The Lord of Mercy—Matthew 12:1-8
Jesus Christ rules all things for God’s glory and the well-being of his people. This includes the Sabbath.
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
Jesus and his disciples were walking along through the fields of grain on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. We don’t know what they were talking about -- Jesus’ miracles? The coming of the kingdom of God? The righteousness of the kingdom? The disciples were hungry, and they started to snack. But they hadn’t brought anything with them to snack on. So they started to pluck heads of grain and rub them in their hands to make them edible, which is a bit more work than unwrapping a granola bar. Did I mention it was the Sabbath?
Some Pharisees saw what happened. Like religious vultures, they flocked around Jesus and his disciples, looking for something to peck at. They went after the disciples, but Jesus was the real target. If he was really so holy, wouldn’t his disciples be extra paranoid about breaking the Fourth Commandment, which says not to work on the Sabbath? Didn’t plucking heads of grain seem awfully like work?
But Jesus stood up for his disciples, and defended them from the Scriptures, as he used Scripture earlier to stand against the Devil’s temptations.
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
I think this argument must have made the Pharisees’ heads spin. The argument has to do with food, but it doesn’t have much to do with the Sabbath (although the bread of the Presence was changed out on the Sabbath). It is a case of someone holy and respected breaking the letter of the law, and presumably the Pharisees would have admitted that David didn’t sin in this instance. But what connection was Jesus trying to make to the present case? Was he saying that because David was the Lord’s anointed, he was worthy of an honor normally reserved for the priest -- and that Jesus himself deserved special treatment for the same reason? Or was he saying that an exception could be made in the case of genuine human need -- in the case of the hungry disciples as well as hungry David? Or was he saying that David, again as the Lord’s anointed, had authority to interpret the law -- and that the same applied to Jesus?
Jesus didn’t explain what exactly he was saying about David. But as he goes on, it becomes clear that he is making all these claims about the case in point: that he, Jesus, is worthy of special treatment; that mercy triumphs over letter-bound legalism; and that Jesus himself is the authoritative interpreter of the law.
He goes on:
Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
Imagine a married couple approaching their 20th wedding anniversary. The husband works very hard to provide for his wife, and almost never takes a day off. But the wife says, “Honey, would you consider taking a day off on our wedding anniversary so that we can spend the day at the arboretum?” The man does not like this idea: he likes his work, and he does not like the arboretum. But he agrees.
When the day comes, the couple are getting ready for their excursion, and the woman notices that the car tires are pretty low. “Honey,” she says, “would you mind putting some air in the tires?”
“Really?” he says. “I thought this was supposed to be a day off. I didn’t take the day off from work to spend my time putting air in the tires. Let’s just call off the arboretum thing. I’ve got some YouTube videos I wanted to watch anyway.”
Wouldn’t that be ridiculous? Obviously the man should roll up his sleeves and put air in the tires. The point of the day off wasn’t to avoid work of any kind: the point was to honor his wife.
The work of the priests was a bit like putting air in those tires. The temple existed so that people could draw near to God. Obviously the Sabbath was never meant to get in the way of this: it was meant to make room for it. So it was right for the priests to break the letter of the Sabbath law in order to fulfill the heart of the law.
Amazingly, Jesus claims that his disciples are doing the same thing by spending time with him on the Sabbath. Jesus is greater than the temple: in fact, as he says elsewhere, he is the true temple. In him God dwells. Should his disciples have left him to find food that didn’t require so much work? No way! The whole point of not working on the Sabbath was to be with Jesus.
But there’s more:
And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Let’s return to the couple we were talking about. They get to the arboretum and they spend the morning there. They have a nice lunch. They continue their walk, and the man trips and breaks his ankle. He’s in excruciating pain.
“Honey,” he says, “I know I promised to spend the whole day with you at the arboretum, but would you consider spending the afternoon with me at the ER?”
How will his wife respond? Will she say, “No way! You have to keep your promise!” Will she say, “I’ll call an ambulance for you, but after that, you’re on your own -- I’m spending the afternoon looking at trees.” Of course not. The main reason she wanted to go to the arboretum was to spend the day with her husband, because she loves him. What she wants is to be with him and for him to be well, far more than she desires this specific plan.
God’s purpose for the Sabbath in our lives is a bit like this. It isn’t just about us glorifying him -- it’s also about him caring fo us. He calls us to rest so that we can spend time with him and be refreshed, not so that we can check a series of boxes. His Sabbath is merciful: it isn’t designed to get in the way of our basic needs, or even our comforts. Jesus knew his disciples wouldn’t die if they went one day without food. (He went 40 days without food himself.) But his desire was to care for them, body and soul. He is the Lord who desires mercy, not “sacrifice” (mere ritual).
For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
His last statement may well have a double meaning. On the one hand, since the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, the Sabbath is about him, and no one should be challenged for spending their Sabbath with him, as the priests spent their Sabbaths in the temple and the disciples spent theirs in the grainfield. On the other hand, if he is Lord of the Sabbath, then he decides what the Sabbath means and how to keep it -- no Pharisee does. If he wants to let his disciples pluck grain, no one can stand in the way.
Notice how Jesus stuck his neck out for his disciples. He could have pretended he hadn’t noticed -- “What? Plucking grain on the Sabbath? I had no idea!” He could have rebuked his disciples: “How dare you pluck grain on the Sabbath! I didn’t teach you to act that way!” He could have simply left them with the blame: “Yeah…as I always say, ‘O them of little faith.’ They just don’t learn…you know Peter when he gets an idea in his head. There’s no stopping him.” But no. He is a Lord who stands up for the guiltless.
He is also a Lord who stood up for the guilty. While his disciples were innocent in this case, they were still sinful people. So the same Lord who clears them of guilt with his word here cleared them of guilt with his blood later. Here Jesus acts, you might say, as their lawyer. At the cross, he acts as their substitute.
But God the Father vindicated him, not by another argument with his accusers, but by raising him from the dead, making him living proof of his own righteousness and of the power of the salvation that he has purchased for his own. He entered into his rest, and now he calls you: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It’s no accident that this passage comes on the heels of that call. The one who calls us to come to him and rest will make good on his promise, because the Lord of Sabbath rest is the Lord of mercy.
Pastor Nate Jeffries