Fellow Redeemed in Christ Jesus,
What about those people who are what we call, picky? They seem on the lookout for the slightest miscue on our part, or any minor deviation from perfection. The only way they judge is by the outward action in its narrowest interpretation.
This was the legalistic approach the sect of the Pharisees took towards the keeping of God’s law. Such legalism is not unknown in the visible church today. Sadly, it can surface in our own church body. It is also true that at times people wrongly judge the faithful application of a clear Scriptural principle as being picky.
Jesus offers some insights into these issues in our text. Jesus’ directs his words particularly to the Sabbath law and its correct understanding.We lesser mortals in frustration might have addressed the Pharisees’ legalism not with a powerful lesson but with the sharper rebuke, Picky, Picky. Keeping the Sabbath is not about doing or not doing something outwardly; keeping the Sabbath is finding rest through the Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of Man.
When God created the earth and the universe, he did it in six days. On the seventh day God created, he rested. He established that seventh day as a holy day. Many years later under Moses, the LORD codified this holy day of rest, this Sabbath, for his children. They were not to work. They were to spend the day meditating on how good their Creator-Savior God had been to them. They were to spend the day in worship around God’s Word.
We read Exodus 35:2, “For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death..”
One day Jesus and his disciples were making their way through a field of grain. The disciples were picking some grain with their hands. I can remember doing that with my cousins, as we would play among the ears of corn in my family’s garden. My wheat farmers in Central Washington would do the same to see when the wheat was ready to harvest. The legalistic Pharisees accused the disciples of actually harvesting the grain by their actions. “Look,” they told Jesus, “what they are doing is unlawful on the Sabbath.” The Greek Word look has the idea, “We see you. We’ve been watching you and now we’ve caught you.” Picky, picky.
Keeping the Sabbath law is not about doing or not doing something outwardly. It is true not only in a fussy legalistic interpretation the law never intended. It is true also when it came to the very outward command. We have an example in our first lesson, an example Jesus used here. David went to the tabernacle to get some bread for his men. There was no regular bread so the high priest, Ahimelech, gave David bread that he had consecrated to the LORD. This was outwardly against the Mosaic Law. It was, however, keeping the spirit of the law, the real meaning of the law, which is love.
There is no requirement for us New Testament Christians to keep the ceremonial aspect of the Third Commandment by Saturday being our Sabbath. We have no Sabbath Day as such. Yet we still obey the Third Commandment by hearing God’s Word rather than despise preaching and his Word. We keep the Sabbath as our spiritual rest by holding God’s Word sacred and gladly hearing it and learning it in whatever circumstance. It is the rest for our souls we receive through Christ and the forgiveness he earned for us that is the real Sabbath.
Keeping the Sabbath law is not about doing or not doing something outwardly. Here is where it is easy to make a mistake in modern application. When we encourage regular church attendance, some say, “I have to be in church? Picky, picky.” When we tell people having sex apart from marriage and they need to get married with a marriage license, they say “Picky, picky, it is just a piece of paper.” Marriage is only between a man and a woman. Picky, picky. God’s Word warns us against false teachers and commands us not to join with them in organizations and work some say about fellowship, “Picky, picky.”
It is not the outward actions that are the issue. The issue is the Lord of the Sabbath; the Son of Man. Being picky is making something that is not a sin into a sin like the Pharisees did. Picky is always applying the most narrow and limited application of the law. It is not picky to apply God’s Word to a sin, call the sinner to repentance, and change from that sin.
Jesus brought this lesson to the Pharisees to show them their legalism. He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus shows the Pharisees their ignorance of the Word. He is the Lord of all things including the Sabbath. He is the Sabbath rest. Jesus told the crowds, “Come to me, all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” Mt. 11:28. What matters are not the law and the keeping of its outward requirements. What matters is the heart that trusts in Jesus. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus that gives us rest from the accusations of our guilty conscience, and the desire and ability to fulfill the law of love.
To help understand Jesus’ point we can think of our callings in life, our jobs. They were made for us to use. We were not made for them to use us. We are to be their masters. They are not to master us. Jesus makes the point that the law, love, is for us to use as the means of showing our love for God and our thanks for his love to us. The law is not our master that drives us or that we have to fulfill to be saved. The law of love is the manifestation of faith in the gospel of love we have in Christ.
Here too people falsely accuse us. “You have to believe only in Christ?” Other religions besides Christianity do not bring salvation? Picky, picky. “You are saved only by what Jesus did under the law and on the cross and not by our own efforts? Picky. Picky.”
Jesus refers to himself here as he often did, the Son of Man. Jesus is thinking about how as a man he came to keep the law. He has mastered it. So it cannot master us. We now use the law as a mirror, curb and guide. It does not master us demanding perfect obedience or separation from God for eternity.
We are not being picky when we point people only to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal salvation. We are not being picky, picky when we practice Scriptural applications of the law that flow from faith in Christ rather than legalism. We are being true to the Son of Man who is the Lord of the Sabbath and Lord of all things. Through faith in him we also are lords and ladies in the kingdom of God.
May the Sabbath rest we have in Christ always keep us from legalism and pietism and move us to genuine love and true piety as Jesus showed. Amen. <SDG>