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Matthew 12:9-30
00:30:01
Dr. Tim Gray and Dr Michael Barber unpack Chapter 12 of the Gospel of Matthew.
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to form. Now, I'm Tim Gray, president of the Augusta Institute, and Joining me is Dr. Michael Barber, who's a professor here of Scripture, and we're going to continue our Bible study of the Gospel of Matthew. So you're welcome to grab your Bible, open it up, and we're just kind of in a leisurely way, working our way slowly but carefully through the Gospel of Matthew. And I hope you can join us. We're in Matthew chapter 12 and we're going to start off with verse nine. So we're going to talk about the healing of the man with the withered hand in the midst of the synagogue with Jesus and the Pharisees staring Jesus down and upset that he might do a healing on the Sabbath. So let's start the story. Michael, you want to give us the first few verses and set this stage?
- [00:42]
B
Sure. Actually, I'd just like to start with the first verse because there's an important detail there. He went on from there and entered their synagogue. Now this is a really important verse for many people. In discussions of how to place the Gospel of Matthew, a lot of people have taken passages such as this one, where it talks about your synagogues or their synagogues to say, well, clearly here Matthew must be written by a Gentile. Here we have a non Jewish perspective. Because they wouldn't talk about their synagogues because the Matthean community, those people first reading the Gospel would have identified themselves as Jews. So this idea of their synagogue must necessarily point away from an early origin of the Gospel. From a Jewish origin of the Gospel. A lot of research has been done lately on synagogues and we actually talk about this quite a bit, don't we? Tim, you've been to the Holy Land. You were there when they excavated one of the most important preserved synagogues in Magdala early on.
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A
That was amazing. In Magdala, Yeah, the best preserved first century synagogue.
- [01:53]
B
You could still see the ink on the wall, in fact, you know, so it's really an amazing discovery. There's been a lot of discoveries of ancient synagogues and a lot of research done on it. And one thing we know now is that there were basically two different kinds of synagogues in Jesus day. One kind was like a municipal center. This is where, you know, if you were Jewish, you would go for legal cases and so on and so forth. But then there were other kinds of synagogues that were associated with particular groups. So we know, for example, Philo talks about the Essenes had their own synagogue in the Book of Acts. We read about the Synagogue of the freedmen. These were former slaves who came together. It's what we refer to as voluntary associations is a technical term. So there are two different kinds of synagogues. And when it talks about Jesus going into their synagogue, but most likely here we have in view a synagogue that is especially controlled by people who are sympathetic to the Pharisees. All right, so it's an important bit of context because we're going to see the Pharisees are going to play an important role in the story. Right? All right. And so there was a man there with a withered hand, and they asked him, they asked Jesus, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Now, they're not asking Jesus this question because they have a genuine interest in carefully abiding by the law. This is a trap. Right. So they want to catch Jesus in doing something that they can pin on him.
- [03:29]
A
Exactly. So that they might accuse him.
- [03:31]
B
That's right.
- [03:32]
A
And of course, that's one of the titles for the devil. He's the accuser.
- [03:36]
B
Satan.
- [03:36]
A
Yeah, literally Satan. Satan means accuser. So this is the devil's work, is to accuse. And so that's why I always think, you know, once we get a sense of that, and we'll see that here they want to accuse Jesus. But just in our own everyday lives, in our political life, seeking always to make accusation, we don't want to fall into that habit of being the accuser or a accuser, because that's really the role of the devil. And he's always accusing God's righteous and out to give them charges, false charges. Usually he's also the deceiver as well as the accuser. But anyhow, here we see what Jesus will later refer to the scribes and Pharisees as a brood of vipers, because they act like the ancient serpent, the devil. And here we have them imitating that ancient serpent.
- [04:30]
B
Yeah, it's interesting. So Satan literally means accuser, and the idea is like a legal context, right. We have a courtroom and you have an accuser, but the word for devil, diabolos, actually also means slanderer. So the accuser is not if he's demonic. Right. If he's diabolical. The term diabolos, term for demon, is actually applied to Haman in the story of Esther. He is, in the Greek version, he is a slanderer. Right. So Satan accuses and his accusations are lies. His accusations are not based in reality. And we're going to see something along those lines here. Now the question is, can Jesus work a miracle? Right. So is it okay to heal someone? Is it okay to do a work on the Sabbath? And he said to them, which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out of how much more value is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Now, what's fascinating about this is we know Jesus is in a sort of Pharisaical, if you will, synagogue, because Jesus says any of you would rescue an animal on a Sabbath. Well, we know that there were Jews who thought you couldn't rescue an animal on a Sabbath. This is from the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls that the Damascus document says no one should help an animal give birth on the Sabbath day, and if it falls into a well or a pit, he should not take it out on the road. So, I'm sorry, he should not take it out on the Sabbath. So in the Dead Sea Scrolls, it's an ancient collection of Jewish works, we have the writings of a group typically associated with another Jewish group known as the Essenes. And so we know that there were divisions in Jesus's day. Different Jews had different interpretations of the Torah. Jesus is in a place where all of us here are in agreement that you should save an animal on the Sabbath. And of course, in this, the Pharisees were widely seen as being merciful because animals were expensive. This is like losing your car, an ox or something like that. It was hard to replace for people who didn't have a lot of means. And in an agrarian society where farming is your primary source of income, to lose your animal, if the animal died in the pit, you didn't save it. Yikes. So the Pharisees were actually seen by many people in their day as merciful and lenient. Right? But not in this case. In this case, they're seeking to trap Jesus. And so Jesus says to the man, stretch out your hand. And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. All right, now I'm going to stop here because I've heard you talk about these miracles where Jesus commands people to do the impossible. I love the lesson. I love that message. Why don't I just turn it over to you for that?
- [07:41]
A
You're coming, Michael. I do so struck by this story, and several of them like them, where Jesus is going to tell him to do something he can't do. If you think about it rationally, I mean, the one thing this guy can't do is stretch out his hand And Jesus doesn't say, be healed, right? He's not like a tele evangelist or somebody else. He's not saying, be healed. He doesn't put his hands. Does that feel warm? Can you wiggle your fingers? You know, no. Jesus simply gives him a command, stretch out your hand. And you know, this man's hand is withered. He can't stretch it out. But Jesus tells him to do exactly what he can't do. And so that means that the man has a choice. He can say, well, Lord, my hand's withered. I have this deformity. I can't do it. Or he can try to obey and trust Jesus word to affect what it signifies that when Jesus says, stretch out your hand. That if Jesus. And this is one of the things that St. Augustine loved, if God commands something, then he will give the grace to obey it. And so here this man has this command, stretch out your hand. So he trusts Jesus and he stretches out his hand. And it's so extraordinary. And this is the power of obedience. When we obey God, his grace flows into our life and enables us and empowers us to do what we thought we couldn't ever do before.
- [09:09]
B
It's such an important lesson. And this is what Jesus is calling us all to do, things that are impossible. And so when we read the stories of Jesus, we've already talked about this, performing miracles, we see the invisible realities of the sacraments made visible. And in the sacraments, Jesus is healing us so that we can do things that we may have thought were impossible. All right, well, the Pharisees went out after this and conspire against him, how to destroy him. I think here we have an allusion to Psalm 2, where the rulers conspire together against the Lord's anointed. And that's what is going on here.
- [09:54]
A
And it's an ironical conspiracy because they're just saying to Jesus Christ, well, and they're given a very strict interpretation of the Sabbath laws. So they're saying that you can't heal on the Sabbath. Now, the Torah doesn't say that you cannot heal. It says you cannot do a work. And so they're interpreting it very strictly that, nope, you can't heal on the Sabbath. So the irony is they are accusing Jesus, looking to accuse him for healing on the Sabbath. But then after Jesus does the healing, they go out and gather and take counsel. Well, taking counsel is a work. And the work they're doing is the work of plotting the Lord of the Sabbath's demise and death. So there's a deep paradox here and irony of what's happening. And you see that they're hypocrites.
- [10:46]
B
This is Right?
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A
Yep.
- [10:48]
B
All right. And he will specifically call them that later on in the gospel of Matthew 23. All right, so moving on.
- [10:56]
A
Let me just cover one more thing before we go on, because, you know, I love Jesus says to them, because he knows that they're looking to accuse him. And so he says, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? And you know, he said, you know, and so Jesus wonders, he says, is it lawful? Now, in Mark's version, Jesus says, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, you know, or to kill? And, you know, maybe I should say that for the Gospel of Mark. Yeah, maybe I should do that.
- [11:29]
B
Okay.
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A
Because we'll spend too much time. I can't do Matthew and Mark at the same time. We're going slowly through Matthew, but I want to. We'll teach that in the Gospel of Mark. So watch Lectio Mark. If you want the answer to that, I won't leave you hanging. It's unformed. But let's move on to the next story. I think you're right, Michael.
- [11:46]
B
All right, so Jesus, aware of this. Okay, notice. Aware of what? That they were conspiring against him, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all. Thomas Aquinas in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, points out that the prudent preacher, the prudent pastor of souls, recognizes that when people are antagonized by what you're saying, you don't continue to pile it on. If you want to win people over, right. Then you don't rile them up further. Right?
- [12:21]
A
You care for them.
- [12:22]
B
You care for them. And so Jesus withdraws, not because he's worried about himself, I think, because he's more worried for them. Right? And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. I love that they followed him. He healed them all. Wow, what a statement. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. Now notice in Matthew 11:12, the people are listening to Jesus. The leaders are the ones conspiring against Jesus. But almost always in the Gospel of Matthew, until you get to the very end when you hear the word akla or crowd, right. It's usually positive. The crowds are usually positively inclined to Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. And here we have this amazing passage taken from Isaiah 42. Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom My soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench. So in other words, a bruised reed, he's not going to take that final step to break the reed. He's going to show compassion, which is what he does by withdrawing here. Right? He doesn't continue to press until he brings justice to victory. And in his name, the Gentiles will hope so. Very important passage here from Isaiah, the Servant.
- [14:12]
A
It really is important, and I think for our viewers, just to note that you've heard probably of the suffering servant songs in Isaiah, and this is the first one. So this is the first key song in Isaiah of the servant. And God's highlighting the servant whom he's chosen, whom is beloved. He's anointed him with the Spirit to go out and be a light to Israel and to the nations. And so you see that Matthew is saying Jesus is the one who is the anointed one of God, who is sent out amongst his people and working mercy because he's anointed with power, but a bruised reed and he will not break. And so you see that the sense of power and yet mercy. And Jesus has both. And I love how Matthew highlights here that Jesus is God's chosen servant, anointed by the Spirit. And that'll be important for what comes a little bit later with the exorcisms and the accusations. So keep this idea of Jesus being the Lord's anointed by the Spirit of God. So you can't be the Lord's anointed without the Spirit of God.
- [15:24]
B
Very important. And by the way, we have an allusion here to imagery we've already seen, right, in the baptism of Jesus. Jesus is my beloved. Right. And so here, once again, we have that imagery of Jesus as the beloved. There are multiple echoes here because of course, Isaac the son of Abraham, is known as the beloved son of the Father. And so much going on. But moving on, then a demon oppressed man who was blind and muted was brought to him, and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw, and all the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David? We've already talked about this, right, in.
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A
Chapter nine, remember that Dr. Barber talked about the son of David is a relusion to Solomon.
- [16:11]
B
That's right.
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A
Who was, according to Jewish tradition, had the authority and the power of exorcism.
- [16:16]
B
That's right.
- [16:17]
A
Over demons.
- [16:18]
B
So when you thought of exorcism and in the Jewish world, the first figure that would have come to mind is Solomon. And that's what happens here, right? Jesus heals a demoniac. And the people say, can this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the Lord of the flies, which is another name for the devil, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons. So now they're trying to come up with an explanation. Right. How is it possible that this man has authority over demons and the Pharisees aren't on his team? Well, the Pharisees are saying, well, he's in cahoots with demons. And I love the response. Knowing their thoughts, that's not typically something.
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Most people can do.
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People are able to do, right?
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A
He quotes Abraham Lincoln.
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B
Yes. Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. Now, he's joking, because, of course, this is a line that Abraham Lincoln cited at the time of the Civil War. And you'll see this quotation actually was posted prominently recently in. I think it was a subway stop, and it had the line and then attributed to Abraham Lincoln. But of course, Abraham Lincoln was quoting somebody else.
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A
Quoting Jesus.
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B
Jesus, Yeah.
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A
I wonder if they people who put that quote up there know that he was quoting Jesus. Or I mean, is biblical illiteracy so high now that people don't know?
- [17:54]
B
You do wonder. Yeah, you do wonder.
- [17:56]
A
Yeah.
- [17:57]
B
Now it's funny. Let me just finish this quotation from Jesus and then I'll say a couple things about it, all right? Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. No city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? So this is a really funny scene, right? Jesus has just been accused after working a mighty deed of working with Satan. And Jesus is saying, all right, you guys are going to have to try a lot harder. You're not even making sense anymore. Right? I'm working with Satan. So I'm battling Satan. That doesn't even make sense, because no kingdom, no house divided will stand. And by the way, there are Jewish exorcists, and apparently the Pharisees who are present have sons who are exorcists. Well, if I'm casting out demons, and the only way I can do that is because I'm in cahoots with demons. What does that say about your own sons? You guys don't want to go there, right? So they're not even making sense. And by the way, this is what happens when we refuse to recognize God's will for our lives and God's activity in our life. Oftentimes we become irrational, right? We don't even. The response that we have to God in a rebellious spirit isn't even logical anymore. And you see this in our culture, right? You see this in the world. Well, people level charges against the faith, against believers. It doesn't even make sense. Right. But there is a further illusion here, by the way, and that is he's the son of David. Well, every kingdom divided against itself will not stand. What happened after Solomon? The kingdom of Solomon was divided and the Temple, the house, ended up being destroyed by the Babylonians. Jesus is the true son of David, the true Solomon. And like Solomon, he is going to not be one who rules over a divided kingdom, but over a united kingdom.
- [20:02]
A
You know, the people of God have this tragic history that Jesus is referring to. Of the ten tribes of the north break away from the two key tribes and the tribe of Levi in the south, the kingdom of Judah becomes separate from the kingdom of Israel. And so you have the people of God, as you mentioned, Michael, there's a civil war and this division. And one of the sad things is that Jesus can say logically it makes no sense for the devil to work against the devil. And so there's a mystery of iniquity and that evil tends to be united and the people of God tend to be divided. It's just one of these great tragic things. And Jesus is lamenting, is alluding to here, to the fact that, look, you know, the devil doesn't divide against himself. Evil and wickedness are usually surprisingly united, whereas the good guys are bumbling and disagreeing with each other. And so you have this split in the kingdom of Israel. And of course that split is recapitulated at the time of the Reformation with the split amongst Christians, Protestants and Catholics. And so both who are the people of God and both who should be united because we serve the same Lord. And so this is this tragic pattern. We just see it played out in small ways and large ways over and over again. But this is what Jesus is referring to.
- [21:37]
B
And you know, I gotta just add, I think we see it not just in the Protestant Reformation, but in every age, including our own, where you look at our world today and you can see pretty clearly that there are forces at work that want to undermine people of faith, that want to undermine the mission of the church. And oftentimes Catholics are turning against each other and make their most bitter enemies, their most bitter rivals, people in their own parishes, people who are part of the body of Christ. They save their. You see this especially in social media. They save their most, you know, harsh invectives for fellow believers, brothers and sisters. Exactly. And then we wonder why Satan has so many victories. It's really quite troubling. But anyway, moving on. Jesus says, but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And this phrase, the kingdom of God, here we see it actually in Matthew, kingdom of God. Usually it's not kingdom of God. Usually it's the kingdom of heaven in Matthew. And a lot of people say, well, the reason Matthew uses kingdom of heaven is because he doesn't want to say kingdom of God. No, he's perfectly comfortable saying kingdom of God. As we see here, what is the kingdom of God? How can we understand that? Well, if you read through the writings of the fathers and doctors, they'll explain it in different ways. But I think when I teach the Gospels, that the definition that I give that typically I explain from Aquinas, is it's that realm in which all things are made subject to God in Christ. That really is what the kingdom of God refers to. It's not just in heaven, but the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Right. So this is especially found in the church. Right. Where the mission of Christ is brought to reality even in this world. In the Church, we have that realm in which all things are made subject to God in Christ.
- [23:55]
A
No, I think that's important to note. And language really matters when you read Scripture. Yes, Watching the little details are very important. And the other thing I can't help but think about, Michael, as we look at the big picture, chapter 11 and 12. In 11, the cities aren't repenting. And then Jesus says, come to me, all you who weary and are heavy laden. And we talked about the idea of burden and heavy laden and yoke goes back to the language of what led to the civil war.
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B
Oh, yes.
- [24:23]
A
And that is Rehoboam, who was the son of Solomon. And you can read about that in First Kings chapter, I think it is. And Rehoboam makes a heavy yoke and a heavy burden. And then the ten tribes break away. They revolt from that. And so we have that imagery. And then one of the prophets of Judah goes up to the northern 10 tribes. And Jeroboam, who's leading the revolt, ends up creating two pagan shrines. He has two calves, golden calves made, and he's leading the northern 10 tribes in idolatry. And the prophet stretches out his hand, or the prophet speaks against Jeroboam for doing that. And Jeroboam stretches out his right hand and says, seize that prophet. And he can't retract his hand. His hand withers up. And so you have Jesus then healing the withered man, after you have the idea of a heavy yoke and the burden light and come to me all you who are heavy laden. And then you have Jesus talking about a divided kingdom. And so you have three major echoes altogether, which I think kind of thickens the plot that Jesus is making allusions to Israel's divided kingdom and how that led to their fall. And Jesus comes to restore the 12 tribes. He comes to reunite all of Israel around himself. And Jesus is the source of unity. And that's the only unity we can ever find in the life of the church is by submitting ourselves to the authority of Jesus Christ. And that's so important. And when we lose that submission to Jesus kingship, then the unity fractures.
- [26:08]
B
And Jesus will go on to therefore say, how can someone enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman, which is the image, of course, of Satan here, then indeed he may plunder his house. So Jesus is going to bind the strong man, Satan. And we go on to read that whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so there's that idea again of unity. Christ is the one who's bringing us together. Satan is the one who wants to divide us. Satan is the one who wants to keep us at each other's throats. Satan is the one who wants to turn us into the accuser of the brethren.
- [26:45]
A
That's so important to note. And that disunity is not just that. The, the global level of, you know, are we going to have this synod of Bishops, breaking away from the Pope? Are we going to have this kind of division in the church? But it also goes back to our own families. You know, marriage is being divided. You know, this is the kind of thing that has to do with our everyday life with families and with everybody, you know, that's.
- [27:12]
B
And in our workplaces.
- [27:13]
A
Exactly right.
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B
So oftentimes in workplaces, you'll find those kinds of divisions.
- [27:19]
A
Sin has as sow sin and you reap division, sow love, and you reap unity. And that's a really important distinction and it's an important difference to note. So that's going to be important for us to know. So we only have, I think, a couple minutes left. Michael.
- [27:38]
B
Yeah. We're getting to this line about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and I'd like to kind of save that for next time because it's requires a bit of explanation.
- [27:47]
A
Yeah, that's a head scratcher for a lot of people.
- [27:50]
B
Right.
- [27:51]
A
And it gets people.
- [27:52]
B
It's a good cliffhanger.
- [27:54]
A
Exactly.
- [27:54]
B
What does it mean? Because Jesus says every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Uh oh, did I do that? Maybe when I was in second grade.
- [28:07]
A
Or something, and now I can't be forgiven.
- [28:09]
B
That's it. Yeah, we'll need to talk about that. Yeah.
- [28:12]
A
And it's unlikely that you did that, by the way, right?
- [28:15]
B
Yes.
- [28:16]
A
We'll talk about what that is next time. So next time for your homework. You know, the good thing is you don't have a lot of reading assignments from us because we go slowly. We're leaving few stones unturned, which is kind of our favorite way of doing things. So I hope you don't mind. We're just leisurely going through the Gospel of Matthew, but read the rest of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter two for next time. And I think that will be important and helpful to understand what we're going to cover next time.
- [28:45]
B
Absolutely. And I'd also encourage you to read Psalm 1 for next time, which will be important in our next. To the backdrop of our next little pericope.
- [28:55]
A
Terrific. And also you can go back and read Psalm 2 since we talked about taking counsel against the Lord and his anointed. Is one of the early Psalms, Psalm 2, and how God faces that, because that's going to be. Psalm 2 is interwoven throughout the tapestry of Matthew's Gospel. There's people plotting against the Lord's anointed. And you'll be able to discern that pattern better when you read Psalm 2 as well. So we've given your homework and I just want to thank everybody who supports us in our mission circle. You allow us to have this ministry. It allows us to have formed now and support so many of the different things we're doing on formed. I also just want to end by mentioning too, I've. We've got our new Bibles in that we talked about last time. We're so excited. And I've been using the hardcover. I've just. I love the hardcover. It's so sturdy. It's the sturdiest hardcover Bible I've ever seen, I have to say. And we want to make it high quality, but it just opens up. All of our Bibles open up and make it easy for you to read and study the word of God. So I want to let you know you can get that at Catholic Market. And I want to thank everybody who's part of our mission circle and supports us. May the Lord bless and keep you. God bless.