Matthew 12 - Introduction

CHAPTER 12.

CONFLICTS WITH THE PHARISEES.

This chapter delineates the growing alienation between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes. The note of time (ἐν ἐκείνῷ τῷ καιρῷ, Matthew 12:1) points back to the situation in which the prayer Matthew 11:25-30 was uttered (vide Matthew 12:25, where the same expression is used). All the incidents recorded reveal the captious mood of Israel's “saints and sages”. They have now formed a thoroughly bad opinion of Jesus and His company. They regard Him as immoral in life (Matthew 11:19); irreligious, capable even of blasphemy (assuming the divine prerogative of forgiving sin, Matthew 9:3); an ally of Satan even in His beneficence (Matthew 12:24). He can do nothing right. The smallest, most innocent action is an offence.