Gospel of Matthew Chapter 12 -- John Karmelich
1.
I like to call Chapter
12: “The danger of religious
tradition”.
a)
Chapter 12 is a
milestone in the Gospel of Matthew.
i)
It marks the time period
where the Nation of Israel corporately rejects Jesus.
ii)
From Chapter 13 and
onward, Jesus speaks publicly in parables.
We’ll learn in Chapter 13 the reason Jesus does this is to hide
the truth from unbelievers.
b)
The overriding theme of
Chapter 12 has to do with the problem of religious traditions.
i)
This is the danger of one
bible interpretation being the only correct interpretation.
ii)
This includes the danger
of emphasizing one aspect of the bible over another.
a)
For example, we’re going
to see today about the religious leaders of Israel emphasizing Sabbath rules over
the idea of compassion.
b)
The “Sabbath” is the 7th
day of the week, where God requires us to “rest”.
iii)
The danger comes from
bad-bible interpretation.
a)
There is nothing wrong
with attempting to interpret the bible.
b)
I do some of that
myself. J
c)
One has to remember to
read passages in context, read passages in light of what the rest of the bible
teaches and then attempt to interpret meaning.
iv)
Given all this, there
are some biblical passages can have more than meaning.
a)
In those situations, we
have to be open to the possibility that we can be wrong. Yes, even me. J
b)
The Jewish religious
leaders got so obsessed with their interpretation of “resting on the
Sabbath”, that the issue became a priority over other biblical based issues.
2.
At this point, I need to
stand-back for a second and remember the purpose of these bible studies.
a)
The primary purpose
of these studies is to teach about Jesus and how He wants us to live our lives
in obedience to Him.
b)
I could spend half of
this lesson talking about the historical aspects of Judaism and how they
interpreted the laws of the Sabbath, and then how Jesus corrected them.
c)
Because of the “primary
purpose”, I want to give examples in the Christian church of how we
can also (and have historically) become more obsessed with bad interpretation.
d)
When one reads say, an
Old Testament passage and is not sure how to apply it to our lives, a good
place to start is to see if Jesus commented on that passage. We have some of that here today. It’s a good thing, and it makes my job
easier. J
e)
What I want you, the
reader to think about when you read Chapter 12 is not, “we’ll, look at those
naïve Jewish Pharisee’s. They didn’t
get it.” Instead, think about your own life,
or your own church and ponder, “Is there any aspect of my life where I am
putting religious traditions over what God is trying to teach me?”
i)
That is the great
mistake we read about in Chapter 12.
Israel rejected Jesus corporately (i.e., as a collective group) because
he did not fit their preconceived notions of what the “Messiah” was supposed to
be.
ii)
We as Christians often
make the same mistake. We have our
preconceived notions that “Christians should do this and not do that”. Folks, every now and then it is good to
spend some time in a bible-believing Christian church that is not your home
church. I am not talking about
violating biblical principals, but to realize there is more than one way to
worship God, and more than one way to live in obedience to what God has called
us to do.
iii)
The mistake made by the
Pharisee’s is they “majored in the minors and minored in the majors”. They became overly obsessed with some issues
of the bible and ignored others. That
is also the danger for Christians as well.
f)
Well, I have 50 verses
to cover tonight. I better get
started. J
3.
Chapter 12, Verse
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."
a)
Chapter 11 was all about
the disciples traveling from town to town around the Galilee lake area. They went as “front-men” to prepare for
Jesus.
i)
It had a section about
the disciples of John the Baptist coming to Jesus to find out if he was really
“the guy”. Jesus gave these guys a
reminder of who Jesus was.
It was a mild rebuke for their lack of belief.
a)
Jesus then complimented
John the Baptist to the surrounding crowd.
ii)
It is implied that Jesus
went to those same towns the disciples just came back from and was
rejected. His miracles were accepted,
but not the idea of Jesus being the Messiah.
Jesus then went on to condemn those towns for their rejection.
iii)
The final section was
Jesus complimenting those who did decide to follow him.
b)
Chapter 12 appears to
change topics.
i)
Remember that in the
original text, there are no chapter breaks.
This “spot” is a natural chapter break as the topic does change.
c)
The Pharisee’s were a
“denomination” of Judaism. They were a
group of religious Jews who believed in a strict, literal interpretation of the
Jewish law.
i)
Their version of Judaism
is the basis of the Orthodox faith today.
ii)
In this section of the
text, they were condemning Jesus’ disciples for eating wheat on the
Sabbath. The Sabbath is simply the 7th
day of the week. In the Jewish
calendar, this today has become Saturday.
a)
By the way, the 2 words
“Saturday” and “Sabbath” are not related.
iii)
The last of the 10
commandments in Exodus Chapter 20 is about the Sabbath.
a)
Part of the commandment is
that no work is to be done on the 7th day.
b)
Here were Jesus
disciples walking through a grain field, picking out some wheat husks,
separating the grain and eating them.
c)
The roads from town to
town often went past grain fields. This
was an agricultural society. It is not
against Jewish law to eat on the Sabbath.
d)
The “interpretation” by
the Jewish leaders is that they violated the “no working on the Sabbath” clause
by breaking up the wheat in order to eat it.
d)
One thing I pondered is,
“How did the Pharisee’s know these guys were doing this?”
i)
The disciples were in a
grain field. They were on the road from
town to town.
ii)
If the Pharisees were
not violating the Sabbath themselves, what were they doing “in the
middle of nowhere” watching the disciples?
One of their own Sabbath rules was they could only walk so far on the
Sabbath day.
iii)
I was also thinking, “Of
all the things to complain out, the Pharisee’s were really straining to find something
of which to make an accusation against Jesus.”
a)
Let’s face it; they couldn’t
accuse Jesus of stealing or some sort of adulterous relationship. The worst they could come up with is that he
was technically violating their interpretation of the Sabbath by eating wheat.
b)
It would like us saying,
“exercise is illegal on Sunday, and peeling a banana is considered exercise”.
c)
My point is that they
were looking for something to accuse Jesus of. If it weren’t the “wheat” incident, they would have found
something else.
iv)
The application to you
and I is that the “church police” are everywhere. J
a)
There are those out
there who want to enforce the church rules.
They are so busy being the “church police”. They go from place to place
making sure everybody is following the rules, that they violate the biblical concepts
of love and compassion in order to be the enforcer.
4.
Verse 3: He (Jesus) 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 on the Sabbath
the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one 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.
a)
The
first thing to notice is how Jesus responded. He used Old Testament Scripture.
i)
When
the religious zealot “enforcers” of the world come to you and say how you are
not obeying one of the rules, calmly respond with God’s word.
ii)
In
other words, Jesus did not yell out “What are you, a bunch of
idiots? These guys are working for me,
their hungry, and you’re complaining because they are opening the husks to eat
the grain. I suppose you would be complaining
if they pealed a banana in order to eat the inside. Now get lost! “
iii)
The Pharisee’s believed
in God’s word. The mistake is they
focused on one passage with greater zeal than another passage.
iv)
Jesus pointed out other
passages n the bible where King David “violated” the Sabbath in order to eat
the bread designated for the priest. (1st Samuel 21:1-6)
v)
In Verse 5, Jesus
pointed out that the Levitical priests also “violated” the Sabbath by changing
the bread every Sabbath (Leviticus 24) and further they offered burnt
sacrifices on the Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10).
b)
Jesus sums up this whole
section with the term “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”.
i)
This is a quote of the
first half of Hosea 6:6.
ii)
First, lets talk about
sacrifice. Sacrifice is to give up
something for someone else.
a)
This is the biblical
concept behind “love”. It is the idea
of giving up one’s desires in order to please someone else’s desires.
b)
In a nutshell, it is a
good thing. J
c)
The danger is our
egos. Our ego likes to pat ourselves on
the back and say, “Nice job. Boy, God
loves you for what you just did. You are
now so much better than others because you made that sacrifice”.
iii)
You can see where I’m
going with this. J the danger is when one sacrifices for God at the expense of not
being compassionate to others.
a)
Here are some
illustrations.
(1)
“No, I can’t help you
move that box. This is my prayer time
and I need to go pray right now.”
(2)
“If you guys were
spiritual like me, you would be skipping that meal and joining me in my fast.”
(3)
“No I can’t have dinner
with you. God told me to separate
myself from sinners and to have a meal with you would be associating with the
ungodly. But, hey, don’t take it personal. J”
b)
Folks, Jesus is teaching
balance. Yes there are times as
Christians we need to separate ourselves from the world in order to draw on
God’s strength. But we can’t ignore
compassion at the expense of our religion.
c)
I believe Jesus is
implying here, “Given a choice between doing something compassionate for others
versus doing something sacrificial for God, do the compassionate thing
first. You people are my witnesses to
the world. That takes priority over
your “religious” acts. Be a witness
first and then worry about the sacrificial acts.”
5.
Verse 8: For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
a)
Something
we forget that Jesus is God.
b)
All
things were created by Jesus (see Colossians, 1:16). That means he made the Sabbath.
c)
Don’t
miss the importance of this statement.
Jesus is claiming here to be God.
d)
To
be “Lord of the Sabbath” is to say, “I’m in charge of the Sabbath and I make
the rules”.
e)
This
leads to the great bible question, “What about Christians and the Sabbath?”
i)
Since
I’ve got 50 verses to cover tonight, I won’t give you a detailed answer. J
ii)
Since
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, we as non-Jewish Christians need to look at what He
says as the answer. Further, we can
study the Book of Acts and the Epistles and see what they said about the
church and the Sabbath.
iii)
My
favorite verse on this topic is Romans 14:15:
a)
“Some think that
Christians should observe the Jewish holidays as special days to worship God,
but others say it is wrong and foolish to go to all that trouble, for every day
alike belongs to God. On questions of this kind everyone must decide for
himself.” Romans 14:5, The Living
Bible
b)
What Paul is saying is
there are a number of ways that a Christian can observe “The Sabbath” if he
chooses. Pick a “biblical” way that is
right for you, and don’t worry about how other Christians are doing it!
6.
Verse 9: Going on from that place, he (Jesus) went into their
synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled
hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse 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 man 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.
a)
Here
was Jesus walking into a synagogue.
Among the audience were a lot of Pharisee’s and a man with a shriveled
hand.
b)
The Pharisee’s understood that
Jesus had the power of a miracle-worker.
c)
The
Pharisee’s believe that Jesus was violating the “no-work-on-the-Sabbath” clause
by using his powers to heal.
i)
Technically,
they didn’t have a problem with Jesus healing people, but they couldn’t stand
the fact that he “dared” to heal on the Sabbath.
ii)
This
goes back to my opening remarks how people can get so obsessed with one section
of the bible at the expense of other areas of the bible.
iii)
They
were ignoring the concept behind, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”.
a)
To
obey the Sabbath was to “sacrifice” your desires and rest in God.
b)
To
not be compassionate in order to “be more holy” is the mistake.
d)
Let’s
talk about the “sheep” reference. Jesus
says that if a sheep of a Pharisee falls into a pit on the Sabbath, it is ok to
pull them out. Jesus is accusing them
of having more compassion for a sheep than for a person who is hurting.
i)
The
Jewish “official” commentary on the Old Testament is a collective works called
the Talmud. Jews revered this book, but
still consider it man-inspired. Much of
it is good commentary, but some of it is contradictory. One section had a reference that it is not a
violation to help “one sheep, but no more than one sheep”.
a)
“Pharisees
would lift an animal out of a pit on the Sabbath--though the most that was
allowed at Qumran was to do something that would enable the animal to help
itself (CD 11:13-14).” Bible
Expositor’s Encyclopedia.
ii)
My
point is that Jesus was aware of their interpretation and used that point
against them.
iii)
The
Pharisee’s had more compassion for an animal than for a human.
e)
Notice
in Verse 13, Jesus tells the man with the withered hand to “stretch it out”.
i)
That
is like telling a crippled person to stand up or a blind man to “read this”.
ii)
Give
the withered-hand-man some credit. He
knows that to obey Jesus was a violation of the religious leaders
interpretation of the Sabbath. In his
mind, he must have pondered, “Do I obey my religious leaders, or do I obey
Jesus? If I obey the religious leaders,
my bad hand will not be cured. I’ll
take Jesus, even if it means me being kicked out of the synagogue. OK, Jesus, I’m stretching!”
a)
One
can have a field day doing sermons on this one. J
b)
Sometimes one has to
turn their back on their preconceived religious beliefs in order to accept
Jesus. Jesus who wants to heal you and
make you whole, also says, “The price you must pay is to turn away from you thought
was religious truth. Follow me!”
7.
Verse 14: But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they
might kill Jesus.
a)
Notice
what the Pharisees did not say,
i)
“Well,
we were wrong about the Sabbath. Maybe
we need to rethink it out.”
ii)
“Well,
praise the Lord for this wonderful miracle done right here in our presence.”
iii)
Don’t
expect the world to react positively to your acceptance of Jesus.
iv)
Beware
of “The tyranny of the status quo”.
People get accustomed to power and prestige. They won’t give that up even if they are wrong in their beliefs.
b)
People
get set in their ways. The Pharisees
spent their lifetime studying the Old Testament, and nobody was going to
tell them their interpretation was wrong.
i)
I
have seen churches react like this.
Take an issue like “speaking in tongues”.
a)
Some
Christians believe it is a spiritual gift.
Others believe it is demonic.
Others believe you are not “really” saved unless you have this
gift. I have heard of Christians kicked
out of churches because they have this gift.
I know of a great pastor who was asked to leave a seminary because he
believed in this gift. Some Christians
refuse to “think outside the box” of their interpretation.
8.
Verse 15: Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many
followed him, and he healed all their sick, 16 warning them not to tell who he was.
a)
Chapter
12 is the turning point where Jesus is corporately rejected. The last set of verses is part of that
corporate rejection.
b)
Notice
that when Jesus left the synagogue, many choose to follow Jesus.
i)
Don’t
take that lightly. That meant being ex-communicated
by from their synagogue. Imagine being
kicked out of your church and having all of your old friends shun you as
if you never existed. Imagine giving that
up to follow Jesus.
ii)
Notice
the positive side of those who left:
“and he (Jesus) healed all their sick.
iii)
Yes,
to be a disciple means to give up all that you have. The positive is that we are eternally cured of all our
sins. All sickness-cures over/above
that is a bonus!
c)
We
read many times in the bible where Jesus tells people to “be quiet” about
miracles.
i)
Jesus
can’t teach if crowds are thronging around him trying to get cured.
9.
Verse 17: This was to fulfill what was spoken through the
prophet Isaiah: 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 leads justice to
victory. 21 In his name the nations
will put their hope."
a)
Verses
18-21 are a quote from Isaiah 42: 1:4.
b)
The
important question to ask is why did Matthew quote Isaiah at this point?
i)
Verse
17 says Jesus did “this” to fulfill what was written in Isaiah 42:
1:4.
c)
Remember
the purpose of the Gospel of Matthew is to present Jesus as the Messiah.
i)
More
than any other Gospel, Matthew quotes the Old Testament to show how Jesus
fulfills prophecy predictions about the coming Messiah.
d)
So
how does this Isaiah passage fit in with what Jesus just did?
i)
First
of all, I don’t believe Jesus got into a “yelling match” with the Pharisee’s.
ii)
I
believe Jesus calmly gave his position, healed the man, and walked out.
iii)
My
support-text is Verse 19. It says, “He
will not quarrel or cry out “
a)
Also,
in Verse 20 it says, “A bruised reed he will not break”. That means the Messiah will not break in two
a bruised reed. It means the Messiah
will not be a man of violence when he comes.
(Note that the second coming of Jesus is much different.)
iv)
Here
is something else I pondered. Remember
that Matthew was a tax collector. That
means he was considered a traitor among his own people.
a)
I
suspect Matthew was used to people calling him names behind his back and
throwing insults at him.
b)
He
probably saw Jesus being insulted & thought, “Welcome to my world”.
c)
Further,
I suspect Matthew was impressed with Jesus’ ability to stay calm and have the
upper hand in the arguments. That may
have been the reason why Matthew quoted “He will not quarrel or cry out”.
e)
This
quote of Isaiah has two mentions of Jesus being a leader of the
“nations”.
i)
Other
translations say “Gentiles”. It refers
to non-Jews.
ii)
It must have been a
shock to the Jewish audience that Jesus was also the king
(i.e., “Messiah”) over the Gentiles.
iii)
Jews understood that the
Messiah would rule one day from Jerusalem, but they believed that the idea of
the Messiah (king) ruling over the Gentiles would be that of force. The common idea was that the Messiah would
“conquer” the Gentiles and rule and the land.
a)
Matthew was introducing
a new idea that Gentiles willfully choose to follow Jesus, as the Jewish
corporate leadership is rejecting him.
10.
Verse 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. 23All the people were astonished and said, “Could this
be the Son of David?”
a)
In Jewish tradition,
there is a ritual for casting out demons.
That ritual finding out the demon’s name, and then pray to God to
specifically remove that demon by name.
b)
The problem here is that
this person was mute. Therefore, the
Jewish leaders could not cure this man because the man could not state the name
of the demon.
c)
Therefore, the crowd was
all the more astonished by the miracle because Jesus just did something that no
Jewish exorcist could have done.
d)
It is also important to
see these two verses in context of the past scene.
i)
Some few verses back,
Jesus was in a synagogue and cured a man with a withered hand.
ii)
The Jewish leaders
rejected Jesus.
iii)
Jesus left the synagogue
and some people left with him. They
willfully choose to disobey the authority of their leaders to follow Jesus.
iv)
Now they see even a
greater miracle than the one performed in the synagogue.
v)
I notice two purposes of
this miracle:
a)
One is going to show the
hard-heartedness of the Pharisee’s as indicated in the upcoming verses.
b)
To you and I, it is
another demonstration that when you commit your life to Jesus, we see “greater
things” as we grow in our faith.
c)
This verse popped in my
head which relates to this idea:
(1)
“Jesus said, “You
believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater
things than that.” (John 1:50 NIV)
(2)
I’m taking the “John
1:50” verse a little out of context, but as I have lived my life for Jesus I
continue to see “greater and greater things” as I grow in my comprehension of
God, his redemptive plan for mankind and for my life.
11.
Verse 24: But when the Pharisees heard this, they
said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow
drives out demons."
a)
OK, first of all, who is
this Beelzebub character?
i)
The word is taken from a
local pagan god. It means “lord of the
house” in a demonic sense. It is a
reference to Satan himself in the context of Satan being the chief among all
the demons.
ii)
I have also heard this
term translated as “lord of the flies”; the concept is the same.
b)
The Pharisee’s are
accusing Jesus of using demonic power to cast out demons.
c)
Of all the miracles in
the gospels, have you ever stopped and wondered why so many of them involved
casting out demons?
i)
Let’s face it; in our
American society we don’t see many demon-possessed people. There may be more out there than we realize,
but it is not something a doctor or a psychologist can diagnose like a broken
bone or a case of depression.
ii)
I’ve personally wondered
how “the average Jew” knew somebody was demon possessed as opposed to just
mentally deranged?
a)
It makes you wonder
about people who are deranged and if demon possession is a possibility.
b)
Personally, I don’t
believe demon possession is a common phenomenon in the United States because
people pray to God too much around here.
c)
I personally believe it
is more common in third-world countries, but it is just my opinion.
d)
Also, remember that
Luke’s gospel also mentions a number of cases of demon possession. Luke was a trained physician. It makes you wonder how he diagnosed or
recognized demon possession as opposed to some other medical explanation.
e)
The Roman Catholic
church, in medieval times, set up a list-of questions to test whether someone
is demon-possessed or not. In summary,
you rule out all other logical possibilities first, and then try exorcism.
(1)
This methodology is
still used by Catholic priests to this day.
iii)
Let’s get back to my
question, “Why are so many of Jesus miracles’ involved in casting out demons?
a)
Remember the purpose of
the Gospel of Matthew: To show Jesus as
the Messiah.
b)
If Jesus did not perform
any demonic healings, then the accusation of “Jesus is using demonic powers to
heal people” has some validity.
c)
By Jesus casting out
demons, he is eliminating another “logical speculation” of how Jesus
could perform his miracles.
d)