Matthew 12:1-12

Contemporary English Version

A Question about the Sabbath

(Mark 2.23-28; Luke 6.1-5)

12 ^(A) One Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some wheat fields.^[a] His disciples were hungry and began picking and eating grains of wheat. ² Some Pharisees noticed this and said to Jesus, “Why are your disciples picking grain on the Sabbath? They are not supposed to do this!”

^3 (B) Jesus answered:

You surely must have read what David did when he and his followers were hungry. ^4 (C) He went into the house of God, and then they ate the sacred loaves of bread that only priests are supposed to eat. ^5 (D) Haven't you read in the Law of Moses that the priests are allowed to work in the temple on the Sabbath? But no one says they are guilty of breaking the law of the Sabbath. ⁶ I tell you there is something here greater than the temple. ^7 (E) Don't you know what the Scriptures mean when they say, “Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others?” If you knew what this means, you would not condemn these innocent disciples of mine. ⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.

A Man with a Paralyzed Hand

(Mark 3.1-6; Luke 6.6-11)

⁹ Jesus left and went into one of their synagogues, ¹⁰ where there was a man whose hand was paralyzed. Some Pharisees wanted to accuse Jesus of doing something wrong, so they asked him, “Is it right to heal someone on the Sabbath?”

^11 (F) Jesus answered, “If one of your sheep fell into a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn't you lift it out? ¹² People are worth much more than sheep, and so it is right to do good on the Sabbath.”