Sermon Tone Analysis

This week we see how the very uppity the Pharisees were in the way they treat Jesus in relation to the Sabbath.

Jesus and His disciples go through some grain-fields and just like at a pick your own fruit farm they began to pluck and eat.

Why?

Because they had nothing better to do? No, they were hungry.

Mind you, I am always hungry when I go to fruit farms but funnily enough, not when I leave.

Anyhow, it was quite mindless action, pluck a head here and there and eat.

I’m not really into eating grains but it is apparently healthy to do so.

They were having the healthy option.

Why were they hungry?

All the travelling they were doing in following Jesus.

And just as the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head there was no time to eat and maybe not even the funds for food.

I am glad that last week(25/10/17) the Nephew of Benny Hinn, Costi Hinn, said that the Gospel of Benny Hinn is a false one based on false promises of health and wealth in the here and now.

Benny believes in the teaching that “believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the 'sowing of seeds' through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings.”

It is , 'if you do this, and do this, and do this, you'll get this.'

And God is like your magic genie," Costi said.

"If you rub Him right and do all the right things, your bank's going to grow, you're going to get that promotion, you're going to get that woman that you want to marry, that perfect man, your life is going to be perfect, because that's what God wants for you."

That is not Christianity, he said.

You see, being poor or remaining poor as a Christian is not a sign of lack of blessing from God as demonstrated by Jesus and His disciples.

And demonstrated by the vast majority of the world’s Christians.

Only in the West can we think that they are not blessed if they do not have this or that.

So, surely there was nothing wrong with the disciples getting some food in their bellies.

But there were some naysayers present.

“What you are doing is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

There really can be some nitpickers.

Well, let us not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Was it lawful for them to do this on the Sabbath?

Well, we saw last week that the law was that you were not to do any work.

The Pharisees thought that rubbing a grain head together was work.

They considered this as reaping which was against their 39 activities prohibited on the Sabbath.

This is quite an extreme and meticulous view of work.

Even today these same 39 things are very restrictive on Jewish families such as not putting on the oven which is lighting a fire or cooking, two of the 39 things not allowed as well as not turning on any electrical appliance or driving.

What was Jesus’ response to the Pharisees?

He gave an example of one who did break the Sabbath in the Old Testament; their favourite King, David.

Actually he is my favourite too being a man whose heart was after God - mind you I like Jehoshaphat too.

What was it that David did?

Well, when he was travelling with his men in their escape from Saul they stopped to see the High Priest for bread but the only bread available was the show bread which was not allowed to be eaten but because the men were hungry the law was put aside to take care of the men.

Then Jesus said, actually, the priests themselves have to work on the Sabbath Day and therefore they break the Sabbath every week.

Jesus is saying; what’s the issue here?

Someone greater than the Temple is right here.

What on earth is Jesus alluding too?

Well, what was the Temple?

It was the place that God lived, a place where people went to meet with God.

Though Solomon said that God is too great, too large, to be contained within a Temple, well, actually larger than the heavens and earth as well but it was the place God chose to set His name.

So, the Temple represented God’s presence.

Then what is Jesus saying?

He is saying that God’s presence was right before them, He was saying that He is God and He is present with the people right at that very moment - no need to go to the Temple when Jesus is here.

This is the desire of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit want to be with us.

From the beginning to the end of Scripture this has been the case.

Jesus is God, is Divine, is the Deity in the flesh among them and therefore He has the right to allow or disallow anything on the Sabbath.

The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath - and He is allowing His people to eat crushed grain that they picked on the Sabbath.

God wants mercy to be shown over and above the sacrifice of obedience to the Sabbath Day - mercy triumphs over law.

Jesus is saying I gave the Sabbath to you in the first place so I know what you can or cannot do on the Sabbath.

What was the Sabbath for in the first place?

It was a day set up in the law for the Jews to set aside time to stop working and rest.

No religious significance at all.

No call to worship.

No sacrifice.

It was a day to give people and animals a break.

The Sabbath was made for man not the other way round.

The Sabbath is the only commandment not given to Christians and has never been observed except by sects such as Seventh Day Adventists.

Our Sunday is not the Sabbath but we celebrate this day because the resurrection was on a Sunday; they called it the Lord’s Day.

Was this the day God’s people met? Yes.

Well, actually, the early church met every day not just Sunday for they were devoted to fellowship - you can see that as we go through the Book of Acts.

Later on Jesus and the disciples went to Pharisees’ Synagogue and they asked Jesus a loaded question: “is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

These people could not see the wood for the trees.

First of all, who had ever seen anyone heal someone before?

They did not consider miracles at all.

They accepted them but did not think what they might signify.

If I was to ask you if you believe in miracles I’d hope you’d say yes.

If I was to ask if you believe a miracle can happen today, right now, I sense that there would be some doubts.

But, for Christians, it is necessary to believe that Jesus rose from the dead which is about as great a miracle as you can have.

What is shocking to me is that the Pharisees believe in miracles yet it has absolutely no affect upon their hearts except to make them angry.

The Pharisees want to accuse Him of breaking the Sabbath and were so obsessed with doing this that the wonder of a miracle was completely lost on them.

They were only concerned that He might break their precious rules.

So Jesus answered by asking them what they would do if an animal fell into a pit.

Would they leave it or pull it out and therefore, in their own understanding, be working.

Well, they would not answer this for they knew very well what they would do.

According to the Jewish Halacha they were allowed to break the Sabbath if someone's life was in danger.

But to heal a man, hmm, that would not be permitted.

But Jesus asked them whether they were allowed to do good on the Sabbath and save a life?

Is not a man worth much more than an animal?

There was a man present who needed healing and so Jesus asked him to stand.

He had probably been placed there by the Pharisees to catch Jesus breaking their law but this mattered not to Jesus for He healed him right there in front of them all.

He didn’t save this man’s life from death but from living a life impaired.

But before He healed Him Jesus looked at them all and He was angry.

How could they all be so calloused?

How could they be so blind?

How could they be so vindictive?

It is hard to understand why they behaved in this way.

Were they that concerned about their law being broken and so got caught up in the minutiae of their understanding?

Well, plainly, they were for the outcome was the concentrated effort to kill Jesus when there was opportunity.

Jesus came to give life but the Pharisees, in contrast, wanted to take life.

People’s needs trump ritual observations.

Love overcomes the law.

The Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus.

Jesus does not leave us neutral.

I find it hard to comprehend their mentality.

Some people are impossible to reason with.

They get something in their head and that is it.

Murder was in their hearts for it was the devil who incited them.