The Dangers of Snacking on the Sabbath

Communion:Jesus is the Bread of Life

One of the elements we use for communion is bread.

We put some fresh bread out today for communion to make a specific point: God is offering to each of us the gift of life. The bread itself is a tactile reminder of the life God offers us…and I'm going to talk about this in detail in today's message…

But for a moment, think about how the land the grain is grown on is a gift from God. The grain itself is a gift. The people who planted and cared for, and harvested the grain are a gift. The people who transported it and those made the grain into flour, the people who took that flour and made bread, right here in Duluth—all of this is a gift from the Lord—he's the one who even created the possibility of bread.

Even bread itself, if you think about it, is a bit of a miracle!

And while God reminded his people in the wilderness that humans "do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." He reminded them while providing manna, a kind of bread.

Jesus makes all of this much more personal…

John 6:35 (NIV) — 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

And then, at the last supper, Jesus uses bread to represent his body broken for us.

As we take communion, the bread representing Jesus’ broken body, the juice representing the new covenant in his blood…and we’re celebrating that we, you and I together, we are the body of Christ.

Pray…

Questions Jesus Asked:

We are working our way through a series of talks about all of the questions Jesus asked as its recorded in the scriptures. Today we’re in Luke 5 & 6, and Jesus is being challenged, again, by the religious leaders, about his eating habits… this isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last that he’s challenged about how he’s eating, and who he’s eating with…

I was reading a couple of books this past week… here’s a quote I enjoyed…in the gospel of Luke…

“Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.” Eating Your Way Through Luke's Gospel, by Robert J. Karris

It’s a little overstatement to make a point…BTW, I think the same could be said about MY life!

This author isn't the only one to take notice of this… the Pharisees make the same observation

Luke 5:33–35 (NIV): They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

…the contrasting comparison they make of "fast and pray" with "eating and drinking" is not meant to be a compliment! They’re challenging him. They even go so far as to call him a glutton at one point!

Matthew 11:19 (NIV)

19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

Jesus has an explanation for the Pharisees, but to make sense of it we need to remember why Jesus said he was here in the first place…

Luke 4:18–19 (NIV) — 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus describes his mission using terms from the Old Testament about declaring and enacting the Year of Jubilee. He weaves together verses from Isaiah 61 & 58.

He's calling to mind for his listeners a whole bunch of biblical images of release—a release of debts, of sins, liberation from the powers of sickness and the devil, a liberation of the land itself.

He then tells the Pharisees…

Luke 5:34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

This is another image from Isaiah 61:10 about a wedding feast at the end of time.

Jesus is adding to the image of his mission of Jubilee…He's saying that the party you’re all long for at the end of time, its beginning!

You don't declare a fast at the beginning of the party. This is the inauguration of the long-awaited Jubilee! The land is being set free!

The disciples are to announce good news to the poor, to set the oppressed free, to release the captives, to bring sight to the blind, to declare the year of the Lord's favor!!!

So, why is Jesus eating and drinking his way through Judea?

“…every meal they eat points towards a feast like no other: and feast that makes present and permanent the coming reality of the world set free to find its home in becoming the home of God.” (The Hunger for Home, Food and Meals in the Gospel of Luke, by Matthew Croasmun & Miroslav Volf, p.28)

And that future feast is not here just yet. Right‽ Jesus goes on to say…

Luke 5:35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”

Fasting is this sense is the discipline of longing, the discipline of mourning the absence of the table, of the feast, of the home for which we were created.

That's why Jesus says at the Last Supper with his disciples that he won't drink of the fruit of the vine until the day when we're all back together again.

We currently live in this in between time. Jesus, the bridegroom is absent in the flesh. The kingdom of God is not fully here yet. The Jubilee mission is far from complete.

And yet the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the living God is among us even right now. The kingdom is coming and the world is being transformed. The Jubilee mission continues right here among us, and with our active participation.

The passage for today comes in the very next chapter, Luke 6. It’s a Saturday, a Sabbath day, and Jesus and his disciples/students are walking through a field and snacking…they snacking in a field on the Sabbath!

Main Passage…turn to it, please…

Luke 6:1–5 (NIV)

1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 5 Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Walking through the passage…

The problem they’ve got themselves into by munching on some grain on this particular sabbath day isn’t because they are breaking any property rights. They aren’t trespassing, as we might think about being in a similar situation today.

The ancient law found in Deuteronomy 23 lays out a set of practices for the use of the land to help support the needy—a provision was made for those in need to harvest grain—by hand, not using a sickle, and only take what you need for that day…much like the manna in the wilderness.…

The goal is to realize that even the cultivated land—like everything else in our lives, the places we work and the income, the food we earn—is a gift from God. The fields we work are the Lord's fields. The places our food comes from are the Lord’s fields. The bread we make comes from the hand of God.

What if we saw everything in our lives as a divine gift, rather than our personal property of which we have total control. Just wondering…

Side note: this approach—everything belongs to the Lord—has such wide ranging implications for how and what we eat, and from where, how we allocate resources, how we think about consumption and consumerism…I could keep us here all day!

How about this… Just ask the Lord this week how this approach to life—everything belongs to the Lord, everything—how might change one part of how you live your daily life?

Alright, Jesus and his disciples are snacking their way through the fields…

there are multiple times where he and his disciples/students are accused of doing too much of the wrong kinds of things on the sabbath, eating with the wrong people, healing people…

In this case harvesting is strictly forbidden in Exodus 34:21 “21 “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.”

Is what they’re doing sabbath-violating work? Is what they’re doing harvesting?

Matthew Croasmun & Miroslav Volf point out that from the law, Jesus has several lines of defense he could’ve used that show this is precisely not the kind of work that violates the sabbath. He could’ve defended the rights of the poor, he could’ve pointed how their traditions celebrate God’s ownership of the land—and on different occasions he does exactly this…

Instead Jesus answers their challenge with a question of his own, and a story they would know quite well…

Luke 6:3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read…”

Of course they've read it! They are experts in the scriptures! They've read every scripture!

But actually seeing the Messiah in the scriptures, well pretty much everyone missed that, so just like (Brian talked about last week) with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus opens the "scriptures to point to himself, using a story about David, the long-celebrated king of Israel.

By bringing up this story, Jesus is highlighting his identity as Messiah, he’s identifying with the great king David.

Look with me for a moment at all the ways Luke point out that the messiah comes from the lineage of King David, they are both the "anointed ones" (all quotes from Luke)

[I’M NOT SURE HOW TO PUT THIS LIST ON THE SCREEN, EITHER AS SHORT BULLET POINTS OR SCRIPTURE PASSAGES…]

Joseph is from the house of David (1:27; 3:31)

the angle Gabriel tells that Jesus will receive David's throne (Luke 1:32)

Zachariah invokes David's name (1:69)

Bethlehem, the site of Jesus’ birth is twice described as the city of David (2:4, 11)

After talking about David here in chapter 6…

A blind man Calls Jesus "Jesus, Son of David” (18:38)

and Jesus uses an old riddle to highlight the Messiah's Davidic identity to the scribes (20:41–44)

Luke is showing the David is a main key for understanding Jesus' identity

And this particular from David's life help to link this up even a bit more…

This story comes from a long period in David's story between his anointing in 1 Samuel 16 and his becoming king in 2 Samuel 2.

In the years between, David slays Goliath, and fights the Philistines and the Amalekites

Messiah = Anointed One

Jesus is identifying himself not just as Israel's Messiah (it literally means Anointed One!), but as the anointed-but not-yet-enthroned-one. He is like David; but even more, in his ministry, he is like David in that in-between period between anointing and enthronement.

[AGAIN, THIS IS ANOTHER LIST COMPARING JESUS AND DAVID]

Like David in this period, Jesus travels the Judean countryside, rescuing people from from their enemies—in Jesus' case, unclean spirits and illnesses.

This is the Jubilee mission: casting out unclean spirits (4:31–37), healing many in Capernaum (4:38–44), cleansing a leper (5:12-16), healing a paralytic (5:17–26).

Jesus is proclaiming and demonstrating release of the land and the people who live on it, just like David did!

Like David, Jesus is anointed and receives the Spirit long before he's enthroned

Like David, Jesus does battle against the enemies of his people

Like David, the gap between anointing and enthronement invites comparison to the established authorities—Pharisees and Sadducees for Jesus, And in David's case, Saul. As a result these authorities try to have both David and Jesus killed.

Both David and Jesus make a triumphant entry in to Jerusalem.

And both David and Jesus are eventually enthroned…

Remember Jesus declaring at his trial…

Luke 22:69 (NIV) — 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”

Luke is dialing up the entire trajectory of David's life as a lens to understand Jesus as Messiah…

This is what Jesus is pointing out to the Pharisees, if they’re listening…

Jesus is the anointed-but-not-yet-enthroned king

What's going on this Luke 6 is that Jesus is the anointed-but-not-yet-enthroned king. He's not yet fully calling all the shots, and it's on purpose.

The Spirit of God is on Jesus to set people free, because the land and the people need a Jubilee. God hasn't fallen asleep on the job. The kingdom of God is at hand, but it is not fully here.

God isn't a puppet-master come onto the stage to play a part, even a major part, rather, he's the rightful king come to liberate a land from an unjust and destructive tyrant.

And he does it by leading, if you will, a divine conspiracy, a nonviolent insurrection, he lays down his own life and invites his followers to do the same.

And then, after briefly telling the story of David, Jesus ends with this line: "The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."

the key word for understanding this passage is the word "Lord." The Greek word is "kurios". It’s the very same word used of Caeser, Lord (kurios) of the Roman Empire!

Literally in Greek: "Lord he is of the sabbath, the Son of Man"

Jesus is not just claiming to be Lord of the sabbath rules, he's claiming to be the Lord for whom and to whom the Sabbath is celebrated.

Let’s make some really practical implications for you and I right here in today’s world…

Why are they snacking on the sabbath? Hunger

Some of us might consider just going hungry to avoid the conflict. Right!? They had to be able to see that this snack would produce a conflict.

Jesus honored their hunger, he honored their physical needs and met their hunger.

Am I honoring God in my hunger?

I wonder how many of us struggle to honor God in our physical needs, in our limitations, in our hunger?

We know what it is to be hungry. Hungry physically, hungry emotionally, hungry for relationship, for food, for purpose…the list of our hungers and appetites is quite long!

I wonder how much of the time we don’t recognize that our human limitations are a place where we’re meant to connect with God and his provision. And rather than turning to him at all we just turn to Amazon and fill our cart with what we think will meet those longings?

How might God want to honor and satisfy your hunger if you were to pause and turn towards him?

Am I honoring the hunger of others?

How might Jesus be inviting us/you to honor the hunger of those around us/you.

As followers of the Resurrected Christ, as the Body of Christ, as the church of Christ, how does God want to use you to honor and meet the hunger of those right around you?

Hunger for food, yes! Hunger for relationships. Hunger for home.

Bread

Remember the first temptation Jesus faced after fasting for forty days?

Luke 4:3–4 (NIV) — 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

This quote Jesus is using comes from…

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV) — 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Two thoughts… the scriptures and Jesus are not saying that we don’t need bread. We do!!!! And, our life is more than bread, our sustenance comes from much more than bread…

The gospel of John refers to Jesus as the Word of God. In Jesus, The very presence of God has entered the world of humanity.

The bread of life, the very presence of God has entered the world of humanity.

In the story Jesus brings up, the bread David ate represented the very presence of God.

Our human hunger is designed to point us to the only things that can really satisfy, God himself. And we’re meant to enjoy the gifts, the physical bread he gives us to satisfy our hunger as gifts from his loving hand. What if every bite of bread was also a wonderful experience of the presence of God. Talk about an all encompassing way to worship God!!

Is Jesus entitled to the bread of the presence because it is the bread of his presence?

Is the bread of his presence out in the fields because his presence is out in the fields?

Lord

Later on the Luke’s gospel Jesus quotes king David from Psalm 110

Luke 20:41–44 (NIV) — 41 Then Jesus said to them, “Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’ 44 David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

The Lord? Kurios? Yahweh himself? The God of Israel? Is this who Jesus is claiming to be? yes!

All of scripture points in this direction. Jesus is Lord.

Is this your understanding? This is exactly what it means to be a Christian…

Philippians 2:9–11 (NIV) — 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Sabbath

And once we submit to his Lordship in every area of our lives, we are meant to partner with him on this planet until he returns…that a big part of what this whole sabbath thing is about.

We tend to reduce sabbath to a day off…and that’s a complete misunderstanding…it is so much more!!

In Genesis chapter 2, after God had created everything, what exactly did he rest from? Why did he rest? and what did he rest into?

Genesis 2:2–4 (NIV) — 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

He rested from creating. He had finished his making. He had completed it all and it was very, very good, stunningly beautiful.

Picture the king settling into his throne. Picture the president after moving into the White House, settling in. The work of making it all is done, and now God settles into the enjoyment, into the tending and gardening and growing and enjoying of all creations.

Sabbath is about settling in to partner with God in his work

In the creation story the seventh day has no sunset…it’s a picture of all eternity, humans and God together resting, going about the business of tending the garden together, enjoying all the fruit of their creating.

The practice of sabbath was to remind us of all of this we’re invited into, and that we will be tempted to think we can accomplish it all on our own…we’ll be tempted to think we are the ones who make everything happen…the weekly rhythm of sabbath reminds us who is Lord, Kurios, Yahweh.

An Invitation into the fields

And so today, there is an invitation into the fields with Jesus. You and I are created to feast on the presence of Jesus, and we can find it in the bread, we can find him in the fields, we can find him everywhere we go, and with anyone with whom we interact.

The kingdom of God, as Jesus told us, is “at hand,” within reach…

Jesus is inviting you and I into the fields with him, his presence is there.

Remember all this ends with a banquet, a party with the best food & wine imaginable…”a celebration of the presence of Christ, the presence of God at a banquet…all of history is headed in that direction.

“He invites us into his jubilee work, liberating the land: driving out illness, ending hunger, replacing unjust structures and evil powers that hold the land in captivity.”

He invites you and I to eat of the fruit of the land in ways that build intimacy with God and with others…to create homes where God and our neighbor find peace and rest.

Part of what you and I are invited into is living out the reality of that banquet now… picture a banquet without borders, where all the wrong people are invited to participate right alongside the right people, because the distinctions have collapsed.

And he invites us to continue to long for that day, soon to come, when we may eat of the full banquet of the kingdom among the new creation which will become the very home of God and his people.

Ministry:

capture our hearts with your vision of jubilee, of release for our lands and our neighbors

make us ever mindful of your provision through our own hands and all the resources you provide