Matthew 12:1-21

“At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, ‘Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.’  But he said unto them, ‘Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him: how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, but only for the priests?  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.’  And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: and, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered.  And they asked him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?’ that they might accuse him.  And he said unto them, ‘What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?  How much more then is a man better than a sheep?  Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.’  Then saith he to the man, ‘Stretch forth thine hand.’  And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.  But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; and charged them that they should not make him known: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.  He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.  And a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.’”

There are people who do not understand the God that they serve

“If you don’t have a Bible, there are some in the back of the seats in front of you.  You’re welcome to use one of those.  Hosea chapter 6, just a verse we’re going to read here, but then we’re going to go to our text in Matthew chapter 12 where we left off last week.  It’s quite possible in our room this morning there are amongst us, you know, different views, perspectives of God that, because of our different backgrounds, whether it be religious or maybe just the homes that we were raised in, we have a different understanding of God than maybe the person next to us.  It’s very possible.  Of course, if you take the religions of the world, you take the Muslim religion, if you were raised in a Muslim background, then your understanding of God would be very different than my understanding of God.  I was not raised Muslim.  My understanding, the way that God is depicted in Islam, that God isn’t necessarily a very loving God.  He’s a just God, but not necessarily very loving.  If you were raised, you know, Buddhist or Hindu you would have another understanding.  I know when I went to India a couple years ago, in seeing the incense there on the road, being offered to the various idols, it was clear that my understanding of God was not the same as their understanding of God is.  They had this incense going up to their god.  You could even be from a Christian, you know, quote religion.  If your background is Catholic, and maybe somebody next to you, their background is Pentecostal, you might also have even a different understanding of God because of those backgrounds.  One may have a sense that God is someone to be honored and someone to be respected and followed, yet he’s not necessarily very much involved interpersonally in my life, not somebody necessarily I get to know on a one-on-one basis.  As opposed to the other end, God would then be very experiential, someone that I would experience very near all the time in an experiential kind of way.  So it’s possible in this room, we have different perspectives and understandings of God.  Of course, those of us that have been in the Church [he means the Calvary Chapels] for awhile, we’re growing in a Biblical understanding of God, and that’s what our intention is as we come to the Bible, that we would understand what the Bible says about God.  It’s important, definitely it’s important that we have an understanding of God.  Some people will view God as the Big Guy in the sky, he’s up there, far removed, but he’s the Big Guy in the sky, he’s like the Big Cheese in charge, he’s up there, and I’m down here.  Others may view God in a sense that God is an angry God, you know, and if I just make one little step to the wrong side, boy I’d better watch it, you know, ‘Poof!  Zappo!’ I’m in trouble.  Somebody else may view God in a sense of ‘Well he doesn’t so much care what I do, you know, he’s cool, I should be cool, you know, he’s kind of a laid-back kind of a cool God.  Then there is even a popular, maybe even represented in this room, a very popular perspective of God, and that is ‘God is whatever you want him to be.’  If you’re sincere, that’s ok with God, as long as you’re sincere, whatever you think about him, that’s ok, so long as you’re sincere about what you believe, that’s cool for him, and that’s cool for you.  [Comment:  Now in the secondary areas of doctrine and choice in days of worship, Paul brings out in Romans 14, that sort of applies to believers---whatever’s cool for you, whatever your choice or beliefs are in the secondary areas of Bible doctrine that don’t impact the basic Gospel of Salvation.  See http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/romans12-14_2.htm.  And in that sense, this allows for Messianic Jewish believers who worship on the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23, and observe the dietary laws of Leviticus 11:1-23, and also it allows for the Sabbatarian Church of God believers, who follow the same practices as their “allowed for” personal choice.]  I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, but I have met people, or got to know them maybe a little bit, heard about them where I used to work, or wherever, and had a certain understanding of a person, and then later got to know them, and found out that they were a lot more different than what I had expected.  I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience.  I’ve had that experience before, where I have misjudged somebody, maybe because somebody’s told me certain things about that individual, maybe just because of the way they look.  I don’t know, I had a certain thought, ‘This is what they’re like’.  And then I got to know them, and I found out, ‘Wow, man, they’re a lot different than what I thought.’  I think of some of the local pastors, when I first moved into the community, you know, I viewed some, and this was just where I was at, at the time, because of maybe where their denomination was, or maybe things I had heard, I had a certain perspective of them.  And then getting to know some of these guys, ‘Wow!, they’re just dynamite brothers in the Lord, they just love Jesus with all their hearts.’  In some instances, they’ve been used by the Lord to really minister to me, and even become good friends.  And it wasn’t necessarily that way at first, it was like ‘Well, I don’t know what to think about this guy.’  The Bible tells us that God is a person, and because he’s a person, he has a personality.  [And if you don’t think he has a sense of humor, look at his creation in wild-life.]  He has a way of looking at life, he has certain attitudes.  He has certain values, certain desires, certain opinions, he has a personality.  And he has a heart that is there.  And certainly as you can misunderstand a person, you can look at God and have a wrong opinion of God, misunderstanding about really what he’s all about and what he’s like, and what his heart is like.  [cf. read the Book of Job.]  You know, if I came up here and gave you an editorial on the life of George Bush and what he’s all about, and this is my opinion, and I just kind of detailed it to you.  And then you went from here and a little later had the privilege of spending maybe thirty days with him on his Texas ranch, you might very well come back here and go, ‘Dude, man, what was that all about?  I’ve met George Bush and he’s nothing like you said.’  Because I don’t know George Bush.  You know, I could only tell you what I’ve heard.  I could be very wrong about his person.  And the Bible is clear that God is a person, he has a personality.  And regardless of what my opinion may be, he is what he is, and he does what he does, and he desires what he desires, he thinks the way he thinks, because he is God.  And we can try to rationalize this or that and make it comfortable with ourselves, but that doesn’t necessarily change who God is, because he’s a person just like you and I are, except he’s God, he’s the Creator of the heavens and the earth [and I would offer, he’s also a spirit-being, composed of spirit, not flesh and blood].  And he certainly has a way about him, and a heart and a perspective of life.  As we study what we’re going to in Matthew 12 this morning, we’ll see that there are people in our text, which has been true today and throughout history, that do not understand the God that they serve.  And because they don’t understand him, and they’ve lost perspective of who he is, Jesus is there seeking to teach them and instruct them about his heart, and about what God is really like.  We’ll see in our passage, and it’s true today, some people don’t want to accept God for the way he is, because that’s just not what they want.  And so they want to rationalize a little differently.  And that’s what these people do, they don’t want God to be that way.  They want God to be another way.  But that doesn’t change who he is.  But yet they have their opinion, just the same. 

God desires that we be merciful, and that we would truly know him---so what is God really like?

You know, as we see in the Scripture, it is absolutely vitally important that we do know God and we know him accurately.  It effects the way that you live.  The view that you have of God, the way that you understand he thinks and reasons and what he desires, it tremendously impacts the way that you live.  And so it is vital that you and I have the right understanding of God, an accurate understanding.  And I believe as we grow in our understanding, in many instances we are pleasantly surprised to find out that he is a certain way, and he thinks a certain way and feels a certain way.  In Hosea chapter 6 God’s speaking to the prophet Hosea.  You know, as you go down to verse 6, Jesus is going to quote this verse in our text, in response to some people that really are clueless about what God thinks and what he’s like.  And he’s going to quote this verse.  He’s already done that before, if you remember in our study in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus was hanging out with some sinners and some publicans, tax collectors, and as he was hanging out with them, there were those that were around him, the religious group there that thought that he was way out of line to be doing that.  And at that time he quoted from here, Hosea chapter 6, verse 6.  We’ll see it again in our text.  And when he repeats something, he’s really trying to make a point.  ‘You just don’t get it, this is the way God is, and you’re just missing the point’, as he says to these particular people.  He’ll say “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, referring to the heart of God, and what God wants to see in us too.  But then, what Jesus doesn’t quote, and I like to begin with it, the second part of verse 6, “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”  God says through his prophet, what he wants to see is not so much a religious trip, a religious deal that you are righteously pious or whatever, that you attend Sunday school and church and have all these things down, you have the religious dress and the religious speech, that’s not what he desires.  He says “I desire mercy”, and it’s a heart, it’s his heart.  That you have his heart, because you know him and you’ve been hanging out with him, and then you share his heart.  “For I desire mercy”, and also, he says “I desire that you have the knowledge of God.”  That knowledge, the word “knowledge” there is in an experiential way, practical way, it’s not theologically.  He’s not saying “that I desire that you have your good theology”, which is good to have, an accurate theology.  But what he desires is that you know your God, that you know him passionately, that you walk with him personally.  It isn’t what you’ve been told, it isn’t just now and then, it is that you absolutely know him because you walk with him and you hang out with him and you experience him, just as you would if you hang out with George Bush for thirty days on his ranch, and then you come back and say ‘Let me tell you a little bit about George Bush.’  But that you are with God intimately, growing in your relationship with him.  It’s all about God, and it’s all about a relationship with him.  So with that, going back just a couple verses.  Maybe you haven’t been in church awhile, maybe your experiences have been such that you’ve been turned off to God.  Maybe you grew up with an understanding, because of what you were taught, because of maybe even the school you attended, and professors you had in college, or things you’ve been reading in books and media, you’ve just been turned off to God, you think he’s whatever he is, which he’s not.  But here you are today, for whatever reason, God says through the prophet Hosea in Hosea chapter 6, verse 1, “Come and let us return to the LORD.”  He goes on to talk about the way he’s chastised them, but now he’s about to bring healing to the nation, and then he goes down to verse 3, “Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.”  Let us know him, let us get to know him, and let’s pursue greater knowledge and understanding of who he is, that we truly know our God.  Of course, the Bible says he’s the only God.  Well, turning now to Matthew chapter 12, let’s just say a prayer, and we’ll get started in these verses.  ‘Lord, we thank you that we, as we do on Sundays, are able to come together freely and study the Word and sing songs.  It’s true though, as we gather, it can become just a head-thing, emotional thing, when what it really needs to be is you want us, you desire that we would know you.  It’s incredible that we can actually know you, it’s incredible.  It’s true.  You are by design invisible to us, we cannot see you, you’re in that other dimension, although we certainly see evidence of you.  And it’s true, because it’s that way, all the physical things can come at us, and take our attention, and fill our minds, and we can get looking horizontally, and not really be stopping and looking at you, spiritually, and knowing you.  But yet life is all about knowing you.  And I would ask, Lord, as we go through your Word, that it would be like you say right there with the prophet Hosea, that we would come and we would know you.  Even now that we would draw near to you in our hearts.  You say ‘draw near to God and he’ll draw near to you.’  And I thank you for that.  Holy Spirit be upon all of us, and even upon myself now, as we go through your Word, in Jesus name, amen.’

Lord of the Sabbath desires mercy, not sacrifice

Matthew chapter 12:1-8, “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.  And his disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.  And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!’  But he said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which 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 that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?  Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.  But 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 even of the Sabbath.’”  He says at that time Jesus now is heading through a field, walking, journeying with his disciples.  And you see there in verse 1, as he does, going through the grainfields, it’s the Sabbath-day.  We learn from the other Gospels it’s the springtime.  And he, as he’s walking, his disciples along with him, they are hungry it says.  And because they are hungry they want to eat.  So they began to pluck the grain that is there in the field, and they began to partake in that.  It says in Luke, that not only do they pluck it, they began to take it in their hands and rub it, which was a way of threshing the wheat in a sense of separating the chaff from the wheat, and then you would blow on it, and have what’s left that edible part.  So they began to do that.  Now according to the Scriptures, you can even turn with me if you wouldn’t mind, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 25.  We’ll just read it right there, Deuteronomy 23, verse 25.  According to what God had given the people of Israel,  God had a certain heart towards the needy and towards the widows and orphans, he even said, ‘When you reap your fields, leave some behind, and don’t reap the corners, but leave it there for those in need.’  And he also said this in verse 25 of chapter 23, “When you come into your neighbors standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.”  The point being, God even said in the Law that when you travel the roads, they didn’t have cars and drive-thru’s like we do, you know, you couldn’t just pull up to McDonalds.  If you’re traveling a journey, a path through a field, and as you’re traveling, if you haven’t eaten a lot and you’re famished, you could according to the Law of God in the nation of Israel, you could right there in that field, you could pluck some of the grain and thresh it and have a meal right there.  But what you couldn’t do, is you couldn’t take your tools in there and take a harvest, and load up the wheelbarrows and go off.  You know, you couldn’t do that.  But you could take enough, right there, to eat, because you were hungry.  And of course God, you know, you need to eat.  So it’s legal to do that.  It was according to the Law that you could do that.  But notice back in Matthew 12.  When the Pharisees saw it, they see them doing that, and they are just bent out of shape.    They are totally bugged by it.  ‘Lord, your disciples, what in the world are they doing?  Look what they’re doing, what they are doing is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.  It’s not lawful for them to do that.  That’s against the Sabbath.’  Now, they understood, and they taught, the religious leaders, that you could actually, six days a week, do what God said in Deuteronomy.  Although I don’t know if you noticed, he [God] didn’t give any, like, exceptions to it.  He just said you could do it.  But the religious leaders taught, you could do it Monday, well I guess it would be Sunday through Friday on their calendar.  But come the Sabbath-day, Saturday, you couldn’t do it then.  They taught that it was illegal, it was against the Law.  Now turn with me if you would to one other passage.  This is the last time I’ll have you turn.  Turn to Exodus chapter 31.  The disciples are going through this field, they’re partaking, the religious leaders are bent out of shape, and they’re saying it’s against the Law.  And why did they say that?  Well, it’s to do with the Sabbath.  And the way that they understood and discerned the Sabbath, what God said, God said a simple statement, a couple simple statements in the Old Testament, and it’s the way then that they understood their God and interpreted his heart and his mind.  And they then went on and gave this long list, and we’ll talk about that as far as what this meant.  But chapter 31, verse 14, God said, “You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you.  Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.”  [Here’s verses 15-17 as well, for the whole context, “Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD.  Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death [Yahweh repeated himself here, and where he does that in Scripture, it is meant as emphasis].  Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.  It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”  So the Sabbath was intended also to be an identifying sign for all of Israel. All 12 tribes, that they were God’s chosen people.  The Jews are the one remaining tribe who have not lost their identity historically, and it is they, and they alone who have retained the Sabbath as part of their worship.  Think there may be a connection between those two facts?  I do.  For the Jew, thus, the Sabbath has a special purpose that it does not have for Gentile Christians.  This is one Biblical reason Messianic Jewish believers in Yeshua still use the Sabbath and Holy Days as their ‘appointed days of worship’.  As Jews they were commanded by God to never cease doing so.  And Paul makes that clear when he says ‘Were you born of the circumcision?  Do not attempt to become uncircumcised.’  He is talking about giving up your Jewish customs and days of worship.  God has revived the Jewish branch of the body of Christ just within the past 40 years, through an amazing calling miracle of the Holy Spirit.  See http://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/messianicmovement.htm.  The early Christian Church was also basically Judeo-Christian for the first 250 years of its history (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/index3.htm.]  God said to them, ‘Here’s the Sabbath’.  Now the Sabbath, as you study the Old Testament, in especially the New Testament we learn this, you know, the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old Testament.  We look at the Old today through the New.  The Sabbath was intended to be a blessing to the people of Israel.  It was truly a gift to them.  As you read there in Exodus, God had given the Sabbath especially as a sign between them, the nation of Israel [all 12 tribes, at that time] and him, that they were to be set apart as a nation, they were to be holy, set apart.  But as he said too to them, you know, I worked six days [in creation] and rested the seventh, as I did that, I want you to rest on the seventh.  And there was this statement too in that, that there was a time to physically stop, life has been busy, to stop and just get focused on God, to consider him, during a day of worship, and just hang out with him in your heart, and get to know him.  [And it is truly a blessing to do that, if your focus is to spend a day with God and not ‘I shouldn’t be working today.’]  Just knowing the way we can be as people, we can get so busy with the physical, and all that we see in front of our nose, then we don’t take the time and take the vertical and look to God and get to know him.  So he had them take the seventh day, a day too of physical refreshment and replenishment, but especially spiritual.  So it was a blessing to them, it was intended for their good, the Sabbath.  Now, Jesus said, or God said, [Jesus is Yahweh, cf. Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:58-59] that they were not to do any work on that day.  And it was part of the Law. 

The purpose of the Law

You understand from the New Testament, the Law set God’s holy standard.  But at the same time, the Law was there to reveal to man that we are but weak.  We are but sinners.  And we need a Savior.  If it wasn’t for the Law we wouldn’t know that.  Adam and Eve departed from God, they did their own deal, created their own mess, caused man to be separated from God.  And that’s not what God desired.  God desired for us to be in fellowship with him and know him.  It’s what he longed for, it’s what he wanted.  And so he gave the Law, and the Law was to demonstrate to us that we are sinners, and we fall short.  [ie, what he’s trying to say is the Law is a spiritual mirror.  It shows sin, where it is, but it cannot of and by itself clean the sin off the sinner.]  And we need help.  It was our tutor, the Bible says, to drive us, to bring us to Christ, that I am a sinner, and I need a Savior.  If it wasn’t for the Law I wouldn’t know that [cf. Roman 7].  So the Law was given in a way that, you do this, you do that, you do this, you do this, all pointing to Jesus Christ, all fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  So now in Christ, I know in my life as I walk in the Spirit, the Law is fulfilled in me [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm for full coverage of this subject], and I learn in the New Testament that the Sabbath, the Sabbath was especially fulfilled in Christ [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/email/Sabbath%20Scriptures%20Study%20Paper%20(Rev%201998).htm for a good study paper on that subject].  The Sabbath pointed to Christ, that he gave us rest, meaning I don’t have to try to earn the favor of God anymore, I don’t have to go through ceremonies, I don’t have to get all religious.  I come to faith in God, because of Jesus Christ.  And I rest from my works, and I realize that I am saved through faith by grace, an not by works.  [He’s sort of skirting around the real issue.  The law is not done away, as you will find when you log onto and study that link ‘what is grace’.  But also you will come to see that for the Church age, from Pentecost 31AD to the 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ, “days of worship” through the legislation and revelation of the Holy Spirit to the apostles Paul, Peter and James in Acts 15, were made an optional choice for the believer.  That is why, and pastors should be more specific in their explanations about this, the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23 are no longer a requirement of the Law of God, specifically during the Church Age.  But for any who desire to keep them as “their choice for days of worship” they are perfectly entitled to do so.  This is a Biblical right of the believer in Jesus.  They, the Holy Days and seventh day Sabbath will yet again become part of the Law of God during the Millennial Kingdom of God after Jesus Christ returns.  See and read Zechariah 14:16-19 (in context with the previous 15 verses of the same chapter).  For proof of that legislation that makes “days of worship” an optional choice, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/romans12-14_2.htm.  Keeping of Sabbath (or Sunday for that matter) is not a works trip, as some pastors try to imply.]  So the Sabbath.  So now I come to Christ, and I rest from my works.  [that is how we all spiritually keep the Sabbath.  The day for all believers has not been done away, but transformed to a spiritual rest we have in Christ.  Amen.]  Meaning I allow the Spirit to work through me, but I’m not out there trying to impress God, instead, I’m just loving him and adoring him and letting him work through me, which is really the life, the life of Christ.  So the Sabbath was given with a certain heart and attitude.  Now the Pharisees got this word “work”, and these guys as time went on, they just lost vision of who God was.  The Sabbath was given to be a blessing, but they made it a big works trip.  They had their writings, the Talmud, interpretations of the Law.  In fact, when they came to the Sabbath, in trying to discern what the Sabbath meant, and what “work” meant, they went on for 24 chapters.  This Talmud, divided into two sections, one the Mishna.  In the Mishna the word “work” described 39 different areas of “work”, where if you did one of these on the Sabbath, you would violate the Sabbath.  And I’m sure a lot of you have been in church awhile, so you’ve heard the stories.  You know, they said ‘This is work, if you carried more than a weight of something that would weigh more than a fig, if you carried that on the Sabbath, that would be work.  So if you had two figs in your pocket, and you’re walking along on the Sabbath, you were guilty, violating the Sabbath.  And that’s pretty significant, based on what we saw in Exodus 31.  [ie, the religious leaders in Jerusalem had he authority to kill you over the slightest infraction, if they so desired.  That’s scary.  Religious government, a theocracy, out of control and in the hands of man, no longer in the hands of God, that was the situation there.  And it was not the heart of God, as the pastor is bringing out.  These guys were beyond legalism, in that sense.  The Sabbath was meant to be a time of joy and rest, like what is portrayed in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”.]  And so if your false teeth weighed more than a fig, too bad, too bad.  They said also you couldn’t look in a mirror, because if you looked in a mirror, you may get tempted to pluck one of your grey hairs.  I get tempted to do that.  [laughter]  And if you looked in a mirror, and you plucked a grey hair, that was constituted as work.  So you just violated the Sabbath.  They said on the Sabbath you couldn’t take a bath.  [Funny, one of Boston’s old ‘blue laws’ forbid taking a bath on Sunday.]  Because if you took a bath, and the water, as you’re moving around, enjoying, and it goes over the top and it got on the floor, that the floor would be cleaned by the water, and you’re cleaning the floor then, so that’s work, and you just violated the Sabbath.  So they went on and on and on about what was work, and what you couldn’t do.  And what happened is, is God came and said ‘I’ve got the Sabbath for you, rest, hang out with me, blessing set apart, I want you to just focus on me, you’re to be holy.’  God gave it to them for that, and the religious leaders, who do not know the heart of God, and did not know their God, made it into this huge works trip, huge big time.  It became an excessive burden to the people, as they did with all the Law.  These religious leaders see the disciples doing something that is in violation of the Sabbath [by their own warped interpretation of the real Sabbath command].  They said in their writings that you could not reap any produce, grain, and you could not thresh it, so these guys, because they plucked it, they said that’s reaping, and because they’re rubbing it in their hands, they said that’s threshing, violation of the law.  Now the interesting thing is here, they also taught that you couldn’t go too far from your home, if you remember, just a few hundred feet at most.  You had to stick around your house.  Because if you walked too far, that was work.  So you couldn’t walk much on your Sabbath day, on your Sabbath rest.  Now you’re wondering, how are these religious leaders seeing the disciples at this time?  They’re in a field and walking.  You know, I wonder if they’re near their houses, or have they been following them, spying on them?  It’s funny when you get critical and you want to pull out some dirt on somebody, how you’ll bend the rules in order to do it.  And these guys, they look to find some dirt, in their eyes, and yet what they’re willing to do after is amazing, they don’t see their own hideous ugliness and evil sin. 

Jesus tries to sow them the heart of God

Jesus doesn’t respond and try to defend and say ‘Hey, these guys haven’t done any work’, he doesn’t say that.  Rather, he meets these guys where they’re at, and tries to show them the heart of God, that they’re missing the God that they serve.  Verse 3,  ‘Have you not read about David’, of course these guys have read about David, these guys are the religious elite, man, David man, they spoke the word David in a certain way.  You know, this is David, ‘Haven’t you read about David in the Old Testament, remember when David was hungry, he and his buddies there, they were fleeing from Saul? (that’s in 1^st Samuel chapter 21)  And they had gone on a journey, Saul wanted to kill David.  And you remember, because they were famished, David came to the Tabernacle there, and to the high priest, and he said to him, Ahimelech, ‘Hey listen, do you have anything to eat?’  Don’t you remember that?  Ahimelech the priest says ‘All I got is the bread, man, the bread for the priests.’  Now according to the Law, that bread was holy, the showbread, and there would be the 12 loaves that were replaced there before the LORD, and it was to represent to the people of Israel that God is good, that he provides, you know, taste and see that the LORD is good.  It’s about knowing the LORD and he’s our provider.  And so in one way this pointed to Christ too, he is the Bread of Life.  But they were to put out on display the 12 loaves of bread representing the 12 tribes, and they would keep them there for the week, and then on the Sabbath day they would take them out and replace them with fresh loaves.  And the bread that was taken out, the priests could go and eat in a particular place, along with the portions of meat that were given to them from the sacrifices, and it was considered holy, but they could eat it and their families could eat it, but nobody else could eat it.  That’s explicitly what the Law stated.  But on this one occasion David comes, and the priest says ‘All I got is the showbread’, and David says ‘Well…’ and it probably was the Sabbath day, and a lot of the rabbis believe it was, although it doesn’t tell us.  David says, ‘Well it’s the showbread, it’s been set aside, it’s not holy in the sense anymore that it’s there and set before the LORD, it’s been taken out.  And so the priest says ‘So listen, have you guys not been with any women?’, and David says ‘No we haven’t’, and he says ‘OK, you can take it’, and that’s basically the story, ‘You can have the bread’.  Now there’s no reference in any case, anywhere in the Old Testament that what David did was wrong.  He actually partook of the bread, he was not of the priestly lineage, family, and he actually partook of the bread, and his men, and it was considered holy for the priests.  But there is no indication at all that it was wrong.  And so here’s Jesus’ disciples doing some eating, eating some food in a way that is considered to the religious elite unlawful, and he says ‘Hold on, look at David, remember what David did?  Now that doesn’t look like it’s lawful either, but no mention of it being unlawful, no mention of it being wrong.’  Jesus using that to bring to light the heart of the Lord.  And God isn’t some God whose legalistic, he’s not a God that comes at you with the Law to beat you up, all formal, and this is the way it’s done, A, B, C, D, E, F, G., and even though you might have good intentions, you got out of bounds a little bit, he’s gonna whack you, he’s not like that.  He’s not legalistic.  He’s not in such a way that he says ‘This is the code you need to prescribe to’, and you come and have this exception, you have this extenuating circumstance, an honest and sincere circumstance, and you come and you say ‘But you know, I have this’.  He doesn’t go, ‘Oh man, this is the Law.’  He’s not that way.  But that’s the way the religious leaders saw him.  And that’s the way they wanted him to be, really, because it worked for them in their deal.  But they completely misrepresented the LORD, and so Jesus is saying ‘God is not that way.’  ‘You know, the letter of the Law kills, and that’s what you guys are about, the letter, but it’s the spirit of the Law that gives life.’   And the Sabbath was there to give life, to be a blessing.  God isn’t going to go choke you with it and hang you with it, if you’re sincerely following him.  David was hungry, and it was fine at that point.  It was fine at that point to take the showbread which was holy and use it, because he had a need.  He was hungry and God wanted to provide for him and his family.  And that became the precedent at that moment.  Maybe you’re here today, and you can relate a little bit to being in a camp like the religious leaders.  You know, you came from a certain maybe church background, religious background, maybe it was the home you grew up in, the way that God was demonstrated to you was exactly that way, that ‘Here’s the Law, and if you violate the Law, that is it, man, doesn’t matter, you could give the excuse, ‘I didn’t mean to sleep in late, my alarm didn’t go off’.  ‘Oh but God is angry because you didn’t get up and have your devotions that day.  It’s just the way it is, you blew it today.’  But your alarm didn’t go off, I mean, come on.  And you’re in that type of environment.  Maybe standing with your mom and dad, ‘Mom, dad, this is what happened, honestly, I didn’t make it to church, the car broke down, or I had to work that one day, I’d lose my job if I didn’t work that one day, I had to.  [Comment: Now a comment on the Torah-observant Sabbatarian Churches of God, of which I was a member of one.  We considered it a test of faith if an employer tried to force us to work on the Sabbath.  Many of us lost jobs.  But also we found that God was always very gracious and blessed us almost immediately with another job, and usually a better one.  But it was all based on our own attitude on how we faced such a trial.  God was there, and he was gracious to us.  But if keeping the Sabbath was part of the belief system we ascribed to, we found God held us to what we said we believed, and blessed us for our faith in sticking to it.  I witnessed this many times with others, as well as with myself.  It’s the principle the apostle Paul brought out in Romans 14:22-23.  Look it up and read it.]  Maybe because of that you’ve had a certain understanding of God (that isn’t accurate), but consider what Jesus is doing, too, as we go on in the text, that God isn’t that way.  He is Holy, he’s perfect, and he’s unchanging, but yet he’s a God of understanding.  He understands your need.  He knows what’s going down.  He knows that you’re but frail, and so he understands and he discerns that, ‘Hey I gotta work with Steve a little bit, you know I gotta give him a little room here, you know, as he’s trying his best, I’m not gonna come with the Law and just go caboom!, I’m gonna just meet him where he’s at.’  God is an understanding God, and that’s the point that is being made here, where Jesus is poking at these religious leaders.  And maybe you need to remember that today.  It says, verse 4, how David entered, got the showbread, and it was only lawful for the priests, but he had some.  Verse 5, “Or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath the priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath, and they’re blameless.”  And he goes a little further, talk about work on the Sabbath, you guys are on this works trip, but you know in the Law God says you shall not work, and you shall not profane the Sabbath, but then in the same Law God said to the priests, ‘Listen, on the Sabbath, here’s what you do on the rest of the days, here’s your work-load, but on the Sabbath, I gotta pick it up a little bit, you’ve got to do twice as many sacrifices, and you’ve got to do all these things, you gotta kindle the fire for the sacrifices, you’ve got a ton of work to do on the Sabbath.’  So Jesus is saying, ‘Now hold on, you’re so pulled into this works thing, the letter.  What about the priests?  The priests work like crazy, it’s their hardest day of the week, it’s their hardest day of the week, and clearly that is what God asked…[tape switchover, some text lost]…only one way, but wait a minute, that seems to go against that grain.  Maybe you’re missing the point about God, and about his heart, and about the way he works, and about even his intention with the Sabbath. 

“You’re hung up on the Law, you’ve forgotten God, who created the Law”

And he says, verse 6, “Yet I say to you that in this place there’s one greater than the Temple.”  You’ll notice as we go on, we won’t finish this, this week, but as we go on in our text, you’ll notice that a number of times he gives that comparison, that he is, he is King, he is The Priest, he is The Prophet.  So here he’s saying, greater than the Temple, greater than the priesthood, by default, greater than all of that, he’s the High Priest, Jesus is our High Priest.  Of course, he’s greater than David, he gave David’s example.  As we’ll go on, he’ll speak more on that subject.  He is the greater, he’s the King of kings.  And he’ll talk about even different prophets in different contexts, and always that sense that he’s greater.  He is greater because he’s the Creator of the heavens and the earth, he’s made it all anyway.  And so these guys that are all bent out of shape because of the way he’s approaching the Sabbath, and allowing his disciples to have a meal, he’s saying to them, ‘Dude, I’m greater, I came up with the idea.  I’m the one who ordained this whole Sabbath thing.  I’m the one who set the boundaries, and you’re telling me that I’m not doing it right?  I set the rules here, guys.  It’s my concept, my design.  I’m greater’, he’s the Designer.  [Jesus, Yeshua was the pre-Incarnate Yahweh, cf. Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:58-59.] 

What God really desires---mercy, that we be merciful

Then he says in verse 7, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the guiltless.”  ‘If you would have just known.  Have you ever read about David?  If you would have known this one verse, you guys are supposed to be the experts.’  He’s reminded them, already poked them with it before, and they haven’t got it.  ‘If you just would know what it means.’  God isn’t into the ‘sacrifice religious trip’, he’s not into all the works, that’s not his point.  If that overflows from a heart of love, that’s one thing.  But if that’s what it’s all about to you, the works, the works, the works, he says, ‘I desire love, man.  I desire the work of the Spirit.  I desire mercy, mercy, the heart of mercy.’  And he desires it because that is his heart.  The heart of God is a merciful heart.  Maybe you were reading recently in the Bible reading, and you know in the Psalms you notice that sometimes, some of the psalmists, worshipping God, some of the chapters, every other verse in the psalm they come back to ‘God you’re merciful’, ‘Your mercy endures forever, your mercy, your mercy’, ‘Your mercies are new every morning.’  God is a merciful God.  ‘If you had known that [Jesus is telling them], then you’d know it too, you’d be that way too.’  That’s what God wants is mercy, merciful people.  That’s the way he is.  You know, maybe you’re here today, and that’s a concept with you and God that you’ve missed.  You don’t connect in that way with God being merciful.  Maybe it’s because of the way you were treated in your home, with your mom and dad.  Maybe again it’s the church upbringing you had where with God there was no mercy, man, there was just no mercy.  It was black and white, you messed up, you got the whole penalty, that was it, no mercy, no grace.  And so you are here, and you have a sense of condemnation.  You often are sensing just shame and guilt and you can’t seem to get beyond it, because you’re always thinking like you’re failing and doing wrong.  And a lot of it has to do with the church experience in the past, or family experience, or just some sort of experience, and it’s affected even the way you view God, and you’re thinking God’s ashamed at you and angry, and you’re just not cutting it with God.  But then when we read the Bible, we find that God says ‘Merciful, I’m merciful, I’m merciful, I know you fail, I know you’re weak, I know you struggle.  And I take care of sin when you confess it, and I separate it as far as the east is from the west, I don’t even remember it anymore.’  He says ‘I desire mercy.’  It’s possible you’re here today, and you’re just lost that perspective, maybe it’s a whole another religious experience.  You know, again, I wasn’t raised Muslim, but it would seem in Islam that would be something that if you come from that background, you think that God doesn’t show a lot of mercy.  Where I’ve been told and studied and heard and read, that, I even watched the debate, I don’t know if you have this video, if you have this video it would be great to have it back, but we had it in our library and we never saw it again downstairs.  [can’t believe it, somebody stole a church video!]  But this great video of a debate between a Muslim Islamic like hi-ho kind of guy that was pretty cool in that world, and an evangelical theologian and apologist, and they debated in a university.  It’s a great debate.  And the debate is, ‘Who is the real Jesus?’, which is real interesting that they would be debating that.  And you watch this debate.  As they go through the debate, the Islamic leader is questioned, and the person doing the moderating is like one of these anchor people from NBC or ABC or CBS, one of them, you’d recognize ‘em.  It’s actually a gal, and she asks the Muslim about, you know, ‘When you die, do you know you’re going to heaven?’  And this guy is like way up there, he’s like a big-time leader in the Islamic world.  His response was ‘I’m not one hundred percent sure.  I’m pretty sure, I have a good feeling about it, basically, but I’m not 100 percent sure.’  And it goes back to the understanding of God in that religion, whether God is merciful and gracious, grace being given undeserved favor, mercy being not given what you deserve.  So today God wants us to be reminded that he is an understanding God, he’s also a merciful God.  And then Jesus says “For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  He’s Lord even of the Sabbath, again he’s the guy who designed it.  He’s the guy that came up with the whole idea [ie, Yahweh was the pre-incarnate Christ, cf. Exodus 3:13-14; John 8:58-59].  He is Lord even of the Sabbath.  So, for that reason, he can do as he feels led to do, he can do all these things, he certainly knows what’s best, and is not in violation to what is intended through the Sabbath commands.

What is God really like?  God is a God of mercy

Now verses 9-14, “Now when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue.  And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand.  And they asked him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’---that they might accuse him.”  We learn in Luke that it’s his right hand that’s withered.  Now when you compare it with the other Gospels, you find that there’s a little bit more to it, and you have to put it all together to get the whole story.  But it appears, actually, that Jesus started this.  He knew where they were coming from, he knew what they were trying to do.  Maybe this guy was even planted in this synagogue, they’re trying to set him up.  So he initially actually brings up the subject (in Luke), “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?”   And then there’s a dialogue that goes back and forth, and then we have here in Matthew, they ask him the question.  So you put it together, it’s a little bit of a dialogue going on. “‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’  They asked him that, that they might accuse him.  Then he said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?  Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?  Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’  Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’  And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him.”  So he’s in this synagogue and there’s this guy with a withered hand.  Now according to the religious elite, the Pharisees and Scribes of the time, they understanding the Sabbath and what constituted work and what didn’t, they believed that you could, if somebody was physically harmed, somebody had an injury, you could do enough on the Sabbath to keep him alive, to get him over till the next day, the day after the Sabbath.  But that’s all you could do.  Now I don’t know about you, if I had a Pharisee for a neighbor and I got hurt, he’d be the last guy I’d call if it was the Sabbath day, because he’d come over, and if you were hurt badly, like bleeding profusely, he’d go ‘Well, here’s the towel, you know, hold it on there, apply pressure, I’ll be back tomorrow.’  That’s basically what he’d do.  You could do that.  But he couldn’t do anything to bring any sort of healing and make you better.  That, according to the religious leadership, the Pharisees and the Scribes, was a violation of the Sabbath law.  [Now look up Exodus 20:8-11 and see where they get that interpretation.  It says nothing for or against healing on the Sabbath.]  And so Jesus goes right at it.  Can you imagine a God like that?  A God that would give you that type of law?  That you’re here sitting in a car accident, bleeding profusely, and here comes the religious leaders, the guys that really know God well, and all they can do is, they leave you there on the side of the road, and give you maybe a band-aid, and say ‘I’ll be back tomorrow.’  I mean, can you imagine?  And they’re God’s representatives on earth, saying ‘That’s the way God is.’  Maybe that’s been your sense too, of God, that God isn’t very caring, doesn’t care a whole lot about us.  Maybe you’ve been thinking, ‘He’s God, he does his own deal, he’s made us, and he’s got his plan, and it works the way he wants, but as far as really caring, really desiring, wanting good in your life, that can’t be God, ah, he’s just not that caring and good, I’ve not seen him that way, I’ve not heard of him being that way, it wasn’t represented to me that way.’  Well you see here in the Scripture that God, as Jesus is sharing.  How absurd, that they’re trying to set him up on this situation.  Now, this man has a withered hand, so he technically, this is a set-up, he can wait till the next day.  It’s not life-threatening.  But you know they set him up, because they know the heart of Christ.  They totally despise it, they want nothing to do with it, but it’s the heart of God, it is the heart of God, and they’re actually turned off to it.  They know if, ‘If we put this guy there on the Sabbath, with his hand, this guy’s gonna be tempted to do something about it.  So let’s see if we can set him up.  That would break the Law’  [in their minds, not actually].  I mean, they know the heart of God, as far as the heart of Christ.  And they don’t think it’s God’s heart, though.  Well he says, ‘Listen’, his response, ‘you guys, on the Sabbath day, if you had a sheep that fell into a hole, now come on, speaking of pity, you certainly would pull that sheep outa there.  You know you would.’  Interestingly, in some of the rabbinical writings, they actually debated this very point, this point about ‘If my animal falls in the pit on the Sabbath, what should I do?’  Initially, early on, it was ‘Well we can feed it, throw some food down to the animal, you can do that.  But you can’t do any more.’  Then they continued to debate it and debate it, and for personal reasons I guess, probably, ‘Ah, you can lift the bugger out, you know, this is too much of a hardship, get the guy out of there, get the cat out, this is the cat, come on, you’re not gonna leave him in the hole’, or whatever, pet dog.  So, Jesus says ‘You pity the animal for your own deal, but how much more valuable is a man than an animal?  You don’t pity this man. That’s the point.  You don’t want to show love, compassion.  You don’t think God does either?  Man, you’re way off base on what you believe God is and God is not, that’s for sure.’  And so I would have loved to have been there, verse 13, he says to him, “Stretch out your hand.”  That would be cool, watching him do this kind of stuff.  And the guy stretches out his hand, and vuala, there it is.  And now these guys are ticked.  They are totally ticked.  They leave, the Pharisees, they go out, they plot against him, how they might destroy him.  We learn in the other Gospels, they join up with the Herodians, the Herodians, these Jewish guys that kind of sided with the government (Roman), who are like, just enemies, really, rivals to the Pharisees.  They go out, because they’re so angry at Jesus, they team up with people they normally wouldn’t, and they conspire how to destroy him, how to kill him.  Now there’s a heart for you.  He heals a guy, and in their eyes, he shows pity on the Sabbath, he violates the Sabbath [again, in their eyes, not really], which is such an abomination to them that he would do it in this way, that they then go out and plan how to kill him, which to me seems pretty evil too.  But they don’t think so.  And you know, when you miss sight of God, you just watch the TV in Iraq [sermon given around 2005 or 2006], you can really get blinded and think weird things, and justify them.  You know, we see the guys in Israel today, and Iraq, they put on the, even young gals, the plastic explosives, in the name of God, or crash planes into the World Trade Center, in the name of God, totally clueless to who God is, and what he would do and not do.  So, blinded, these guys are so blinded, so hard-hearted.  But you see, your God is good, God is good, he cares for the sheep in the hole, even on the Sabbath.  Jesus cares for this man, he doesn’t want him to suffer another day with it.  Maybe it hurts.  He just loves him, and yes, it’s the Sabbath, yes, it’s a rest, but we show good, we show pity, we show love, that’s the heart of God, God is a good God.  And that can be something that some of us really have to learn, you know, because of our past background, we don’t see God as wanting to do good to us, and we have to wrestle through that.  Dave Rosales used to be on our radio station.  He shared an example on our radio station, he’s not on it any more, but he used to be on it, and I remember hearing this.  But his neighbor, his neighbor actually in his driveway ran over his child, three-year-old child and killed the child.  But here is this story Dave was sharing.  This man went to his priest, rabbi, whatever it was, I don’t know the religious denomination, went to his religious leader and said, ‘Hey, I’ve killed my child, I need a funeral.’  And for certain reasons, this man and his wife felt, they really wanted to have it in a certain place.  Well the priest or whatever, responded and said ‘You know, that place is not sacred ground, I can’t do this funeral.’  So the priest refused to do the funeral.  Now here is a man whose probably gone through one of the more horrific things you could possibly go through, I couldn’t think of anything more horrific in life, to have to live on the other side of, goes to this religious leader, his religious leader says, ‘If you don’t do it where I consider sacred ground, I can’t do it.’  Dude, get a clue, is what I say.  God is a God of mercy, compassion, and he’s good.  And I can tell you what, Jesus would have showed up and he would have sat there, wouldn’t have mattered if it was the city dump, he would have sat there with that man and ministered to him.  They misrepresented the Lord, they did not know the Lord.  Maybe you’re here today, and you’ve had the same experience.   I mean, God has not been shown to you as someone who wants to do good.  But we studied the Bible, and of course we’ve looked at the cross, and we see that God is a good God, and he loves to do good.  He wants to do good in your life.  So therefore, in my life, when I go through a season that’s very hard, when I go through a season I do not understand, when things are happening and tribulation and trial, and I start getting confused, eventually in faith I can come back and go, ‘I don’t understand this, God, but I believe because of what I see in your Word, and also because of the way you’ve always treated me in my life, I know that you’re good, I know that you’re good.  I don’t understand why you allow this, or do this, but you are good.  And so that’s your purpose, good, to bring good into my life, ultimately, your glory, in and through my life.’  Well these guys are ticked, man.  They are just so blinded to God. 

The religious leaders are plotting to kill Jesus, so he takes his ministry out of the public eye

And then let’s look at the last few verses we’ll look at.  Verses 15-21, “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there.  And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.  Yet he warned them not to make him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

‘Behold!  My servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased!  I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will declare justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench, till he sends forth justice to victory; and in his name Gentiles will trust.’” [Isaiah 42:1-4]

Here Matthew actually includes, he quotes the Old Testament a lot, because he’s demonstrating that this Jesus, Yeshua, there’s never been anybody like him.  He’s the Messiah [Hebrew: Meshiach] indeed, he’s the Son of God.  He quotes the Old Testament a lot.  This time he quotes Isaiah 42 and he uses a passage more so, it’s the longest passage he pulls out of the Old Testament.  And he does this with a purpose, but you see that Jesus as he hears about these religious leaders being upset, he withdraws from there.  And that’s kind of a foretaste of where we’re going, because there’s a time-clock for when Jesus is going to go to the cross, there’s an ordained hour.  And so the religious leaders, they’re going to start really planning on killing Jesus.  So he kind of goes into, you could say, in a secret sort of ministry, he stays away from the direct public eye.  He ministers to multitudes that follow him around, though.  Here he has these guys get all bent out of shape, and they want to kill him, and he knows that.  Yet what does he do?  He sees hurting people and he keeps ministering to them.  He heals a ton of them, heals them all.  It just tells you, he wants to do good and bless somebody’s life.  But he warns, ‘Don’t let it be known, because, here’s the deal, these guys are out of control.’  And so then, Matthew now as he’s penning this, this former tax collector whose only experienced the grace and goodness of God, kindness of the Lord, he now writes and includes, ‘Hey, he goes into secret, he doesn’t get into a big boxing match with these guys, and this is according to the prophecy of the Servant, the Messiah, Isaiah 42, God speaking through Isaiah, about the coming Messiah, this tremendous servant who would come, as a servant.  ‘Behold, my servant, I’ve chosen him, my beloved, I love him, in whom I am well pleased.’  You think back to the baptism, you know the Father to the Son, ‘Behold, my Son, in whom I am well pleased.  I will put my Spirit on him.’  We saw that at the baptism.  ‘He will declare justice to the Gentiles, to the nations.’  He’s come more than just for the nation of Israel, he’s come for all.  It says in verse 19, “He will not quarrel nor cry out”, meaning, he will not put up the dukes, he’s not going to get in this big defense and argument, trying, trying to prove himself in this verbal debate.  I mean, he’ll make a stand and move on, but he’s not going to quarrel or cry out.  That’s what those words mean.  “Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets”, so he’s going to go on the back paths, hanging out with people that go with him there.  Prophecy fulfilled. 

Jesus came to serve and heal

And then notice verse 20, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench.”  Commentators take that differently.  I lean towards, which is probably the most prominent way to look at this, and I think the context bears that out, and that is, a bruised reed.  You know some of the reeds along the Jordan or even the Nile river, when they would bend over, certain types, they get a bruise, what seems to be a bruise.  A bruised reed he will not break, meaning something that’s already bent over and hurting, he’s not going to come and go ‘Whack!, it’s useless, break it.’  And a smoking flax, you know, the little flax there in a candle, it’s smoking because it’s going out, the flame is just dying, and there’s just smoke.  He’s not going to come and quench it and snuff it out.  And the point being, it’s the way he is, as the servant, he comes to serve.  Somebody’s broken, somebody’s hurt, somebody’s bruised, somebody has just pain in their life, he doesn’t come and stomp on them, just trample you, he doesn’t come that way, he’s a servant.  And he comes with a kindness to him.  A smoking flax, I mean, you’re dying, the juice has gone out, spiritually you’re just dried up and at a really difficult point, he doesn’t go and put out the flame.  Instead he kindles it and gets it going and gets you back in the deal again, and just passionate about him and walking with him.  “Till he sends forth justice to victory.”  Well, given all that, the point is, victory is coming.  He comes as a servant, and in his name Gentiles will trust.  You know, today, maybe God wants to remind you, maybe you’ve been out of church, you’re sitting there for awhile, maybe you’ve been here for awhile.  And you know, it’s about knowing God for who he truly is.  And as we are reminded in our verses today, God is an understanding God.  And if you don’t think he’s understanding, then draw near to him, and he’ll draw near to you, and you’ll learn indeed that God is an understanding God.  And not only is he understanding, he’s also very merciful.  He doesn’t just beat up on us.  He shows mercy and grace.  And not only is he merciful, as we’ve seen there, he’s also a good God, he wants to bring goodness into your life, and work in your life in just a sweet way.  And also, he’s kind, man, he doesn’t come and say ‘Hey, you’re down for the count?---Wup-tee-do.’  He cares, man, he’s a caring God…[connective expository sermon on Matthew 12:1-21, given somewhere in New England.]