Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Sep 6 2020 - Matthew 12:1-21 – Lord of the Sabbath

Yesterday we saw that Jesus promises rest to those who will come and follow him. Today we find that he and his followers are accused of scorning God's promised day of rest.

First we read that Jesus’ disciples were plucking grain as they walked through fields on the Sabbath day – no doubt making their way to the synagogue. In the eyes of the Pharisees, they were doing work rather than resting on the Sabbath day. Part of Jesus’ response to his accusers is a reminder that priests work in the Temple on the Sabbath and are held guiltless, for they are doing the will of God. “I tell you” says Jesus, “something greater than the Temple is here.” The Temple was intended as an enormous visual aid. At the dedication of the first Temple, Solomon declared that the living God could not possibly be confined to a building made by human hands; he did not literally live in the Temple. Rather, it was intended to act as sign and continual reminder to the Israelites that the God of Abraham had chosen to make them his people and that he delighted to dwell among them.

Jesus is far greater than the Temple; indeed, he is the reality to which the Temple had pointed. He is no mere visual aid; he is the living God come to dwell among his people. But the Jewish leaders remained blind to this wonderful reality and could only see that he seemed to have scant regard for their rules.

The plucking of ears of grain might have seemed a casual and careless transgression. But it is followed by a very deliberate act by Jesus. Having arrived at the synagogue Jesus saw a man with a withered and useless hand. The Pharisees were eager to find further cause to discredit Jesus and so challenged him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" (Matthew 12:10). Jesus' response exposed his inquisitors hypocrisy; "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." Jesus then told the man to stretch out his useless hand. Immediately he stretches it out and finds in so doing that he is healed.

Often in the Gospels we find that Jesus seems to take delight in healing people on the Sabbath day. For Jesus there could be no more fitting day for such action. On the first Sabbath of creation, God rested from all that he had made and saw that it was very good. More than that, he invited all that he had created to enter into his Sabbath and share with him the joy of a perfect creation. Jesus declares that he is Lord of the Sabbath. By his power he restores the sick to health and gives them rest. They enjoy the blessing of a renewed creation and enter into the finished work of the Son. Jesus works on the Sabbath day so that the broken and marred may be made complete and very good. It is through his good work that those he touches can enter into rest – enter into his rest.

Matthew concludes this story with a touch of terrible irony. Jesus has declared that it is lawful and fitting to do good on the Sabbath. In response to his actions, "the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus" (12:14). Jesus is the one who gives life, but his opponents will not rest in their evil determination to destroy life.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you will not rest until you have finished your new creation. Thank you that you do all things well. Help me both to labour with you in doing good and to enjoy the rest you give as Lord of the Sabbath.

Sep 6 2019 - Zephaniah 1:1-2:3 – The day of the Lord

We turn from Habakkuk to another prophet who ministered in the days before the Babylonian invasion of Judea and the fall of Jerusalem.

Zephaniah tells us that he prophesied during the reign of Josiah, King of Judah. The Northern kingdom of Israel had already been swept away into captivity by the Assyrians. Josiah's grandfather, Manasseh, had turned away from the worship of the Lord and had filled the land with idols. In this he was followed by his son Amon who also "did evil in the eyes of the Lord." Josiah was a reforming king who sought to turn the people back to the worship of Yahweh, the living God. But idolatry was deep-rooted among the people; his efforts at reform met with some outward success but the hearts of the people were not won back to the Lord.

This is the context into which Zephaniah was sent to proclaim the word of the Lord, and it's a word of warning and of judgment. The Lord is about to stretch out his hand against Judah and Jerusalem because of the people's continued worship of Baal, the starry hosts and all manner of pagan gods. God detests the way in which people pretend to honour his name but also swear by Molek (1:4-5), as if they are trying to hedge their bets by keeping on the right side of as many gods as possible. Zephaniah calls for people to stop their religious observance and to, "Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near" (1:7).

The Lord is going to come in judgment on the leaders of his people who wear fine foreign clothes and adopt superstitious foreign customs such as avoiding stepping on the threshold (a Philistine practice, see 1 Samuel 5:1-5). These people pretend to be very scrupulous about their religion but, "fill the temple of their gods with violence and deceit" (1:9). The merchants who have made themselves rich at the expense of others and built fine houses for themselves in Jerusalem will soon discover the folly of their conceit that, "The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad" (1:12). The day of God's judgment is coming and in a moment they will lose all that they treasure.

But the Lord's judgment will not be confined to Jerusalem for he is the judge of all the earth:

In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth will be consumed,
for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth. (1:18)

Despite these words, judgment is not inevitable. Zephaniah calls Judah to repentance:

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
    perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger. (2:3)

The people of Nineveh repented when Jonah brought them a message of God's judgment. They turned to the Lord and had been spared. Will Judah now do the same?

Do we treat the judgment and the mercy of God with equal seriousness – both for ourselves and in regard to the world in which we live? Or do we live as if, "The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad"? Paul warns the Christians in Galatia:

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A person reaps what they sow. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.  (Galatians 6:7-8)

Lord, wake us up to the reality that you are the living God and judge of all the earth. Thank you that there is mercy with you and that, because of Christ's sacrificial death for us, you freely forgive all who truly repent and who turn to you with a sincere heart. Help us by your Spirit to live for you and in selfless love for others that we with them may reap eternal life.

Peter Misselbrook