Sabbath Controversies
SABBATH CONTROVERSIES
MATTHEW 12:1-14
What is our attitude to the Sabbath? Laxness or legalism?
Our Lord’s final break with the synagogue establishment arose from the sovereign freedom with which he reinterpreted the Sabbath law in his teaching and action alike. The wording of the fourth commandment, “in it (the seventh day) you shall not do any work” (Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14), called for a more precise definition of “work”; the rabbinical schools distinguished thirty-nine classes of activity which were forbidden on the Sabbath. The disciples’ actions fell within these prohibitions, for plucking the ears of grain was a form of reaping, and rubbing them in their hands to extract the kernels (cf. Luke 6:1) was a form of threshing.
Our Lord’s reply to the Pharisees’ criticism, with his appeal to the precedent of David (1 Samuel 21:1ff.) and quotation of Hosea 6:6 (cf. Matthew 9:13), amounts to this: the law of God in general, and the Sabbath law in particular, were intended to be a blessing to men, not a burden, and a fulfillment in the letter is no true fulfillment if it infringes the spirit and purpose of the law. Human need takes precedence over the best-intentioned religious casuistry, and the Son of Man’s authority includes the right to interpret and fulfill the Sabbath law in accordance with the divine provision.
The second Sabbath controversy (12:9-14) had its setting in “their synagogue”—an indication, perhaps, that he was no longer welcome there. If an act of healing were necessary to preserve life, the rabbinical schools permitted it on the Sabbath; if there was no such urgency, the proper course was to wait until the Sabbath was past. But Jesus maintained that the Sabbath was the most appropriate day to relieve men and women from sickness and other afflictions, because such acts honored the purpose for which the day was instituted. It is assumed that the Pharisees would relieve an animal in distress on the Sabbath (12:11); the Qumran community was so much more strict that in its Sabbath regulations precisely such a humane action is forbidden.
Note “The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath” (12:5), ie by continuing their work on that day, in fact by offering more sacrifices on it than on ordinary days.