Because I Said So (thus saith the Lord)

Matt. 12:8

“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

I love this whole passage (v. 1-14). It is full of paradox. But this one verse sums it up.

Here, He is called Son of Man, not Son of God. As the Son of Man, He came to serve. He came as a servant. His service was to free us. Free us from the bondage of sin. Free us from the debt of sacrifice. 

But what He shows us we are to do - be a servant - does not look very freeing.  It is about balance.  We don't get the freeing result until we have gone through the toil of service first.  (Not as a result of it, but rather just the consequence of direction). In our linear world and line of thinking, before an after, there must be a before.  Doesn't that make sense?  Jesus's humility, as well as our own, is an example of the world we live in now.  The condition from which we need rescue.  (Yes, it is also an example of love, but that is a given.  Looking in from a different angle here).

I think back to the Hebrews in slavery in Egypt.  Moses was a tool God used to set them free from their bondage.  This was an example, a type, of Christ to come.  God showing the world that He would send Someone to free all people.  In Jesus's own life, He showed what was going to be done on Earth.  

Jesus lived in the beginning, not as royalty as He should have, but as a poor workman.  We, as God's children should be living as princes and princesses, but the condition of this world does not have such an existence anymore since the Fall of Man in the Garden.  Jesus came to His people not on a white stallion, but on the foal of a donkey.  He did not bring war and destroy the enemies of the Jews, but accepted the death of a criminal.

None of this makes any sense!  He could, but He doesn't.  He serves, when He could be served.  It doesn't make sense, and yet it is.  We can't understand it, so God gives us the only answer a parent can give to a child not mature enough to grasp.

"Because I said so."  

You've been there, haven't you?  Too tired to explain why this is the way.  God has too.  Jesus is there with the Pharisees.  They were stuck in the before, and quite comfortable to stay there.

"Why aren't you doing it right, Jesus?  Why?  Why?" 

We shake our heads at them, but you know what else doesn't make sense?  We chose our sin over God.

But.  Then.  The example of the end came. Everything changed.  He died, but He did not stay dead.  And for the first time ever, a sacrifice stuck.  It was finally acceptable to God. Jesus was taken to Heaven.  And it was an example of how now, we will have the chance to be taken there too.

In this passage, He is trying to explain who He is and what He is doing, but the Pharisees aren't getting it. They are seeing the here and now. They see the beginning, and never the end. To them, there will never be a change. It must always be as it has been.  But we must see the whole picture.

As the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus explains that He IS the law. His law is love, and his law is goodness. He requires no sacrifice because He was the sacrifice. He is greater than any law the temple has ever held.  The Pharisees could not see that, could not get past their noses to see beyond, so all He could do was to tell them.  

"It is right, because I said so."

That is paraphrased, of course, but I can't wait to ask Him if He ever indeed spoke those words.