St. Matthew 12:1-8 (7/11) The Gospel for Friday of the Fourth Week after Pentecost

Consider why the Sabbath produced controversy between the Pharisees and our Lord Jesus Christ. And learn from Him, the "Lord...of the Sabbath," what this Seventh day is for, because He Himself ordained it for His People, anciently through His Prophet Moses and for the Church today as well.

The Sabbath: St. Matthew 12:1-8, especially vss. 6-8: "Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." In late years, the observance of the Sabbath has become unimportant for the majority of Christians. We rarely consider that businesses are open seven days a week so that we may buy whenever we wish. However, the Sabbath - Saturday - still has an integral place in Orthodoxy, a role second only to the Lord's Day - Sunday. This fact that is plain to see in our Orthodox Lectionary that interrupts the continuous course readings through Scripture on Saturdays and on Sundays.

What is the Sabbath that it should have produced such controversy and even venom on the part of the Pharisees against our Lord Jesus? Also, what do we learn about this special day from our gracious "Lord...of the Sabbath" (vs. 8), for, as God, He Himself ordained the Sabbath for the People of God through the Prophet Moses? How ironic to find that He was faulted for allowing His disciples to do "what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath" (vs. 2)!

The word "Sabbath" comes from a verb meaning to "cease." In Moses' time, God commanded: "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days thou shalt labour, and shalt perform all thy work. But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt do no work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy servant nor thy maidservant, thine ox nor thine ass, nor any cattle of thine, nor the stranger that sojourns with thee" (Ex. 20:8-10).

After Moses, Prophets such as Amos reproved the people for asking, "When will the month pass away, and we shall sell, and the sabbath, and we shall open the treasure, to make the measure small, and to enlarge the weight, and make the balance unfair?" (Amos 8:5). That sounds familiar! The Prophet Isaiah likewise upheld the Sabbath ideal: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, so as not to do thy pleasure on the holy days, and shalt call the sabbaths delightful, holy to God; if thou shalt not lift up thy foot to work, nor speak a word in anger out of thy mouth, then shalt thou trust on the Lord; and He shall bring thee up to the good places of the land, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father..." (Is. 58:13-14).

St. John Chrysostom notes: "the Sabbath did at the first confer many and great benefits; for instance, it made them gentle towards those of their household, and humane; it taught them God's providence and the creation, as Ezekiel saith (Ezek. 20:12), it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness, and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit."

During the period between the two Testaments, traditions developed to protect the Sabbath grew into a burden heavy with scores of definitions, man-made hardships that the Lord opposed, because they violated the purpose of the Sabbath. He did not abolish the Sabbath. Rather, He elevated it by keeping it as a day for mercy and good works (Mt. 12:7,12; Jn 5:16-17).

Observe carefully: the Lord Jesus does not justify breaking the Sabbath Law. Rather, referring to ancient worthies who "broke" the Law, He points to the spirit of the commandment (Mt. 12:3,5): God gave the Sabbath and the Law for man, and not man for the Sabbath. St. Mark reveals this very clearly in his parallel account of this same event, recording these words of the Lord: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mk. 2:27).

The first Christians celebrated the Sabbath along with the Lord's Day, and the Holy Fathers of the Church teach us to use the day of rest before the celebration of the Resurrection, as a day for aligning ourselves to the joy in the new Creation accomplished in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

O Savior, Thou has blessed the seventh day, restoring it to its true state.

St. Luke 7:36-50 (7/11) Gospel at the Feast of the Great-Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised

What is appropriate to God and to man are not the same. If we knew how great our sins are, we would weep, anoint the Lord Jesus' feet, and seek Forgiveness Himself. But often we forget and think that our good deeds are enough to warrant Divine forgiveness.

Of Man and of God: St. Luke 7:36-50, especially vs. 47:

"'Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.'" Like the sinful woman (vs. 37), our sins are many; it is our condition as well as choices we make. Yes, we play God by rejecting others in our communities who sin, set the standards by which God ought to judge other people, and, all the while, deny our own great need for God's forgiveness because we do not commit notorious sins but do good deeds. This passage from St. Luke's Gospel highlights these three common sins. We are so much like Jesus' host, Simon. Join the Lord Jesus in examining these sins, but, finally, let us weep and love like the woman.

Perhaps you are like me: you have read this passage over and missed St. Luke's note that Simon "spoke to himself," when he thought, "'This man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner'" (vs. 39). He did not speak these thoughts audibly at the table, but he clearly voiced them to himself and to our Lord Who hears everyone's heart-speech. It has taken me some years to reach a partial awareness that God hears every last thing that goes through my mind. I say, "partial," because, if my awareness of being heard (not just accidentally overheard) by God were a well-developed acuity, I would be in tears like the sinful woman before Christ. For the most part, I blithefully think horrible things, and only by God's grace snap into awareness and stop enjoying my sinful opinions.

Realizing this about myself, I have compassion for Simon. Like him, I have rejected others in the Church because they have come before the Lord Jesus and wept for their sinful deeds like I do - right place and right thing to do! Simon invited Jesus to come to his table (right place), and I pray (right thing to do), "I stand before the doors of Thy temple, and yet I refrain not from my terrible thoughts." But among "my terrible thoughts" are disparaging ideation about others around me gathered at the Divine Liturgy and approaching the Holy Chalice.

It is what I think - "my terrible thoughts" - that horrify me. In lucid moments I catch the Pharisaical garments of my thoughts and momentarily see that I am just like Simon. And Christ our God exposes me in my unspoken thoughts. He reveals that I take over His role as God and decide, "This one is not worthy." He 'is a sinner,' or 'she is a sinner' (vs. 39). What gall, what usurpation, what presumption! God forgive me. I do nice things; I help people; I give ten percent; and on and on. But in the presence of God, deep down, I think that He should not accept these others, but should naturally forgive and accept me - of course! The buried implication in my not-so-silent thoughts is that God has it wrong and should not accept them as He does me.

I admit, Simon and I are like those on narcotics - we are "on the nod," so to speak - we are uncritical before God of what we think, lulling ourselves with the good things that we do. But the Lord Jesus, my King and my God, calls both of us to account. He urges us to acknowledge, "'when [we] have done all those things which [we] are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do"'" (Lk. 17:10). He carefully goes over all of that by which we dull our consciences, shows us a genuine penitent - one who loves God for His forgiveness and kindness and is being saved by her tears (Lk. 7:44-48). He gently reminds us of that which is of God and that which is of man.

Of us men, we can only say that although we have "nothing with which to repay," yet that which is of God is the gracious truth we know in Christ Jesus our Savior: He freely forgives both kinds of sinners (vs. 42). Even Simon and I are humbled to realize that.

"Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins and not to judge my brother."