace."(3)
Perhaps some of us are judgmental, critical and condemning of others; but Jesus demonstrated that He desires sincere love for people over meaningless ritual. He wants each of us to grow in understanding of His grace. We must never forget that Jesus loved each of us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8); therefore, we must extend grace to others, just as God’s grace was given to us (Matthew 10:8).
The Lord is full of mercy and grace, and He withholds punishment as long as possible; and had it not been for God’s grace, we would all be condemned to death and hell. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Greek word for “gift” here, which is charis, can also be translated as “grace;” therefore, “the [grace] of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Have you received God’s love, mercy and grace manifested through His Son, Jesus Christ? Have you been forgiven of your sins to receive eternal life? John declared, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). He also said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).
NOTES
(1) Sinclair B. Ferguson, Grow in Grace (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1989), pp. 88-89.
(2) “Showbread,” Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showbread (Accessed July 12, 2011).
(3) J. C. Ryle, “Grace-Experienced,” Grace Quotes: thegracetabernacle.org/quotes/Grace-Experienced.htm (Accessed July 12, 2011).
