Matthew Chapter 12- Part 1
On a Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples were passing through a grainfield and the disciples plucked heads of grain, rubbed it in their hands and ate. When the Pharisees saw it, they brought accusations to Jesus against the disciples saying, "Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath". Jesus reminded them of an event (1 Samuel 21:1-6) when David had escaped from King Saul and had come to Nob to the high priest and asked for bread to eat. Since there was no other bread, the priest had given him the show bread which had been taken away to be replaced by fresh show bread. The show bread kept in the Holy Place was only to be eaten by the priests, but was given to David and his friends. Jesus also reminded them that the priests also profaned the sabbath and are blameless, because they are not supposed to prepare any food on that day but for placing fresh show bread in the Holy Place they have to and also they kill and burn sacrificed animals on the Sabbath.
God is a righteous God and allows works of necessity and mercy. Jesus affirmed this by reminding them that he desired mercy than religious legalism (Hosea 6:6) and also told them that if they were of a merciful outlook they would not condemn the guiltless. Mark adds Jesus saying, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Sabbath was a rest decreed by God for the Israelites and they were not to value the Sabbath more than God's foremost creation "Man" and his needs. Jesus ended this dialogue with the Pharisees by telling them "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" signifying his authority over the created day.
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