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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath Bible Verse :Matthew 12:1-8 "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. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 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? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” " Message:
Unlike the earlier chapters of Matthew, Chapter 12 does not mark a thematic break from Chapter 11; it is a continuation of it. There is a chapter division purely for practical purposes — length. Of course, dividing the Bible into chapters and verses was not the work of the authors. The chapters we use were created by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, around 1220 A.D., and the verses added 300 years later.
The Jewish laws on what may be done, and what is forbidden to be done, on the Sabbath are enormous in number and minutely detailed. Suffice it to say, here, that gathering and preparing food clearly transgressed many prohibitions.
cluny tapestry
The Pharisees naturally — and from their point of view, correctly — criticize the conduct. Jesus' response is complex. He first gives an historical precedent from 1 Samuel 21 when David, on a mission from King Saul, ate the consecrated bread in the tabernacle. David gave, as his excuse, that he was on a holy mission.
Thus, by implication, Christ states that his disciples may bypass the Sabbath food laws, because they are (with apologies to the Blues Brothers) on a mission from God.
His second justification is similar. Priests prepared bread in the temple on the Sabbath, just as today, even the strictest Christian church will exempt the pastor or priest and his assistants from the fourth commandment. How could we worship on Sunday, if nobody could do any work in furtherance of the worship?
But now, Christ begins to go beyond merely claiming to be on a holy mission; he claims that where he stands is “greater than the temple.” Reading any of the Gospels, one is struck by how often Christ will hint, obliquely, that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, without directly stating it. One might infer that the time for him to be crucified has not yet come, and so he avoids a direct statement that would get him arrested for extreme blasphemy; but that is speculation, not a statement from the Bible.
Finally, he says “the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Christ often refers to himself as the Son of Man, and scholars have inferred at least two reasons for it. First, it is not a clear statement of his divinity. He wants his followers to understand, but not his enemies. Even very late in his ministry, people are not positive that he is referring to himself when he uses the term. (John 12:34) It's code. So, we might infer that Christ's real audience are those who believe in him, not the inimical Pharisees with whom He argues.
Second, He will call himself the “Son of Man” when he wants to emphasize that, for a few short years, God became a human being; that he was here among us, as one of us, born from the body of a woman and entirely human. In other words, where the living human body of Jesus is standing, God is standing. So the cornfield is as holy as the temple.
We will take up the quote, “I desire mercy . . .”, Thursday, when Matthew describes a similar incident.
Meditation : Prayer : Lord, pour your love into my heart, that I may love you above all things, and my neighbors as myself. Through Christ our Lord.....Amen |
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