The Thursday after the Third Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 10, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 12:1-8 (NKJV)
12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”
3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Devotion
In today’s reading, the Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath by plucking grain to eat. Jesus responds by pointing the Pharisees to Scripture—David eating the showbread, priests working on the Sabbath—and concludes with a profound truth: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” He declares, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
This text illustrates Christ’s authority concerning the Law and its proper application alongside the Gospel. The Pharisees were fixated on external compliance, which caused them to overlook the essence of God’s Law. They turned the Sabbath—a blessing for rest—into a burdensome obligation. So focused on legalism, they neglected the spirit of the Law and failed to recognize that Jesus is the Giver of the Law and its fulfillment.
Jesus, our true Sabbath rest (Heb. 4:9-10), shows that God’s Law is fulfilled in Him. Works done in faith and mercy, even on the Sabbath, are not sinful. Christ does not abolish the Law but reveals its true meaning and fulfills it perfectly on our behalf.
We must beware of a Pharisaical heart that values manmade laws over mercy. As Lutherans, we rightly distinguish between Law and Gospel. The Law reveals our sin, while the Gospel points us to our Savior, showing mercy to sinners and offering us rest in Him.
Collect: O God, the Protector of all that trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy; that Thou being our Ruler and Guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
