servility. But the greatest Teacher this world has ever seen glorified real humility; and

the apostle Paul remembered this when he wrote "in lowliness of mind each counting

other better than himself" (Phil. 2: 3).

There is no place for the "big I" in service for Christ. How can we be yoked to the

truly humble One and indulge in swank and self-esteem? His yoke is "kindly" (better

than "easy") and His burden is light. What a contrast to the religious teachers of the day,

"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne and lay them on men's shoulders;

but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers" (23: 4). What a

terrible contrast! but it was. We can only thank and praise the Lord for this triplet of

wonderful sayings (25, 26; 27; and 28-30). It is indeed a sublime prayer.

Chapter 12: commences with the incident of the Lord and His disciples passing

through a field of grain, and the disciples, feeling hungry, plucked a few ears of wheat

and ate them. This gave the Lord's enemies, the Pharisees, a golden opportunity as they

thought to criticize them for violating the laws of the Sabbath. But it was not the laws of

the O.T. that the twelve were breaking, but rather the narrow Pharisaic rules which these

religious leaders had forced upon the people. To the Pharisees, plucking the ears of

wheat was reaping, and rubbing them in their hands was threshing. This nonsense the

Lord Jesus now exposes by quoting the action of David when he was hungry: also the

priests in their ceremonial work on the sabbath day which was not only allowed by God,

but commanded by Him. There were actually more sacrifices on the sabbath than on any

other day of the week, and this meant work all the time.

The Pharisees were careful not to accuse the disciples of stealing grain by eating it, as

this was allowed in Deut. 23: 25. But as the Lord of the sabbath Christ pronounces

the twelve as being innocent of breaking of the Sabbatical law.

It is difficult to avoid Exod. 31: 12-18 here. The Lord of the Sabbath is Jehovah,

as this context makes clear. The Lord Jesus Christ uses the title "Lord" without any

apology whatsoever. He alone is the Lord and controller of the sabbath day and has the

authority to determine the way in which the principle of the sabbath rest can best be

carried out. This tremendous claim angered the Pharisees extremely and the situation

was brought to a head by the Lord's healing of the man with a shriveled hand (12: 9-14).

Again they tried to find a reason for accusing Him (verse 10) by asking if it was lawful to

heal on the Sabbath? His answer must have been devastating to them for He insisted that

this rest day included doing good! (verse 12). Then we read:

Mark's account tells how they conspired with their hated rivals, the Herodians (3: 6),

so determined were they to murder the Lord and get rid of Him. Not only was He the

giver and controller of the Sabbath, He was the great King-Priest, and as such was greater

than the Temple with its earthly failing priesthood. The fact that the word "greater" is