Matthew 12:1-8
Chapter 12
1
Jesus and the Sabbath
One day, Jesus was walking through the wheat fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they started to pick some heads of wheat to crush and eat the grain.2
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus:
“Look at your disciples! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!”
3
Jesus answered:
“Have you not read what David did when he and his men were hungry?
4
He entered the House of God and they ate the bread offered to God, even though neither he nor his men had the right to eat it, which was reserved only for the priests.
5
And haven’t you read in the law how, on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath, yet they are not considered guilty?
6
I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
7
If you truly understood the meaning of the words: ‘It is mercy I want, not sacrifice’; you would not have condemned the innocent.
8
For the Son of Man is LORD of the Sabbath.”
Commentaries
Jesus and the Sabbath.
In chapter 12, Matthew describes the Pharisees’ increasing hostility toward Jesus. The debates that follow help clarify aspects of his mission: the Sabbath (1-21), the source of his miraculous power (22-37), and the demand for a sign to prove his mission (38-45). This passage shows two times when Jesus challenges the Sabbath law for the benefit of individuals: hunger (1-8) and illness (9-14). In both cases, the Pharisaic mindset placed the rules of the Sabbath above the needs of the sick and hungry.