February 4, 2024
Matthew 11:25–12:21

Title: The Character Of Christ

Last week we saw Jesus invited “all who labor and are heavy laden” to learn from Him. Matthew, organizing his account of the gospel thematically, chose to give an account of what the responders needed to learn from Jesus’ light yoke. The teaching points we will see this morning are: 1) Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. 2) Jesus desires mercy. 3) Jesus is bringing justice to victory through humble service.

1 Jesus, Lord Of The Sabbath

These following are the thing Matthew presented as the yoke of Christ.

More learning continued: verse 12:1 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. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

• “This is the first of seven incidents,” recorded in the gospel accounts, “in which Jesus came into conflict with the Jewish religious leaders over [their interpretation of the] Sabbath observance.” (Constable) ¹
• Deuteronomy 23:25 did allow for people to pick some food with their hands as needed. It reads, “If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.”
• The sticking point was the Jesus’ disciple were doing it on the Sabbath.
• By picking the grain the disciples “were guilty of reaping; by rubbing it in their hands they were guilty of threshing; by separating the grain and the chaff they were guilty of winnowing; and by the whole process they were guilty of preparing a meal on the Sabbath day, [because] everything which was to be eaten on the Sabbath had to be prepared the day before.” [998, Barclay, 2:24-25]
• The penalty of violating the Sabbath was heavy “The Mishnah includes Sabbath-desecration among those most heinous crimes for which a man was to be stoned.” [997]²
• France articulated things well: For the Jews, the Sabbath was not just “ceremonial regulation, but a witness to God’s creation, a sign of Israel’s covenant relationship with God, a gift of God to make Israel more holy, and a promise of the joys of the world to come.” (The Gospel According …, 202)

“Jesus responded to the Pharisees’ criticism with a question, in common rabbinic style” of the first century. (Constable)

• 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 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?
• David was set to be the King of Israel after Saul. Saul was looking to kill David, and while David was running for his life from Saul had nothing to eat, so he asked for and received bread that was dedicated to God and not lawful for him to eat. The Jews knew this account well.
• Jesus asked a second, illustrative question: verse 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
• Priest’s did hard work on the Sabbath. Not only did they do their regular duties of keeping the temple happenings running, but the processing animals and dealing with all of the byproducts of harvesting animals provided much work they had to do. The Tabernacle and later the Temple become sacrificial slaughter houses on the Sabbath.
• So here we see Jesus using a king and a priest as testing examples to challenge the religious leaders.

How do we interpret this as been much debated. Remember Jesus leaves many scratching their heads.

• Some have thought that since the Law had been broken before it could be broken again. (cr. France, 202) I don’ see this as a strong argument.
• Interpretations like that I believe miss the miss the main reason Jesus gives for the allowance—Himself. Verse 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
• Jesus didn’t say, “Something greater than a priest is here,” but “something greater than the temple is here.” All the priests, all the systems, all the religious duty … something greater is here! >>
• All the priests, all the sacrifices, and the religious activity combined! Jesus is greater.
• Matthew just recorded for us that Jesus is The Boss of this place—the entire earth! Why? The Father delegated everything to Him.
• On the heels of that truth, Jesus says something greater than the entire central worship system in the most important city in the world is right there.
• This implies all of the religious requirements are now under the greater Messiah’s say-so. He’s the Boss.
• The reason it was okay for the Disciples to do what they did was because Jesus authorized it either directly with verbal permission or indirectly through what He had already taught His Disciples.
• Jesus used exception to the Jewish Law to illustrate what He was teaching: David and the priests were exceptions; Jesus is The Exceptional!
• Jesus was teaching the religious leaders that, Someone greater that David had arrived; Someone greater that all the priests had arrived, and they better wise up and listen up.

Jesus too reminded them that what He allowed was already consistent with what the Scriptures. Verse 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

• Here is seems that Jesus was citing Hosea 6:6.
• Many feel that this citation proved that the religious leaders who were “putting the rules before the good purpose for which they were given.” (France, The Gospel According …, 202)
• The adding more commentary and more commentary to the Law to the Law not only misrepresented the teaching of God, but this was the heavy burden the people could no longer carry.
• Lenski said, “too much reading of rabbinical law and not enough of divine law.” [999, Lenski, p. 462]
• What is clear is that, the leaders of Judaism slid deeper and deeper into legalism and at other times license as the centuries wore on.
• In direct contrast, we see Jesus prioritize human needs and interactions as the primary prescriptive worship.
• To put it plainly, what Jesus is teaching here is that He desires mercy towards people “far more than ritual sacrifice.” (Barclay)
• Jesus then returns to another “I am the Boss” reminder: verse 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
• What a claim! For those that had rejected Messiah, these would have been fighting words. It’s no wonder they wanted to kill Him.
• Again delegated authority. Jesus is Lord of the day of rest. What He says goes. Jesus is supremely reining over the Mosaic Law.
• Also, and again, I see this as a partial, continuing, methodical pushing out of the Old Covenant.
• Not only is Jesus interpreting the Scriptures accurately and rebuking religious leaders in the process, but during this time He is also bringing in the New Contract with the world. To bring in the New Contract, He continually reminds people, He is in absolute authority.

APPLICATION

• Let’s turn to a passage of Scripture for our application:
• Colossians 2:16-19, 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. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Emphasis added.)
• Christians too can be just as guilty as the Pharisees of complicating religious trues taught in the Word of God.
  • Christians too, have a desire to place our personal convictions and desires onto others. What we call legalism.
  • Disputable matters
  • Romans 14:4a, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?”
  • I Corinthians 4:6, “I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written.”
  • The NT is clear with its central mandates: live a life of complete love of God and love people and in all things have faith.
• Where the Pharisees ended up over time is a word of caution to the Church: Christians are often guilty of dismissing what is clearly taught in the Bible.
  • What we call license. >>
  • This is where we allow our personal liberties to go too far and in doing so commit sin. We explain away clear teaching of the Bible to allow more sinful behavior.
  • Illustration: Doctrine of the Bible vs. Grandma
  • Jesus is the Boss. What He says goes. We are to submit.
  • We are not to give into the culture that our flesh squares–to and allow erosion of the restrictions of what Jesus has taught.
  • All His rules and loving and bring life.

1 Jesus, Lord Of The Sabbath >> 2 Merciful Messiah

2 Merciful Messiah

9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 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.

• In all the Sabbath contentions, save the picking the grain, healing was the central act of what the Jewish leaders considered to be working on the Sabbath (There are six of these in all.).
• According to some, healing was not forbidden in the religious writings that interpreted the Law. (See France, The Gospel of…, 464)
• But according to others ⁴ they—oddly in my opinion— categorized performing a supernatural healing as rendering improving medical aid. >>
• Constable cites that, The Law allowed stabilizing medial aid in most cases of the possibility of loosing life and limb, but not improving medial aid.
• It still seems amazing to me on how the Law ended up prohibited a crippled man from being made well? Especially given that the Jews would have typically thought that it was an act of God.
• Back to Jesus’ question: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?
• If I were a good little Jew boy at the time, I hope I might have asked myself, “Is healing a man who only has use of one hand an act of mercy?”
• Unfortunate for the religious leaders, they were not putting things together.

Jesus in Rabbinic style places a test question back to them. 11 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?

• He starts with questions again here. Questions that He and His audience already know the answers to.
• The natural impulse to save an valuable assets from harm—here a sheep. This seems to be a broadly accepted practice of the people, if not publicly, at least privately. So Jesus took the answer for granted and assumed “that the Pharisees would not object to it.” (France, The Gospel of …, 465)
• Jesus then employs an argument from the lesser to the greater.
• Verse 12:12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
• The man with a withered hand was helpless and like the helpless sheep in an agricultural society—but had greater value.
• Here Jesus implicitly teaching the negative as well: “If,” He argues, “it is right to do good on the Sabbath, then to refuse to do good is evil.” (Barclay)
• 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
• 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
• They were using a supreme act of mercy to provide themselves with the capital charges they wanted against Jesus.
• They are collectively plotting against Him now. >>
• The Pharisees are now plotting the murder of Messiah.
• Let me read you a comment: “In a sense the highest compliment you can pay a man is to persecute him. It shows that he is regarded not only as dangerous but as effective. The action of the Scribes and Pharisees is the measure of the power of Jesus Christ. True Christianity may be hated, but it can never be disregarded.” (Barclay)

2 Merciful Messiah >> 3 Character of Christ

3 The Character of Christ

15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there.

• And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known.
• “The time for the head-on clash had not yet come.” It seemed that Jesus wanted to cool things down by ordering the people being healed not to speak about Him. For Jesus knew the people were prone to become political and that more talk of His miraculous power would only lead to miss-guided, political talk of Jesus being an usurper of Rome. For Jesus was headed not to “a throne but a cross.” (Barclay)

The Lord’s Supper

• 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18 “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. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
• The context of this paragraph is that justice would not be brought to fruition through the ways the people were familiar with. Jesus wanted the crowds to learn that victory and hope are won through His willingness to obey the Father’s will to the Cross.
• All the world’s events would be just in time to fulfill Jesus’ purpose of dying for all who will come.
• Jesus willingly accepted the punishment of our sin.
• We can take confidence today: do you feel like a bruised reed? Jesus will not break you.
• Do you feel like your fire is just a smoldering wick? Jesus will not quench you?
• Instead Jesus invites you to come. Come to Him, trust in Him alone and He will give you rest.
• This is what we celebrate this morning.

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and I usually include other citation information from Constable as well (e.g. authors’ names).

Other Works Cited

Note: All of the resources below were cited in at least one of the sermons in the Book of Matthew but not necessarily this one.

Augsburger, David. Dissident Discipleship. Brazos Press, 2006.

Barclay, William. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible. Westminster Press, 1955-1960. Sourced digitally from studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb.html.

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. May be sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/1up)

Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Ed., A.C. Armstrong and Son, reprint 1984, Kregel Publications, 1971 edition.

Carson, D. A. “Matthew.” The Expositors Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, Ed. et al., Zondervan, 1984.

_______. The Sermon on the Mount : an Evangelical of Matthew 5-7 Exposition. 1978, Baker Book House, fifth printing, 1989. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/sermononmounteva0000cars/page/54/mode/1up

_______. When Jesus confronts the world : an exposition of Matthew 8-10. Originally published by Inter-Varsity Press in 1988, Paternoster, 1995. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/whenjesusconfron0000cars/page/n3/mode/1up

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Our Daily Bread Publishing, web ver.

France, R. T. The Gospel According to Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985.

_______. The Gospel of Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000fran/page/n6/mode/1up

Gibson, J. Monro. “St. Matthew.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary. William R. Nicoll, Editor. Sourced from Bible Portal. Click here for a list of the authors of the EBC.

Harrington, Daniel J . The Gospel of Matthew. Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 1, A Michael Glazier Book, Liturgical Press (publ.), 1991. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000harr/mode/1up

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. Baker Book House, 1984.

Phillips, John. Exploring the Gospels: John. Loizeaux Brothers, 1988.

Plumptre, E. H. “Matthew.” Commentary for English Readers, Charles John Ellicott, Compiler/Editor, Lord Bishop of Gloucester Cassell and Company, Limited, 1905. Sourced from BiblePortal.com. Click here for a list of the authors of the CER.

Robinson, Monte. The Way of Discipleship. Independently published, 2021. Web, aimdiscipleship.org/book.html, accessed Oct 2023.

Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary. 2 Volumes, David C. Cook, 2007.

Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Zondervan, 1995.

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