RTNT Matthew 12

Reading through the New Testament in 2012 M-F   (Link to the Schedule) 

Matthew  12:1-3  At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.  When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."  He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

Matthew 12:7-8    If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent.   For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

What takes place in the story is far removed from our day and time and is rooted in a system of laws the religious leaders had built around the ten commandment s to keep them from breaking the core laws of God.  They called it a “hedge of protection.”  The idea was to make a series of prohibitions that kept you away from the main law so you wouldn’t break it.  In this incident of Jesus ,the law in question the one about not working on the Sabbath.

Here is how the “hedge around the law” worked.  Don’t work on the Sabbath was the core rule.  But inherent in that is an immediate question; what is work?  So the Pharisee would build a number of rules (laws) that would define what work is, even down to the amount of weight one could carry or how many steps one cold travel before it was considered labor.  Preparing food was one of the labors that were prohibited.  Keep in mind God never said “Don’t prepare a meal on the Sabbath,” but by this system of rules constructed to keep everyone from even getting close to breaking God’s law about the Sabbath, meal preparation fell under the definition of working.

With this background in mind, follow the hungry disciples traveling through the grain fields on the Sabbath.  They reach out and grab a handful of ripe wheat and strip it off the stalk.  They have just harvested – “Everybody” knows harvesting is work.  They rub the heads of wheat back and forth in the palm of their hands and then blow away the chaff – the non-edible part of the grain.  They have just winnowed wheat and “everybody”  knows winnowing is work.  And then they popped the dry wheat grains in their mouth and ground it up with their teeth. “Everybody” knows grinding is work.  Then to top it all off they swallowed the makeshift meal they have prepared, and “everybody” knows meal preparation is labor.  The nit picking, man-made law keepers that traveled about with Jesus just to keep count of how many laws Jesus’ followers broke were having a heyday with their score cards.

Jesus gives a couple of case studies of where God allowed the Sabbath rule of no work ,to be broken and then made a statement that is vital to understand  because it reveals the heart of God,  “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  In simplest terms this means; God gave the “take a day off” rule to benefit mankind.  He didn’t make mankind just so He could have somebody to keep His rules!

I find what the religious experts of Jesus time had done with all these annoying and burdensome rules laughable, sad, and practical!  It is almost funny to look at some of the rules created to protect a person from getting close to breaking God’s law.  For example, a man should not spit on the ground on the Sabbath because he might be tempted to cover it up by scraping dirt over it with his shoe and that would be digging a ditch - which is work!  Hilarious, but at the same time this is very sad.  Sad, that people would picture God as a rule keeper over these types of infractions and sad that people would think this is the essence of pleasing God.

Before we think this type of thinking is relegated to the past, we only have to look a few years back in American history to where it was required by law that all stores be closed on Sunday in honor of a “Christian Sabbath.”    These were known as “Blue Laws.”   Similarly a Christian might consider it a sin to go out to eat on Sunday, because it would cause someone else to break the Sabbath by working to prepare a meal for them.  That’s just sad.

On the other hand, there is some practicality to this method of building barriers in your life, guard rails if you will, that keep you from driving over a cliff.  We each do this type of thing in our own lives.  We make up little internal rules that protect us from breaking the real rules.  Little internal rules of what associates we avoid, what places we avoid, and what activities we avoid because we know that these are the triggers that cause us to trip up is really pretty helpful.  It becomes a problem when we begin to impose our rules on others and expect them to do the same thing that works for us, failing to realize it might not work for them,  and it may just be a silly rule to them!

There is nothing wrong with guard rails in your life, just don’t let that become the essence of your spiritual life, and don’t impose it on others.  Know the difference between God’s law and your systems that help you stay on the road.