In Matthew 12:1-8, the Scriptures state: " At about that time Jesus was walking through some grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began breaking off heads of wheat and eating the grain. Some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, "Your disciples shouldn't be doing that! It's against the law to work by harvesting grain on the Sabbath."But Jesus said to them, "Haven't you ever read in the Scriptures what King David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God, and they ate the special bread reserved for the priests alone. That was breaking the law, too. And haven't you ever read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath? I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple! But you would not have condemned those who aren't guilty if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: `I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices.' For I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath."

Here, we see Jesus and his disciples hungry. They enter a grainfield and take some of the wheat and take the heads off to obtain the grain to nourish their hunger. The Pharisees saw them and accused Jesus and his disciples of working on the Sabbath by harvesting the wheat. I want you to notice that the complaint of the Pharisees was that Jesus and his disciples was "technically" harvesting by "technically" working on the Sabbath. I find it interesting that the Pharisees did not even bring up the point of Jesus and the disciples taking grain from a field that did not belong to them. Therefore, it was not about what was right or wrong in general that mattered. It was what is technically right and technically wrong in the minds and eyes of the legalistically minded Pharisees. The Pharisees had created a system of legalism that was so impossible to follow that the Pharisees had to create more rules and laws to help them follow their own laws. However, these rules and laws ended up binding the Pharisees even further into their works based philosophies. In fact Jesus reminded the Pharisees of 1 Samuel 21:1-6 where David was hungry and ate the Temple bread reserved only for the priests. God could have easily killed David and his companions for eating the sacred bread but God did not. Why? God saw that David's need for food to survive was more important that the priestly regulations. In fact, it is ironic that the main intent of the Pharisees was to "attempt to preserve and enact the law of Moses and it's heritage" through their own regulations when the men honored in their heritage did not obey the rules and regulations the Pharisees enacted to "preserve" the Law.

I also find it ironic that it was the Pharisees who caught Jesus and their disciples breaking their man-made laws on the Sabbath. If the Sabbath according to their laws meant no work, then why did certain Pharisees perform the work of trying to find people who broke their laws? Why weren't these same Pharisees in the synagogue per their standards? If the Pharisee add-on rules to the Scriptures were of God, then God would have blessed it and upheld it without their assistance. It was not the Pharisee's job to play God on earth. I have written these past statements to address an issue I read in an e-mail sent to me from a student at a Christian college. This student was flustered because it was against the rules of this Christian college to eat at Pizza Hut because according to the college handbook, Pizza Hut serves beer. However, every grocery store they shop at sells beer and wine. But a fellow student did and when he walked out of Pizza Hut, a college official approached him in the parking lot and rebuked him in public and the next day, received his expulsion papers. Let me ask you this rhetorically, "If God had blessed the add-on rules and their so-called rules "of God", would God need spies to expose someone's so-called sin?" "Would God Almighty reveal the sin of someone to the leader for the leader and God to deal with like Achan's sin for wrongfully taking the spoils reserved for God at Jericho?" There is no instance in the Scriptures stating that Achan was spied upon by his fellow Israelites. Achan went to fight a battle that he did not have to fight. All Achan had to do was to obey Joshua's commandment from the Lord to which Achan did not and later paid the consequences by God showing Joshua who had taken the spoils, not by watching and spying on a soldier taking spoils. If going to Pizza Hut because they served beer on tap was a big issue in God's eyes, then God would supernaturally expose it to the leaders. God would also give the leaders wisdom and discernment to rectify the problem at hand. There is no need for "God's Agent 87" relaying information back to leadership for leadership to deal with the problem accordingly. In fact, the only time the kingdom of Israel sent spies out was to see their promised land and their enemy, not to spy on people and try to find evil to deal with. If harvesting a couple of stalks of grain in order to obtain nourishment for one's body on the Sabbath was a big issue in God's eyes, then God would have dealt with Jesus accordingly and the sacrifices made at Calvary would have been in vain because Jesus would have sinned and therefore could not have been the perfect Sacrifice. It amazed me growing up in the Pentecostal Holiness church to see the women who performed the "double manna" philosophy by double cooking on Saturday and before going to church on Sunday, placing the one day old food in the oven with tin-foil at low temperatures to warm it up to eat after Sunday service because breaking out a pot and pan to cook food to nourish one's body was profaning the Sabbath according to denomination headquarters.

We also see that Jesus reminded the Pharisees that the priests on duty in the Temple on the Sabbath worked on the Sabbath to perform duties of servantute. In fact, this contridicted Pharisee law because Pharisee law saw temple duties as actual work. God designed the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship unto Him but gave the priests duties to perform on the Sabbath. The purpose of the Temple was to bring people together to freely worship God, not to bind them and break their spirits in the name of Pharisee legalism. Jesus reveals to the Pharisees who the real temple is, Jesus. Later on, through the work of the Holy Spirit, our body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple is not found in a architectural grand design. Instead, it is found in willing vessels who allow the presence of Jesus to fully take control of their life.

Now we have seen Jesus begin to further establish himself as the king of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus successfully rebuked the Pharisees and exposed the holes in their legalistic add-on theologies. In fact, Jesus shows us one of many examples of parachurch ministry in action. Where the corporate church is too busy trying to re-establish a past and forgotten blessing of their forefathers based on a known move of God or the re-establishment of power to the descendents of past leaders, many parachurch organizations are busy fulfilling the will of God to set captives free. Where many corporate churches and denomination headquarters instill red tape of rules, many parachurches show the people the red blood of Jesus to wash their sins, have mercy and compassion on people, and to equip the saints for ministry. We will now see in the next six verses how Jesus kept doing the will of his father against the add-on rules of the Pharisees:

Click Here for part three of Red Blood or Red Tape.