MATTHEW 12

Luke 6:5 has Jesus saying, “The Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:5 says “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
 The first half of this week's chapter deals with Jesus's healing on the Sabbath, but underlying it is a powerful general principle. I would expand it like this:

GOD GAVE US RULES FOR OUR BENEFIT. HE DID NOT CREATE US SO HE WOULD HAVE SOMEONE TO KEEP RULES. RULES ARE NOT TO TAKE THE PLACE OF GOD. WE ARE NOT TO WORSHIP THE RULES, EVEN THOSE GOD GAVE US.

NEITHER ARE RULES TO TAKE THE PLACE OF WARM HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS.

The Pharisees were a type of religious personality that wants to live life by the rules and constrain others likewise. They are legalists. In a friendly way, I once met a person who said, “I want to know how things should be done, so I can do them the right way.” Sounds good doesn't it? Well, if you're repairing a car, it may be good. But if you are insisting that you have the proper way to interpret the Bible and insist everyone else conform...I don't think so.

Someone counted up over 600 religious rules for the first century, mostly from the Bible. There were two or three times that many if you added the man-made rules to keep you far away from breaking the law. When Jesus came, He spent a good deal of time pointing people back to the roots of the law – its purposes and the attitudes  needed to keep it. As in don't just avoid adultery, look at the lust that triggers it.

God's commandments can be compared to rules of the road. We drive on the right to avoid chaos. Nothing sacred about the right. In some countries they drive on the left, even putting the steering wheel on the wrong (!) side. Arbitrarily we know when we enter a four-way stop, the one arriving first, moves first. If arriving at the same time, we default to our right. Those rules bring order out of potential confusion.

God's laws likewise are meant to help human relationships with Him and with each other. They are not arbitrary, however, like the road rules. They are built into creation. Life goes best when we follow them. But we are to follow them with understanding because they give us freedom, avoiding sin that ensnares us. Murder ends a life and violently disrupts others, including that of the killer. Sin is sin because it hurts someone, either yourself or another.

>I have long challenged someone to find me a sin that does not hurt anyone. The only answer I had to think about was from a teen-aged girl. She said cussing didn't hurt anyone. Care to answer that?

But Jesus's opponents were not open to reason. They perceived Him as a threat to their system, which they had mastered and largely controlled. This Man comes carelessly not keeping the Sabbath and expects God to bless him? Surely He could have waited until after the Sabbath to heal just as well.

Then they made an even stronger charge. After Jesus cast out a demon, they claimed that showed He was Himself demonic. Only a demon had the power to cast out another demon. Now pay attention to what they have just said. They have called the Son of God demonic. They have called His good works evil.

At this point Jesus sternly and forcefully reprimands and warns them. Verses 31-32 have been called the unpardonable sin, and it has worried thousands needlessly. I said needlessly, because if you are worried about having committed that sin and cannot be forgiven, you absolutely have not done it! Those who have never know they have. The Pharisees did not know they were committing that sin when they called the healings of Jesus the evil works of the desert. In their self-righteousness they believed they kept favor with God by keeping all His rules and pushing others to do the same. They had no guilty conscious.

The last section of the chapter is printed in the quarterly, and the demand for a sign is its focus. The printed lesson centers on the resurrection, which arguably is the central doctrine of Christianity. Paul argues for that in 1 Corinthians 15 and even says if Christ be not raised, then our faith is useless, and instead of salvation, we are of all people the most miserable, because we have mis-oriented our lives.

Remember those guys asking for a sign were hypocritical. Jesus had just said they were in danger of the unpardonable sin, because their thinking was so fouled up, they called good deeds, like healing, evil. Remember He had pointed John's disciples to the healings and teachings he was doing as evidence He was the Messiah. It's hard to imagine any sign that would have convinced them. What convinces you that Jesus is the Savior?