Knowing The Word in Matthew 12:1-8

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath [as opposed to Pharisaic legalism. Who really has the authority to interpret the Sabbath?]

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.” [This comes from 39 areas of work that are forbidden on the Sabbath from Mishna, Sabbath 7:2. See Deuteronomy 23:25 which allows for this activity.] 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? [See 1 Samuel 21:1-6. If David could break the law, how about the greater David?] 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? [See Numbers 28:9-10 and Leviticus 24:8.] 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. [The temple prefigured Jesus. It was a type.] 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ [Hosea 6:6] you would not have condemned the guiltless. [Why are the disciples guiltless?] 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” [This is a Christological statement—that is, it is a statement about the Messiah. Jesus does not abrogate the law, but he claims the right to interpret it in a way that undercuts Pharisaic legalism.]