Lord of the Sabbath
Matthew 12: 1-8
Last time, in Matthew 11:25-30, the Lord Jesus Christ gave His gracious invitation to all who labor and are heavy-laden to come to Him and He would give them rest. And what a wonderful rest it is! No more bearing the burden of guilt for our sins for the Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself to bear our sins and guilt on the cross. No more labor in trying to attain salvation, for Jesus gives rest for our souls. Salvation is not in observing burdensome rules and rituals. Salvation is in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
But sadly, not everyone who claims to know God has received the rest that Jesus offers. Many in Jesus’ day and many today are still heavy-laden, carrying around their heavy burdens and calling those very burdens righteousness. They are still trying to earn favor with God by their own righteousness rather than resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. These are the legalists who take the Scriptures, interpret them by their own standards, and make out of them a detailed system of rules to obey, insisting that those who follow their rules are righteous, and those who do not are unrighteous.
In the New Testament, the most prominent legalists were the Pharisees. Already in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has encountered opposition from the Pharisees. In Matthew 9, they complained to Jesus’ disciples that He ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 9:11). Jesus didn’t comply with the outwardly strict religious rules of the Pharisees. They even accused Jesus of operating under the power of the devil, saying, “He casts out demons by the ruler of demons” (Matt. 9:33-34). In Matthew 11, we saw that they falsely accused John the Baptist of being demonized (Matt. 11:18) and Jesus of being a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of sinners because Jesus associated with the common people and those in the most desperate need to hear His message of hope (Matt. 11:19).
Now, in Matthew 12, this growing opposition toward Jesus really begins to intensify. It reveals itself in this chapter in three ways, First, the Pharisees oppose Him because He did not follow their Sabbath rules (Matt. 12:1-21). Then, they opposed Him because of how He worked by the Holy Spirit accusing Him of casting out demons by the power of the devil (Matt. 12:22-37). Finally, they opposed Him because He would not satisfy their sinful craving for a miraculous sign (Matt. 12:38-45).
In Matthew 12, the antagonism of the Pharisees to Jesus reaches the point of blasphemy as the Pharisees try to get Jesus to conform to their legalism and Jesus corrects them. The presenting issue in Matthew 12:1-14 is the Sabbath rest and these stories demonstrate the contrast between the harsh, burdensome yoke of the Pharisees, and the wonderfully light yoke of Jesus.
1. The Pharisees’ Accusation (Matt. 12-1-2)
Matthew 12:1 says, “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.” Jesus and His disciples were walking along and they happened to pass through a grainfield. And since His disciples were hungry, they began to pluck the heads of grain, rub them in their hands (Luke 6:1), and munch on the grain.
This gets an immediate reaction from the Pharisees. Why are these guys always there? These Pharisees seem to pop up everywhere! You get the impression that they constantly hounded Jesus, looking for reasons to accuse Him. Matthew 12:2 says, “And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, ‘Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!’”
The Pharisees were not accusing the disciples of stealing. What they were doing was perfectly permissible in the law of Moses. Deuteronomy 23:25 says, “When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.” There were no McDonalds, Burger Kings, or KFCs around to get something to eat, so this was a provision for travelers. If you were hungry, it was okay to grab a few grapes for the road or to eat some kernels of grain along the way.
The problem that the Pharisees had was not just that the disciples plucked and ate the grain, the problem was when they did it. They did it on the Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath was extremely important to the Jews of Jesus’ time, and it was especially important to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on keeping the law right down to the last detail.
Sabbath observance was commanded in the law. The fourth commandment says:
“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. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).
Keeping the Sabbath was God’s idea. It was His provision of rest. One day a week you could stop your regular work and rest. Exodus 34:21 says, “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.” So, it would have been against the Sabbath commandment for a farmer to go out on the Sabbath day and harvest his crops as if it were any other day of the week. Sabbath observance was meant to be a simple and gracious commandment. Exodus 23:12 says, “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.” The Sabbath was meant to provide rest so that people and even their working animals could be refreshed.
But the Pharisees, in their self-righteous zeal for God’s law, had expanded the meaning of what constituted “work” to a ridiculous extent. The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ time had added all sorts of rules and regulations to those found in the Old Testament. They bound heavy burdens, hard to bear (Matt. 23:4) on the people. They listed out 39 main types of work that were forbidden on the Sabbath, and they organized those into six sub-categories. They had hundreds of rules about these categories of work that could not be done on the Sabbath. Instead of a day of rest, the Sabbath became a heavy burden of trying to meticulously keep all their ridiculous rules.
Their rules were everything to them. And the disciples of Jesus were breaking their rules. The Pharisees considered that picking heads of grain with one’s hand was the work of “reaping”; that rubbing the kernels of grain in the hand was the work of “threshing”; that blowing the chaff away from the hand was the work of “winnowing”; and altogether, it was all the work of “preparing a meal”. Pharisaical legalism had turned what was fitting and proper under the Mosaic Law into an unlawful act. The law of God was exchanged for the rules of men. The traditions of men superseded the Word of God.
The truth is that it was quite a stretch to call what the disciples were doing “reaping” or any other type of work. They were hungry. They were eating. It was that simple. They didn’t break God’s law. They just broke the Pharisees’ extra rules and traditions.
So, we see the Pharisees’ accusation. Next, we see …
2. The Lord’ Answer (Matt. 12:3-7)
How did Jesus answer this accusation by the Pharisees? Not by debating their added rules and traditions but by taking them back to the scriptures. Notice, in Matthew 12:3 and again in Matthew 12:5, Jesus said, “Have you not read . . .?” And then in Matthew 12:7 He said, “But if you had known what this means . . .” and then quoted the prophet Hosea. Jesus never based His reasons on man-made rules or traditions. His authority was always the written word of God. Anytime we place our traditions, rules, or rituals above the written word of God we are in a dangerous place. Legalism places tradition above truth, ritual above relationship, and regulations above the written word of God. Jesus takes them back to the Bible.
Jesus then gives three scriptures that demonstrate God’s truth about the Sabbath. He appeals to all three major divisions of the Old Testament, the law, the prophets, and the writings of history. First, Jesus gives an example from Israel’s history from a story about King David in 1 Samuel 21.
a. David and the bread (1 Sam. 21:1-6)
Even though David had been anointed king by the prophet Samuel, Saul was still ruling as king of Israel. In his jealousy and rage, Saul was seeking to kill David. So, David was on the run. David and his men were hungry, so David went to the Tabernacle and requested bread for him and his men. Unfortunately, there was no ordinary bread left but only the consecrated bread.
This was known as the “showbread” (Exodus 25:30) or “bread of the Presence” (NASB). Every Sabbath Day the priest baked twelve loaves of bread and laid them out in two rows of six on the table of pure gold before the Lord in the sanctuary (Lev. 24:5-6). At the end of each week, the bread was removed and replaced with twelve new loaves. The loaves that were removed were to be eaten only by the priest and his sons in a holy place (Lev. 24:9). No outsiders were allowed to eat them (Exo. 29:32-33; Lev. 22:10-16).
But when Ahimelech the priest saw that David and his men were truly hungry, that they were holy men, not ceremonially unclean, and that fresh bread was about to take its place—mercy took precedence over the letter of the law, and he gave the bread to David and his men (1 Samuel 21:16).
Jesus pointed to this story and said to the Pharisees, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 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?” (Matt. 12:3-4).
Jesus’ point is that it is always lawful to do good on the Sabbath (Mark 3:4). So, although it was not technically lawful for David and his friends to eat the consecrated bread because they were hungry and in need, Jesus says it was okay. You see, God’s laws are meant for your good. So, even if what the disciples were doing was breaking the Sabbath—and it wasn’t—Jesus was saying that human need still trumps ceremonial law. Why? Because God’s laws are made for your good. God doesn’t give us His laws to make us miserable or to take away our enjoyment of life. God’s laws are designed for your good. And what’s more, if this was permitted in the case of David, how much more appropriate it is when Someone is present who was greater than David—Jesus Christ, the Son of God!
b. The priests on the Sabbath (Num. 28:6)
Second, Jesus goes to the Torah, the section of the Old Testament that details God’s law. He says in Matthew 12:5, “Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?“
Here, He was pointing to the fact that, in the temple, priests were required to violate the Sabbath every week as they prepared and offered the burnt offering. Numbers 28:9-10 says, “And on the Sabbath day two lambs in their first year, without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, with its drink offering—this is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering with its drink offering.” And even the showbread Jesus just talked about had to be prepared on the Sabbath. Leviticus 24:8 says, “Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.“
The commandment of the law said they were not to do any work on the Sabbath. And yet the law also told the priests they had to do work on the Sabbath. In fact, the priests had a double load of work on the Sabbath! They made twice the number of sacrifices on the Sabbath day. (Num. 28:9). Can you imagine how much work all that took? And yet, the priests were required to do it every Sabbath. In this sense, the priests, in their work of temple service, “profaned” the Sabbath, and yet, they were “blameless” (Matt. 12:5). Why was it okay for the priests to work on the Sabbath? Because they were working in the temple in worship to God. And the worship of God in the temple was greater than the Sabbath. Once again, God’s laws are made for our good.
Then, Jesus makes a remarkable statement in application of this fact: “Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple” (Matt. 12:6). He speaks of Himself. Jesus claims superiority over both the temple and the Sabbath law. If the Sabbath law can be “broken” without guilt in order to fulfill the needs of worship in the temple, then it follows that it can be “broken” without sin to meet the needs of “One greater than the temple.” If the temple was greater than the Sabbath, then certainly the One the temple pointed forward to is greater than the Sabbath also. Jesus is greater than the temple, and any work done by His servants, including feeding themselves, was permitted on the Sabbath just as the priest’s temple service was permitted.
c. Mercy not sacrifice (Hosea 6:6)
Finally, Jesus gives the overriding principle from the prophets. Quoting from Hosea 6:6, Jesus says, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matt. 12:7). Jesus quoted from this same verse to the Pharisees back in Matthew 9:13 when they complained about Him eating with tax collectors and sinners.
The principle is that God is not interested in “sacrifices” just for sacrifices’ sake. A sacrifice offered will not satisfy God when the heart that gives it is wrong. In 1 Samuel 15:22, the prophet Samuel says to the disobedient King Saul, “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 prophet Micah 6:6-8, also emphasized this principle, writing,
With what shall I come before the LORD,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly, To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8).
What God desires every day, and even on the Sabbath, is obedience in showing mercy, not empty ritual and rule-keeping. Those only place rigid, strict, inhumane “burdens” on people’s backs. If the Pharisees had understood the scriptures and the heart of God, they “would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matt. 12:7). The Pharisees went around promoting their religion like they really cared so much about God. Yet in the exercise of their religion, they had failed to do what mattered most to God.
So we have seen the Pharisees’ accusation, Jesus’ answer, and finally we see …
3. The Lord’s Assertion (Matt. 12:8)
Jesus seals His arguments with His declaration, “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:8). Notice what Jesus calls Himself: “the Son of Man.” To call Himself “the Son of Man” was to call Himself the Messiah. The Pharisees likely would have recognized this as a reference to the Messiah as He is described in Daniel 7:13-14;
“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).
So Jesus makes the bold assertion “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:8). Jesus wasn’t saying he could break the Sabbath because He is Lord of the Sabbath. No, Jesus is saying that because He is Lord of the Sabbath, therefore He can tell us what the Sabbath really means and how we may observe it properly. He has the authority to dictate what happens on the Sabbath because He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the One in whom true rest is to be found (Matt. 11:28-30). He is the One to Whom the commanded rest of the Sabbath law pointed.
In Hebrews 4, the author of that epistle shows that the Sabbath rest into which God enters at the end of creation, the rest that the people enter when they go into the land of Canaan, and the Sabbath rest one day a week all point, finally, pervasively, deeply, to the rest God’s people enter when they put aside their works, when they put aside their self-confidence, when they put aside their self-conceit and find their rest in God alone.[i] Hebrews 4:3 says, “For we who have believed do enter that rest . . .” It’s a picture of the salvation we have in Christ through His finished work. Again Hebrews 4:10 says, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” We enter that rest by coming to Jesus. He is our Sabbath rest.
The apostle Paul urged the Colossian church to rest completely on the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, writing, “So let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Col. 2:16). The Pharisees were insisted that the Old Testament “shadows” be kept so strictly, but they opposed and hated the Lord Who was “substance” of it all.
Jesus is the Son of Man. He is Lord of all, and He is Lord of the Sabbath. He is the one who gave us the Sabbath command to begin with. And as with all His laws, God gave us the Sabbath for our benefit and to point us to Christ. J.C. Ryle wrote,
The plain truth is, that our Lord did not abolish the law of the weekly Sabbath. He only freed it from incorrect interpretations, and purified it from man-made additions. He did not tear out of the decalogue the fourth commandment. He only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had incrusted the day, and by which they had made it, not a blessing, but a burden.[ii]
Never substitute outward religious rules and traditions for a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Never make your Christianity just a legalistic religion of rule-keeping. It is all about Jesus. All the work has been done by Him. Rest is found only in Him.
One preacher commented on this topic, “At their core all other religions call us to follow religious rules and regulations. And if we’re not careful, this kind of thinking becomes the foundation for how we live as Christians; we begin to think that if we pray enough, if we study the Bible enough, if we avoid certain sins, if we come to worship, if we help other people, if we go overseas in missions, if we do any number of things, we will become more acceptable to God.”[iii]
Jesus came so you wouldn’t have to work for your religion, He came because you couldn’t work enough to earn favor with God. We must not pervert the grace of Jesus Christ by trying to work our way to God. We must not sabotage the faith of others by requiring them to work for their faith.
The Bible declares that the Savior is greater than the Sabbath. Jesus is greater than any religious rule, regulation, devotion, sacrifice, anything! Jesus is greater! Jesus is greater than David and his men, Jesus is greater than the priests of the temple, He’s greater than the temple itself, and He’s greater than the Sabbath. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and He is Lord of all. He deserves all of our devotion, all our worship, all our sacrifice, and all our hearts.
———————————————————————
[i] Don Carson, Lord of the Sabbath, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/sermon/lord-of-the-sabbath-matthew-12-1-14/
[ii] J.C. Ryle, Comments on Matthew 12, https://gracegems.org/Ryle/m12.htm
[iii] David Platt, quoted by Matthew McCraw, The Goodness of the Great One (Matthew 12:1-14), https://fbcbartow.org/sermons/goodness-great-one-matthew-121-14/
