the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Matthew 12:1-21
After having offered them the true rest of soul (Matthew 11:28), the Lord Jesus makes them understand that the legal rest of the Sabbath has no longer any reason to exist. As to this question of the Sabbath day, the Pharisees seek to find fault successively with the disciples (v. 2) and the Lord Himself (v. 10). But He makes use of the occasion to explain to them, quoting Hosea 6:6 for the second time (v. 7; see Matthew 9:13; Micah 6:6-8) that the system based on the law and the sacrifices had been set aside by His coming in grace. What purpose did the keeping of the fourth commandment of the law serve when all the others had been broken? Mercy, this also, claimed its rights. And what presumption to impose respect for the Sabbath on the One who had instituted it! In fact, as long as sin reigned, no one could be at rest. Neither man, charged with this burden; nor God: the Father and the Son, working together to remove the root of evil as well as its consequences (John 5:16-17). Thus, without letting Himself be hindered by the counsels of wicked men, the perfect Servant proceeds with His work. He accomplishes it in the spirit of humility, of grace, of gentleness which, according to Isaiah 42:1-4, should have enabled them to recognize Him, and which has always been of such great price in the sight of God (cf. 1 Peter 3:4).
