Jesus Christ · On the Scriptures
Lord of the Sabbath
Twice in one chapter Jesus is accused of breaking the sabbath, and twice he answers not by relaxing the law but by arguing from it — David eating bread reserved for priests, the priests themselves working in the temple every sabbath without guilt, a line from Hosea about mercy over sacrifice. Then he says the thing no defense required: the sabbath was made for man, and the Son of Man is Lord of it.
The Grainfield Charge
— Matthew 12:1-5At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”Hungry, walking through a field, the disciples pluck grain by hand — and the Pharisees call it sabbath work.
Jesus replied, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to eat, but only for the priests.Jesus's first answer is a precedent, not an exception: David ate bread reserved for priests, and was not condemned.
The disciples have broken no written law — plucking grain by hand while walking through someone else’s field was permitted (Deut 23:25). Their offense, in the Pharisees’ eyes, is doing it on the sabbath, work by their own tradition’s reckoning. Jesus does not dispute the tradition directly. He reaches for Scripture.
But he said unto them, Have ye not read--or, as Mark (Mr 2:25) has it, "Have ye never read." what David did when he was an hungered, and they that were with him-- (1Sa 21:1-6)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 12:3
Have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and yet are without guilt? But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 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." (Matthew 12:5-8) However, the Laws of God are never contradictory to themselves.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), Matt 12:5
“I Will Have Mercy, and Not Sacrifice”
— Matthew 12:5-7Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are innocent?A second precedent: the priests themselves work in the temple every sabbath, and are blameless.
If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.The same line Jesus quotes at Matt 9:13, over eating with sinners — Hosea's principle, applied twice.
Two precedents, then a principle. David and the priests both show the law bending for need without breaking. “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” is not Jesus setting mercy against Scripture — it is Scripture, Hosea 6:6, turned into the rule for reading every other command in the Law.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice - That is, when they interfere with each other, I always prefer acts of mercy, before matters of positive institution: yea, before all ceremonial institutions whatever; because these being only means of religion, are suspended of course, if circumstances occur, wherein they clash with love, which is the end of it.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Matt 12:7
But our Lord added a specific application of this great principle to the law of the sabbath, preserved only in Mark: "And he said unto them, the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mr 2:27). A glorious and far-reaching maxim, alike for the permanent establishment of the sabbath and the true freedom of its observance.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 12:7
Three Answers, One Verdict
— from Scripture to a claim about HimselfPRECEDENT
David and the Showbread
“Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred… how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat…”
1 Samuel 21:1–6 · Matt 12:3–4
PRECEDENT
The Priests Are Blameless
“Have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?”
Matthew 12:5
PRINCIPLE
Mercy, Not Sacrifice
“I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”
Hosea 6:6 · Matt 12:7
THE VERDICT
“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”
Mark 2:27–28 →THE ESCALATION — SAID THREE TIMES, IN THE SAME BREATH
Greater Than the Temple
Matthew 12:6 →
Greater Than Jonah
Matthew 12:41 →
Greater Than Solomon
Matthew 12:42 →
“In this place is one greater than the temple.” — Matthew 12:6
The Voices on the Verdict
— the church hears Mark 2:27-28 and Matthew 12:6, 8It goes on: And he said to them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. For greater is the care to be taken of the health and life of a man, than the keeping of the sabbath. Therefore the sabbath was ordered to be observed in such a way, that, if there were a necessity, he should not be guilty, who broke the sabbath-day; therefore it was not forbidden to circumcise on the sabbath, because that was a necessary work. And the Maccabees, when necessity pressed on them, fought on the sabbath-day.
Bede· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (735), Mark 2:27
In this place is one greater than the temple - Does not our Lord refer here to Mal 3:1? Compare this with Heb 3:3. The Jews esteemed nothing greater than the temple, except that God who was worshipped in it. Christ, by asserting he was greater than the temple, asserts that he was God; and this he does, in still more direct terms, Mat 12:8, The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath - is Institutor and Governor of it.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 12:6
He calls Himself the Son of Man, and the meaning is, He whom ye suppose a mere man is God, the Lord of all creatures, and also of the sabbath, and He has therefore power to change the law after His pleasure, because He made it.
Remigius of Rheims· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (533), Matt 12:8
The Withered Hand
— Matthew 12:9-13, the second controversyand a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” He replied, “If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?Jesus is asked directly whether healing on the sabbath is lawful — and answers with a question of His own.
How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored to full use, just like the other.A man outranks a sheep. The healing happens by a single word.
Same sabbath, a different synagogue: a man with a withered hand, and the Pharisees watching to see if Jesus will heal him so they can accuse him. Jesus reasons the same way he did in the grainfield — from an everyday case everyone already agrees on (rescuing a sheep) to the case in front of him. If a sheep, why not a man. The healing costs him one sentence: “Stretch forth thine hand.”
Hence Christ infers a truth, which, even at first sight, appears very reasonable and good-natured; that it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days; they had asked, Is it lawful to hear? Christ proves it is lawful to do well, and let any one judge whether healing, as Christ healed, was not doing well.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), Matt 12:11-12
How much then is a man better than a sheep? - Our Lords argument is what is called argumentum ad hominem; they are taken on their own ground, and confuted on their own maxims and conduct. There are many persons who call themselves Christians, who do more for a beast of burden or pleasure than they do for a man for whom Christ died!
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 12:12
Christians and the Sabbath
— a question this page does not settleChristians have not landed in one place on what the sabbath command means now that its Lord has come. Some hold that the seventh-day sabbath still binds; most churches through history have kept a weekly day of rest and worship on the first day instead, the Lord’s day, marking the resurrection; others read Paul as teaching that the sabbath itself was a shadow fulfilled in Christ, no longer a binding requirement one way or the other. This page does not adjudicate the question — it only shows what Jesus himself said and did on a sabbath, which every position has to reckon with.
One historic voice on the change of dayClarke, 1832
Commenting on “the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath-day,” Adam Clarke takes the traditional Lord’s-day reading:
“The change of the Jewish into the Christian Sabbath, called the Lords day, Rev 1:10, shows that Christ is not only the Lord, but also the truth and completion of it.”
Where It Points
— something greater than all threeIn the same chapter, close on the heels of the sabbath controversies, Jesus names three things his contemporaries revered without argument — the temple, Jonah’s preaching, Solomon’s wisdom — and says something in his ministry outranks each of them. Not a boast made in isolation. It is the same claim the sabbath controversies already made: the one interpreting Scripture here is not merely citing it well. He is what it was pointing to.
The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. Not by the power of judgment, but by the example of comparison. And behold, here is more than Jonah. Here, 'here' is an adverb of place, not a pronoun. Jonah, according to the Septuagint Interpreters, preached for three days: I for so much time. He to the unbelieving Assyrians: I to the people of God, the Jews. He to foreigners: I to fellow citizens.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), Matt 12:41
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, &c.--The queen of Sheba (a tract in Arabia, near the shores of the Red Sea) came from a remote country, "south" of Judea, to hear the wisdom of a mere man, though a gifted one, and was transported with wonder at what she saw and heard (1Ki 10:1-9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 12:42
Closing
Twice accused, twice Jesus answers from the Scriptures his accusers claimed to hold sacred — and twice the answer lands on the same place: not a looser sabbath, but a different Lord of it. Something greater than the temple, than Jonah, than Solomon, stands in a Galilean grainfield explaining an old law from the inside.