Lord of the Dance... and the Sabbath
Matthew - Masterclass • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:43
0 ratings
· 4 viewsLord of the Dance... and the Sabbath Jesus and his disciples “break” the “Sabbath rules” because they are hungry. The Sabbath is not broken. Sabbath is a beautiful gift from God for human flourishing. It is NOT another burden or opportunity for human judgment and condemnation. The heart of God’s law has always been love and compassion. God cares more about your worship-heart than your worship-rituals. God cares more about your “righteousness” than your “rightness.” He prioritizes serving others over “Service.” This True Sabbath is more important to learn than getting the day right… and our “rightness” as Seventh Day Baptists can be a temptation to Pharisaic self-righteous judgment. Let us Repent… and Rest in the Lord of the Sabbath.
Files
Notes
Transcript
Jesus and his disciples “break” the “Sabbath rules” because they are hungry. The Sabbath is not broken. Sabbath is a beautiful gift from God for human flourishing. It is NOT another burden or opportunity for human judgment and condemnation. The heart of God’s law has always been love and compassion. God cares more about your worship-heart than your worship-rituals. God cares more about your “righteousness” than your “rightness.” He prioritizes serving others over “Service.” This True Sabbath is more important to learn than getting the day right… and our “rightness” as Seventh Day Baptists can be a temptation to Pharisaic self-righteous judgment. Let us Repent… and Rest in the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus is Watching You
Jesus is Watching You
Jesus is here, this morning. Which means, wherever you find yourself, we are United in Christ. That’s good news.
It also means… Jesus is watching you.
We put this “Jesus is watching you” sign up at camp. Over “that guy” in particular. I don’t know who is going to sleep in that bed each year… but they better watch out!
And yes, it’s “white Jesus” for some reason.
So, even all you at home on the livestream, remember: Jesus is watching you.
Is that who Jesus is? Jesus of the waggy finger?
We need a head-start going into this, because Jesus’ invitation to rest sets the whole stage for everything to follow:
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
We are laborers, weary and heavy laden.
Jesus invites us into his service, to find rest, rest at last, for our souls.
Hungry Harvesters
Hungry Harvesters
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
What they are doing is lawful. Part of the law allows for “gleaning” for exactly this purpose. It is essentially a form of welfare, leaving for those in need some of the “extra”.
This is actually a bit different, this is before the harvest. Consumption on the spot.
You could go pick grapes from the vine… but you couldn’t bring a bag.
You could pull wheat off the stalk… but you couldn’t use a sickle.
The needy working to gather what they need within limits and boundaries to prevent abuse and straight up theft.
But… it’s on the Sabbath.
This is, perhaps surprisingly, the first mention of Sabbath in the book.
So… we can see where the Pharisees are coming from. Isn’t this work? Isn’t this labor, isn’t this a violation of the Sabbath???
There isn’t a whole lot of guidance in God’s law about what counts as “work.” So the lawyers got to work and came up with 39 categories of “work”, and reaping, harvesting and threshing are all on the list.
Over the course of centuries, over a millennia, they had POWERFUL traditions about what is work and isn’t work.
And, as so often with the Pharisees, they are doing it wrong. They have so much of the “outer stuff” right… and get the heart all wrong.
3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
Great story, you can read it in 1 Samuel 21:1-6.
David, before he was king, fleeing from King Saul who is sending out people to kill him… even Jonathan, his best friend, who warns David to run.
And he runs to the priest, Ahimelech, and begs for food, for he and his crew have been in hiding for days. And all the priest has is the “bread of the Presence.”
Likely this parallel indicates that the disciples aren’t just idly peckish but REALLY hungry. But that doesn’t seem to be Jesus’ main point.
The implication is that David did it… so it’s fine. But it’s not exactly clear why?
Is it David’s authority as a man after God’s own heart… his coming authority as King? That’s at least part of where he is going, arguing from lesser authority to greater…
Yes, the bread is sacred… but David is more sacred, and the need was great and urgent… so the lesser yields to the greater.
And Jesus is greater than the bread… and greater than David.
5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
I think Jesus is being deliberately provocative in using a word like “profane.” But they certainly work on the Sabbath! By the direct command of God!
Num 28:9-10 commands two 1-year old male lambs, and some flour and oil… burnt offerings for EVERY Sabbath.
And of course God’s specific command, in this case around worship and sacrifice, overrides the general principle… and certainly the made-up definitions of “work” that the religious lawyers had put together.
Again, the lesser yields to the greater.
The temple is greater, and its needs, and the needs of the worshipers in the temple on the Sabbath, must take precedence.
I work on the Sabbath - just about every Sabbath. Kelly and the worship team… that’s some effort, that’s some work. More than lighting a candle, for sure!
Is that “profaning” the Sabbath? What does that mean? How does that work?
Note: he doesn’t say that the Sabbath is done. That it isn’t important. That it is over and done with. That “old things have passed away.”
He is correcting some priorities. And again, diagnosing the heart. And he gets to do so. Why?
Here comes some more revelation from Jesus… going to blow their minds:
6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
FULL STOP!
We rush past this, because we agree with Jesus. This would be one of the most sacrilegious things they have ever heard. If they heard the end of Chapter 11 “no one knows the Father except the Son...” yeah, they are going to be ticked.
But we know they heard this. And they are going to mention this kind of “temple talk” at Jesus’ trial.
The temple is THE THING! The center of Jewish worship life. The hardest and worst aspects of the exile was the destruction and subsequent absence of the temple. Every good Jew there traveled days, 100 miles, maybe multiple times a year, at least every few years, just to worship in the temple.
Greater than the temple.
Greater than the Sabbath.
7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
And they blew their tops. He will do one more thing, heal a man right in front of them in the synagogue on the Sabbath… and they start conspiring how to destroy him (Matt 12:14).
What does Jesus claim here?
Lord of the Sabbath
Lord of the Sabbath
What does it mean the Jesus is “Lord” (Master) of the Sabbath.
It at least means, he is the “boss” of it. He was there, He was part of it.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Jesus was there. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. High fives all around. Sabbath Rest was an act of the Trinity, the resting, the blessing, the making it holy.
So Jesus predates the Sabbath, older than the Sabbath. He is more sacred, more holy, more restful. In fact, I believe the Sabbath is a precursor, a type, to teach us what eternity with Jesus will be like. It is training wheels for heaven.
So the Sabbath belongs to Jesus, profoundly, it is his from the start, it is an appetizer of His Kingdom Goodness. It is His through and through.
And what does Jesus say it is for?
Made for Man
Made for Man
Parallel passage in Mark, there near the very beginning of his ministry. Mark 2:27-28
27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
That “so” links the two. One leads to the other.
The Sabbath was a gift, is a gift. It isn’t empty ritual.
Mercy not Sacrifice
Mercy not Sacrifice
7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Jesus quoted it back in Matt 9:13 when they accused him of eating with sinners at Matthew’s Matthew Party.
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
I guess “they” didn’t go and learn what it meant.
Jesus clearly LOVES this verse. He has already quoted it twice.
But, let US go and learn what it means.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
That is hesed, steadfast, enduring, loyal love...
The Septuagint translates that “steadfast love” with the Greek word for “mercy.”
Your first stop should be mercy. Justice. Steadfast love. Kindness. Walking humbly with God.
Your first thought should be mercy.
When it comes to Sabbath. When it comes to Temple. When it comes to the Bread of the Presence. When it comes to worship. When it comes to church service. When it comes to every and any ritual act of worship...
Your first thought should be mercy. Justice. Steadfast love. Kindness. Walking humbly with God.
It is no accident that his next command is to go and heal on the Sabbath.
The heart of God’s law has always been love and compassion.
Sabbath is a beautiful gift from God for human flourishing.
Sabbath is a beautiful gift from God for human flourishing.
It is NOT another burden or opportunity for human judgment and condemnation.
It is a beautiful thing.
God invented the “weekend.” (Preview of next week)
God cares more about your heart than your ritual.
God cares more about your heart than your ritual.
God cares more about your “righteousness” than your “rightness.”
Rest in Christ
Rest in Christ
We are taking this “spiritual disciplines” class. And Aunt Jane said something at our class on prayer last month that I loved. I’ll paraphrase:
What I “should” be doing as a “good” Christian has been really poisonous in my walk with God. I have disliked most approaches to “spiritual disciplines” because they can be about piling up guilt and shame for how you are not doing it “right” and not doing “enough.”
When your first thought should be mercy. Steadfast love. Walking humbly with God. And all of the other things are in service to that.
For the disciples, this is stupid simple.
The great simplifying question: am I with Jesus?
Did they ask Jesus? Did they silently ask, like the slow reach with the little questioning eyebrow? Is… this okay?
Jesus is leading them through the field, maybe that’s implicit instruction? Why else would you walk through the grainfield??? Especially when you know we are famished!
This is a great simplifying question: am I doing this with Jesus? Is Jesus here? What does he think of what I’m doing?
This isn’t the guilty “Jesus is watching you...” although that sign is hilarious.
I want to be with Jesus. I love him and want to please Him, honor Him, serve Him, follow Him… so of course I am looking to Him.
Is this chasing after him, walking in His footsteps, drawing me into His presence? Am I “Resting” in Christ right now?
So, when it comes to Sabbath… and any practical application of the law, or Christian discipleship in general… this is our first thought. Where is Jesus in this? Am I walking humbly with God in this?
And then, where is mercy.
In particular, this is a judgment on the Pharisees judgmental-ness.
The disciples aren’t really thinking “mercy and Justice” they are thinking “FOOOD!”
But the Pharisees first thought was “HA! Caught you doing something wrong. Do 20 push-ups and SAY you’re sorry!”
Their first thought should have been “Oh… those boys are hungry. Do I have something better to offer than raw wheat?”
Mercy. Justice. Steadfast love. Kindness.
Judgment and condemnation feels good and costs us nothing.
Mercy… that’ll cost you. Time, money, effort, thought, maybe a sandwich, maybe $20… it’ll cost you something.
But what pleases your Master?
And if your vision is Jesus as the judgmental condemner… here he is the defender of the hungry. Update your vision of Jesus! He is the Judge… and the Savior of the Broken, the Hungry, the Lost, the Condemned.
What pleases your Master? He says right here. More than any other ritual, no matter how “right” you do it… he desires justice and mercy, steadfast loving-kindness.
God cares more about your worship-heart than your worship-rituals.
God cares more about your “righteousness” than your “rightness.”
He prioritizes serving others over “Service.”
This True Sabbath is more important to learn than getting the day right… and our “rightness” as Seventh Day Baptists can be a temptation to Pharisaic self-righteous judgment.
I do think we are “right” about the Day. It says God blessed “the seventh day and made it holy.”
Nowhere in Scripture does it say He un-blessed it.
Nowhere does it say he changed it.
And if there’s blessing there… I want it.
But I have been the guy judging and condemning others for getting this wrong. For keeping it wrong. For “profaning” the Sabbath.
I have been the guy judged for “doing it wrong.”
And this was a big deal in the Old Testament, the death penalty for getting it wrong. God had to teach them some things. More about that next week!
But this has and has ALWAYS been the heart of the Sabbath. Just as Jesus has ALWAYS been the Lord of the Sabbath.
Sabbath is a beautiful gift from God for human flourishing.
Our Lord Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. The boss of it. The Creator of it.
and he invites us into Rest.
Rest from our heavy burdens… including the religious judgmental obsession with making sure everyone else is “doing it right.”
Rest from our labors… trying to earn our way into heaven… or into love… or into worthiness.
Rest in Christ. In His Salvation. In His Sabbath.
Let us Repent… and Rest in the Lord of the Sabbath.
28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
We are laborers, weary and heavy laden.
Jesus invites us into his service, to find rest, rest at last, for our souls.
