seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Matthew 12:1 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,’[a] 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.
As I shared, I watch a lot of westerns now. I'm retired and "grit" is on all day long. H&I runs the old westerns like Paladin, Rawhide, Wanted Dead or Alive all morning. So, I watch a lot of westerns while I crochet or play solitaire on my phone. Every western came with a moral and we always knew the good guy from the bad guy by the color of their hats.
One of the ways the writers of the westerns define the bad guy is with a black hat. Another way is to have the bad guy say something like "this is my town and what I say goes". In this story.... it's hard to tell who would say "this is my town" and be right. Generally, he was running the town and bossing everyone around saying "I say what's law here".
Jesus is God... He had to come here in human form so He could reverse the death sentence Adam and Eve put on us at the Garden. So, as God.... everything everywhere, especially the temple where humans worship Him would definitely belong to God.
The priests are there to keep the tradition going according to the Levitical Law.... given to them by Moses from God.
The priests were born into the job.... just as Jesus was born into His Mission.
So, who's right here? Jesus is God... so without Jesus the priests have no reason. The priests were charged to do their jobs right, or they would be snuffed out by God himself. You can find the story of what happens to priests who don't follow instruction in Numbers 16.
Numbers 16:31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”
35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
Now, the priests were only doing what they "knew" to be right. It is the priest's duty to keep the sacrificial fires burning. The priests had to wear a rope around their waist whenever they entered the holy of holies because if they did something wrong... God would smite them dead where they stood.... and the rope would allow for the other priests to pull the dead body out of the temple.
Jesus was allowing His Disciples to "work" on the Sabbath. It was the priest's job to make sure nobody worked on the Sabbath.... well except them.
That's why I feel a little sorry for the priests in this story.
