- We have two stories here that both look into the rules the religious leaders had back in Jesus’ day concerning the Sabbath.
THE PROBLEM WITH A RELIGION OF RULES:
1. WE ARE SELECTIVE ABOUT WHICH RULES WE PAY ATTENTION TO.
- Matthew 12:1-5, 9-11.
- The Pharisees considered themselves to be the ones who took the Law more seriously than anyone else. That, in fact, was their pride and joy.
- This is what makes what Jesus brings out here something that they would have found deeply aggravating.
- Let’s take the two stories in turn.
- In the first story, the Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of violating the Sabbath by picking and eating heads of grain.
- One might expect Jesus to respond by saying, “You’ve misinterpreted the Law by adding additional teaching and here are the rules that are applicable.” But He doesn’t approach it in that way.
- In v. 2 His disciples are accused of doing what is not Lawful. Look at Jesus’ response in vv. 3-5. What is He saying here? Let me paraphrase it: “You’re saying what My disciples are doing is absolutely unlawful and so you object to it. But David did something similar and I don’t hear you condemning him. The priests do something similar all the time and you don’t have a peep to say about them. So why are you selective about which rules you pay attention to and then act like you’re serious about the Law?”
- The situations are not exactly the same – neither of Jesus’ named examples are walking through a grain field, but they are similar in both eating things that under a strict interpretation of the Law they shouldn’t have been and in how the Pharisees didn’t condemn those involved.
- He’s pointing at the thing they pride themselves most in (their strict interpretation of and dedication to the Law) and saying they’re hypocrites.
- In the second story, we have a related but different example.
- A question arises about healing a man’s shriveled hand. The Pharisees are emphatic again: no working on the Sabbath and that would be work. But Jesus brings up the fact that if they had a sheep in a pit they would all go and get it out on the Sabbath. Again, Jesus points out their hypocrisy: “You say that you won’t do any work ever on the Sabbath, but even for a sheep you would make an exception to that rule.”
- In both examples, the point is clear. Jesus points out to them that they are quick to make exceptions when it suits them, but then they adamantly oppose exceptions when it doesn’t fit their agenda.
- Do we do this today? A couple examples:
a. “Keep the Sabbath.”
- We get aggravated sometimes that businesses are open on Sunday. “It should be a day of rest.” Yet often Sunday is the busiest day on the church calendar, with believers involved in hours of activity.
b. Sanctity of marriage.
- We are quick to condemn homosexual marriage as ruining the “sanctity of marriage,” but then we barely utter a word about the prevalence of divorces within the church.
2. WE FOCUS ON CONDEMNING PEOPLE RATHER THAN HELPING THEM.
- Matthew 12:7, 12.
- It’s crucial to look closely at the main point Jesus makes in each story.
- In the first, we find it in v. 7. Jesus says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” There’s a lot more going on in His statement in vv. 3-8, but that is the heart because He explicitly says that this is His desire.
- This is crucial to the overall statement here because so much of what the Pharisees did concerning Sabbath observance was focused on sacrifice. “Look how seriously we’re taking the Sabbath!” “Look at all the special rules we’ve made to make sure we’re religiously observing the Sabbath!” “We make this more important than everyone else!” Their many rules were an act of sacrifice – inconveniencing themselves for the sake of honoring God (in their minds).
- Yet Jesus says that’s not supposed to be the focus of what He wants. He wants mercy, not sacrifice.
- This is not to say that sacrifice will never be involved in the life of a Christ follower. Other passages make it abundantly clear that it will. But the point of emphasis is not sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice. Jesus wants us to have a heart of mercy.
- In the second story, we find the main point in v. 12. Jesus says, “Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” The previous verses put this statement in context. Jesus heals a man’s hand, much to the objection of the Pharisees. Jesus notes that any of them would have gotten a sheep out of a pit. In a similar way, it’s within the law to do good to someone on the Sabbath. Jesus then “does good” by actually healing the man.
- “Doing good” is within the Law then.
- When you add the two together, it’s a beautiful statement: “show mercy and do good.” That’s lovely.
- Let’s go to the point in your outline for a moment.
- The Sabbath rules the Pharisees had conjured were all about condemning people. “You can’t do that!” “That’s not allowed!” “God’s not pleased with that!” It focused on being God’s policeman, running around watching for who is breaking the rules.
- Compare that to the statement from the combination of Jesus’ two statements: “show mercy and do good.” Obviously a completely different focus. It’s on helping people, not condemning people.
- We can’t help but fast-forward to today.
- Here’s a cutting question: how much of contemporary Christian culture is focused on condemning people and how much is focused on helping people?
- We really need to pause here for a moment. This is a big problem. In fact, you could make an argument that this is the biggest problem in contemporary Christian culture.
- Let’s just paint a picture for a moment.
- What would the non-Christians around us think of Jesus if our focus was on showing mercy and doing good?
- What would the non-Christians around us think of Jesus if we were not known by what we’re against?
- What would the non-Christians around us think of Jesus if we were more about actively doing good than actively condemning?
- It would be, dare I say, transformational.
- Now, certainly, our focus is not supposed to be on doing what people around us want us to do no matter whether it’s right or not. No, we must do what we’ve been called by Jesus to do, popular or not. I’m not arguing we should do this because it would be popular. We should do it because it’s what Jesus wants. But it is worth stopping to think about how attractive this would be to those around us.
3. WE OFTEN MAKE THE RULE THE MASTER RATHER THAN THE SERVANT.
- Matthew 12:8.
- This is the centerpiece of the passage. It’s the final sentence of the first story but I think it’s more than that: it’s the central point of the passage as a whole. It’s the overarching truth under which the rest of the passage exists. In point 2 a moment ago we saw the main practical application we are to take from this passage concerning how to live out our Christian lives. This is the big theological truth under which that lives.
- That truth concerns the place of Jesus in relation to the rules. The Pharisees put their rules at the top of the scale. It was, in many practical ways, their highest loyalty.
- Jesus says no to that. His statement in v. 8 is essentially saying that the rules are here to serve Jesus, not the other way around. In v. 8, Jesus is saying, “I’m the One that invented the Sabbath and so it is My servant. I’m the One calling the shots here, not the Sabbath.”
- Or, to say it in the way it’s stated in your outline, the rule is the servant here, not the master.
- The inflexibility and intensity the Pharisees displayed concerning the Sabbath rules (as evidenced in this passage) indicates they were putting that as their first priority. Jesus reminds them that the rule is to be the servant, not the master.
- What might that look like today?
a. The Sabbath is to be a day of rest, but an unsaved friend has an emergency.
- Normally you should rest on Sunday, but the need to show the love of Christ to an unsaved friend in the midst of a crisis may well be God’s will for your life in that moment.
b. You’re preparing to go to church, but you feel compelled to call a friend instead.
- That phone call keeps you from attending church because it stretches on for an hour, but it was the Spirit leading you to reach out to a hurting sister in Christ and it needed to happen that moment. Yes, being in church is normative, but the Spirit can lead in a different direction when necessary.
4. WE SOMETIMES LET OUR RULES DEFINE WHO WE ARE.
- Matthew 12:14.
- We now look at the last verse of this passage, which provides a fitting summary to everything that we’ve been talking about.
- These two interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees obviously reveals stark fault lines in their approaches to religion. After these two scenes, the Pharisees aren’t convinced to change their thoughts. No, far from it. Rather, as v. 14 tells us, it solidifies their resolve to get rid of Jesus.
- At first glance, this seems ridiculous. Why plot murder in response to a couple disagreements over Sabbath observance? The answer is: because it was more than that.
- These rules were how the Pharisees defined themselves. They were the “good ones” because they kept these “rules of God.” They were peripheral or secondary. No, this was how they understood who they were.
- If you were to ask them what made them different, they would point to their strict observance of the rules of God as the defining characteristic.
- This has often been true of people of faith down through the centuries.
- The dividing line between (take your pick) “saved and unsaved,” “faithful and unfaithful,” “good and bad” is found in who keeps the rules the way that I keep the rules. It’s interesting how often in Christian circles Christlike behavior is not the measure. Instead, it’s keeping the rules.
- As with the situation described in v. 14, this also explains the venom is so many of the disputes today. It’s not just a minor disagreement – no, this is evidence that they are not of God and that we are God's chosen.
- This is something we need to be careful of. We can end up with a faith that requires no spiritual growth or evidence of following Jesus. Instead, it just requires that you keep the same rules that I also think are essential.
