Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[Hosea 6:6] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
God’s Chosen Servant
15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
19 He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”[Isaiah 42:1-4]
Jesus and Beelzebul
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
The Sign of Jonah
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.
43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
NOTES:
BACK TO:
12:1–14 Matthew here returns to the Marcan order that he
left in Mt 9:18. The two stories depend on Mk 2:23–28; 3:1–6, respectively, and
are the only places in either gospel that deal explicitly with Jesus’ attitude
toward sabbath observance.
12:1–2 The picking of the heads of grain is here equated
with reaping, which was forbidden on the sabbath (Ex 34:21).
12:3–4 See 1 Sm 21:2–7. In the Marcan parallel (Mk 2:25–26)
the high priest is called Abiathar, although in 1 Samuel this action is
attributed to Ahimelech. The Old Testament story is not about a violation of
the sabbath rest; its pertinence to this dispute is that a violation of the law
was permissible because of David’s men being without food.
12:5–6 This and the following argument (Mt 12:7) are
peculiar to Matthew. The temple service seems to be the changing of the
showbread on the sabbath (Lv 24:8) and the doubling on the sabbath of the usual
daily holocausts (Nm 28:9–10). The argument is that the law itself requires
work that breaks the sabbath rest, because of the higher duty of temple
service. If temple duties outweigh the sabbath law, how much more does the
presence of Jesus, with his proclamation of the kingdom (something greater than
the temple), justify the conduct of his disciples.
12:7 See note on Mt 9:13.
12:8 The ultimate justification for the disciples’ violation
of the sabbath rest is that Jesus, the Son of Man, has supreme authority over
the law.
12:10 Rabbinic tradition later than the gospels allowed
relief to be given to a sufferer on the sabbath if life was in danger. This may
also have been the view of Jesus’ Pharisaic contemporaries. But the case here
is not about one in danger of death.
12:11 Matthew omits the question posed by Jesus in Mk 3:4
and substitutes one about rescuing a sheep on the sabbath, similar to that in
Lk 14:5.
12:14 See Mk 3:6. Here the plan to bring about Jesus’ death
is attributed to the Pharisees only. This is probably due to the situation of
Matthew’s church, when the sole opponents were the Pharisees.
12:15–21 Matthew follows Mk 3:7–12 but summarizes his source
in two verses (Mt 12:15, 16) that pick up the withdrawal, the healings, and the
command for silence. To this he adds a fulfillment citation from the first
Servant Song (Is 42:1–4) that does not correspond exactly to either the Hebrew
or the LXX of that passage. It is the longest Old Testament citation in this
gospel, emphasizing the meekness of Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, and
foretelling the extension of his mission to the Gentiles.
12:15 Jesus’ knowledge of the Pharisees’ plot and his
healing all are peculiar to Matthew.
12:19 The servant’s not contending is seen as fulfilled in
Jesus’ withdrawal from the disputes narrated in Mt 12:1–14.
12:21 Except for a minor detail, Matthew here follows the
LXX, although the meaning of the Hebrew (“the coastlands will wait for his
teaching”) is similar.
12:22–32 For the exorcism, see note on Mt 9:32–34. The long
discussion combines Marcan and Q material (Mk 3:22–30; Lk 11:19–20, 23; 12:10).
Mk 3:20–21 is omitted, with a consequent lessening of the sharpness of Mt
12:48.
12:23 See note on Mt 9:27.
12:24 See note on Mt 10:25.
12:25–26 Jesus’ first response to the Pharisees’ charge is
that if it were true, Satan would be destroying his own kingdom.
12:27 Besides pointing out the absurdity of the charge,
Jesus asks how the work of Jewish exorcists (your own people) is to be
interpreted. Are they, too, to be charged with collusion with Beelzebul? For an
example of Jewish exorcism see Josephus, Antiquities 8:42–49.
12:28 The Q parallel (Lk 11:20) speaks of the “finger”
rather than of the “spirit” of God. While the difference is probably due to
Matthew’s editing, he retains the kingdom of God rather than changing it to his
usual “kingdom of heaven.” Has come upon you: see Mt 4:17.
12:29 A short parable illustrates what Jesus is doing. The
strong man is Satan, whom Jesus has tied up and whose house he is plundering.
Jewish expectation was that Satan would be chained up in the last days (Rev
20:2); Jesus’ exorcisms indicate that those days have begun.
12:30 This saying, already attached to the preceding verses
in Q (see Lk 11:23), warns that there can be no neutrality where Jesus is concerned.
Its pertinence in a context where Jesus is addressing not the neutral but the
bitterly opposed is not clear. The accusation of scattering, however, does fit
the situation. Jesus is the shepherd of God’s people (Mt 2:6), his mission is
to the lost sheep of Israel (Mt 15:24); the Pharisees, who oppose him, are
guilty of scattering the sheep.
12:31 Blasphemy against the Spirit: the sin of attributing
to Satan (Mt 12:24) what is the work of the Spirit of God (Mt 12:28).
12:33 Declare: literally, “make.” The meaning of this verse
is obscure. Possibly it is a challenge to the Pharisees either to declare Jesus
and his exorcisms good or both of them bad. A tree is known by its fruit; if
the fruit is good, so must the tree be. If the driving out of demons is good,
so must its source be.
12:34 The admission of Jesus’ goodness cannot be made by the
Pharisees, for they are evil, and the words that proceed from their evil hearts
cannot be good.
12:36–37 If on the day of judgment people will be held
accountable for even their careless words, the vicious accusations of the
Pharisees will surely lead to their condemnation.
12:38–42 This section is mainly from Q (see Lk 11:29–32). Mk
8:11–12, which Matthew has followed in Mt 16:1–4, has a similar demand for a
sign. The scribes and Pharisees refuse to accept the exorcisms of Jesus as
authentication of his claims and demand a sign that will end all possibility of
doubt. Jesus’ response is that no such sign will be given. Because his
opponents are evil and see him as an agent of Satan, nothing will convince
them.
12:38 Teacher: see note on Mt 8:19. In Mt 16:1 the request
is for a sign “from heaven” (Mk 8:11).
12:39 Unfaithful: literally, “adulterous.” The covenant
between God and Israel was portrayed as a marriage bond, and unfaithfulness to
the covenant as adultery; cf. Hos 2:4–14; Jer 3:6–10.
12:40 See Jon 2:1. While in Q the sign was simply Jonah’s
preaching to the Ninevites (Lk 11:30, 32), Matthew here adds Jonah’s sojourn in
the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, a prefigurement of
Jesus’ sojourn in the abode of the dead and, implicitly, of his resurrection.
12:41–42 The Ninevites who repented (see Jon 3:1–10) and the
queen of the south (i.e., of Sheba; see 1 Kgs 10:1–13) were pagans who
responded to lesser opportunities than have been offered to Israel in the
ministry of Jesus, something greater than Jonah or Solomon. At the final
judgment they will condemn the faithless generation that has rejected him.
12:43–45 Another Q passage; cf. Mt 11:24–26. Jesus’ ministry
has broken Satan’s hold over Israel, but the refusal of this evil generation to
accept him will lead to a worse situation than what preceded his coming.
12:46–50 See Mk 3:31–35. Matthew has omitted Mk 3:20–21
which is taken up in Mk 3:31 (see note on Mt 12:22–32), yet the point of the
story is the same in both gospels: natural kinship with Jesus counts for
nothing; only one who does the will of his heavenly Father belongs to his true
family.
12:47 This verse is omitted in some important textual witnesses,
including Codex Sinaiticus (original reading) and Codex Vaticanus.
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