SCRIPTURE: Matthew 12:1-14; Luke 13:10-17 (ESV)
DATE: 7-19-26
As always, it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time or if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
PASTORAL PRAYER
INTRODUCTION
We’re continuing our Gospel Project series this weekend. As Chandler explained last week, during the summer, we’re syncing our sermons with our Kidway ministry curriculum, called the Gospel Project. We thought this would be a good way for all of us — especially those of us without kids in our Kidway ministry — to understand what the kids are being taught each week. And they happened to be in the gospels learning about Jesus this summer, which is a great place in the Bible for all of us adults to be, because the whole Bible is ultimately about Jesus. So what better way to spend our summer than by getting to know him better?
So, with that, let’s turn to our two passages for today. We’ll begin with the Gospel of Matthew, and then we’ll turn to the Gospel of Luke. In Matthew, we’ll be in chapter twelve and, in Luke, we’ll be in chapter thirteen. So go ahead and find Matthew chapter twelve — we’ll begin in verse one.
Matthew 12:1–14 ESV
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” 9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” — so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
And, now, turn with me to Luke chapter thirteen. We’ll begin in verse ten.
Luke 13:10–17 ESV
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
What our passages highlight are — one — God’s law — two — man’s law — and three — our merciful Lord.
There’s a dispute, as I’m sure you noticed, about God’s law — so we’ll look at it. And Jesus’ response to his challengers points out that they’ve missed the point of God’s law by making up their own manmade laws — so we’ll look at their manmade laws. And what I hope we’ll all walk away recognizing — because this is the point of our passages — is that we have a merciful Lord. Jesus is full of mercy towards us lawbreaking, messed-up people.
GOD’S LAW
So let’s begin with God’s law, and the specific law that’s at the center of both of our passages, which is the Sabbath law. The Sabbath law is found in the Big Ten — that’s the Ten Commandments — which are found in the book of Exodus, chapter twenty. The commandment about the Sabbath states…
Exodus 20:8–11 ESV
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The command’s pretty straightforward. It says to work for six days and — on the seventh day — to rest. No work’s to be done on the seventh day.
- You don’t work.
- Your family members don’t work.
- Your servants don’t work.
- Not even your animals are to work on the Sabbath.
Now think about this. This law protected the vulnerable — servants, children, even animals — from being endlessly exploited by those in power. That’s quite the statement about God’s concern for all people, and God’s concern for all people should influence the way we treat those who work for us — either as employees or direct reports — God’s concern for all people should influence how we treat those who serve us through their work — from waiters and waitresses, to teachers and nurses, mailmen and women, those who fix our roads, and so on. Sunday lunch should not be the shift that waiters and waitresses dread the most — it should be their favorite time of the week because they’re serving the people of God who know how their God wants them to treat those who serve them.
Now, and I think this is obvious, the Sabbath command is based on God’s creating rhythm. When God created all that exists, he worked for six days, and then he rested on the seventh day. This is how it’s recorded in Genesis.
Genesis 2:1–3 NLT
1 So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
So there are two reasons for this Sabbath law. First, and this is the obvious reason, God wants us to rest! This isn’t to say that work is bad — but God knows that the inclination of our sinful hearts will always be works-based salvation. Meaning, many people believe that the way we find salvation — or rescue from this sin-infected world — and even when a person doesn’t acknowledge sin, they still see the results — that this world is messed up and no one’s like, “I bet this is the best there is” — so we’re all — religious or not — Christian or not — we’re all trying to figure out how to be saved from this “this isn’t what it’s supposed to be like” world. And most people are trying to save themselves by their works.
Either literally — like some of the millionaires and billionaires trying to reverse engineer aging — or spiritually — like the millions, if not billions, of people around the world who believe that if they do more good than bad, whatever god or spiritual being that’s out there will find them acceptable in the afterlife, which leads to the second reason for the Sabbath law.
Listen to what the book of Exodus later says about the Sabbath.
Exodus 31:12–17 NLT
12 The Lord then gave these instructions to Moses: 13 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘Be careful to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you from generation to generation. It is given so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy. 14 You must keep the Sabbath day, for it is a holy day for you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. 15 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day must be a Sabbath day of complete rest, a holy day dedicated to the Lord. Anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death. 16 The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time. 17 It is a permanent sign of my covenant with the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he stopped working and was refreshed.’”
You see, God’s Sabbath law is meant to show us that — though work is important — our work isn’t ultimate — and our work definitely won’t save us. Thus, the command to rest shows us that our salvation’s in God’s hands. And resting shows this because, in resting, we demonstrate that we trust God’s plan of salvation — that the world, including our salvation, doesn’t hinge on what we do, but on what God has done. God wants us to rest — to trust him. To believe and live as if he’s the one who makes his people holy — we don’t make ourselves holy — thus the Sabbath was to be a holy day dedicated completely to the Lord.
Now, as this last passage of Exodus shows us, breaking the Sabbath law had significant and severe consequences, such as being cut off from the community or even death. Significant and severe consequences indeed. And these significant and severe consequences made this specific law — the Sabbath law — central to the Jewish people’s identity. Which leads us to our second observation: man’s law.
MAN’S LAW
Let’s go back to our passage in Matthew. We’re in verse one again.
Matthew 12:1–2 ESV
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
A few verses later, after Jesus had entered a synagogue, we read…
Matthew 12:10–12 ESV
10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” — so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Question for you. In the Exodus passages we read earlier, do you remember anything about not plucking heads of grain or healing someone being mentioned? No.
Another question for you. Is there any other Bible verse the Pharisees would’ve had in mind to make their case that plucking heads of grain or healing someone was a specific violation of the Sabbath law? There’s not.
But here’s what the Pharisees were referring to. The Pharisees had an oral tradition of rules and regulations that many viewed as authoritative as God’s Word, which was just the Old Testament for them. In their oral tradition, the Pharisees had some thirty-nine different categories of work that couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. Again, these weren’t biblical laws or commands — these were manmade laws and rules.
Here’s an example. But first, another passage from Exodus.
Exodus 16:29 ESV
29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
The bread referred to is the manna from heaven that God gave his people to eat while they wandered in the wilderness. On the sixth day of the week, God supplied them with two days worth of bread. But what I want you to notice are the words “remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
This was interpreted as a “no travel” rule on the Sabbath. So the religious leaders made up a law that no one was allowed to travel on the Sabbath. But what exactly does that mean — to not travel on the Sabbath? Is it traveling if you go from one room to another in your house — after all, the biblical command says to remain in your place? And, as any parent of a child in trouble knows, when you say stay in one place you mean right there on that spot.
Now, I know they were living in tents when this command was given, but eventually the Jews had homes, so how does this “no travel” command apply at home? Can you go to your neighbor’s house, or is that traveling? How far can you go before you break this “no travel” command?
Now, when it comes to manmade rules and laws — including the ones we make today — including the ones you live by — our heart’s natural desire is to define these rules and commands in a way so we always pass the test. Because when we always pass the test, we’re our own savior. We’re doing things the “right way” — our way, usually. That’s what the Pharisees did with this “no travel” command. They came up with their own manmade rule. You’re gonna love it. You’re gonna think it makes total sense.
The Pharisees interpreted the “no travel” rule to mean that you could travel up to three thousand feet from your house. Three thousand feet, and you haven’t broken the Sabbath — no travel — law. Makes total sense, right? I mean, of course it’s three thousand feet and not three thousand and one — that’d be way too lenient. And two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine would be way too restrictive.
But — wait — there’s more. If, at three thousand feet from your home, you have a place where you store your food — maybe it’s a little shed or something — well, as everyone knows, the shed is an extension of your home. So now you can go another three thousand feet from it without breaking the Sabbath command. But, go any further, and you break the Sabbath law.
I’m sure you see how easy it would be to manipulate the rule so you never break it, right? But at that point, whose rule are you following?
There was a no-spitting rule on the Sabbath. Because if you spit, and your spit dented the dirt, that was considered plowing the ground. And plowing was a no-no on the Sabbath.
They had a rule about the words you could write down on the Sabbath. Short words were OK. Long words were not. And what you all want to know is what counts as a short word versus a long word. Well, I’m not going to tell you — I’m just going to let you wonder about it — and whether all the acronyms in our text messages count as short words even when they’re really long ones in disguise.
And I know that this all sounds completely ridiculous to us. We’d never be that ridiculous with our rules…
Well, anyway, plucking heads of grain was another of those manmade rules for the Sabbath. But in our verses, the disciples were just making lunch, which is Jesus’ point. And what about the guy with the hand — does anyone want to argue that healing someone should be a crime while rescuing a sheep gets a pass? Surely not. Much less the ridiculousness of how far one can travel without actually traveling.
But I’ve got an important question for all of us: What kind of manmade laws have we elevated to a similar level of importance, as the Pharisees did in their day with all of their manmade laws? If, as I’ve said a few times now, our heart’s natural inclination is towards works-based salvation, what works — or laws that must be obeyed — have we put on equal level with their three-thousand-foot traveling rule?
- Maybe it’s some rule about how any true Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christian will always votes for the ____ political party.
- Or some rule about the sins that really upset God are the sins those people commit, not the respectable sins we commit.
- Or some rule about how much a person should read their Bible and pray, or how little a person is expected to read their Bible and pray. After all, our rules can be either super strict or super lenient, but they’re still manmade.
Maybe you don’t consider yourself a Christian or a religious person, but you’ve got your own set of rules you expect others to follow.
- Maybe it’s a rule about believing that traditional marriage is oppressive, and those who don’t follow your rule are a problem.
- Maybe it’s a rule about self-identity and how we’re able to create whatever identity we want for ourselves. But the real rule you want everyone to follow is that we must accept each other’s self-proclaimed identities. That man identifying as a woman must be treated as a woman — that’s your rule. And when people don’t play by your rules, it infuriates you.
Religious or not, when we write the rules and police them, we end up being more like the Pharisees than we’d ever admit. As one person has said, “The Pharisees were self-appointed guardians of public morality.” A description that would fit many in the world today, religious or not. Self-appointed guardians of public morality. People who believe they’ve got the rules that everyone else must follow.
Now, when the Pharisees tell Jesus that his disciples — and by implication, Jesus as well — are doing something unlawful on the Sabbath, what they’re implying is, “Jesus, we’ve caught you sinning.” That’s how serious their accusations are against him. And, for those who follow Jesus, you know that one of the core tenets of our faith is that Jesus was sinless. Yet here the Pharisees are implying that he has sinned. Based on what? Not God’s law, but their manmade ones.
And when we do an honest assessment of the culture of our day, we see how much in common we have with the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. For just like them, when someone violates our manmade laws — whether it be manmade laws of the religious or irreligious kind — the accusations are just as condemning — and often just as misguided as the Pharisees were in accusing Jesus of sinning. We never see it this way, of course — we’ve got that in common with the Pharisees too. But that’s what Jesus is trying to help the Pharisees, and us see: To see what God’s law — including his law about the Sabbath — really means.
OUR MERCIFUL LORD
Which leads us to our merciful Lord.
Matthew 12:3–8 ESV
3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
When Jesus asks, “Have you not read,” he’s not asking a yes or no question. He knows the Pharisees would’ve read and been aware of the Old Testament passages he mentions. What Jesus means by “Have you not read” is “Don’t you understand what these passages mean?” And they don’t understand. So Jesus explains it by quoting another Old Testament passage: “I — meaning God — desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
You see, the Sabbath is not only about rest and worship, it’s also about mercy. And the religious leaders, because of their manmade laws, had eliminated mercy from the Sabbath. Our passage from Luke highlights this as well.
Luke 13:10–17 ESV
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
Whether it’s the man with the withered hand, in Matthew’s passage, or the woman with a physical disability in Luke’s passage, the religious leaders had no room for mercy for these individuals. They were using the Sabbath as an excuse to not be merciful towards them.
What’s worse is how the religious leaders use the man’s situation as a test to trap Jesus. Think of how demented their thinking must have been: “Oh, here’s someone physically crippled. Let’s see if we can use his suffering to trap Jesus. Cause everyone knows that Jesus loves to show mercy towards those who need healing.”
Do you see what’s going on? Instead of showing mercy, they want to give God a sacrifice. For they want to kill the one who shows others mercy on the Sabbath. And they think they’ll please God if they do so.
Yet Jesus, our merciful Lord of the Sabbath, is showing us all what it really means to obey God’s law. For all of the law, including the Sabbath law, can be summed up this way. Jesus was once asked, “What’s the greatest commandment — or law?” Here’s his response.
Matthew 22:37–39 ESV
37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
To which one Bible scholar has said, “Any interpretation of the law that limits our ability to serve God or to love our neighbors — as the Bible, including the Decalogue (or the Ten Commandments) defines love — must be wrong, because love of God and love of neighbor are the essence of the law.”
- Jesus, in allowing his disciples to pluck heads of grain on the Sabbath, was demonstrating love for them. For loving someone will include making sure their bodies are well nourished.
- Jesus, in healing the man’s withered hand, demonstrated love for the man. Showing the man and those watching that all people are valuable in God’s sight and are to be shown mercy.
- And Jesus, in healing the woman, demonstrated love for her and the crowd — resulting in her and the crowd rejoicing in and glorifying God, which, I believe, is a fulfillment of a promise God gave his people about the Sabbath centuries earlier.
Isaiah 58:13–14 NLT
13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly. 14 Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
After she was healed, the Lord was her delight and the delight of many in the crowd because of Jesus’ display of God’s love and mercy. A woman who’d been crippled by Satan’s cruelty — and by the lack of compassion from the religious leaders — was healed by the love and mercy of Jesus.
CONCLUSION
Earlier, I mentioned how this summer series is meant to help us all get to know Jesus better. We all have our ideas about him. Some of our ideas are informed by the Bible, and others aren’t. But today, I hope we’ll all leave here with a better understanding of what it means to say that Jesus is merciful and loving.
For the same mercy and love that Jesus demonstrated to his disciples when they were hungry, and the same mercy and love Jesus demonstrated to a man with a withered hand and to a crippled woman, is the same mercy and love that Jesus has for you.
Jesus knows you. He knows what you’ve gone through, are going through, and will go through. He knows the decisions you’ve made, the times when you’ve acted independently and as if he doesn’t exist, he knows about all of your manmade rules that you judge everyone else by — he knows everything about you — and — wait for it — he loves you anyway.
He knows your troubles. He knows the guilt you’re carrying around. He knows the shame that you can’t seem to shake. He knows how Satan has been tormenting you. He knows the stress you’re experiencing because of grief in your life. He knows your sorrow. He knows the physical pain you wake up with every single day. Jesus knows all of this about you and — wait for it — he loves you. For he sees you with merciful eyes.
A follower of Jesus from centuries ago once said that mercy is “a voluntary sorrow which enjoins itself to the suffering of another.” Jesus — because of his love for you — volunteered for suffering. To experience the sorrow — not only of others — but he personally experienced sorrow and suffering when he gave his life in love for you. For though God desires mercy, not sacrifice, a sacrifice was required for us to be recipients of his mercy. And Jesus gave himself to be our sacrifice.
No matter who you are, no matter why you came here today, no matter how many years you’ve been following Jesus or if today’s the day of your salvation — may you know, experience, taste, and see God’s love and mercy towards you in Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.
PRAYER
Father in Heaven, merciful, kind, loving, and faithful one to your people. Thank you for the words you’ve spoken to us today. Words of life. Words of hope. Words that stir delight in our souls. Words that compel us to rejoice.
Spirit of God, for those experiencing troubles right now, for those carrying guilt or shame, for anyone who’s being tormented by Satan or experiencing stress because of grief in their life, for anyone in the midst of sorrow or experiencing physical pain — Spirit help them to believe that Jesus knows all of this about them personally and that he deeply loves them. May they know that Jesus sees them with merciful eyes.
And, Jesus, we experience mercy because you experienced suffering and death. And you did so voluntarily. And you did so because you love us. May all of us respond to your mercy today — some for the first time — others of us for the hundredth time — for your mercy is new for us every single day. And your love for us will go on for eternity.
To all who hear my voice, may you rest in God’s love for you and his mercy towards you in his Son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.
BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available)
As you go, may you know, experience, taste, and see God’s love and mercy towards you in Jesus Christ.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.