At that time Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick some heads of wheat, rub them in their hands, and eat them.[1] But when some of the Pharisees saw this they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath.”
To be clear, the Old Testament does not prohibit this; the disciples were not farmers doing a harvest on the Sabbath. The Pharisees’ objections were based on an oral tradition that had grown in complexity over time.[2] Here we are, back to the old wineskins of tradition. This suggests we are going to learn something new about the Sabbath as opposed to how the Pharisees understood it.
Mark 2:25-26; Matthew 12:4-5 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry— how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, took and ate the sacred bread,[3] which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions? Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty?”
Jesus is using a Jewish hero to highlight a clear precedent in the Old Testament: God’s laws were never meant to stop us from doing good or necessary things. In addition, the priests technically violated the Sabbath by working as they offered sacrifices and did other duties on the Sabbath (Num. 28:9, 10), yet they were considered blameless.[4]
At minimum, Jesus is pointing out that the Pharisees are not consistent with how they understand the Law. At maximum, they have badly missed the point and turned Sabbath observance into something God never intended for it to be.
Matthew 12:6-7; Mark 2:27-28” I tell you that something greater than the temple [Jesus and His Kingdom] [5] is here.If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
There was active debate in Judaism concerning how much a person was willing to sacrifice to give honor to God and his holy day. This went beyond the actual act animal sacrifice; this included how much one was willing to hurt: financially, emotionally, physically, etc. It was as if the most holy were the most self-deprived; the ones who were hurt the most by the Sabbath must understand it the best.
The Qumran community was more rigorous than most: “No one should help an animal give birth on the Sabbath day. And if he makes it fall into a well or a pit, he should not take it out on the Sabbath” (CD 11:13–14). Even if people fell into water, others were not to take them out by using a ladder or a rope or a utensil (CD 11:16–17).[6]
Jesus does not challenge the institution of the Sabbath; Jesus points out the actual intent of the Sabbath—to bring rest and well-being in the context of valuing mercy.[7] The Sabbath was given by God as a gift to us, but the Pharisees had made it a burden at best and a contest at worst.
Luke 6:6-11; Mark 3:1-7a; Matthew 12:9-15a On another Sabbath, after Jesus left that place, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. Now a man was there whose right hand was withered. The experts in the law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely, and asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so they could find a reason to accuse him.
But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Get up and stand here among all these people.” So he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good and heal on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.
Jesus said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?[8] How much more valuable is a person than a sheep![9] So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
After looking around at them all in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.[10] But the Pharisees, filled with mindless rage, went out immediately and began debating with one another, plotting with the Herodians against him, as to how they could assassinate him.
Jesus contends that the higher principle on the Sabbath is not abstaining from activity but doing good.[11] The Law has always been for our good and the good of others, to the glory of God. Should our understanding of the commands of God prevent us from flourishing as human beings bearing God’s image, or if our understanding of the Law hinders us from loving God or others well, we are misunderstanding his commands.
I want to take time today to talk about the implications of the Sabbath being made for us. I think the principle Jesus explains here holds true of all of God’s laws that describe righteous living. They are for us. They are intended to help us flourish as God designed us to flourish. The Old Wineskin of the Pharisees was that the yoke of the Law was a harsh burden; the New Wineskin is that the yoke of righteous living is a gift.
Matthew places the two stories about the Sabbath immediately after Jesus told his disciples,
“My yoke is easy (xrestos,[12] “usefully kind”); my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)
Following Jesus means we are yoked with him into his service. It’s an image that a farming community would have understood. We are yoked with Jesus into the Law of Love that, when lived out, looks (in many ways) an awful lot like the moral[13] Law revealed in the Old Testament. While Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial and purity laws, he actually upped the expectations in the moral law[14] while simultaneously stressing it would be kind and easy. So, how does that work?
The Law was given within the context of the overall story of God’s work in the world. The story in which the Law appears begins with Creation, with a God of power and care and personality who pulls order from chaos, light from darkness, mankind from dust, who created a world and called it good. Part of the goodness was seen in a world of boundaries: the sea and land had their place; there was a difference between the plant and animal kingdom; there was another division between people and the rest of Creation. God placed Adam and Eve in garden of paradise, but even that garden had boundaries.
The goodness became corrupted, however, and the father and mother of humanity learned quickly what we all learn at some point in our lives: Like everything else in God’s creation, we need boundaries, or we will destroy what is good within and around us.
Jump ahead in the story of God to the Exodus of God’s chosen people from the land of bondage in Egypt. It’s almost another creation event: a new nation arises from a land of bondage and spiritual darkness and moral chaos. And once again, God gives boundaries.
The story is not taking a new path. The Old Testament laws given at Mount Sinai were an integral part of the ongoing revelation of a God who specializes in taking things that seem chaotic, and frightening, and oppressive, and making something new. And that new thing always involves boundaries.
We see in Exodus the echoing of the a similar story line begun in Genesis: order from chaos; light from darkness; a good thing from a bad thing; a story that has continued throughout history, from the biggest of world events to the smallest of individual lives. God does this over, and over, and over again.
At Mount Sinai, he offered them a covenant as a groom to a bride. Exodus 24: 7 specifically says the Law was the “Book of the Covenant.” This Covenant has been compared to a Hebrew marriage ceremony, like a prenuptial agreement that clarifies what our obligations are to God if we choose to covenant with him. The Hebrews would have recognized this as the ketubah, a legal document agreed upon and signed by both parties. It was a comprehensive summary of the expectations of this covenant relationship explaining the kind of behavior that was consistent with covenant membership. The bride and groom were to be clear about what they were agreeing to enter into, and what it would take for this relationship to work.
Some translations phrase this God-given ketubah, the Ten Commandments, as, “You will not recognize any other gods….you will not take the name of the Lord in vain…you will not kill. “ Future tense. God seemed to be saying, “If you want to covenant with me, this is what this covenant will look like.” It was as if God, the groom, was saying, “Do you, Israel, take me, to have and to hold, from the day on, for better…worse… rich…poor... in sickness and in health…” And Israel responded, “We do.”
The Law was not given as a means of salvation, but as a gift from a gracious God to allow His people to know Him better and to flourish in their design and their relationship with God.
The Hebrew people embraced this revelation. It put ethical, Godly living directly within reach of the most ordinary of people. David places the law alongside Creation as one of the great declarations of God:
“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. They are more precious than gold, they are sweeter than honey…” (Psalm 19:7-10)
Think of this maybe as an instruction manual. They come with almost everything you buy if it has any complexity at all. “Use it this way and things will go well; use it that way and you will break it and probably whatever it is you are working on.”
The Israelites were called to live a particular way that, when understood and lived rightly, would bring wisdom, joy, and insight. In addition to this individual benefit, keeping Law was a means of showing the character of God to the rest of the world (Duet. 4:5-8):
“ See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?”
Jesus himself made clear in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) the power of obedient living as a means of evangelism. Jesus told his audience:
“You are the light of the world… let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.”
Immediately, he follows that up with this:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place… 19 whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
When righteous deeds follow transformed hearts, people will see those good works and glorify God. Love-inspired obedience is a fantastic witness to the goodness and wisdom of God. God’s revelation of Himself and His way was always meant to benefit the world, not just the individuals who love and follow Him.
Because God was compassionate, they were to show compassion.
Because God was generous, they were to be generous.
Because God forgave them, they were to forgive others.
Because God loved them, they were to love their spouse or kids or neighbors.
Righteous actions and godly living was never reduced merely to what one person’s life looked like; it was always understood in the context of community and the world. How will our Godly or ungodly decisions effect the world around us? Will it bring order or chaos? Life or death?
Time after time, the Old Testament showed that if the people forgot God and went after other gods, their society would be characterized by injustice, oppression, cruelty and excess. The principle is one that transcends times and cultures: If you choose the wrong God, you get the wrong society. This pattern seems clear in world history.
When our gods are constantly at war, we generally turn to violence for problem-solving; we see those who have the ability to be effectively and proficiently violent as heroes.
When our gods are all about sex, we tend to associate “the good life” with good sex and base our identity/worth in our sexiness (the degree to which others desire us).
When we worship gods of wealth, the only “good life” is the rich life, and greed and exploitation flourish as we willingly sacrifice those around us in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
When we worship gods of luxury, we associate comfort and pleasure with the “good life,” and we demand these things as a right as we order our lives around them.
When we worship gods of power, we will loved manipulation and control above all else and see the acquisition of power as the answer to the world’s problems as well as our own.
When we worship gods of freedom/independence, we eventually demanded radical unaccountability to anyone but ourselves so that we can “do that which is right in our own eyes.”[15]
The god you choose will be reflected in the culture, because the people’s priorities always reflect the priorities of their gods. Here are a few examples to make my point.
1. In many of the cultures surrounding the Hebrews, possessions were of more worth than human life. One’s life was forfeit for theft or property damage; if the people wanted a good crop harvest, they killed other people. Gods of corn and stone idols required the elevation of corn and stone, not the people around them. Not in Israel. Possessions never were more important than life, because one of those things was created in the image of God, and it wasn’t the property. So theft required restitution, not death; bad crops were never cause to kill people (or anything). If you choose the wrong God, you get the wrong set of cultural priorities.
2. The French Revolution was a decidedly atheistic, humanistic attempt to change the world. Voltaire, one of the fathers of the movement, had a statue of Diana, the Goddess of Reason in his home. The results were disastrous. When Madame Roland was brought to the guillotine in 1792 on false charges, she bowed mockingly toward the statue of liberty in Place de la Revolution and said, “Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name.”[16] If you choose the wrong God, you destroy liberty and freedom.
3. Hitler, ironically, referred to the law given to the Jewish nation as the “life-denying 10 Commandments.” In the process of trying to eradicate the chosen people of the “tyrannical God” whose commands robbed people of life, he experimented on and slaughtered millions of people he considered sub-human. The legacy of Nazi eugenics and racism has lived on around the world in many terrible ways over the decades since, always at the expense of the value, dignity and too often the life of people. If you choose the wrong God, you get a false view of the value of human life.
4. Alfred Kinsey, who has set the tone of sexual discussion in the 1950’s, viewed humans not as people who bore God’s image, but as little more than animals. When he researched human sexuality, he expected to find that people behaved like animals, and (surprise!) he did. Perhaps that is why the closing credits in the 2004 film “Kinsey,” a film meant to celebrate the man who liberated us from all the old-fashioned Jude-Christian prudishness about sex, show nature films of animals copulating in the background. If you choose the wrong God, you get a false view of sexuality.
This list could go on and on. How we feel about God has implications far beyond living a personally ethical life and feeling good about our decisions. Worship has a ripple effect. Nothing exists in a vacuum, especially our moral choices.
Perhaps that is why there is an order to the commands: The first four are about God, the last six about people. If you begin with a correct view of God, you end with a correct view of people. It’s the same order Jesus gave: “Love the Lord…love your neighbors.” As Lauren Winner notes inReal Sex:
“The Mosaic law does…protective work, pointing to, guarding, and returning God’s people to the created order, the world as God meant it to be…To see the Biblical witness as an attempt to direct us to the created order…is to recognize the true goodness of God’s creation…the law cares for us and protects us, written by a lawgiver who understands that life outside of God’s created intent destroys us. Life lived inside the contours of God’s law harmonizes us and makes us beautiful. It makes us creatures living well in the created order. It gives us the opportunity to become who we are meant to be.”
Just as the Sabbath was made to serve us, God’s righteous boundaries serve us as an instruction manual from the Creator that shows what is good. It gives us the opportunity to become, with God’s help, the kind of faithfully present image bearers He intends for us to be.
If I would call you to something this morning, it’s this: Remember that the Creator’s ‘owners manual’ about who you are and how you are designed to live is for our good. It is for us. Obedience does not in itself bring us salvation; that work was done by Jesus on the cross. Being yoked with Jesus into living out the Law of Love is God’s design for us to find and to bring flourishing life to the world, for our good and the glory of the One who has shown us what it means to truly live.
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[1] At least one Galilean, Rabbi Yehuda, was in agreement with Jesus and permitted rubbing grain in the hands on the Sabbath. This may be an example of a rift between Galilean rabbis and Jerusalem rabbis. (NIV First Century Study Bible)
[2] ESV Reformation Study Bible
[3] Twelve loaves of bread were baked and placed in the tabernacle each Sabbath as an offering. The bread was to be eaten by the priests (Lev. 24:5–9). (ESV Global Study Bible)
[4] Believer’s Bible Commentary
[5] So what is the “something greater than the temple”?
· It’s Jesus, Immanuel (“God with us”), is the true temple, to whom the symbol pointed (John 1:14; 2:21).. Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath fulfills all aspects of the meaning of the Sabbath (Col. 2:16, 17).[5]
·The kingdom of God.[5] The Sabbath is a symbol of God’s sovereignty over the whole created universe (Ex. 20:8). It is a reminder of His redemption of His people (Deut. 5:12), and it is a representation of the hope of eternal rest that begins spiritually now and extends into eternity
· Both. It’s the kingdom Jesus is inaugurating as the one who ushers in the Messianic Age. (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)
[6] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament
[7] ESV Global Study Bible
[8] The Dead Sea Scrolls community specifically prohibited removing an animal from a pit on the Sabbath. It’s possible Jesus was directly challenging their interpretation. (NIV First Century Study Bible)
[9] Jesus seems to have been employing a rabbinic teaching technique called qal v’homer (“light then heavy”). This system of logic pitted one idea against another by using the phrase “how much more.” (Ibid)
[10] It is worthy of remark, that as the man was healed with a word, without even a touch, the Sabbath was unbroken, even according to their most rigid interpretation of the letter of the law. (Adam Clarke)
[11] NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible
[12] Fun fact: It "appears as a spelling variant for the unfamiliar Christus (Xristos).” (HELPS Word Studies)
[13] Largely distinct from ceremonial and purity laws….sermon for another time.
[14] From Matthew 5: 21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment… 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart….38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person... 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighborand hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
[15] Judges 21:25
[16] Peter had to warn the new church pretty quickly: “Don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.” (1 Peter 2:16)