Working on the Sabbath
Matthew 12:1-9 opens with some hungry disciples choosing to pick and eat some corn on the sabbath day which was a no no according to the law. Since the Pharisees saw it and were always looking for an excuse to tear down Jesus and His disciples, they called Jesus out on their actions.
Jesus then recounts the story of David and his men eating the shewbread from the temple, which wasn't lawful for them to eat either. It was reserved for the priests [Exodus 25:30; Leviticus 24:5-9; 1 Kings 21:1-6]. He additionally mentioned all of the work that the priests did on the sabbath who remained blameless.
He then made what would today be termed a major policy announcement. He rightly declared that since He was present, there was in fact someone present who was greater than the temple itself which had value to the Jews in the Law and was the place of the inner sanctum where once a year the high priest would sacrifice to God.
Jesus was declaring that He, God incarnate, was more than a dwelling place where God would at the proper times meet with His people. Jesus and the Holy Spirit working through Him were meeting with the Jewish people every day. Jesus goes on to say that God desired mercy and not sacrifice [Matthew 9:13; Hosea 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:22].
It isn't clear whether or not Jesus was addressing the same Pharisees who had complained about Him eating with publicans and sinners. Jesus may have been simply speaking in general of the Pharisees knowing that they were picking apart everything He said.
But the bottom line that He ends with is relevant today as well. Jesus was Lord with 100% uptime to put it in modern terms. He was Lord on the sabbath just as He was Lord the rest of the days of the week. If He had a problem with what the disciples were doing, He could have corrected it. He chose not to, and as Lord, that should have been sufficient.
As Jesus said in other places, the laws, including the laws about not working on the sabbath were designed to give people a needed break. But they were never meant to be handcuffs, in the manner that sin laws were. The Sabbath was created for man to have a chance to rest, but God wouldn't object to anything being done that truly needed to be done. Rescuing an ox fallen in a ditch would be an example.
Do we still need to rest? I think that the answer is a resounding yes, but it is becoming harder and harder to accomplish. Many families have two people who work. If you live on a farm or ranch, everyone works - that hasn't really ever changed. But today, most families have to have two people earning an income to make ends get close, let alone meet.
Everyone needs to recharge their batteries. It would be awesome if everyone could do that on the same day. Unfortunately, there are many government and private businesses which have chosen to be open 24 x 7 x 52, with appropriate adjustments for daylight savings. Fire departments, hospitals, and other first response people have to be up and running all the time. So each person generally gets a different slice of the week off so everything is covered. Speaking from experience, that's hard on families.
Let the Holy Spirit direct the course of your life and what you choose to do and when. He won't let you get run down if you listen to Him. But listening is a challenge for us today. Day care costs are high... orthodontics are expensive... and medical care of any kind is crazy without insurance (and even there, deductibles can take a real bite). Gas costs are up, utility costs are up, and food and housing are also moving higher with interest rates lower than historical norms but higher than recently.
The one thing that I know from this passage is that God wants His church to be merciful to those who are not believers. Don't judge or be critical. Show mercy. That doesn't mean we should follow the world in sinning. But it does mean that mercy in preaching is important. Getting hung up all the time on the Law won't win many converts. Be balanced in what is preached, said, and written.
Healing on the Sabbath
Matthew 12:10-21 follows with further issues for the Pharisees to consider. A man had a withered hand and the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus answers asking if any of them would hesitate to lift a sheep out of a pit if it fell in on a Sabbath. The answer was, of course, that they would immediately help the sheep out. Are men more important to God than sheep? Of course the answer to that was yes. He then declares that it is lawful to do well on sabbath days, regardless of what the law says.
He tells the man to stretch out his hand and it was immediately restored to a condition similar to the man's other hand. Then, the Pharisees went out to hold a private council trying to figure out a way to destroy Jesus. This needs to be considered for a bit. Jesus didn't personally heal the man's hand. God did the work through Jesus who was working under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The work was God's. It takes a particularly dense sort of mind for a religious follower of Jehovah to try to tear down someone who God is working through. But that goes on today, just the same as it did then.
Rational thought also seems to go away today if someone is not following the religious norms that are accepted. The entire Pentecostal movement was under fire when it started, and still is in some circles of Christianity. I'm not here to say that the entire Pentecostal movement is perfect, It isn't. It's made up of people who can fail, just like every other part of society. No sufficiently large group of individuals will always do everything right in God's eyes because we are human.
But just because there are occasional failures of Christian leaders, be they Pentecostal or other, doesn't mean that the moving of God should be shut down. It is just as wrong for people to do that today as the Pharisees were in criticizing Jesus in His day.
But the Holy Spirit let Jesus in on their plans, because God has a great reporting system, whether it be Holy Spirit filled observers or angels, and Jesus left the area. A great multitude followed, because they had seen what He had done, and he healed every one of the them who came to him to be healed.
I don't know how many people were considered a great multitude in that day, nor do I know what percentage of that multitude were there to observer and what percentage had physical needs, but I doubt it was much different than today. I'll bet that in any church service in any church today, if Jesus were to show up and start healing the obvious problems, there would be a great many more who have something wrong that would step up for healing once the obvious big things started getting fixed. Is Jesus calling you to be filled with the Spirit and be used as the Spirit wills like Jesus was?
Jesus wasn't seeking attention for Himself. He told people not to make Him known, as the Pharisees were certainly searching for Him. Although He mentions the prophesies of Isaiah, I think the most interesting verse is the last where He concludes with the Gentiles will trust in the name of Jesus. Truly, we have no hope for eternal life outside of the name and blood of Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Savior and Lord.
Are you willing to do the work of God through the direction of the Spirit and not seek to draw attention to yourself? That's where God has always been. There will always be some word of mouth spread by people. If you start working like Jesus and the disciples did, word of mouth will spread. God doesn't judge you for that. But He does expect you to give Him the glory when He works and not take it for yourself.
You can look at the prophets in the Old Testament. They were frequently known to the kings they were prophesying against. But they mostly carried out what God wanted without much hesitation (Jonah is one who was a temporary counterpoint). Sometimes it was tough. Sometimes they got depressed. But they got through it and went on about God's business.
Power to Cast Out Devils
After dealing with the legal and physical matters, Matthew 12:22-30 moves to spiritual matters. A man was brought to Jesus who was possessed with a devil, and was blind and dumb. He cast out the devil, and healed the man so that he could see and speak. The people were amazed, and started declaring that Jesus was the son of David - or the expected Messiah.
The Pharisees, at least some of whom had been observing all along, declared that Jesus was casting out devils by Beelzebub who was considered to be the prince among the devils.
The Holy Spirit let Jesus in on their thoughts or perhaps Jesus heard them talking or the people just repeated what the Pharisees were claiming. Jesus terms His reply in that of a battle, a war that was going on. He said that if Satan was divided, then Satan would lose his fight against God.
He rightly pointed out that the Jewish leaders also went against demonic powers from time to time, and were successful as well. These men would judge the Pharisees who were trying to tear down Christ's work.
By declaring that He was doing the work by the Spirit of God, He was also declaring that the Spirit of God was present there in Him. He who was not with God was in fact against God, and he who wasn't in the business of saving the sinners was in fact helping to scatter them to their destruction.
Nothing about this has changed today. Demon possession has fallen out of favor by many churches as topics of discussion, as has casting out demons. Satan hasn't changed his tactics. I'm not in the camp that says a demon is actively at work whenever something bad happens. There can be many things that can negatively impact an individual - drugs, alcohol, depression, and any number of other mental disorders. But just because there are indeed physical issues that can trigger problems doesn't mean that Satan has stopped his attacks against people.
One of the gifts of the Spirit is discerning of Spirits. It is just as important as any of the other gifts, and provides a rounding out of the arsenal of the gifts. There are gifts to provide wisdom and knowledge for how to go about dealing with people, words of prophecy to guide others, gifts of tongues and interpretation to communicate and understand without issues anyone you meet, the ability to be used for miracles and healing to get the attention of others, and discerning of spirits to see when there are forces at work in someone that aren't human.
Jesus was active in combating demonic possession. Don't doubt that it still happens. Be filled with the Spirit, and perhaps do some prayer and fasting to help deal with enemy forces.
And finally, realize that you must take an active stance for Christ. If you aren't with Him, you're against Him. Those are His words, and not mine. They may not give you a warm and fuzzy feeling. He isn't saying that if you aren't with Him you're somehow a neutral party. He says that if you aren't with Him, you're against Him. Likewise, if you aren't gathering in the harvest, you aren't leaving the harvest untouched for someone else to work on... you're actively scattering it around. None of that is what the modern average church goer wants to hear. Where do you stand with Christ?
Speaking Against the Holy Spirit
Christ follows this with more hard thoughts in Matthew 12:31-37. He warns against blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. If you say bad things against Jesus, it can be forgiven, but if you speak out against the Holy Ghost, there is no forgiveness.
You might think that that seems contrary to reason. Yet keep in mind that it is the Holy Spirit who convicts you of sin and draws you to God in the first place. If you fail as a Christian, it is the Holy Spirit that deals with your heart to pull you back to where you were never supposed to leave. If you break that relationship, there will be no push from God to return.
I do feel that anyone can turn back to God at any time. But I also heed this warning. Without any force from God trying to pull you back into a right relationship, it is very unlikely that you will return on your own or that you will listen to the words of Christians trying to get you to see reason - whether they are fellow students, workers, friends, or relatives (near or far).
Jesus told us that we could tell a lot about people by their words. I can't tell for sure whether someone is a Christian or not (unless the Holy Spirit imparts that information). Neither can anyone else. But as we listen to how people speak, we can assign a probability to their being Christian or not. Evil hearts tend to cause evil to come out of a person's mouth at least at uncontrolled times. Good hearts generally keep anything that sounds evil from coming out of their mouths.
Politicians, lawyers, and gossips beware. Jesus declares that every idle word that is spoken will be a word that we have to give an account of in the judgment day. Just because there are many words (like almost every campaign speech ever) that even we would judge idle, doesn't let us off the hook either. Our own words will either justify us or condemn us.
Many in the country don't like all of the monitoring that the government and private enterprise, to say nothing of people and their cell phones and ring doorbells, do. But consider that God is tracking everything we say, whether in public or in private. Words matter. Choose wisely.
On Signs
The never satisfied Pharisees and scribes then asked for a sign from Jesus. After all, if He was to be the Messiah, He should perform. And that attitude is still a problem in the church today. I myself would like to see more work of the Spirit among all Christians today. In that respect, I'm not much different than either the scribes or the Pharisees. The only real difference is that I don't need that to know that Jesus was the Messiah. I long for more operating gifts of the Spirit in Christians to help the world know that Christ was the Messiah that was promised. I like to think I'm part of the "works following" group.
Jesus replied that the only sign they would get was that of the prophet Jonas (Jonah in the Old Testament). Jonah, as you may remember, was told to go to Nineveh to prophecy against the city and didn't want to go. He was eventually cast overboard, died, was swallowed by a big fish, and was deposited on the shore where he was resurrected from the dead [Jonah 2:6]. I know that isn't the popular children's story version, but if you read the text it is quite clear he drowned. He was resurrected from the dead after three days and three nights [Jonah 1:17].
Jesus declared that He would also be entombed, dead, for three days and three nights, and would be resurrected. This was fulfilled. Using the modern idea of when a day starts rather than the Jewish custom of sundown, He was crucified before our Wednesday evening, the high Passover sabbath was Wednesday evening to Thursday evening (day 1). Thursday evening to Friday evening, the women went to gather what they needed to anoint the body (day 2). Friday evening to Saturday evening was the normal weekly sabbath (day 3). He was resurrected Saturday evening and the women found Him gone Sunday morning.
And if that wasn't enough, Jesus also threw in the resurrection of Lazarus [John 11:1-45]. He was dead for four days before Jesus resurrected him. Both were notable miracles, and Jesus did give them the exact sign that He told them He would give them.
After this, Jesus comments that the Ninevites would stand along with the queen of the south and condemn the Jewish people who ignored the sign He would give them. The Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah after hearing his story, and Christ was greater than Jonah. The queen of the south came to hear Solomon and one with more wisdom than Solomon was present.
Jesus warns that those who had been cleansed of unclean spirits but who rejected Him would find themselves in a worse position than they started, as the unclean spirit would come back with other spirits more wicked than the first and dwell in the empty house it had previously occupied. If you have been set free of something by God, stay free. Seek the filling of the Holy Spirit so that your place is not empty. Put something more powerful in place of the evil that left. Referencing back to earlier in the chapter, make sure that there is something in you to fight against the forces of darkness and sin. Those forces are real.
Unity of Christians in the Family of God
The remainder of the chapter [Matthew 12:46-50] recounts his mother and near relatives coming to wish to speak with Him. Pointing to His disciples, Jesus claimed them as His family. That isn't meant to imply that becoming a Christian cuts you off from your family. That did happen among Jewish people in Jesus' time, and still happens among some people groups today. Some Muslim families will cut off their relatives if they accept Christ, and they aren't alone in this - just the most recent example I've seen depicted.
The point of this portion is to say that when you stand with Jesus and begin to do His will, you become part of a greater family that has extended from His time to now (whenever you are reading this). We are all united as one family over time and space. If only we were truly united and didn't have any squabbles or parts of the family we would prefer not to claim!
If we are moving in the will of the Father, we are one with Christ in His family. That's the bottom line that we should all strive for. Unity not just in our church, or our denomination, but with all Christians and with the Father. That will is revealed by the Spirit, either directly through the gifts or indirectly through words already provided in the Bible and elsewhere. Strive for unity, but remember that unity must be with the Father's will and not just in a small body of believers.