Season 4 Podcast 109 The Stories of the New Testament, Matthew Ch 12:1-15, “Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy”

Season 4 Podcast 109 The Stories of the New Testament, Matthew Ch 12:1-15, “Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy”During the time of Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees, rejecting his divinity and seeing him as a threat to their power, sought early on to destroy the Savior. Before John the Baptist, A prophet had not been in Israel since Malachi, 400 years earlier. The Mosaic law had become buried under layers of scholarly interpretations. One law that had particularly become corrupted was the law regarding the Sabbath Day.  The Jewish leaders used the laws of Moses as a source of power. They particularly used the laws regarded the Sabbath Day to justify killing the Messiah.1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.The Sabbath had become a burden with a long checklist of do’s and don’ts. As with other laws, they had lost the spirit of the Sabbath and become slaves to the letter of the law defined by the leaders.  Of course, it was not without precedent. Early on in their history the following is recorded.Numbers 15:32-36“And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.”I grew up in the South when we had Sunday Blue Laws defining what could and could not be done on the Sabbath day. Such a law today, as defined by the Old Testament, would probably wipe out the world. It was this ancient tradition that the Pharisees and Sadducees used against Christ’s disciples.But Jesus uses the example of the corn to establish the fact that he is the Lord of the Sabbath. Using examples from the Old Testament, He teaches new doctrine regarding the Sabbath Day.3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; 4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?Christ is establishing his authority.6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. 7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.As part of the New Testament covenant, Jesus teaches that serving others unselfishly without intent to get gain is a proper Sabbath Day observance. Notice that the Savior is not doing away with the observance of the Sabbath day. Rather he is redirecting the people’s thoughts on how they should view the Sabbath Day.