Matthew 12:1-9

November 8th, 2018

God desires mercy and not sacrifice. Man will always make the way to the Father seemingly impossible. They do not enter in and hinder others from entering His blessed rest.

Conclusion: Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath day, giving us the true example of the acceptable use of that day, spending it with and for God.

Matthew 12:1–9 (NKJV): 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. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”But He said to them, “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? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

 The Sabbath was the traditional day of rest  for the Jewish people as prescribed by the law.  According to the law, the edges of fields were to be left unharvested; this showed compassion for people in need, who were allowed to pick the grain.These Jewish teachers consider the plucking of grain to be a violation of the Sabbath prohibition against work. David was on the run from Saul and, with the permission of Ahimelech the priest, he ate the sacred bread—a violation of the law. Loaves of bread were placed in the tabernacle sanctuary. They were considered holy, and only the priests could eat them.

Something greater than the temple is here.  Ultimately, people’s needs are given preference over legal observance. Jesus asserts his authority over the Sabbath. Faithlife Bible.

The way Jesus observed the Sabbath was a primary point of contention between Himself and the religious authorities. The Pharisees and scribes recognized that the Sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant. Therefore, to desecrate the Sabbath was to flaunt disobedience to the entire Law of Moses. While reaping was forbidden on the Sabbath, the disciples were picking grain to eat, not for profit. They were not breaking God’s law. The Pharisees had established 39 categories of actions to be forbidden on the Sabbath, and according to them, the disciples were “harvesting” and therefore breaking the Sabbath. The Pharisees were trying to make Jesus into a lawbreaker and accuse Him of wrongdoing. NKJ Bible.