Big Buts of the Bible

An Excerpt from Chapter 12

Lord of the Sabbath

The Hebrew word Sabbath simply means rest. Its story begins, appropriately enough, in Genesis—the book of beginnings.

After completing the work of creation, God rested on the seventh day and set it apart as holy. Later, at Mount Sinai, He commanded Israel to observe the Sabbath as a regular rhythm of rest and worship.

Over time, however, sincere devotion gave way to layers of tradition. Wanting to honor God’s command, religious leaders established countless additional rules about how the Sabbath should be observed—many of them extending far beyond anything God had actually required. Lighting a candle was prohibited. The amount of grain that could be given to feed animals was regulated. Even swatting a fly could be considered unlawful on the Sabbath.

Jesus never felt compelled to submit to these man-made traditions, and because of that He received no small amount of criticism. This is where Matthew begins this chapter.

Jesus and His disciples were walking through a grain field on the Sabbath. Some of the disciples were hungry, so they picked a few heads of grain and ate them.

The Pharisees immediately objected. “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

Were they?

Nowhere in Scripture was it unlawful for a hungry traveler to pluck a few heads of grain to eat. This wasn’t God’s law. It was one of the many oral traditions that had gradually been placed upon the people. God’s command prohibited harvesting for commerce on the Sabbath. Human tradition had expanded that command until even satisfying your hunger became suspect.

Jesus could have challenged the Pharisees on those grounds alone. Instead, He took them somewhere deeper.

He reminded them of an occasion when David and his men ate the consecrated bread—bread that, according to the Law, was reserved for the priests.

It’s probably a good thing Jesus was speaking with Pharisees instead of moms. You know exactly how that conversation might have gone. “So, if King David jumped off a bridge, would that make it right for you to do the same?”

Jesus wasn’t arguing that David had been right or wrong. His point reached beyond the event itself.

When we read God’s commands, the heart of the Lawgiver matters just as much as the letter of the law. Jesus then reminded them that the priests themselves worked on the Sabbath as they carried out their responsibilities in the temple, yet Scripture considered them innocent.

The Sabbath had never been intended as an obstacle between people and God.

It was a gift.

A day to rest.

A day to worship.

A day to remember the God who delights in giving rest to weary souls.

The Big But

Jesus made two astonishing claims during this conversation with the Pharisees. Matthew’s big but in this chapter shows us just how deeply those claims unsettled them. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first, those claims.

Jesus said that something greater than the temple had arrived. More specifically, someone.

Just as people’s needs were more important than the religious traditions surrounding the Sabbath—refusing to light candles or carefully counting your steps, for instance—Jesus declared Himself to be greater than the temple itself. The temple symbolized God’s presence among His people. Jesus was God dwelling among His people. The Son, in whom God dwells fully, is more important than the building that symbolically houses God. Don’t underestimate the weight of that statement.

Then came the second claim. “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

The Pharisees understood the Sabbath as God’s gift to His people and a reminder of His authority over creation itself. For Jesus to call Himself Lord of the Sabbath was to claim authority over the very institution God had established. In their minds, there was only one conclusion.

He was making Himself equal with God. To them, that sounded like blasphemy.

The conversation continued as they entered the synagogue, where they encountered a man with a shriveled hand. The Pharisees immediately recognized an opportunity.

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” they asked.

Jesus answered their question with one of His own.

“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?”

Throughout this conversation Jesus had been drawing comparisons. Human need was more important than empty religious symbolism. The One to whom the temple pointed was greater than the temple itself. 

Now He asked another question. Which is more valuable—a sheep or a person?

Everyone knew the answer.

If rescuing a sheep on the Sabbath was an act of compassion, how could restoring a man’s hand be anything less?

Jesus simply told the man, “Stretch out your hand.”

He did. And before everyone’s eyes, his hand was completely restored. It is at that very moment that Matthew records the chapter’s big but.

But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.