Daily Blast - The Book of Matthew: Chapter 12
Scripture
“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. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.”
Reflection
In this story we see the disciples picking some wheat from the field to eat as they were hungry and the eagle-eyed Pharisees are keen to point out that they are breaking the law by doing work on the Sabbath! Jesus challenges them and asks did David and his companions break the law when they ate the bread for the priest that was sacred because they were hungry?
In Hebrew the word Sabbath comes from the word ‘Shabbat’ meaning to stop or to rest. There 39 categories of forbidden activities to do on the Sabbath. By picking wheat they were technically breaking the law, despite the fact they were hungry the pharisees showed no compassion in their accusations. Jesus knew that if the Pharisees condemned David for his action then this would have caused an uproar. In the Ten commandments it requires us to keep the Sabbath Holy! The Pharisees interpret this as following a long list or dos and don’ts. Jesus is challenging this idea, as the Sabbath was never intended to be a burden but to draw us closer to God, into his rest.
During lockdown when we have not physically been able to go to church and youtube church has been tricky to focus on because of our children running around, Sunday has looked very different for us. In many ways it can feel like the movie ‘Ground hog day’, where Bill Murray wakes up to live the same day over and over again. Essentially, it’s hard to tell the difference between Sunday to Monday.
Challenge
Over these few weeks I have been challenged on my thinking of the Sabbath, how does this day look different to all the other days in the week? So both Kerry and I have challenged ourselves to not use our phones for news, social media and entertainment on Sunday until 3 pm (unless urgent!). Kerry finds it so easy to do but I often have this feeling of anxiousness as I am not sure how to rest my mind from the busyness of social media and entertainment. The reason we have chosen to do this is the challenge Jesus presented to the Pharisees. Is what we do on the Sabbath helping us to draw closer to Him? Even though we might not physically be ‘working’ we also need rest for our souls from the constant feed of Facebook or news or emails or messages. We have now begun to ask ourselves on the Sabbath ‘Is it restful and is it worship?’ We are trying to have a day of rest, relaxation, worship, yummy food, time together as a family, nature, walks…God is inviting us into a day that’s filled with good things from Him