Daily Devo w/ Pastor Eric October 20,
2021
Pharisaical Tendencies
Matthew 12:1-14 - At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the
Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and
eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples
are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what
David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his
companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but
only for the priests. Or haven’t you
read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the
Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you
that something greater than the temple is here.
If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’
you would not have condemned the innocent.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Going on from that place, he went
into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a
reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on
the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a
sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and
lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is
lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out
your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as
sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill
Jesus.
This
passage is obviously about keeping the Sabbath, but it is also about something
much bigger than the Sabbath – legalism.
As soon as I say the word “legalism,” most of us consciously or
unconsciously uncheck the imaginary box in our mind that this passage is
speaking to us. After all, who wants to
admit that they are a legalist. But I
want to submit to you that we all have legalist tendencies.
In the
passage above, the Pharisees (the quintessential legalists of the gospels) are
challenging Jesus on this disciples harvesting food for themselves on the
sabbath. That was forbidden on the
Sabbath and the disciples had actually done what they charged. They were guilty according to the law and so
the Pharisees are not technically wrong to challenge what they did. But Jesus finds them wrong nonetheless. Why is this?
There are
two ways in which they are wrong. As
interpreters of the law, Pharisees are charged with communicating and teaching
the intention or “spirit” of the law.
Jesus points the intention of this particular law when he quotes Hosea
6:6, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
The Pharisees would rather the disciples sacrifice by not eating than by
eating and breaking the letter of the law.
Jesus points out that it is merciful to let them eat and that showing
mercy is more important than keeping the letter of the law because mercy is the
intent of sabbath laws. In Mark’s
version of this same encounter, Jesus says, ““The Sabbath was made for man, not
man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In
other words, the Sabbath is supposed to be a merciful thing for people, not a
sacrificial thing.
The
second way in which the Pharisees are wrong here is related to the first, but
is subtly different. This plays out
through the subsequent healing of the withered hand. After Jesus has healed the man, the Pharisees
are furious and begin to look for a way to kill Jesus. Why would a healing provoke rage? The answer lies in the fact that Jesus shows
that the Pharisees were never interested in the intention of the law in the
first place. What they were interested
in was USING the law to entrap Jesus and/or his disciples. Jesus exposes this intention and embarrasses
the Pharisees in front of others. He is
also challenging the very basis of their power which is being able to use the
law for their own intentions.
“Shame on
those Pharisees” we like to say, but I would close today by making a bold
claim. All of us have pharisaical
tendencies. There are times when the “rules”
are a convenient way to dismiss a difficult issue. There are other times when we our use of the
rules is not merciful. Jesus reminds us today
that when choose the rules over being merciful, we are not only choosing
against mercy, we are choosing something He himself would not choose.
Questions: Do we ever use the “rules” to try and gain an
advantage or avoid dealing with something difficult? Do we use the technicality of the rules so we
don’t have to deal with the intention behind the rules?
Prayer: For our own sake, Lord, show us our
Pharisaical tendencies. Amen
Prayer Focus: Pray for the fourteen kidnapped missionaries
(including children) in Haiti.
Song:
Buddy Greene - Recovering Pharisee
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