The King performs various miracles and meets with hatred and opposition
12
📚At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields 📖, and his disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and to eat.12:1 This was not stealing grain. The people of Israel, when passing through the fields of others, were permitted to eat what they needed. This was according to the law God gave them (see Deut 23:24-25).⚜
2 📚But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath”.
12:2 Note on Sabbath at Ex 20:8-11. The Pharisees interpreted the law very strictly, and had a great many rules as to what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. To them gathering of food was work, and work was forbidden on the Sabbath. Healing also was work and forbidden (v 10).⚜
3 📚But he said to them, “Have you not read what David did, when he and those with him were hungry? 4 📚How he went into the house of God, and ate the Showbread, 📖 which was not lawful for him, or for those with him, to eat, but only for the priests? 5 📚Or have you not read in the Law, how that on the Sabbaths the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?
12:5 The priests worked when preparing and offering the Sabbath sacrifices. See Num 28:9-10. The Pharisees were readers of the Old Testament, but had little spiritual understanding of it. We see this again and again in their encounters with the Lord Jesus.⚜
6 📚But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.
12:6 Christ here calls Himself greater than God's temple. And His meaning here is that if the priests could break the rules of the Sabbath for the sake of the work of the temple, the disciples could ignore the rules for the sake of Christ's work, and at His direction. The disciples were on a mission with Christ when this event occurred.⚜
7 📚But if you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 📚For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath”.
12:8 Jesus means Himself. See note on the Son of Man at Matt 8:20. Again we see that Jesus was conscious of His divinity. Could a mere man or prophet, no matter how great, truthfully say that He was Lord of the Sabbath? The Sabbath and the laws relating to it were appointed by God Himself (Ex 20:1, 8), and only God had the right to change the laws, or permit men to ignore them, or regulate the observance of the Sabbath in any way. Notes on Lord at Luke 2:11; Rom 10:9-10; Phil 2:10-11.⚜
9 📚And when he left there, he went into their synagogue. 10 📚And now a man was there who had a withered hand. And they asked him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbaths?” so that they might accuse him.
12:10 The Pharisees thought it was not lawful to heal anyone on the Sabbath, unless his life was in danger.⚜
11 📚And he said to them, “Among you what if a man has one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath. Will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 📚How much more important is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbaths”.
12:11-12 These words were an unanswerable argument which the Pharisees made no attempt to answer.⚜
13 📚Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand”. And he stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, as sound as the other.
12:13 Jesus' authority and power were also unanswerable.⚜
14 📚Then the Pharisees went out, and held a meeting against him, discussing how they could destroy him.
15 📚But Jesus, knowing this, withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all, 16 📚and told them that they should not make him known, 17 📚so that there might be a fulfilment of what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
18 📚See my servant, whom I have chosen,
my beloved, in whom my soul delights.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim judgment
to the Gentiles.
12:18 The Lord Jesus was the servant of God as well as the incarnation of God. See Matt 20:28; Rom 15:8; Acts 3:25-26; Phil 2:6-7.⚜
19 📚He will not quarrel or cry out;
neither will any man hear his voice
in the streets.
20 📚He will not break a bruised reed,
and he will not quench smoking flax,
until he sends out judgment to victory.
12:20 He would continue in His meek and gentle ways until righteousness triumphed. Jesus did not behave as the Jews expected their Messiah to behave (as a mighty conqueror of their enemies). Yet the final victory would be His.⚜
21 📚And in his name the Gentiles will trust.
12:17-21 See Isa 42:1-4. The Lord Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matt 5:17). The ministry of Jesus was not loud and noisy. He preferred to work quietly, peaceably and without public clamor, contention, and show. Instead of calling for battle, He withdrew from His enemies. He knew that the important battles were spiritual ones, and that He would win the greatest battle of all on the cross, seemingly weak and defeated. And all this was in accordance with the words of God's prophet spoken several hundreds of years before.⚜
12:21 This looks far beyond His ministry to the Jews. Other peoples would believe and receive Him.⚜
22 📚Then one who was demon-possessed, blind, and unable to speak, was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the blind and mute both spoke and saw. 23 📚And all the people were amazed, and said, “Is not this the son of David?”
12:23 Note on Son of David at Matt 1:1.⚜
24 📚But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This fellow does not drive out demons except by Beelzebub the prince of demons”.
12:24 Note on Beelzebub at Matt 10:25.⚜
25 📚And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 📚And if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 📚And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons drive them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
12:27 Some followers of the Pharisees also drove out demons, or at least professed to do so. See Acts 19:13-16. They well knew that the prince of demons did not give power to drive out demons, and they could well judge the slander of the Pharisees.⚜
28 📚But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
12:28 Note on kingdom of God at Matt 4:17. The kingdom of God had come because the King had come, and one proof of this was His authority over demons.⚜
29 📚“Or else how can someone enter a strong man's house, and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
12:29 In this brief parable the strong man represents Satan; the one who carries off his possessions is the Lord Jesus; the possessions are people under Satan's control. The fact that Jesus was rescuing men from Satan's dominion was evidence, not that He was in league with Satan as the Pharisees said, but that He had bound Satan. Is Jesus then a robber? No, He takes back only what Satan first stole from God. He carries away lost and fallen men from Satan's kingdom and places them in His own glorious kingdom (Acts 26:18).⚜
30 📚“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
12:30 Mark 9:40; Luke 11:23. This applies equally well to Satan and his demons or to men. In regard to Christ there is no neutral ground. He says the very attitude of not being for Him is proof of opposition.⚜
31 📚Therefore I say to you, Every kind of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy 📖 against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven to men.
12:31 The first part of this verse is one of the great promises of the Bible, the second part is one of the most terrible warnings. “Will be forgiven to men” means, of course, forgiveness will come to those who repent and trust in Christ. Then God will forgive the worst crimes, the most vile acts of which men are capable (Luke 24:47; Acts 13:38-39; Eph 1:7; 1 John 1:9). Notes on forgiveness at Matt 6:12, 14, 15; 9:5-7.⚜
The unpardonable sin
32 📚And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.
12:32 It is God who enables men to repent (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Tim 2:25). It is the Holy Spirit of God working in men's hearts who leads them to repentance. When men harden themselves against Him and refuse to repent even when faced with the truth, and blaspheme Him, He will not do this work in them. And so such men will never repent, and so can never be forgiven.⚜
33 📚“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For a tree is known by its fruit.
34 📚Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart. 35 📚A good man brings out good things from the good treasure of the heart, and an evil man brings out evil things from the evil treasure.
12:34-35 See Matt 3:7; 23:33. They were the kind of people who commit the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. Their hatred of truth and of light and of Christ hardened them against the work of God's Spirit and made them what they were. What is in a man's heart will eventually come out and show what sort of man he is. Compare Prov 4:23. Even the most silent of men will sometimes betray by words what he thinks and what he is.⚜
36 📚But I tell you that in the day of judgment men will give an account for every careless word that they speak.
12:36 Careless words can reveal what is in a person better than careful, deliberate words. The tongue is a very powerful instrument and words have eternal results. Compare Prov 18:21; Jam 3:5-6.⚜
37 📚For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned”.
12:37 Our words are being recorded, and on the day of judgment they will be “played back”. Our words (and notice v 36 – “every careless word”) will be the basis of our judgment because they will reveal exactly what we are.⚜
38 📚Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you”.
12:38 Compare Mark 8:11; Luke 11:29-32. To humble and believing hearts Christ's miracles were evidence that He was the Messiah (Matt 8:1). Willful and determined unbelievers could not be convinced by the most spectacular of signs. Compare Luke 16:31.⚜
39 📚But he answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a miraculous sign. And no such sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
12:39 An adulterous generation is one spiritually unfaithful to God. See notes at Jer 2:2; Ezek 23:2-3; Hos 1:2. Such a generation was not prepared to trust God, His Word, and His Son.⚜
40 📚For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, 📖 so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
12:40 The Jews counted parts of days as full days. The Bible says that Jesus rose on the third day after His crucifixion (Matt 16:21; 27:64; Luke 24:7, 21; Acts 10:40; 1 Cor 15:4). His resurrection is the greatest possible sign that He is the Messiah and Son of God. See notes at Matt 28:6. The history of a brief part of Jonah's life is found in the Old Testament book of Jonah.⚜
41 📚The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And, look, a greater than Jonah is here.
12:41 Here the Lord Jesus calls Himself greater than Jonah. Jonah showed no miraculous signs, yet Nineveh repented. That Gentile city responded to God, but God's own people Israel hardened themselves against Him in spite of many mighty works. On Nineveh see Jonah 1:2.⚜
42 📚The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it. For she came from the farthest parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And, look, a greater than Solomon is here.
12:42 1 Kings 10:1. Sheba is a long way south of Israel. Solomon was the wisest man whoever lived (1 Kings 3:10-12; 4:29-34), but his wisdom is as nothing compared to the wisdom of the Lord Jesus, God's Son.⚜
43 📚“When the unclean spirit 📖 has gone out of a man, it walks through dry places, looking for rest and finding none. 44 📚Then it says, ‘I will return to my house 📖 from which I came.’ And when it has come, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 📚Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is how it will be with this wicked generation”.
12:45 Reformation, and religion, and a clean moral life do not make men safe. If God's Spirit does not dwell within them, Satan can make them worse than they were before they reformed themselves. Christ in us is the only hope of salvation and safety (Col 1:27; Rom 8:9; Rev 3:20). Jesus applies this truth to that generation of Israel (Matt 23:35-36). As a whole it was the worst of all their generations. The people were very religious, and they no longer practiced idolatry as their fathers had done. But they had a devilish hatred of the Son of God and rejected and crucified Him. This was because God was not in them, and Satan had opportunity to occupy their “house”, which he did and brought many demons with him.⚜
The King speaks of His mother, brothers and sisters
46 📚While he was still talking to the people, suddenly his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak with him.
47 Then someone said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you”.
48 📚But he answered and said to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?” 49 📚And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, “See my mother and my brothers!
12:3-4 See 1 Sam 21:1-6. The meaning is that people and their needs are more important than rules, and that the hungry have a right to eat, even if the exact letter of the rules is ignored.⚜
50 📚For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, that one is my brother, and sister, and mother”.
12:49-50 His meaning is that spiritual relationships are more dear, more important than family relationships. He said this had to be true of His followers (see Matt 10:37), and it was fully true in His own life. If we are those who do His will, Christ counts us also as His mother, or sister, or brother. His disciples are His family. See Heb 2:11-12.⚜