Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
¹ 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."
The Pharisees had established 39 categories of actions forbidden on the Sabbath based on interpretations of God's law and on Jewish custom. Harvesting was one of those forbidden actions. By picking wheat and rubbing it in their hands, the disciples were technically harvesting, according to the Pharisees. Jesus and the disciples were picking grain because they were hungry, not because they wanted to harvest the grain for a profit. They were not working on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, however, could not (and did not want to) see beyond their law's technicalities. They had no room for compassion, and they were looking for every reason to discredit Jesus and accuse him of wrongdoing.
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.
This story is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. The Bread of the Presence was replaced every week, and the old loaves were eaten by the priests. The loaves given to David were the old loaves that had just been replaced with fresh ones. Although the priests were the only ones allowed to eat this bread, God did not punish David, because his need for food was more important than the priestly regulations. Jesus was saying, "If you condemn me, you must also condemn David"—something the religious leaders could never do without causing a great uproar among the people. Jesus was not condoning disobedience to God's laws. Instead, he was emphasizing discernment and compassion in enforcing the laws.
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?
The Ten Commandments prohibit work on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11). That was the letter of the law. But because the purpose of the Sabbath is to rest and to worship God, the priests were allowed to work by performing sacrifices and conducting worship services. This "Sabbath work" was serving and worshiping God. Jesus always emphasized the intent of the law, the meaning behind the letter. The Pharisees had lost the spirit of the law and were rigidly demanding that the letter (and their interpretation of it) be obeyed.
⁶ I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
The Pharisees were so concerned about religious rituals that they missed the whole purpose of the Temple—to bring people to God. And because Jesus Christ is even greater than the Temple, how much more able is he to bring people to God! God is far superior to created instruments of worship. If we become more concerned with the means of worship than with the one we worship, we will miss God even as we think we are worshiping him.
⁷ If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent.
Jesus repeated to the Pharisees words the Jewish people had heard time and again throughout their history (1 Samuel 15:22-23; Psalm 40:6-8; Isaiah 1:11-17; Jeremiah 7:21-23; Hosea 6:6). The attitude in our hearts toward God comes first. When we truly love him, we will properly obey and observe religious regulations and rituals.
⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
By saying he was Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus was claiming to be greater than the law and above the law. To the Pharisees, this was heresy. They did not realize that Jesus, the divine Son of God, had created the Sabbath. The Creator is always greater than his creation; thus, Jesus had the authority to interpret the correct meaning of the Sabbath and all the laws pertaining to it. He was overruling the religious leaders' traditions and regulations.
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?"
As they pointed to the man with the deformed hand, the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by asking him if he thought healing on the Sabbath was legal. Their Sabbath rules said that people could be helped on the Sabbath only if their lives were in danger. Jesus healed on the Sabbath several times, and none of those healings were in response to emergencies. If Jesus had waited until another day, he would have been submitting to the Pharisees' authority, showing that their rules were equal to God's law. If he healed the man on the Sabbath, the Pharisees could claim that because Jesus broke their rules, he was disobeying God and thus his power was not from God. But Jesus made it clear how ridiculous and self-serving their rules were. God is a God of people, not rules. He loves people and wants to give life, health, and wholeness to them! The best time to assist someone is when he or she needs help. Who is the authority for the guidelines you follow? Is anything in your "code of conduct" preventing you from helping others?
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."
The Pharisees placed their laws above human need. They were so concerned about Jesus breaking one of their rules that they did not care about the man's deformed hand. They saw him as an argument for their case, not as a person with dignity and value. What is your attitude toward others? Do you have convictions or conditions that don't allow you to help certain people? If so, your restrictions may not be in tune with God's Word. Don't allow rule keeping to blind you to human need.
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.
The Pharisees plotted Jesus' death because they were proud, fearful, and outraged. Jesus had overruled their authority (Luke 6:11) and had exposed their evil intentions in front of the entire crowd in the synagogue. Jesus had showed that the Pharisees were more loyal to their religious system and pious reputations than to God.
God's Chosen Servant
¹⁵ Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill.
Up to this point, Jesus had been aggressively confronting the Pharisees' hypocrisy. He was not afraid of them, but he decided to withdraw from the synagogue before a major confrontation developed because the time had not yet come for him to die. Jesus had many lessons still to teach his disciples and the people.
¹⁶ He warned them not to tell others about him. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
Once again, Jesus did not want those he healed to tell others about his miracles. He didn't want the people coming to him with the wrong motives. That would hinder his teaching ministry and arouse false hopes about an earthly kingdom. But the news of Jesus' miracles spread, and many came to see for themselves (see Mark 3:7-8).
¹⁸ "Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
¹⁹ He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.
²⁰ A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.
²¹ In his name the nations will put their hope."
Matthew quoted the Old Testament often because he wanted to prove to his Jewish audience that Jesus was the Messiah. The Jews held the Old Testament Scriptures as their highest authority. They believed the Scriptures pointed to a coming Messiah, but they didn't believe that it was Jesus. Matthew, however, showed that Jesus was in fact the one the prophets had spoken of.
This particular prophecy revealed that Jesus was not to be the high-profile Messiah the Jews wanted and were expecting. Instead, the Messiah would come as a servant, helping and healing, not leading the people into war.
The people expected the Messiah to be a victorious king. This quotation from one of Isaiah's prophecies (Isaiah 42:1-4) showed that the Messiah was indeed a king, but it also illustrated what kind of king—a gentle ruler bringing justice to the nations. Like the crowd in Jesus' day, we may want Christ to rule our government and bring great and visible victories in our day. But often Jesus works quietly, outside the political arena, and his work progresses according to his timing, not ours.
Jesus and Beelzebul
²² Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. ²³ All the people were astonished and said, "Could this be the Son of David?"
²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."
The Pharisees had already accused Jesus of being empowered by the prince of demons (9:34). Now another group had come to discredit him with slander. Refusing to believe that Jesus had come from God, they accused him of being in league with Satan. They were trying to drive a wedge between Jesus and the people. Jesus easily exposed their foolish argument as self-contradictory and empty.
²⁵ Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
In the Incarnation, Jesus gave up the rightful and unlimited use of his supernatural abilities (Philippians 2:6-8). But as God, he still had divine wisdom and profound insight into human nature. His discernment stopped the religious leaders' attempts to trick him. The resurrected Jesus knows all our thoughts and sees everything we do. This can be comforting because he knows what we need and what we really mean when we speak to him. It can be unsettling because we cannot hide our thoughts and actions from him, and he knows our selfish motives.
²⁶ If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? ²⁷ And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
²⁹ "Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
At Jesus' birth, Satan's power and control were disrupted. In the wilderness Jesus overcame Satan's temptations, and at the Resurrection he defeated Satan's ultimate weapon—death. Eventually Satan will be constrained forever (Revelation 20:10), and evil will no longer pervade the earth. Jesus came to plunder Satan's house and free all his captives. He has complete power and authority over Satan and all his forces.
³⁰ "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
It is impossible to be neutral about Jesus Christ. Anyone who is not actively following him has chosen a path leading away from him. Any person who tries to remain neutral in the struggle of good against evil is choosing to be separated from God, who alone is good. To refuse to follow Jesus is to choose to be on his opponent's side.
³¹ And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³² Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
The Pharisees had blasphemed against the Holy Spirit by attributing the power by which Jesus did miracles to Satan (12:24) instead of the Holy Spirit. The unpardonable sin might be summarized as the willful and intentional refusal to acknowledge God's powerful, saving work through Jesus Christ as mediated by the Holy Spirit. The statement by the Pharisees indicates a deliberate and irreversible hardness of heart. Sometimes believers worry that they have accidentally committed this unforgivable sin. But only those who have completely turned their backs on God and rejected the way of repentance have any need to worry. Jesus said those people can't be forgiven—not because their sin is worse than any other but because they refuse to ask for forgiveness. Whoever rejects the prompting of the Holy Spirit removes himself or herself from the only help that leads to repentance and restoration to God.
³³ "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ³⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. ³⁶ But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.
What if everything we have ever said were to be played back for all to hear? Jesus reminds us that what we say reveals what is in our hearts. What kinds of words come from your mouth? They reveal what is in your heart. You can't solve your heart problem, however, just by cleaning up your speech. You must ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with new attitudes and motives; then your speech will be cleansed at its source.
³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
The Sign of Jonah
³⁸ Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."
³⁹ He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Pharisees were asking for another miraculous sign, but they were not sincerely seeking to know Jesus. Jesus knew they had already seen enough miraculous proof to convince them that he was the Messiah if they would just open their hearts. But they had already decided not to believe in him, and more miracles would not change that.
Many people have said, "If I could just see a real miracle, then I could really believe in God." But Jesus' response to the Pharisees applies to us. We have plenty of evidence—Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and centuries of his work in believers around the world. Instead of looking for additional evidence or miracles, accept what God has already done and move forward. Then your life will help form the chain of evidence to reach another person.
⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.
Jonah was a prophet sent to the Assyrian city of Nineveh (read his story in the book of Jonah). Because Assyria was such a cruel and warlike nation, Jonah tried to run from his assignment and ended up spending three days in the belly of a huge fish. When Jonah got out, he grudgingly went to Nineveh, preached God's message, and saw the evil city repent. By contrast, when Jesus came to his people, they refused to repent. Here Jesus was clearly saying that his resurrection would prove his identity as the Messiah. Three days after his death, Jesus would come back to life, just as Jonah was given a new chance at life after three days in the fish. This prediction does not contradict Jesus' death on a Friday afternoon and resurrection on a Sunday morning because Jewish thought understood a "day" to include part of a day or a night. Saying "three days and three nights" was the same as saying "portions of three days."
⁴² The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.
In Jonah's day, Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and it was as evil as it was powerful (Jonah 1:2). But the entire city repented at Jonah's preaching. The queen of Sheba traveled far to see Solomon, king of Israel, and learn about his great wisdom (1 Kings 10:1-10; for more on this, see the note on Luke 11:31-32). These Gentiles recognized the truth about God when it was presented to them, unlike the religious leaders who ignored the truth even though it stared them in the face. How do you respond to the evidence and truth that you have?
⁴³ "When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."
Jesus was describing the attitude of the nation of Israel and the religious leaders in particular. Just cleaning up one's life without filling it with God leaves plenty of room for Satan to enter. The book of Ezra records an example of a time when the people rid themselves of idolatry but failed to replace it with love for God and obedience to him. Ridding our lives of sin is the first step. We must also take the second step: filling our lives with God's Word and the Holy Spirit. Unfilled people are easy targets for Satan.
Jesus' Mother and Brothers
⁴⁶ While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷ Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."
⁴⁸ He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" ⁴⁹ Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
Jesus was not denying his responsibility to his earthly family. On the contrary, he elsewhere criticized the religious leaders for not following the Old Testament command to honor their parents (15:1-9). He provided for his mother's security as he hung on the cross (John 19:25-27). His mother and brothers were present in the upper room at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Instead, Jesus was pointing out that spiritual relationships are as binding as physical ones, and he was paving the way for a community of believers, the universal church-our spiritual family.