CHAPTER 12

(A.D. 31)

JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH

¹At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn (either wheat or barley); and His Disciples were hungry, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat (to pluck the sheafs of wheat or barley).

²But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto Him (these religiousleaders, by now, were watching every move made by Christ and HisDisciples; they were trying to find fault), Behold, Your Disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day (this was a law they hadmade up themselves; the Law of Moses permitted them to do what they were doing [Deut. 23:25]).

³But He said unto them(His defense was not the Law of Moses, although He could have referred to that, but rather, if David the King when rejected ate the Showbread, the Son of David, when in a similar case might enjoy a similar privilege), Have you not read what David did, when he was hungry, and they who were with him;

⁴How He entered into the House of God (the Tabernacle), and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the Priests (Sam. 21:6)?

⁵Or have you not read in the Law, how that on the Sabbath days the Priests in the Temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? (ThePriests did as much work, if not more, on the Sabbath Day in their preparing the Sacrifices, plus other duties, than possibly any other day! and yet they were not accused of breaking the Law.)

⁶But I say unto you (meant to portray the Truth of the Word ofGod), That in this place is One greater than the Temple (He was speaking ofHimself; He was a greater Prophet than Moses, and a greater King than David).

⁷But if you had known what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice (sacrifice was the means, mercy the end; sacrifice the road, mercy the goal; Israel had lost sight of what the sacrifices actually meant), you would not have condemned the guiltless (He and His Disciples were guiltless, and all who trust Him are likewise guiltless).

⁸For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day (rejected by thenation as Messiah the King, He now presented Himself to them as Elohim the Creator of the Sabbath).

HEALING ON THE SABBATH

⁹And when He was departed thence (refers to the following taking place some days later), He went into their Synagogue (probablyhappened during the first two and one-half years of His Ministry, as He was banned from most Synagogues the last year):

¹⁰And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered (the withered hand was a portrayal of the spiritual condition of Israel and, as well, of all mankind). And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse Him (the Pharisees were completely devoid of the understanding and purpose of Christ or the Sabbath).

¹¹And He said unto them (He always answered their questions), What man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath Day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? (The answer to the question was obvious!)

¹²How much then is a man better than a sheep? (The answer should have shamed them! However, the hardened heart has no shame.) Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath Days (His question and His answer showed that the religious leaders of Israel thought more of sheep than they did of men; regrettably, that spirit persists still!).

¹³Then said He to the man (He did not ask their permission, and because they could not control Him, they hated Him), Stretch forth your hand (spiritually, Christ is still saying the same thing to all men). And He stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.

¹⁴Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him (His love only excited their hatred).

MULTITUDES HEALED

¹⁵But when Jesus knew it(refers to the plotting of the Pharisees and Herodians against Him), He withdrew Himself from thence (went to another town): and great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all (all is emphatic, meaning that not one single person left without healing);

¹⁶And charged them that they should not make Him known (He would not allow the fame of His miracles to hinder His purpose of offeringup Himself as a sacrifice for sin; the latter was His real mission):

¹⁷That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, saying (Isaiah is quoted in the Gospels more than any other Prophet),

¹⁸Behold My Servant (He was the Fathers Servant), Whom I have chosen (chosen by God and not man, hence rejected by man); My Beloved, in Whom My soul is well pleased (to please God and not man, should be the goal of every Believer): I will put My Spirit upon Him (Holy Spirit), and He shall show judgment to the Gentiles (speaks of the coming Church, which is made up virtually of Gentiles).

¹⁹He shall not strive, nor cry (will not demand His rights); neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets (He never promoted Himself).

²⁰A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench (even though they rejected Him, He will not give up on Israel), till He send forth judgment unto victory (Israel will accept Him at the Second Coming).

²¹And in His Name shall the Gentiles trust (His Name means Saviour, and even though the Jews rejected Him, the Gentiles accepted Him).

BLIND AND DUMB MAN HEALED

²²Then was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil (Demon), blind, and dumb (the man represented Israel, and in fact, all of mankind): and He healed him, insomuch that the blind and the dumb both spoke and saw (those who are born-again can now spiritually speak and spiritually see).

²³And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? (Had their religious leaders properly led them, the people of Israel would have accepted Christ.)

BLASPHEMING THE HOLY SPIRIT

²⁴But when the Pharisees heard it(heard what the people were saying about Jesus being the Son of David, which He was), they said, This fellow(the Pharisees never referred to Him even one time by His Name) does not cast out devils (demons), but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils (they didnt deny His Power, but claimed that it was of Satan).

²⁵And Jesus knew their thoughts (revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit), and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand (the idea of the statement is that Satan does not oppose himself! He does not possess one with an evil spirit and then cast out that spirit):

²⁶And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? (Jesus admits here that Satan has a kingdom, which is the kingdom of darkness.)

²⁷And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils (demons), by whom do your children cast them out? (The Pharisees and their disciples claimed to cast out demons, but in reality they didnt; because they were as well of Satan.) therefore they shall be your judges (the word children refers to the disciples of the Pharisees; Jesus by posing this question did not deny or affirm that they, in fact, actually did cast out demons; He was using the statement only as argument to prove His point).

²⁸But if I cast out devils (demons) by the Spirit of God (Jesus did not cast out demons because He was God, but as a man filled with the Spirit), then the Kingdom of God is come unto you (this placed the Pharisees in an untenable position; if the Spirit of God was actually helping Him and He had already made it clear that such could not be done without the Spirit of God, then they must admit that He is the Messiah; their accusation backfired on them!).

²⁹Or else how can one enter into a strong mans house (Satan is pictured here as strong stronger than men), and spoil his goods (which Jesus did at the Cross), except he first bind the strong man? (Only Jesus could bind this strong man.) and then he will spoil his house (at Calvary Satan was totally defeated [Col. 2:14-15]).

³⁰He who is not with Me is against Me (it is impossible to take a neutral position regarding Christ; the word against denotes intense opposition); and he who gathers not with Me scatters abroad (refers to theTruth that one cannot be with Christ and against His true servants; the presence of Immanuel tests everything and everybody).

³¹Wherefore I say unto you (addressing the most fearsome statement), All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men (that is if they properly confess the sin to the Lord [I Jn. 1:9]): but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men (when they accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan, when in reality He was doing so by the Power of the Holy Spirit, they blasphemed the Spirit of God; blaspheming the Holy Spirit can only be committed by someone who professes to know the Lord, as the Pharisees of old, or else has once known Him, and then turned against Him; the unredeemed, who have never known the Lord, cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit simply because they have no true knowledge of the Spirit).

³²And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him (once again, if forgiveness is sought): but whosoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come (such a person is doomed! however, the statements do not mean that a backslider cannot come back to the Lord; but they do mean that one who has actually blasphemed the Holy Spirit, will have no desire to come to the Lord, but in fact, will continue tooppose Him; anyone who desires to come to the Lord, which desire is placed there by the Holy Spirit, can do so [Rev. 22:17]).

GOOD AND CORRUPT FRUIT

³³Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit (a single tree cannot bring forth both good fruit and corrupt fruit; either the Pharisees were right, or He was right; both could not be right! His fruit was good, inasmuch as it produced changed lives; their fruit produced nothing but corruption).

³⁴O generation of vipers (Jesus called the Pharisees snakes, and did so to their face), how can you, being evil, speak good things? (Due to being evil, they could not produce good fruit.) for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (mens words reveal their thoughts and character).

³⁵A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things (the good man of this Verse is the same as the good tree of Verse 33; as the good tree will bring forth good fruit, likewise, the good man will bring forth good treasure out of his heart): and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things (an evil heart cannot do otherwise).

³⁶But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak (concerns claims of righteousness which did not exist), they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment (the Great White Throne Judgment [Rev. 20:11-15]).

³⁷For by your words you shall be justified (a confession of Christ and the price that He paid on the Cross, justifies any person [Rom. 5:1-2]), and by your words you shall be condemned (a confession of anything other than Christ and the Cross will condemn, i.e., eternally lost).

THE SIGN OF JONAH

³⁸Then certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees (the Scribes were a part of the Pharisees, because they shared the same doctrine) answered, saying, Master (teacher), we would see a sign from You(therewere signs galore! for instance, they had just seen the man blind, dumb, and demon possessed instantly delivered, and healed; the sign, however, which they actually wanted, was not Deliverance from sin and its effects, but rather from Rome).

³⁹But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign (adulterous spoke of Israels spiritualunfaithfulness to God; they were committing spiritual adultery, which means that they were worshiping something other than God; had they been worshiping God, they would have accepted Christ); and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonah(He was speaking of His Death and Resurrection):

⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth (Christ would be dead three days and three nights; during this time, He would be in Paradise, and would preach to the spirits in prison who were fallen angels [Lk. 23:43; I Pet. 3:19-20] there is no scriptural record that Jesus was in the burning side of Hell, as some teach).

⁴¹The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it (Jesus proclaims here the Gentiles of Nineveh as far more righteous than the Pharisees, for they repented, while the Pharisees wouldnt; this infuriated these religious leaders): because they re pented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here (this generation of Israel, was visited by no less than the Son of God, whereas Nineveh was privileged to hear only the Prophet Jonah; as well, Christ performed the greatest miracles ever known, while Jonah performed none; Israel was left with no excuse).

⁴²The queen of the south (Queen of Sheba, another Gentile) shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here (this woman marks a higher stage of inquiry and faith, inasmuch as she traveled a great distance to hear the wisdom of Solomon; by contrast, Jesus came directly to Israel, but still they wouldnt receive Him, even though He was far greater than Solomon in both wisdom and power; what an indictment!).

THE RETURN OF UNCLEAN SPIRITS

⁴³When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man (regarding Israel,unclean spirits would retreat before Christ), he (the unclean spirit) walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none (these spirits of darkness were not actually cast out of Israel, but only retreated before Christ, because He was the stronger Man).

⁴⁴Then he (the unclean spirit) says, I will return into my house from whence I came out (which happened when Israel rejected Christ); and when he (the evil spirit) is come, he finds it(Israel) empty, (empty of theSpirit of God) swept (clean of the things of God, meaning there wasnothing of God left), and garnished (filled with religious ritual).

⁴⁵Then goes he (the evil spirit), and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there (which is what happened when Israel rejected Christ): and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation (having rejected Christ, Israel was now far worse than she was before He came; it is the same with the modern Church, which hears the Message of the Cross, and then rejects it).

JESUS TRUE FAMILY

⁴⁶While He (Christ) yet talked to the people (concerns the terribleWord He has just delivered concerning Israels present and future state), behold, His mother and His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him (Jesus was probably in a particular house, with it being filled with people, with no more room for others to come in, hence His familynotable to get to Him; their desire to speak with Him was not in a positive sense).

⁴⁷Then one said unto Him, Behold, Your mother and Your brethren stand without, desiring to speak with You (they had things to say to Him,but they little desired to hear what He had to say to them; thankfully, that would change after His Death and Resurrection).

⁴⁸But He answered and said unto him who told Him, Who is My mother? and who are My brethren? (This totally refutes the claims later made by the Catholic Church.)

⁴⁹And He stretched forth His Hand toward His Disciples (refers to theoriginal Twelve, but is not limited to them, as it refers to any and all who follow Him, as the next Passage proclaims), and said, Behold My mother and My brethren!

⁵⁰For whosoever (increases the dimensions of His family to include all who follow Him) shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven (proclaims the qualifications for being a part of the Family of God), the same is My brother, and sister, and mother (places no significance on physical birth, but everything on spiritual birth).