NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWELVE

Part I (Con’t)

Verse 5: And you have read in the Law of Moses that on every Sabbath day the priests in the Temple break the law about the Sabbath day. But they are not wrong for doing that.

Here Jesus is referring to the kneading, making and baking of the bread on the Sabbath for the altar of showbread in the holy place.¹ Also, they were able to kill the Passover lamb, sprinkle its blood, wipe its inwards, and burn the fat on the Sabbath.² One of their teachers observed: “The slaughter of the Passover sacrifice, pouring its blood on the altar, pressing out its innards, and offering its fats supersede the Sabbath prohibitions. For it is impossible to perform these before the Sabbath, because the sacrifice has a fixed time, as implied by the Torah which states that the sacrifice must be brought ‘at its appointed time.’³”⁴ Once informed as to the fallacy of their thinking, Jesus now advises them on what His heavenly Father thinks about all this.

Early Church father Jerome gives us his view of how Jesus spoke to these distractors: “You falsely accuse my disciples, Jesus says, for plucking ears of grain while passing through the standing fields. They did this because of their pangs of hunger. But you must violate the Sabbath by immolating victims in the temple, slaughtering bulls and burning holocausts on a heap of firewood and, according to the testimony of the other Gospel, circumcising children on the Sabbath. Thus, while you wish to observe the one law, you dishonor the Sabbath. But God’s commands do not contradict each other.”⁵ This certainly was an example of their gross hypocrisy.

But our Lord used this occasion to offer them insight into exactly what they were witnessing. If they could claim innocence of violating the Sabbath with what they did in the Temple, He wanted them to know that His disciples had every right to do the same because in their service to Him. They too were absolved of any punishment because what He brought to the Jews was greater than the Temple. He represented the very God they claimed to serve with their sacrifices.

Verse 6: I tell you that there is something here that is greater than the Temple.

Early Church Bishop Hilary has this to say about Christ being the new Temple. He writes: “Christ also reminded them of another prophecy so that they might learn that all things that were spoken of previously were accomplished in Him through the law, that the priests in the temple broke the Sabbath without offense, clearly revealing that Jesus Himself was the Temple. In Him salvation was given to the Gentiles through the teaching of the apostles, while the people who were bound by the law wandered about faithlessly, so that He Himself might be greater than the Sabbath. The evangelical faith that lives in Christ transcends the law.”⁶

In other words, with Jesus the Messiah being with God from the beginning to create the world and establish the Sabbath as a day of rest for mankind, He certainly knew what the purpose of the Sabbath was and that included recognizing the One from whom all good blessings flow. Since the wheat and corn in the field were gifts from God, then by partaking of and sharing these gifts was another way for people to give Him thanks and honor the Giver.

Verse 7: The Scriptures say, “I don’t want animal sacrifices; I want you to show kindness to people.”⁷ You don’t really know what that means. If you understood it, you would not be criticizing those who have done nothing wrong.

These opponents of our Lord were being told by Him in this incident that they were serving God with their heads, not with their hearts. Bishop Hilary has this to add on what occurred here. He says: “The business of our salvation lies not in sacrifice but in mercy. When law is made void, we are saved by the goodness of God. If they had understood the grace of this statement, they would never have condemned the blameless. They would not have condemned the apostles whom they were going to accuse falsely, out of envy, of transgressing the law. When the ancient practice of sacrifices was stopped, the unfamiliarity of mercy became more clearly known. Had this been known, they would not have thought that the Lord of the Sabbath was confined by the law of the Sabbath.”⁸

The great Early Church preacher Chrysostom also points out why mercy for others was more important than the meat they placed on the altar in the Temple. He expounds: “The faithful are more than priests. For the Lord of the temple Himself has come to them. The Truth personally has arrived, not merely the image of the truth. So He could say, ‘I tell you, something greater than the Temple is here!’ Nevertheless, great as the sayings were which they heard, they made no reply, for they were inattentive to the coming salvation of humanity. Then, because it might otherwise seem harsh to His hearers, Jesus quickly drew a veil over His discourse, giving it a undemanding turn, yet even then conveying a sharp admonition: ‘If you had known what this means, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the guiltless.’ Do you see once again how His speech is inclined toward leniency, yet showing the priests themselves to be in need of leniency?”⁹

Verse 8: For the Anointed One is Lord over the Sabbath day.

Our Lord has already pointed out what the priest do in the Temple every Sabbath, “On the Sabbath you must give two lambs that are one year old. There must be nothing wrong with them. You must also give a grain offering of sixteen cups of fine flour mixed with olive oil, and a drink offering.”¹⁰ So why aren’t they cited for working on the Sabbath? And then, much to their consternation, Jesus announced that what was going on there in that grain field was much more important than what was going on in the Temple that day. I’m sure the Pharisees would have really had to back down had our Lord quoted to them from Malachi: “The LORD All-Powerful says, ‘I am sending my Messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are looking for will come to His temple. Yes, the Messenger you are waiting for, the One who will tell about My agreement, is really coming!’”¹¹

However, the Master chose to repeat the quotes He made before in Chapter 9:13 from the prophets Hosea¹² and Micah.¹³ By studying these Scriptures Jesus tells the Pharisees that they would learn a valuable lesson on the difference between doing something for God out of obligation rather than by their free will. They would have also benefited from what Solomon said: “The LORD hates these two things: punishing the innocent and letting the guilty go free.”¹⁴ It is important to note that the word Jesus uses here for sacrifice refers to the altar sacrifices in the temple. This had become the legal way out of condemnation. Once one was judged and found guilty, they were then ordered to offer the appropriate sacrifice, either from their own resources or those of the Temple. Unfortunately, the penalty for what they did wrong was thereby covered, but it did little to relieve the pain they caused by their actions against the innocent.

For that reason, the sacrificial system had become as hard as granite. It was uncompromising and without pity to the point that the hearts of those bringing the sacrifices were also hardened and unrepentant; they were just going through the motions. But Jesus knew the tremendous saving value of grace and mercy. The Father had sent Him to a wicked, undeserving world simply out of love because the Lord delights in mercy. Even though those altar sacrifices are no longer used or required today, it is so easy to become dogmatic, regimented and perfunctory in using our forms of apologetic sacramental penance by merely requiring those condemned to confess: “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,” and accept that as being sufficient to grant forgiveness and absolution.

But Jesus is teaching that we are to love others with grace and mercy, even as God loved us. However, for some it is a lot easier to keep going through the apologetic formula over and over, thereby throwing the offer of mercy and grace back into the face of the Giver. That’s why employing what Jesus said is far better than relying on the old habitual and ritualistic altar sacrifice under the Law to get someone to really make a change. Furthermore, since the Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath, He then controls the rules of this special day. Even one of the Jews most venerable teachers saw it this way, by pointing out what God told Joshua to do on the Sabbath when they conquered Jericho.¹⁵ In other words, the One who consecrated the Sabbath also has the authority to override that sanctity when He sees fit.

When I was growing up my father preached against dancing, yet in church people were encouraged to dance in the spirit. I couldn’t figure it out. Since then I’ve learned that it is not the “dancing” itself that was prohibited, but what the dancing was intended to communicate and who it was meant to impress. This is what Jesus was trying to point out about the Sabbath, that it’s not actions that count as much as it is the reason for those actions. This is a lesson we should all be willing to learn.

Verse 9: Jesus went from there to their synagogue.

It certainly appears that our Lord did not want to continue this discussion out in a grain field, so I would not be surprised, since it was the Sabbath, that He said, “Let’s go to the synagogue and talk about this further.” But from what follows, it appears more like there was a divine plan for Him to teach another lesson on how actually doing good has precedence over just saying you are good. Early Church father, Origen, sees it this way: Since Jesus established the new covenant understanding of the Sabbath outdoors, now He want’s to show its clarity indoors.

Verse 10: In the synagogue there suddenly appeared a man with a crippled hand. Some Jews were looking for any reason to accuse Jesus of doing something wrong, so they asked Him, “Would it be right if you healed this man on the Sabbath?”

We cannot escape the obvious here. The opponents of Jesus had prearranged this encounter to put Him on the spot. That’s why even Matthew noticed how the man “suddenly appeared.” But our Lord in His foreknowledge was ready for this sham. He knew their intentions and was about to turn if back on them in a way that would force them to acknowledge who He really was. The fact that this happened in the synagogue made it even more important. One Early Church Father tells us that in the Gospel, which the Nazarenes and Ebionites¹⁶ used, this man is said to have been a plasterer, so he might have possibly suffered his misfortune by falling from a ladder while doing his work.¹⁷

In any case, the question here by our Lord’s opponents is whether or not what Jesus would do for this man was “intentional” healing – which would be considered “work”, or was it just an unplanned “consequence” of His touch. We see this concept in the story one venerable Rabbi wrote about taking medication on the Sabbath: “A person who has a sore throat may not gargle with oil. He may, however, drink large amounts of oil, and if he is cured in this manner, it is welcomed.”¹⁸ In other words, there is nothing wrong with drinking a liquid on the Sabbath, and if a person by drinking the oil is somehow cured, then the Sabbath rules were not broken, but by gargling it was considered work.

We also read that this factor was discussed by a group of Rabbis when they were told this story: “A Rabbi suffered from scurvy, he applied this remedy: Take the stones of olives which have not become one third ripe, burn them in fire upon a new grill, and stick them into the inside of the gums on the Sabbath. He did so and was healed. How could this Rabbi do that? — one said: It is different with scurvy, because whereas it starts in the mouth, it ends in the intestines. Other Rabbis added what another Rabbi taught: if one has pains in his throat one may pour medicine into his mouth on the Sabbath?”¹⁹ So even the Rabbis could not agree on what was or was not permitted on the Sabbath to promote healing.

Then Early Church orator Chrysostom gives us his thoughts: “Is it allowed to heal on the Sabbath? Jesus knew their love of wealth. He knew that they were all the more taken up with love of things than persons. And indeed the other Evangelist²⁰ said that Jesus also scrutinized them as He asked this question, that by His very glance He might win them over, but they did not become softened. While in other cases He healed physically by the laying on of His hands, in this case He only speaks and gazes. But nothing more could make them agreeable. Rather, even while the man was being physically healed their spiritual condition was becoming worse. Jesus’ desire was to first heal their bitterness before He healed the man’s withered hand. But even in His various attempts to offer them healing, both by what He said and did, their illness proved all the more incurable.”²¹

How true this is even today to those who are numbed to the truth by unbelief. If they suffer from misbelief, there is the possibility that exposure to the Word can straighten out their thinking. And if they are dealing with disbelief, then showing them the connection between what Jesus said and what He did can bring them around to acceptance. But when they are mired in unbelief, they are committed to closing their heart and mind to anything and everything that does not fit their preconceived notions, no matter what you say or what they see.

But Jesus sees their ploy, so instead of answering their question about healing on the Sabbath directly He poses His own question. Our Lord knew a technique that is now practiced by many counselors and advice givers. It is called: “Leading the person into answering their own question.” This is done to prove whether or not they are seeking advice or validation. Jesus knew the answer to that, so that’s why He took the route that He did in answering them.