Today I read Matthew 12, which for the more part is about the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. In the Jewish culture in Jesus' day, as I am sure most of you are aware, the Pharisee's had taken a simple law, to keep the Sabbath Day holy, and turned it into a set of rules and laws that were very cumbersome and a challenge to keep. They had rules such as how far you could walk, what you "labor", if any, you could perform. In other words, they completely missed the point of the law in their zealous efforts to keep it perfectly.
The Pharisee's law was so zealous, that apparently if you were starving to death and the only food nearby was an apple on a tree, in order to keep the law, you should just starve to death. Now, that may seem extreme, but the opening verses of this chapter state that the Savior's disciples were walking through a corn field and were hungry so they plucked off some ears of corn and ate them. Now, I am not a professional farmer so I could be wrong, but I am under the impression that all you have to do to get an ear of corn off the stalk is grab it and pull down or out, very similar to plucking an apple from a hanging branch. And yet, the Pharisee's got really upset about this and told Jesus that they were doing that which was unlawful on the Sabbath.
The Savior then reminds them that there is an account where David and his men ate the shewbread that was in the house of God which only the priests were allowed to eat. But it was allowed because it was an exceptional circumstance. He then reminded them all that the Son of Man was also Lord of the Sabbath, and as we know, He was the Son of Man. Later, I assume that same day because it does not say otherwise, a man with a withered hand approaches the Lord and the Pharisee's try and trick Jesus by asking if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. They asked Him because, by the set of rules THEY had set up, it was indeed unlawful to heal on the Sabbath day. However, as any former missionary knows, it is perfectly ok to do the Lord's work on the Sabbath. In fact, that is the day we are encouraged to go out and visit the sick and the weary.
The Lord asks them that if they have a sheep that goes missing won't they go and find it on the Sabbath day? Which of course they would as it is one of the few exceptions they had to the rule. And as the Savior points out, how much more important is a man compared to a sheep? Sadly though, the Pharisee's did not learn the lesson and after He healed the man with the withered hand, because the scriptures state that afterwards the Pharisee's conspired against Him and sought to destroy Him. What must it have been like to live in such a time when if you didn't follow the rules the leaders sought to kill you? I cannot even imagine what such a thing must have been like but sadly it was not only Jesus' time that was this way as we know from the sad history of the world. We have but to look to the Spanish Inquisition to see a more modern example of the same way of thinking.
Later the Savior casts out a devil and the Pharisees, almost bitterly so, remark that He is doing all these miracles by the power of the devil. I say bitterly because it almost seems like the Pharisees are trying to convince themselves of the truthfulness of their words. But Jesus reminds them that a house that is divided cannot stand and Satan cannot cast out Satan. He also turns it back on them because He is not the first to cast out devils among the Jews. So He asks them if He is casting them out by the power of the devil, how are the other people who cast out devils casting them out?
He does not give them a chance to reply but goes on to teach them a few more truths. I particularly like verse 36 and 37 where the Savior says we will have to give an account of every word that we speak at the day of judgment. This is not a new concept and in fact King Benjamin and Alma the Younger both taught the Nephites the same thing in the Book of Mormon. It really gives you pause to know that what you say, even in anger, is going to be brought up to you again, but God Himself no less. It really puts a new perspective on watch what you say doesn't it? I've never understood the people that speak out in anger and don't stop to calm down before speaking. Although I will freely admit it is not an easy thing to do. It is something that has to be learned and even then it is all too easy to slip out. I remember one time when I was a missionary I was arguing with another elder that lived with us, not my companion about our front door. It had accidentally been left open all night long and we each were blaming the other for the mistake. We started to get upset and I remember I said something, not even directly at him, but realized after I said it, that by implication, since I was accusing him of leaving the door open, that it WAS directed at him. I immediately apologized, even in the middle of an argument and it actually served to calm us both down for a bit.
I remember back when I was a young adult I used to get frustrated with friends and even family that would treat other people or even each other, poorly. I used to have a phrase that I would use, "Nothing give you the right to treat someone other than the way Jesus would treat them". It doesn't matter what someone has done to us, we are commanded to forgive someone 70*7 times or in other words, it doesn't matter how often they've done it, we still need to forgive them. That can be harder than others as not all sins are created equal as we all know. But it is no our place to judge, as we talked about last week. It is our job to forgive and move on.
It can be hard to watch what you say, even when you are upset but it gets easier with practice. And I promise you that if we come to that day and the Lord asks us why we said such a thing, it will not be acceptable to Him if our answer is, "He made me angry". Better to just not have to answer for such a thing and speak civilly to each other no matter what. Until tomorrow.
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