Who Rules the Sabbath?

- Sabbath was the best day of the Jewish week

- The law permitted picking grain for sustenance for travelers but not harvesting with a sickle.

- - Deut. 23:24-25

Deuteronomy 23:24–25 ESV

“If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

- - Some Pharisees considered this work.

- A teacher was responsible for the actions of his disciples.

- The law was to protect them from the idolatry of work and overwork.

# I. The Son of Man is Ruler of the Sabbath. (v. 1-5)

- The scribes and Pharisees misunderstood the Law.

- Jesus did not break the Law.

- The lesson from David. I Samuel 21:1-6 - no mention of the Sabbath

1 Samuel 21:1–6 ESV

Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

- Because of David's authority as the king, he did this unlawful act to meet an urgent human need.

- How much more then can David's Lord do something that meets a human need even if it violates the Pharisee's interpretation of the Law. He did not actually violate the law itself.

- It is ultimately the Son of Man who interprets the Sabbath and rules over it, not men. He gets to dictate what the Sabbath is to be used for.

- Mark 2:27-28 - Sabbath was given as a gift to man. It was given to bless and celebrate and not to confine.

Mark 2:27–28 ESV

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

- The Pharisees took what was meant for freedom and made it a burden to hang around people's necks.

II. Jesus exercised power and authority to heal on the Sabbath. (v. 6-11)

The man's right hand was withered. In a culture that was right hand dominant and saw the left hand as less honorable, this man would have been shamed. He wouldn't have been able to work with his right hand.

The Pharisees are watching Jesus to scrutinize and accuse Him and not to gain insights.

Breaking the Sabbath to save life was allowable but this was not a life threatening moment.

_The man stretched out his hand._

_Jesus healed with a word._

This is proof that Jesus is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath.

People are more important than ceremony.

Ceremony is there for the benefit of the people.

Ceremony gives way to the well-being of the person in need.

- Our care for people should match God's care for people. (Break my heart for what breaks yours.)

The Pharisees were using the Sabbath as a way to oppress others.

III. The Pharisees misunderstood the Sabbath

Jesus doesn't set aside the Law but fulfills it.

Matthew 12:5–7 ESV

Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Mark 2:27 ESV

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Luke 6:5 ESV

And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Verse 5 is key. - Jesus is saying that as the Son of Man, the one from Heaven, HE has the authority that these religious leaders know only belongs to God.

Even witnessing a miracle doesn't change the stoney hearts of the scribes and Pharisees.

They are filled with fury.

They start looking for what they might do. This foreshadows Jesus' suffering and death.

- They were unable to rejoice with the man who had been healed.

- Their jealousy was so intense that they missed the presence of God among them.

- They missed the tenderness of Christ as He reached out to this broken man.

- They missed that Jesus was courageous in reaching out to the man. He would be risking reputation and physical well-being (because they ended up meaning him harm) in order to bring wholeness to the broken man.

- In not doing good, they were doing harm.

- Serving the law vs serving the Son.

- Their religious dedication to their traditions didn't just cause them to miss Jesus but caused them to be hostile toward Jesus.

- They were so religious that they ended up being against God and God's plan. Because they were religiously dedicated to their made up traditions and rules and not to serving and following the Lord God.

- Their lives and actions betrayed what was in their hearts.

Conclusion and application:

We look at the Pharisees with derision but we should watch ourselves because we can fall into the same kinds of sin and error very easily.

Thabiti Anyabwile (1) points out that, "becoming Pharisees is easy. All we need to do is

• require everyone to follow our personal religious example and judge them when they fail;

• make our religious rules more important than Jesus himself; and

• make our religious rules more important than the well-being of others around us.

We might be surprised at how easily our hearts slide in this direction. But worship that pleases the Lord has a very different character. God-pleasing worship

• emphasizes our joy not merely our duty;

• frees us to serve the Son rather than to attempt our own righteousness by the law; and

• frees us to do good and save life in the midst of worship as an act of worship.

Christ Jesus has come to save sinners so that we might truly worship. He is the Lord of worship and tells us what pleases him."

(1) Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018), 112–113.