Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12.
If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand and we'd love to give you a copy for you to have.
Use while you're here and you can take it home with you.
Matthew chapter 12, verses 1 to 21.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.
Heavenly Father,
you are the author, the ultimate author of this word.
And so Lord, speak to us in and through your word and expound to us the true meaning of this passage.
Teach us what it means to find soul rest in Christ.
Teach us what it means to relate to Jesus our Lord.
Lord, who is gentle and lowly, who does not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick.
Help us to see Jesus and worship Jesus and relate to him and love Jesus the way he actually is.
The way your word reveals him to us.
Rather than according to our own prejudices and fancies.
Rather than according to how the world portrays him.
So draw us nearer to Christ this morning through your word.
It's in his precious name we pray.
Amen.
If you are able, please stand.
Join me as I read from Matthew 12, 1 to 21.
At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields 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.
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?
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.
And 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 of the Sabbath.
He went on from there and entered their synagogue.
And a man was there with a withered hand.
And they asked him,
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
So that they might accuse him.
He said to them,
Which one of you who has a sheep,
if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,
will not take hold of it and lift it out?
Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
Then he said to the man,
Stretch out your hand.
And the man stretched it out,
and he was restored, healthy like the other.
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him.
Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there,
and many followed him,
and he healed them all,
and ordered them not to make him known.
This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.
Behold,
my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name,
the Gentiles will hope.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
Please be seated.
The English idiom,
Missing the forest for the trees,
speaks of a human tendency
to focus on small individual details
in such a way
that we fail to see the larger,
more important picture.
By fixating on an individual tree,
we lose sight of the forest.
We lose perspective
and fail to grasp the bigger picture.
For example,
a couple can get so lost
in the hundreds of small details
in their wedding planning
that they fail to take a step back
and process adequately
the gravity of the wedding vows
and the significance
of the marriage covenant
that they are entering into.
Similarly,
sometimes Christians,
like the Pharisees in this passage,
can be too focused
on the minutiae
of religious rules
and rituals
that they miss
the weightier matters
of Christian obedience.
For example,
there are pastors and priests
who are more concerned
about the precise wording
of a liturgy
than about the purity
of the gospel
that they preach.
And there are,
in certain churches,
church members
who are more concerned
about making sure
that their committee
in the church
is sticking to the letter
by all the church bylaws
than about actual obedience
to the commands
of scripture themselves.
I don't say this to discount
the importance of liturgies
or bylaws.
They're not unimportant.
However,
we also must maintain
proper proportion
in our belief,
in our obedience.
In art,
it's not just about
getting the shapes right
or the colors right,
but it's also important
to get the proportions right
for your art to look good.
In figure drawing,
in order to make
a drawing of a human
look realistic,
you need to follow
the eight heads tall rule,
or that's what I hear,
right?
You have to make them
as tall as about eight heads,
otherwise they will not
look proportional.
Likewise,
in photography,
people often speak
of the rule of thirds.
You divide the frame
into thirds,
horizontally and vertically,
and then you're trying
to fit the subject
into one of those lines
or where they intersect
in order to create
a more balanced composition
or a composition
that looks more
artistically interesting.
In interior design,
people speak of
the 60-30-10 rule,
decorating your house
or your room
with 60% of the room
in the primary color
and the 30%
in a secondary color
and 10%
in the accent color
in order to create
a balanced
and cohesive
color scheme.
It's not just about
having the right
materials
or the right colors,
but also about
having them
in the right proportions.
The same is true
for Christian life
and doctrine.
It's not enough
merely to believe
all the right things.
We have to believe
them in the right proportions.
For I deliver to you
as of first importance
what I also received,
that Christ died
for our sins
in accordance
with the scriptures,
that he was buried
and he was raised
on the third day
in accordance
with the scriptures.
This,
the gospel of Jesus Christ,
1 Corinthians 15,
3-4 tells us,
is of first importance.
For this reason,
if we get more exercise
about what people believe
concerning the end times
and the millennial kingdom
of Revelation 20,
though they are not
unimportant,
then about the gospel,
whether they believe
the gospel of Jesus Christ
or not,
then something is amiss
in our proportion.
Jesus will later denounce
the scribes
and the Pharisees
as hypocrites
in Matthew 23, 23
and he'll say to them,
you tithe mint
and dill and cumin
and have neglected
the weightier matters
of the law,
justice,
mercy,
and faithfulness.
These you ought
to have done
without neglecting
the others.
The Pharisees
were right to tithe
their herbs.
Jesus says
that they should not
neglect to tithe them.
However,
their proportions
were off.
They focused
on tithing
their herbs faithfully
while neglecting
the weightier matters
of the law,
justice,
and mercy,
and faithfulness.
The same thing
is happening here
in Matthew 12.
These Pharisees
were meticulous,
punctilious
about keeping the Sabbath,
but they were neglecting
the weightier matters
of the law,
namely mercy.
This passage
presents Jesus
as the counterexample
to the Pharisees
and shows us
that Jesus
is the merciful Lord
who attends
to the bruised
and the broken.
We're going to first
see how Jesus
is the Lord
of the Sabbath
in verses 1-14
and how he is
the hope of the Gentiles
in verses 15-21.
Here we see
two Sabbath controversies
between Jesus
and the Pharisees
in verses 1-14.
In the first one,
Jesus' disciples
are hungry.
And so as they go
through the grain fields
on the Sabbath,
they pluck some heads
of grain
and they start
to eat them.
But it says
in verse 2,
when the Pharisees
saw it,
they said to Jesus,
look,
your disciples
are doing
what is not lawful
on the Sabbath.
The Jews
observed a day
of rest,
of Sabbath rest
from Friday sundown
to Saturday sundown,
and according
to the commands
of Scripture,
it's commanded
in the Old Testament.
It might seem
to us like
a peripheral command,
something that's
not very important.
However,
for the Jews,
for the observant Jews,
Sabbath was
a part of,
really an essential
part of Jewish identity,
their national identity,
and Jewish piety,
their worship.
It was one
of the ten,
the great ten commandments
found in Exodus 20
and Deuteronomy 5,
which commands
God's people
not to do any work
on the Sabbath.
In Exodus 31,
13-16,
God specifically says,
Above all,
you shall keep
my Sabbath,
for this is a sign
between me and you
throughout your generations,
that you may know
that I,
the Lord,
sanctify you.
You shall keep
the Sabbath
because it is
holy for you.
Everyone who profanes
it shall be put
to death.
Whoever does
any work on it,
that soul shall be
cut off from
among his people.
Skipping a little ahead,
therefore,
the people of Israel
shall keep the Sabbath,
observing the Sabbath
throughout their generations
as a covenant
forever.
High-handed violation
of the Sabbath
was punishable
by death
in the Old Testament,
and the person
so executed
would not be counted
as one of God's
chosen people.
They were cut off
from the promised line.
Why is God
so insistent
on people
keeping his Sabbath?
Because,
as he says
in that passage,
it is a sign
between me
and you,
God says.
It was by the Sabbath
that the Lord
sanctified Israel,
his people.
Sanctified meaning
set them apart.
This was the way
God distinguished
the nation of Israel
from all the other
nations of the earth.
The Sabbath
was the sign
of the Mosaic covenant
that God made
with his people.
It marked them
as his own
special possession.
This is why
Sabbath was a point
of national pride,
and to profane
the Sabbath
in effect
was to disown
the Lord God
himself,
saying,
I don't want
anything to do
with him.
I don't want
the mark
of being set apart
for him.
So the Pharisees
were not wrong
to take the
Sabbath commandment
very seriously,
and Jesus
nowhere in this
passage suggests
that they should
stop keeping
the Sabbath
because it's
not all that
important.
It's not what
Jesus says.
However,
the Pharisees
were wrong
in a couple
of different ways.
One,
they were wrong
in their interpretation
of the Sabbath
law,
and two,
they were wrong
in their biblical
proportion,
the biblical proportion
that they gave
to Sabbath keeping.
It says in Exodus
20,
verses 8 to 10,
remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy.
Six days you shall
labor and do all
your work,
but the seventh
day is a Sabbath
to the Lord your God.
On it you shall
not do any work.
Neither you nor
your son or daughter
or your male servants
or your female servants
or even your animals.
The original
biblical command
regarding the Sabbath
was pretty straightforward
and simple.
Don't do
what you normally
do six days
of the week.
Don't do
your regular
work
that you're
employed to do.
Exodus 34,
21 specifies
a little bit further.
It says,
six days you shall
work,
but on the seventh
day you shall rest.
In plowing time
and in harvest
you shall rest.
Even in
the extremely
time-sensitive
periods for farmers
of plowing
and harvesting,
the Israelites
were commanded
to observe the Sabbath.
Now,
this is where
the controversy
lay with the Pharisees
in this passage.
By the first century
there had been
over a millennia
of complicated
Jewish debate
over the nuances
of the Sabbath command
trying to define
precisely
what exactly
constitutes work.
And by this point
Pharisees had agreed
upon a list
of 39 categories
of activities
that they believed
should be classified
as work
and therefore
forbidden on the Sabbath.
And they were
so complicated
sometimes
and difficult
that even
the Jewish
rabbi notes
in the Mishnah,
which is a collection
of Jewish
oral traditions,
he says this,
the rules about
the Sabbath
are as mountains
hanging by a hair.
For the teachings
of Scripture
thereon is scanty
and the rules
many.
So they're
hanging a mountain
on a hair
of Scripture.
Mountains of regulations.
Because harvesting
was explicitly forbidden
in Exodus 34-21,
the Jewish rabbis
considered reaping
and threshing
as two of the
39 activities
that were forbidden.
Now we can see
why the Pharisees
were upset
at the disciples.
The disciples
were not doing
anything wrong
in terms of
going through
the grain fields
and plucking heads
of grain
and eating them
even though
it was not
their field
because the
Old Testament
specifically
allowed for that.
In Deuteronomy
23, 24-25,
it specifically
said the poor
may go through
other people's
grain fields
and pluck
heads of grain
and eat them.
If they took
a sickle
and started
harvesting
other people's
field,
it would be
considered
thievery.
But if they
just plucked it
with their hands
and ate
because they
were hungry,
it would be
considered
charity.
So the disciples
had the right
to do
what they
were doing.
The problem,
however,
for the Pharisees
is that it
was happening
on the Sabbath.
They pluck
a head of grain.
Hey,
that's harvesting.
You're reaping.
And then they
start rubbing
it in their hands
to get the chaff
off so they
could eat the
grain.
They say,
no,
you are reaping.
No,
you are threshing.
Reaping and
threshing,
they're both
forbidden activities.
Two of those
39 categories.
And so you
are breaking
the Sabbath
because you
are harvesting.
But they're
being overly
fussy about
the Sabbath
requirement,
as we can
see,
because the
commands were
quite simple
in its original
context,
and the
disciples weren't
really working
because they're
not farmers.
They're not
over-eager
farmers who
are trying to
sneak in a
little bit of
overtime work
during the
Sabbath to get
some extra
cash.
They're
itinerant
preachers.
They don't
get to
feast every
day.
They're
hungry,
and they're
taking some
heads of
grain and
eating them.
This is why
later in
verse 7,
Jesus tells
the Pharisees
that they
have condemned
the guiltless.
So we know
that Jesus
disagrees with
the Pharisees'
interpretation of
the Sabbath
law.
But note that
that's not the
point that
Jesus presses.
He doesn't
argue with them
by saying,
well, what
my disciples
are doing
don't actually
count as
work because
they're not
farmers, and
plucking some
heads of grain
and eating
them does not
constitute
harvesting.
Jesus doesn't
say that,
even though
that's true.
If Jesus
argued that,
then he
would have
gotten enmeshed
in the
rabbinical
debates about
what constitutes
work and
what the
category should
be, and
he would
have played
right into
the Pharisees'
obsession with
the letter
of the law.
So instead,
Jesus turns to
address the
legalistic heart
of the Pharisees
by pressing a
much more
fundamental question
about the
spirit of the
law.
He questions the
Pharisees in
verses 3-4,
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?
Jesus is
alluding to
1 Samuel 21
verses 1-6.
After finding out
from his friend
Jonathan that
King Saul is
bent on killing
him, David
flees, and
during his
flight, he
comes to
Ahimelech, the
high priest, the
priest of Nob, and
then he asks for
loaves of bread.
The priest
answers David,
I have no
common bread on
hand, but there
is holy bread.
According to
Leviticus 24, 8-9,
every Sabbath
day, the high
priest was to
set out 12
freshly baked
loaves of bread
inside the
temple, and
then he was
supposed to
take out the
old batch from
the previous
week, and
then he and
his sons, other
priests, were
supposed to
consume that
week-old bread
in the holy
place, and they
were the only
ones who were
allowed to eat
it.
The bread of
the presence
literally means
in Hebrew, the
bread before the
face, because
it's the bread
that sits before
the face of
God in the
temple of the
Lord.
It represents
the presence of
God, the living
God, dwelling with
his people and
having fellowship
with them.
That's why there's
12 loaves,
representing the
12 tribes of
Israel, communing
with God
himself.
This is also
called the show
bread in
different parts of
the Bible, because
it's displayed or
shown inside the
temple.
people.
So these 12
loaves that are
taken out, it
was a Sabbath
day when David's
visiting, and so
this old batch has
been taken out, and
Ahimelech gives
them to David to
eat.
And because
Leviticus 24, 9
says that this
bread must be
eaten in the
holy place,
presumably David
and his men
entered the holy
place to eat it,
which is what Jesus
says in this
passage, he
entered the
temple to eat
it.
And yet, nowhere
in Scripture is
David or Ahimelech,
the priest, condemned
for this infraction.
By sharing the
story, Jesus is
exposing the
blindness of the
Pharisees.
Aren't your
Scriptures your
final authority?
Have you not
read what David
did when he was
hungry and those
who were with
him?
It was not
lawful for David
to eat that
bread, nor for
his men to eat
that bread.
And yet, God
did not condemn
them for that
illegal activity.
Note the
repetition of the
phrase, not
lawful.
It was not
lawful, they
said, for the
disciples to eat
the grain on
the Sabbath.
And then Jesus
said it was not
lawful for David
to eat the
show bread.
So what's the
point that Jesus
is driving at?
Note the
repetition also of
the word hungry
in verse 1.
Matthew told us
that Jesus'
disciples were
hungry.
And then Jesus
tells us in
verse 3 that
David and his
men were hungry.
The hunger and
need of the
disciples at that
time seems to be
one of the points
that Jesus is
making.
In the parallel
account in Mark
2, 23, 28,
Jesus makes this
point explicitly by
saying that David
was in need and
was hungry, he and
those who were
with him.
Now please don't
hear what I'm not
saying.
Jesus is not
saying that the
various dietary
restrictions of the
Old Testament all
go out the window as
soon as you're
hungry.
Right?
He's not saying
that the law of
God can be bent
and broken for all
kinds of self-perceived
extenuating
circumstances.
But what Jesus is
getting at and
he's doing is to
get the Pharisees to
examine their own
hearts and consider
the implications of
their overly strict
application of
Sabbath law.
What if the poor
are hungry and in
need on the
Sabbath day?
Never mind the
farmers who have
jobs and who have
fields and they
should rest on the
Sabbath day after
working for six
days.
But what about the
poor who don't have
a farmland and
they're hungry?
Can they pluck some
heads of grain and
eat them?
Are you really
honoring God by
your rigorous
application of
Sabbath preventing
them from taking
plucking some heads
of grain and eating
them?
This is Jesus'
point in verse
seven.
You're getting the
proportions wrong.
He says, if you
had known what this
means, I desire mercy
and not sacrifice,
you would not have
condemned the
guiltless.
He's citing Hosea
6 there.
For I desire
steadfast love and
not sacrifice the
knowledge of God
rather than burnt
offerings, which he's
already quoted once
before in Matthew
9, 13.
God cares about the
heart, not just the
appearances.
God cares that you
keep the spirit of the
law, not just the
letter of the law.
If you neglect the
love of neighbor to
keep the minutia of
Sabbath regulations,
then you have the
proportions of
Scripture wrong.
Jesus is also making
another point about his
identity and his
authority.
Try to put yourself in
the Pharisee's shoes for
a moment.
Jesus just came up with
this amazing comeback
of the story of David.
What would be your
comeback to Jesus
mentioning the story of
David?
The first thing that
comes to my mind in
the shoes of the
Pharisee is, well, that
was David.
He's no ordinary chap.
He's the anointed one.
He is the future king
of Israel.
In fact, he is the
greatest king in the
history of Israel.
Surely the high priest
made an exception for
him.
Ah, so you do admit
that for certain cases
the law makes
exceptions.
When David is invoked
in the Gospels, we
have to pay attention.
Matthew, in
particular, mentions
David more frequently
than any other New
Testament writer.
In the genealogy of
Jesus in chapter 1,
Matthew took pains to
know repeatedly that
Jesus is the son of
David, descendant of
David from the royal
house.
Jesus is frequently
addressed by that title
son of David throughout
the Gospel of Matthew.
And if David and his
men could eat the bread
of the presence, which
only the priests were
allowed to eat, is it a
problem that the
disciples of the son of
David, the Messiah, are
plucking and eating some
grain on the Sabbath.
Though Jesus doesn't say
this explicitly here, he
is implying that something
greater than David is
here.
That's the recurring
thrust of chapter 12.
Jesus will make this point
explicitly in verse 6,
where he says, I tell you
something greater than the
temple is here.
He'll say it again in verse
41.
Something greater than Jonah
is here.
And again in verse 42,
something greater than
Solomon is here.
In fact, Jesus will later
make this point in Matthew
22, 41 to 46, that he is
in fact greater than David.
He is David's Lord.
This is the point that Jesus
presses home in verses 5 and
6.
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.
Jesus is making the good
observation that the priests
are working all through the
Sabbath.
In fact, according to Numbers
28, they work twice as hard
on the Sabbath because they
have to make double the number
of sacrifices that they
normally make on regular days.
By doing this, they profane the
Sabbath, Jesus says.
Treat the Sabbath like the
other days in some sense.
And yet they are guiltless, as
Jesus says in verse 5.
How can this be?
There were special categories
of work that were allowed
even on the Sabbath.
And one of them was work
inside the temple.
In John 7, 19 to 24, Jesus
brings up another example of
this kind.
When the Jewish leaders give
him a hard time about healing
a man on the Sabbath, Jesus
brings up the fact that even
they circumcise their infants
on the Sabbath day, if it
falls on the eighth day when
they're supposed to circumcise
their infants.
So he says, if on the
Sabbath a man receives
circumcision so that the law
of Moses may not be broken,
are you angry with me because
on the Sabbath I made a man's
whole body well?
Do not judge by appearances,
but judge with right judgment.
The Pharisees were missing the
forest for the trees.
They were so fixated on keeping
the letter of the law that
they were missing the spirit
of the law entirely.
What was the purpose of the
Sabbath anyway?
God intended it to be a
blessing to his people.
God intended it to give them
rest from their labors.
And yet, ironically, because of
the many accretions of rules
and regulations over centuries
and millennia that the Jews
had added to the Sabbath command,
instead of being restful,
it became burdensome.
Sabbath was intended to be by
God an expression of our love
for neighbor because masters
were required to let their
servants and let their children
and even their animals rest
on the Sabbath day.
But by their over rigorous
application of the Sabbath,
the Pharisees were discouraging
and preventing people from doing
good deeds, which are expressions
of the love of neighbor on the
Sabbath.
Such as letting poor people
pluck and eat some grain or
letting the sick receive healing.
When the rubber meets the road,
Jesus is saying in verse 7,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
This doesn't mean that sacrifices
are not important.
Read the book of Leviticus.
It's all about sacrifices.
Nonetheless, showing mercy to your
neighbor is even more important.
That is the weightier matter of the law.
To press this point home further,
Jesus performs a miracle of healing
in the following passage in verses 9 to 14.
On the Sabbath, seeing a man
with the withered hand,
the Pharisees in the synagogue
pick a theological fight with Jesus.
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
The Jewish oral tradition allowed the work
of healing on the Sabbath,
but only under extenuating circumstances.
For example, if there's a life-threatening injury
or if a woman is giving birth to a child,
then they were allowed to work
and assist in that labor.
The man that has a withered arm
is an entirely different story.
If he has a withered arm,
most likely he probably has
some form of paralysis in his arm.
And when you don't get to use your arm
for a long time,
the muscles atrophy and it withers.
And so he has this.
But this is a permanent condition.
It's a chronic condition,
one that he may have had
for a very, very long time.
And certainly, it won't do him
that much harm to wait just one day
so that he can be healed
on what's not the Sabbath.
That's the point that the Pharisees are making.
But Jesus makes an even better point
in verses 11 to 12.
Which one of you who has a sheep,
if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,
will not take hold of it and lift it out?
Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
Jesus appeals to the common sensical
and popular sentiment of his day
that most Jews,
even the Pharisees apparently,
subscribe to,
that if on the Sabbath day
your sheep falls into the pit,
then they would not hesitate
to pull the sheep out of the pit.
Surely the animal could wait there
until the next day.
But instead, they pull the animal out.
If helping out your animal
is permissible on the Sabbath,
why not helping a fellow human?
Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?
The Sabbath was intended to offer rest
and relief for people.
So if the Sabbath is keeping you
from doing that for people,
then you are missing the very point
of the Sabbath.
So Jesus concludes,
it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
And note the utter blindness of the Pharisees.
He says in verse 14,
the Pharisees went out and conspired against him
how to destroy him.
Here they are faulting Jesus
for doing good on the Sabbath
while they themselves are plotting murder
against Jesus on the Sabbath.
See how far they have strayed
from the true intent of the law.
When the law of God that we obey
and the command,
and that we teach to others,
when that law becomes
not a means to give life to people,
but instead a means to bludgeon people.
If the law of God that we preach
does not spring from humble love for people
and rather from self-righteous legalism,
then we are missing the forest for the trees.
Applying Jesus' positive, broad principle here,
it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath,
would have radically transformed
the way the Jews were observing the Sabbath
at the time.
Jesus is not saying don't ever rest.
He does call his disciples to come away
and rest time to time.
But why does Jesus think
that he has the authority
to transform the Sabbath in this way?
Who is he to make such an authoritative pronouncement
about the law of God?
So let's go back to understand that
to verse 6 and verse 8.
Jesus said in verse 6,
I tell you,
something greater than the temple is here.
That's an audacious statement.
The temple is the focal point of Jewish worship.
It's the very dwelling place of God.
Yet Jesus says,
I am greater than the temple.
He can say that because he is the new temple of God
who in his flesh makes the once for all sacrifice for sin
and in so doing fulfills the entire law of God
and brings about the end of the entire sacrificial system.
This is why Jesus repeats that word guiltless in verse 7
to refer to his disciples.
The priests who work inside the temple on the Sabbath are guiltless.
Well then, so are my disciples, Jesus says,
because they are following and attending to me.
And that work is even more important
than the temple duties that continue in the Sabbath.
This is a staggering claim about Jesus' identity and authority.
Jesus is greater than the temple
because he's not merely the dwelling place of God.
He is the dwelling of God himself,
God in human flesh.
Jesus makes a similar point in verse 8.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
He's saying, I am the master of the Sabbath.
How?
This too is a claim to divinity.
In several places in the Old Testament,
Exodus 31, 13, Leviticus 19, Isaiah 56, verse 4,
Yahweh, the Lord God, describes the Sabbath as my Sabbath.
They're his.
This is my Sabbath.
They belong to me.
And Jesus is saying here, Sabbath is mine.
I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus is not merely a law keeper.
He is the law giver.
He is the Son of Man prophesied of in Daniel chapter 7.
He is the messianic king who has cosmic divine authority.
The Sabbath itself exists to serve Jesus.
It exists to do Jesus' bidding.
It exists to point to Jesus.
How does it do that?
Now we see why this passage follows on the heels of the preceding passage,
Matthew 11, 25 to 30, that we looked at last week.
Look at verse 1.
At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.
That phrase, at that time, links this passage to the preceding passage,
where Jesus promised to his followers in chapter 11, verse 28,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
The purpose of the Sabbath was to give rest to God's people.
And it's not a coincidence that this passage is followed by two Sabbath controversies.
Jesus is saying, in essence, what he said earlier in Matthew 5, 17,
I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill them.
I am the fulfillment of the Sabbath.
Just like how Jesus is the Passover lamb who is sacrificed for sin,
so he's the fulfillment of the Passover feast,
just as Jesus is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles,
which commemorated the time that the Israelites lived in tents in the wilderness,
drinking water from the rock that God provided for them.
And in that context of celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles,
what did Jesus say in John 7, 37 to 38?
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said,
out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
I am the fulfillment of the Passover.
I am the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.
I am the fulfillment of the Sabbath,
and therefore I am able to give you rest for your souls.
The Sabbath that the Pharisees taught was wearisome and burdensome.
They tie up heavy burdens, Jesus said in Matthew 23, 4.
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
But instead, Jesus says,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
This is why Hebrews 4 teaches that the only way we can enter
that eternal Sabbath rest that God has promised to his people
is through Jesus Christ, the great high priest,
who is greater than David,
who is greater than the temple.
That's why in Colossians 2, 16 to 7, Paul writes,
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you
in questions of food and drink,
or with regard to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come,
but the substance belongs to Christ.
The Sabbath was merely a shadow of the substance,
the real thing that was to come.
The Sabbath was merely a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was to come,
because Jesus is the one who fulfills the Sabbath
and offers us eternal life and soul rest.
This is why I don't teach that observing a physical Sabbath
is no longer...
I don't teach that the physical Sabbath
is a legal requirement for Christians.
Though certainly there can be wisdom in the practice of regular rest.
The sole rest that Jesus offers
is for all those who rest from their works,
recognizing that no amount of the good works that they do
can earn their salvation,
but instead believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross,
the good news that Jesus died for our sins
and was raised for our justification,
so that all of his righteous deeds
are counted on behalf of those who have put their faith in him.
This is how Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
And because Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath,
he is also the hope of the Gentiles.
Aware that the Pharisees are plotting to kill him,
Jesus withdraws from the synagogue
and then continues his ministry of healing
to those who follow him.
But as he does that, interestingly,
he orders them not to make him known,
he says in verse 16.
This is, again, a consistent pattern
that we've noted so far in the Gospels, right?
In chapter 8, verse 4,
after cleansing a leper,
Jesus told him to say nothing to anyone.
In chapter 9, verse 25,
when Jesus raised a ruler's daughter from the dead,
he first made sure that the crowd had been put outside.
In chapter 9, verse 30 to 31,
after healing the two blind men,
he sternly warned them,
see that no one knows about it.
And then later in Matthew 16, 19 to 21,
when Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ,
the promised messianic king,
Jesus strictly charges his disciples
to tell no one that he is the Christ.
And he says the same thing again
after his transfiguration in chapter 17, verse 9.
Until the right time,
Jesus keeps his identity under wraps,
until it is time for him to go die on the cross
as the atoning sacrifice for sin,
Jesus avoids full-on confrontation with these Pharisees.
And this humility and this modesty of Jesus' ministry,
according to Matthew,
is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 42, 1 to 3,
which he cites in verses 18 to 21.
Behold,
behold,
my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased,
I will put my spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory,
and in his name the Gentiles will hope.
This is a fairly loose translation of Isaiah 42,
but the translation serves Matthew's purposes,
because verse 18 closely echoes
what God the Father pronounced over his son
when Jesus was baptized in chapter 3, verse 16 to 17.
As the heavens opened,
he saw the Spirit of God descend upon him like a dove
and come to rest on him,
and then the voice from heaven,
the Father's voice pronounced,
this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
So he's describing those same intimate terms,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased,
I will put my spirit upon him.
Jesus, unlike the Pharisees,
has the Father's signature.
Jesus' ministry is not the loud,
brash, attention-seeking, self-centered ministry,
but a quiet, humble, faithful,
and God-centered ministry.
Jesus' ministry not one
where he lays heavy burdens on people,
but rather one where he lifts the burdens off of people.
Look at how tenderly Jesus is described in verse 20.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.
A reed in those days was used for measuring things like a ruler,
or for supporting things.
But a bruised reed is not sturdy enough for either of those purposes.
It's good only for being snapped off,
and used for fodder for the fire.
But Jesus is a gentle and lowly Lord,
who will not break a bruised reed.
Instead, he will tape it up,
nurture it,
in hopes that the fibers will grow stronger again,
and that it will grow tall,
and strong,
and straight,
and be a useful reed.
Likewise,
back in those days,
people used strips of linen cloth
as lamp wick,
and if it began to smoke,
then it was not very useful
as a lamp,
or as forgiving light,
because the smoke could only impede visibility,
and pollute the air.
A smoldering wick is a wick that is weak,
that's about to go out.
It has small bits of amber burning on it,
but no real flame that gives off light and heat.
Most people would at that point
just wet their fingers,
and snuff out the fire.
But because Jesus is gentle,
and lowly,
the Lord will not quench the smoldering wick.
Instead,
He will shield it.
He will blow on it.
Fan it back until it's aflame again.
Beloved brothers and sisters,
children of God,
do you feel like you're a good-for-nothing bruised reed this morning?
Barely holding on to the tree of Christ,
do you feel like a smoldering wick?
There's more smoke in your life than fire and light,
barely burning the lamp of Christ.
Do you feel weak,
blemished,
poor,
and needy?
Well, then this is encouragement to us
that our Savior does not break a bruised reed,
and He does not quench a smoldering wick.
We don't need to hide our weaknesses.
We don't need to hide our wounds from our head,
Jesus Christ,
or from His body,
the Church of Christ.
We can instead,
as it says in Hebrews 4, 15-16,
come to the throne of God with confidence.
Because Jesus is the high priest
who sympathizes with our weaknesses,
knowing that we will receive mercy
and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Do you see other bruised reeds around you?
Do you see smoldering wicks all around you?
Then seek to imitate the compassion and mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Aim to see good in people.
Instead of fixating only on the smoke,
only on the bruises,
and saying,
oh, look at all those bruises.
Look at all that smoke.
And then being inclined to write them off
and dismiss them offhand.
Labor to see what is good in them
as Jesus does for us.
Labor to see that tiny ember
that is still there burning.
And fatten into flame with encouragement.
Cover up their bruises with love.
Bandage it with the love of Christ
that you have received from him.
I want to recommend to you a book
by a 16th century English pastor
named Richard Sibbes.
It's called The Bruised Read.
It's based on this passage.
And in it he says this,
Men must not be too curious
in prying into the weaknesses of others.
We should labor rather to see
what they have that is for eternity,
to incline our heart to love them,
than into what weakness
which the Spirit of God
will in time consume to estrange us.
Some think it's strength of grace
to endure nothing in the weaker,
whereas the strongest are readiest
to bear with the infirmities of the weak.
Do you see it as a mark of your strength
and maturity and discernment
to harp on any weaknesses
and bruises you see
and smokes you see in other believers?
I'm not saying that there's no place
for correction or admonishment.
Scriptures give ample evidence
that that's what we're supposed to do
as well in the body of Christ.
However, I'm afraid that I've failed
in many ways in this regard
and that many of us fail in this regard
to be as compassionate and merciful
as our Savior toward one another.
And this is what gives hope for the Gentiles.
Isn't that interesting in this passage?
That Jesus is in controversy
with the Jews and the Pharisees
and then in the passage that follows,
it describes him as the one
who proclaims justice to the Gentiles
in verse 18.
And in verse 21, it says,
in his name, the Gentiles will hope.
The Gentiles are not people
that are usually in the in crowd
in the Gospel of Matthew.
In Matthew 5.47, Jesus,
if you greet only your brothers,
what more are you doing?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Matthew 6.7, the Gentiles heap up empty phrases
when they pray, thinking that they will be heard by God.
In Matthew 18.17, when your fellow Christian brothers and sisters,
instead they refuse to repent of their sin
and continue in their sin,
it says to dissociate from them
and treat them like a Gentile.
Gentiles are people who are excluded.
Gentiles are the people who don't belong
to the covenant community of God.
So how is it that Jesus is the hope of the Gentiles?
He proclaims justice to the Gentiles
because Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Remember, what is the covenant mark
that sets the Jews apart from the Gentiles?
It's the Sabbath.
It's the Sabbath that sets them apart.
And Jesus says, I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
I have come to fulfill the sign of the Sabbath.
And so I will die on the cross
for the sins of all people, Jews and Gentiles,
so that all those who repent of their sins
and trust in me,
in me they will find the rest that they seek,
the life that they seek,
the eternal soul rest that only I can give.
I give even to Gentiles
because I have fulfilled justice.
I have fulfilled the righteousness of God.
I receive the just wrath of God
and the judgment of God on the cross
so that I can extend mercy without end
to all those who come to me.
That's why Jesus is the hope of the Gentiles.
So brothers, sisters, let's learn from this.
And I want to close with this blessing from Jude
and exhortation from Jude,
which talks about showing mercy to the bruised and the broken.
Amen.
Keep yourselves in the love of God,
waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
that leads to eternal life.
And have mercy on those who doubt.
Save others by snatching them out of the fire.
To others, show mercy with fear,
hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you blameless
before the presence of his glory with great joy.
To the only God, our savior,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority
before all time and now and forever.
Amen.