Back to the Bible: Matthew 12:1-8

On a Sabbath, Jesus’ disciples grabbed some grain, rubbed it between their hands and ate it. The Pharisees accused them of doing something unlawful. In reality, the disciples had not broken God’s Law. Really, all the Sabbath Law said was “Remember the Sabbath. Keep it Holy. Don’t work.” It did not provide much detail. Jews in the period between the Testaments added those details and they became synonymous with “Law” for the Pharisees and scribes. The disciples had only broken this tradition.

Jesus exposed their hypocrisy. He cited an event where David had eaten bread that was not lawful for him to eat. Jesus wasn’t excusing David’s actions— He said they weren’t lawful (Lev. 24:9). Jesus didn’t believe that hunger was a good reason to not trust in God (Mt. 4:3,4). Wouldn’t that set aside all self-denial, sacrifice, and any obedience that might cause discomfort? David’s life surrounding the occasion Jesus mentions is characterized by a series of decisions that revealed a lack of trust in God (I Sam. 21-22).

Jesus reveals their bias showing they were critical of Him and His disciples when they hadn’t done anything wrong, yet, they didn’t criticize David at all even though he had actually done something wrong,

Beyond that, they had missed the point of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was not to be a burden; it was given as a day of rest. Jesus, as “Lord of the Sabbath,” was in the best position to pronounce upon it. The Sabbath itself pointed to Jesus. It was a shadow of Him in whom we find our rest (Col. 2:14-17; Mt. 11:28-30).

Lessons to Learn:

Don’t be bound by human tradition. These men condemned because they were more devoted to standards passed down from men than they were to the will of God. Sometimes that meant they were over critical and sometimes that meant that they gave themselves a pass when thy were violating God’s will (Matthew 15). Using the Bible as our standard helps us hold to exactly the right standard for ourselves and others.

Don’t judge hypocritically. They were harsh towards the ones they didn’t like and easy on the ones they appreciated.

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