The Lord of the Sabbath

As we’ve been looking at the last few weeks, the section of Luke’s Gospel from chapter 5:17-6:11 focuses on 5 different interactions that Jesus has with some of the Pharisees.

As his popularity grows, so does the concern with his teaching and preaching.

Remember, the Pharisees want to keep the law pure and unadulterated.

They want Israel to be a nation blessed by the Lord.

And he will not rain his blessings down, if the people don’t submit to his commandments.

This text we will look at this morning Luke 6:1-11, deals with 2 stories of confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.

And it centers around what is called the Sabbath.

This is the Day of Rest that God Mandates for those who will follow him.

It’s such a big deal to God that he includes the sabbath instruction in both the creation narrative and in the 10 commandments.

In fact, as far as the 10 commandments go, it takes up the most space in the giving of that law.

I want to read it for you.

Exodus 20:8–11 CSB

8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Why is the Sabbath so important to God?

The answer to that question is actually found in another question.

What does the sabbath point too?

A day of healing, restoration, freedom, redemption, and peace.

The sabbath day is a day that helps to reorient and refocus God’s people away from the trials and tribulations of the world and place the focus where it belongs: On God.

A day of rest, of worship, and of doing good for family, friends, and the world around us.

This is so important to the Lord that he baked it into the very foundation of creation.

He modeled it for us on the 7th day of creation.

Where the Lord of all creation, the one who created the heavens and the earth. The birds of the air and beasts of the field.

The one who formed and fashioned Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils.

Rested.

Did he need to rest?

No, he’s God. He’s all powerful. Never tiring.

But he modeled for us the importance of rest.

Not only was this law foundational, but it’s beneficial for us.

We need to take a break.

We need rest.

We need to recenter and refocus our lives on what really matters.

We need to intentionally set aside time to worship the Lord.

And often, when we take the rest, when we follow God’s instruction we flourish the rest of the week.

Now I say all that to say, that the Pharisees and Religious leaders of Jesus’ day took this seriously too.

As they should have.

What we will see as we examine these stories this morning is that they built fences and barriers around the Sabbath day.

Meaning that they added extra rules and guidelines around the Sabbath.

I don’t know what their motivation was, but it seems as if they wanted to add clarification to God’s Law.

Like what does he mean “don’t work on the sabbath?”

What constitutes work? What should be avoided on the this holy day.

The problem was that they were more concerned with the letter of the law than with the spirit of the law.

And that’s where their rub with Jesus really begins.

Let’s pray and then we will get into the text.

Luke 6:1–2 CSB

1 On a Sabbath, he passed through the grainfields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

The Confrontation

In the opening verses of this story we are presented with the problem.

Jesus and the Disciples are traveling and they get hungry.

The Disciples then start picking the heads of the grain, rub them in their hand and begin eating them.

On the surface for us, we might think that the problem is that they are stealing from the grainfields.

They are taking food that doesn’t belong to them, but that’s not an issue.

The Old Testament allows for the picking of grain from your neighbor’s field.

You just couldn’t harvest with a Sickle.

Deuteronomy 23:25 “25 When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck heads of grain with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.”

The tension arises b/c Some of the Pharisees identify this behavior as work.

Luke tells us that this event takes place on the sabbath.

And as we’ve discussed before, working on the sabbath is strictly prohibited.

So if this is actual work, then the disciples have broken the Law.

For just a moment, I want us to see, that Luke is careful to tell us that not all the Pharisees are this way.

He tells us that it’s some of the Pharisees.

It’s easy for us to want to look for bad guys in the story of Jesus, but not all the Pharisees see eye to eye with each other.

In fact, we learn that there are some of the Pharisees that are curious about Jesus and his teachings.

Nicodemus comes to mind from John 3.

But there are those who are watching Jesus.

Especially since he has become more influential and prominent throughout the Land.

The Pharisees have accused the disciples of breaking the Law, but what law did they break?

According to the Pharisee’s interpretation of the law, they were harvesting grain.

Which is work, which is illegal.

We talked about earlier how the Religious leaders had built up fences around the Law of God.

What we have to understand about the Jewish understanding of God’s law is that they believe there are essentially 2 laws.

The written law, the Torah or first 5 books of Scripture, and the oral law.

The oral law which is derived from rabbinical teachings.

Meaning that the oral law is the interpretation of the written law by some 150 or so rabbi’s.

This oral law was then written down in what is called the Mishnah.

Now we know from the Mishnah, that there were 39 categories for what was considered work.

These disciples violated 3 of those categories.

By picking the heads of grain they were “Reaping” or harvesting the grain.

By rubbing the grain in their hands they were both threshing the grain and winnowing the grain.

Reaping, threshing and winnowing All violate the Oral Law of working on the sabbath.

To us this might not seem like a big deal, but this accusation was serious.

This is twofold.

First, the violation of the sabbath means that Jesus and the disciples are rebelling against God.

It means that they are not practicing Godliness and would bring Jesus’ ministry into question.

Second, there is a penalty for working on the sabbath.

Exodus 31:15 “15 Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.”

So at the very least, Jesus and his disciples would be seen as sinners discrediting Jesus’ ministry, but at the most they could be put to death for “working” on the sabbath.

In fact, even the devout Jewish people take the sabbath seriously too.

I watched a video last week of an interaction between and Jewish man and a Messianic Christian.

The question came up from the Jewish man, “Why don’t followers of Jesus keep the Torah?”

That’s to say, why do the followers of Jesus disobey the law of God.

The Christian responded with a question

“What is the most biggest commandment in the Torah?”

To which the man replied, “Don’t do any work on the Sabbath.”

Here’s the problem though,

The disciples weren’t violating God’s law, they were violating the Pharisee’s law.

They weren’t working, they were hungry so they were eating food.

And this is what Jesus brings up when he responds to the accusations of the Pharisees.

Luke 6:3–5 CSB

3 Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry— 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat? He even gave some to those who were with him.” 5 Then he told them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus’ Response

The first thing we see here is that Jesus takes responsibility for his disciples.

The disciples are the ones eating.

But Jesus is their teacher and rabbi, so he intervenes btw his disciples and the Pharisees.

Jesus’ intervention is to free the law of God from the perversion of the man made boundaries.

He also seeks to point out that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law.

And he does this by pointing to a story in the OT about David.

In 1 Sam 21:1-6, we learn that David and his men violate one of God’s eternal laws.

In the tabernacle, there were 12 loaves of bread that were set apart for God.

They were called the Bread of the Presence.

Obviously, God did not come and eat the bread, but the bread when it was time to replace was given to the priests serving in the tabernacle.

This bread represented the covenant relationship between God and Israel.

It was special and served a purpose.

Leviticus 24:9 “9 [The Bread] belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, for it is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the Lord; this is a permanent rule.””

It wasn’t common bread that was supposed to be eaten by common folk.

This was a violation of it’s holiness.

So David asking for the bread and the priest giving him the bread is a direct violation of God’s design.

However, God is gracious.

and he saw the need of David and provided mercy toward them.

What we see here is that Jesus is providing an example of God’s Heart towards his people.

This is an example of what Hosea 6:6 “6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Human need must not be subjected to cold legalism.

The priest gave David this set apart bread.

This bread that is given as an offering to God.

Which is a greater violation than the disciples picking grain.

One of the things Jesus is doing here, is pointing out that if the Pharisees are going to condemn the disciples for their action, then they must also condemn David and the priest for theirs.

Jesus then hits the Pharisees with the declaration that he is Lord of the sabbath.

This does two things.

It marks Jesus as divine.

To claim lordship over the Sabbath day means that either Jesus is crazy or he is God in flesh.

This coupled with the title Son of Man solidifies that Jesus is God.

And if he is God and Lord over the sabbath then he can dictate what is good and right to do on the Sabbath.

Now, what Jesus is not doing here is sweeping aside the sabbath as if it doesn’t matter.

The sabbath is commanded by the Lord.

It is good.

It is holy.

God built it into the very fabric of his creation.

Theologian J.C. Ryle said this about the sabbath, ““We must not allow ourselves to be carried away by the common notion that the Sabbath is a mere Jewish ordinance, and that it was abolished and done away by Christ. There is not a single passage of the Gospels which proves this. In every case where we find our Lord speaking upon it, He speaks against the false views of it, which were taught by the Pharisees, but not against the day itself... “The architect who repairs a building, and restores it to its proper use, is not the destroyer of it, but the preserver.”

The sabbath day, a day to rest, refocus, and worship, is a day that we should all partake in.

Jesus didn’t want to abolish the Sabbath, but he did want to point out that the way these Pharisees went about celebrating the sabbath was all wrong.

They were following these guys around.

Looking for an opportunity to catch them in the wrong.

They weren’t looking to offer mercy or grace.

They wanted to heap upon them condemnation.

When what was warranted was mercy.

And for us as followers of Jesus, we need to know that he is the one that dictates what is good for the sabbath.

And truly for all days.

Now as Christians the day we celebrate as the Sabbath day is Sunday.

The Lord’s Day.

this is a day that should be set apart and dedicated to worship and fellowship.

Worship of the Lord and fellowship with his people.

He wants us to gather together to worship him and encourage one another.

But he doesn’t want us to do it in an ritualistic way.

rather he desires that we faithfully and mercifully gather.

From the beginning of creation, the Lord built in a weekly reset for us.

And we should partake in that time.

We should view it as a privileged that we get to commune with God and other believers.

But too often it is seen as a burden.

Or simply a task that we have to perform.

There should be no drudgery or slothfulness when it comes to worshipping with other believers.

It’s is our joy and a grace of God that we can freely do this.

Now, Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees doesn’t stop with the grain incident.

There’s another one just around the corner.

But what happens here is even stranger than the grain incident.

Luke 6:6–11 CSB

6 On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him. 8 But he knew their thoughts and told the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here.” So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 After looking around at them all, he told him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored. 11 They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Healing the Withered Hand

So another sabbath rolls around and Jesus is in the Synagogue where he was teaching.

Amongst the crowd of people, there was a man with a withered hand.

And the Pharisees were watching what Jesus would do.

How would he interact with this man.

Would Jesus do something that would cause them to find even more fault against him.

At this point some of the Pharisees are truly just looking for a reason to hate Jesus and to destroy his ministry.

But Jesus knows their motivation.

He can know their thoughts.

So rather than just healing this man silently or after the service.

Jesus brings this man into the center of the synagogue.

He doesn’t address the man, rather he addresses the scribes and Pharisees.

It’s such an amazing moment.

B/c as much as they want to put Jesus on trial, he reverses it and puts them on trial.

listen again to what he says

Luke 6:9 “9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?””

They didn’t care about the well being of this man.

They didn’t care if he continued to suffer one more day.

They wanted Jesus to fit into their box.

They wanted Jesus to do things the way they did things.

They knew the rules of God, but didn’t know the God behind the rules.

The merciful, compassionate, and loving God.

Hosea 6:6 “6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Jesus knew that doing what is good and right, regardless of the day, is what would glorify God.

It didn’t matter if it was the Sabbath.

This man was hurting.

This man needed love and compassion.

And Jesus let the law of God’s love guide him into doing what was right.

Remember the sabbath day is a day to rejoice, celebrate, and worship the lord of all creation.

And this healing by Jesus did just that.

This enrages the Pharisees.

They are so angry that they were already looking at how they could retaliate against Jesus.

How hard hearted do they have to be?

They see a miraculous work of God.

They witness a child of God restored.

And all they can do is hate Jesus b/c he did what was good.

Jesus wanted to and does do what is good on the Sabbath, meanwhile, the Pharisees would rather suffering continue.

What hypocrites they are.

They claim to love God, but they don’t love the things he loves.

In fact, Jesus views not helping this man as an evil act.

It is always lawful to do good.

We learn by Jesus example.

In the parallel account in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus even says as much.

Matthew 12:12 “... so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.””

One commentator said it this way “Good omitted is evil committed.”

Now I know your asking, “Josh, what does this have to do with me?”

As Jesus’ disciples we need to understand what Jesus sees as good and we need to imitate him.

That’s our calling and joy as believers.

We get to be some of God’s agents of good on this planet.

Here Jesus teaches us what it looks like to love others.

The law of love will always supersede man’s made up laws.

I was talking about this sermon with Corrie last week, and admitted that I was really struggling with communicating the truths in these stories.

Like I really understand and Identify with the Pharisees.

And here’s what I mean, earlier I told you that they were tasked with keeping their nation holy.

That’s what they felt their calling was.

They knew that when they disobeyed God they were thrown into exile.

That’s their history.

So the Pharisees wanted to make sure that people didn’t disobey God’s law, but that they were committed to keeping it so that they could remain in the blessings of God.

And I know that it’s easy for us to shake our heads and wag our fingers at these religious leaders.

How could they miss it.

How could they not understand that God cares more about how they love people then the rules that they follow.

And the reason I want to be a little fair to them is b/c we can be the same way.

We can draw artificial boundaries around things that God never intended.

We can do the “right things” with the wrong motivation.

We can follow the rules without pursuing the heart of God.

Obviously it won’t be with the sabbath, but it can be with other man made guidelines and fences.

And we do this when we want to keep a list that makes us feel good enough for God, but we completely miss what’s most important to him.

When we gather to worship and we ignore someone b/c they look different, talk different, or act different from us.

Here’s another one, when we outright ignore those who are hurting b/c it may inconvenience me.

I don’t want to take this person to the store.

I don’t want to help them pay their electricity.

They should pull themselves up by their bootstraps

But let me ask you, as those who follow Jesus, did he ever ask you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

Or did he step into your mess and bring you mercy, grace, and compassion.

Did he see where you were hurting and offer peace through his spirit?

Why did the Pharisees get so mad at Jesus?

Was it simply b/c he broke one of their precious religious rules?

Or was it b/c he exposed their lack of love for people?

They were hiding behind the law of God and using it as an excuse to not show mercy.

How do we do this?

How do we choose to hide inside our Christian bubble and by doing so we don’t show love and mercy to the broken, the hurting, and the sinful.

How can we as his followers show more compassion, love, and mercy to a world that is hurting.

Instead of hiding in our church house, and simply coming to church on the Sunday, how can we be the hands and feet of Jesus every day to the world around us.

Does the Lord want us to get together to worship him? Absolutely.

But not at the sacrifice of actually doing what the Lord has commanded us to do.

Which is make disciples of all nations.

I pray that we as a people would not be complacent with sitting in these chairs, singing our music, listening to my preaching without doing anything to further the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees in these stories were complacent with keeping the sabbath b/c it is what demonstrated that they loved the Lord.

But the Lord was not satisfied with that.

I know that I’ve already read it twice, but I believe it bears repeating.

This shows us the heart of God

Hosea 6:6 “6 For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Our sacrifices for God mean nothing if we don’t have love.

If we don’t demonstrate love to the world around us it doesn’t matter how much money, time, energy, or talents we give to the church.

God is not honored if we aren’t loving others with the gifts he has given us.

So let’s be generous with the life that he has given.

Let’s be a blessing to the world around us.