Notes: August 10, 2009

“Why do you do this?”

Are you offended when someone asks about your religion? Are you able to give a reason for why you worship one way or another? Jesus was constantly scrutinized by those who rejected him.

Mark 2:23-28; Matthew 12:1-8; Luke 6:1-5

  • Jesus was walking on the sabbath day with his disciples and certain Pharisees watched everything that happened.
  • Nobody questioned walking on the sabbath, and nobody questioned whether walking in someone’s field might be trespassing or whether taking grain from that field might be stealing. No, the Pharisees questioned the act of plucking and peeling the grain and declared that to be work forbidden on the sabbath.
  • 1 Samuel 21:3-6 . Jesus appealed to the scriptural precedent of David as proof that there can be exceptions.
  • Further, Jesus appealed to the divine obligation that priests have to work on the sabbath as proof that some things are more important than others.
  • Jesus declared himself to be greater than the temple.
  • When we become more interested in legalism than the welfare of others, we prove that we do not know God who would rather have mercy than sacrifice. (Hosea 6:6; Isaiah 1:11-17)
  • Remember that the sabbath was made for man and not the other way ’round. Man is not to be a slave to the sabbath. Jesus is Lord of both man and sabbath.

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