In your Bibles to Luke chapter 6, verses 1 to 11.
If you are looking in a pew Bible, it starts on page 861.
We're continuing in our series through this early part of the Gospel of Luke, and so let's
read together Luke 6, verses 1 to 11.
On a Sabbath, while he, that is Jesus, while he was going through the grain fields, his
disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?
And Jesus answered them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry?
He, and those who were with him.
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, and also gave it to those with him.
And he said to them, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose
right hand was withered.
And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath,
so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
But he knew their thoughts.
And he said to the man with the withered hand, come and stand here.
And he rose and stood there.
And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to destroy it?
And after looking around at them all, he said to him, stretch out your hand.
And he did so, and his hand was restored.
But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Now, for many of us, when we hear these stories, I wonder if your initial reaction is something
like, what's the big deal?
Why are the Pharisees being so uptight and unreasonable about the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest?
Of course, Jesus' disciples should be able to grab a snack on the way to the synagogue.
Of course, we should celebrate when the man with the withered hand is healed.
The Pharisees' response is just ridiculous and irrational.
And if that's how we understand the story, the practical implication is something like this.
A Sabbath day, a weekly day of rest and worship is a good thing, but let's not get too crazy
about the details.
If other people observe it slightly differently, live and let live.
It's a secondary issue after all.
Now, if that's the main point of this passage, I think most of us will pat ourselves on the
back and we'll think, surely I'm not like those legalistic Pharisees and their obsession
with man-made religious laws.
And we'll go on our merry way thinking that this passage simply confirms what we already
know.
We don't need to worry about the finer points of observing the Sabbath.
That's part of what Jesus came to liberate us from.
Now, there's a kernel of truth in there, but there's a lot more than that going on in this
passage.
You notice in verse 2, when the Pharisees first challenged Jesus and his disciples, Jesus
doesn't say, oh, come on, stop being so uptight, lighten up a bit.
No, he takes their concern very seriously.
He refers to a relatively obscure passage in the Old Testament.
And then in verse 5, he says, the Son of Man, referring to himself, is Lord of the Sabbath.
Now, think about that statement.
Jesus had no political authority.
He was not an officially recognized religious authority either.
He wasn't part of the party of the Pharisees.
He wasn't connected with the temple.
He wasn't sort of officially recognized by the official religious leaders.
But he's making definitive, authoritative pronouncements about one of the core practices and teachings
of the Jewish faith.
And that's what's most striking about Jesus' words and actions here.
The story's not just a controversy about how precisely the Sabbath should be observed.
The controversy is about who's in charge, Jesus or the Pharisees?
Now, throughout chapter 5, the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees has been gradually building.
Chapter 5, verse 21, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven.
And the Pharisees began to question, who can forgive sins except God alone?
Then when Jesus was eating and drinking with tax collectors and others,
the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled.
Why does this man eat with tax collectors and sinners?
Jesus went on.
He said, I've come to bring something new, something that won't fit in the old containers,
like new wine that won't fit in old wineskins, or a new patch of clothing that you can't just
sew onto an old shirt.
Now we come to today's passage, and the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees comes to a head.
What we'll see in the passage today is Jesus claims two things.
First, he claims to have authority over the Sabbath.
We'll look at that in verses 1 through 5.
And second, he claims to embody everything that the Sabbath represented.
And then we'll consider our response to Jesus' two claims.
So Jesus' two claims and our response.
That's what we'll be looking at this morning.
Now, to understand what's going on here with the Sabbath, we need to have a little background
on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was one of the defining markers of Judaism.
In some sense, it was the defining ritual that marked out the Jewish community from others,
along with circumcision.
But circumcision was a one-time thing.
The Sabbath was something that people did every week.
From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, the people would rest.
And Orthodox Jews still do.
I remember the one time in my life that I was in the city of Jerusalem,
and it happened to be over a weekend.
And the whole city stopped.
From Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.
And it was striking, more than any other place I've been in, how the whole city stopped.
Now, why was the Sabbath so important to the people in Jesus' time?
Well, first, it was built into God's creation order.
The Sabbath first appears in Genesis 2, where it says,
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that
He had done in creation.
It was also one of the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20 says,
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
But the seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of rest to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work.
The Sabbath was a gift from God to His people,
and it was also a sign of the covenant, the promises, the agreement between God and His people.
So it was a sign that acknowledged God as the Creator.
Acknowledged that God set the patterns and boundaries in the world,
and we live within those patterns and boundaries.
It was a sign that acknowledged God as the Redeemer, the Savior.
Deuteronomy 5 says,
Keep the Sabbath, because you used to be a slave in Egypt, and God redeemed you from there.
Now, why did it say that?
Well, in Egypt, when the people were slaves, they were under the rule of cruel masters,
who, among other things, would never let them rest,
would never give them any days off.
And so observing one day of rest each week was a reminder that God has set us free,
that we're no longer under the oppressive rule of the Egyptians,
who would never give us any rest, and were always demanding.
And it was a sign that God is not like that kind of master.
God is not the kind of Lord who never lets you rest,
and is always demanding more.
He's a God who graciously gives,
who graciously gives us rest.
So the Sabbath acknowledged God as the Creator, as the Redeemer.
It was God's gift to guard against the oppression of vulnerable people and society.
The fourth commandment specified,
You shall not do any work.
You, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant,
your livestock, the sojourner,
that is the foreigner who's within your gates.
That meant everyone in Israel, including slaves and foreigners,
the workers with the fewest legal protections,
and most likely to be exploited,
got one full day of rest with their families every week.
Fourth, the Sabbath was a foretaste of God's kingdom to come.
It was a day of renewal and restoration,
a day of feasting and delight,
a day of worship and fellowship,
anticipating the age of the Messiah
when toils and cares would one day end.
So the Sabbath was not a minor thing.
Observing the Sabbath was at the heart of what it meant
to trust in God and follow His commandments.
And so that's why it was such a big deal
when Jesus claimed authority over the Sabbath,
as we see in verses 1 through 5.
Let's look at these verses.
Jesus and His disciples,
perhaps they're on their way to the synagogue,
they're walking through the grain fields.
Some of His disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands.
And then some of the Pharisees objected.
Now, why would the Pharisees have objected?
Well, plucking could have been seen as a form of harvesting,
and harvesting was strictly forbidden on the Sabbath.
Rubbing the heads of grain could be understood
as a form of threshing,
which was also forbidden on the Sabbath.
Now, of course, there were different debates
between different schools of rabbis
as to what exactly qualified as work.
But the basic principle that most everyone agreed on was,
don't do any work on the Sabbath
that isn't absolutely necessary to preserve life.
So some rabbis had come up with 39 types of work
that were forbidden.
Everything from sowing and reaping,
grinding and sifting,
writing and erasing,
tying and loosening knots,
kindling and extinguishing a fire.
Some of these things were explicitly mentioned
in the Old Testament laws.
Other restrictions had developed over time
in an effort to guard the Sabbath
from being gradually eroded.
But notice Jesus' response to the Pharisees.
Jesus doesn't quote a more liberal rabbi
who would have been okay with these things.
He doesn't say,
oh, come on, Pharisees,
you're just being too strict.
Jesus goes back to the Scriptures.
And he goes back to an incident
from 1 Samuel chapter 21
when David and his men
were running away from King Saul.
Now, David had already been anointed king
at this time in his life.
The prophet Samuel had anointed him
and said,
you are going to become the king of Israel.
God has chosen you.
He has appointed you.
But his kingship was not widely recognized.
And so David had this ragtag band of men
following him around,
trying to survive in the wilderness,
hungry and thirsty.
And in order to feed his hungry men,
David went into,
went to the tabernacle,
went to the house of God,
went to the priest,
and he said,
I need some food.
We're starving.
And the priest said,
the only thing I have
is the holy bread,
the bread of the presence.
And according to the ceremonial law,
only the priests were supposed to eat
that holy bread.
And David said,
we need some food.
And he said,
okay, I'll give it to you.
So David did something
that was technically illegal,
contrary to the ceremonial law.
Now, what's Jesus' point
in citing the story?
Well, his argument is,
if David can do that,
then I can do this.
If it was proper for David
to feed his starving men
with holy bread,
contrary to the ceremonial law of God,
then it's proper for me
to feed my hungry disciples
with grain,
contrary to your human tradition.
Now, do you notice here
that Jesus is drawing a parallel
between himself and David?
He's saying,
if David had the authority to do that,
David was the anointed king.
People didn't recognize him yet.
He only had a small band of followers.
But he was trying to feed them
when they were hungry.
If he could do that,
then surely I can do this.
Now, notice,
Jesus has already been declared king
when Jesus was baptized.
God the Father said,
you are my son,
with you I'm well pleased.
But like David,
he only has this small band of followers
at this point.
And he's facing opposition,
just like David was
at that point in his life.
You see, what Jesus is saying here is,
I'm the king in the line of David.
And you don't recognize it yet.
But this is what God's called me to be.
This is who God's appointed me to be.
The king in the line of David,
the promised Messiah.
Now, do you see why that
got under the Pharisee's skin?
Jesus wasn't just saying,
oh, come on, lighten up.
He's saying,
I have an authority
even greater than King David.
That's not what any old person
goes around saying.
And then he says,
the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
Think about that.
Who instituted the Sabbath?
God did.
Over and over in the Old Testament,
God says to his people,
keep my Sabbaths.
That is, the Sabbath is my day.
And here comes Jesus saying,
the Son of Man
is Lord of the Sabbath.
Now, when Jesus uses the term
Son of Man
to refer to himself,
he's not just affirming
that he's fully human,
just like the rest of us.
Although he was,
and is,
he was claiming to be
the representative human being.
Notice he says,
the Son of Man.
Not a Son of Man,
a human being.
The Son of Man.
He's claiming to be
the Messiah,
the head of a new humanity.
The promised Messiah
whose kingdom
would never be destroyed.
The one that Daniel
saw in his vision.
It's referred to
as the Son of Man
in Daniel chapter 7.
Coming with the clouds of heaven,
reigning with glory and honor.
So, what Jesus is saying here
is he's saying,
you know,
I'm not just
passing a message
down the ranks.
I'm not just sort of
an intermediate officer
in the military
who's just passing down
orders from above.
I'm the commander-in-chief.
And I have,
I'm here.
I'm not just one
in a line of many
interpreters of the Scriptures.
I'm the author.
And I've come to show you
what they mean.
And I've come to fulfill
what they're talking about.
And so,
the proper response
to Jesus
is to bow before him
and swear allegiance to him
and to follow him alone.
Now, what does this mean for us?
If Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath,
then he is Lord
over all our spiritual practices
and all our traditions.
Now, every church has traditions,
whether we call them
traditions or not.
Trinity,
if there's an order
to our worship service,
if you,
you can see it
laid out in the bulletin,
it's pretty similar every week.
We have Sunday school beforehand
and coffee hour afterwards.
We have small groups
during the week.
Maybe you have family traditions,
cultural traditions,
personal habits.
But we should never hold
onto any of our traditions
more tightly
than we hold onto Jesus.
We should always be willing
to test our traditions
against what Scripture says
and change them
if necessary.
And when there isn't
an explicit biblical command
one way or the other,
we should be generous
toward other Christians
who are seeking to live out
the same biblical principles
in a slightly different way.
Let me give an example of this.
Last summer,
my family and I
were driving
through the Midwest.
And through a series
of circumstances,
we spent a night
in the home
of an Amish family.
This was a traditional
Amish family.
They lived pretty much
off the grid
with limited electricity.
They wore plain clothing,
traditional clothing.
They drove a horse and buggy
or sometimes got rides
with other people,
but they would not drive cars.
They all worked together
in a family business.
They were committed
to what seemed like
a very unusual,
traditional,
conservative way of life
because they were convinced
that it was healthiest.
And honestly,
coming to their house,
we had never met
these people.
It was a friend of a friend.
We had spent 10 hours
in the car.
I was a little nervous.
I was like,
I don't know how
this is going to go.
You know,
we're not quite at our best.
We've just been in a car
for 10 hours today.
But these people
were nothing like
the Pharisees
in this story.
We arrived at our house
at 9 o'clock in the evening.
They served us ice cream
on their back porch.
They talked with us
for two hours
about church and family
and theology and culture,
their life in rural Ohio,
ours in the urban Northeast.
They asked genuine questions.
They acknowledged ways
that they had fallen short
as parents.
They showed not a hint
of disdain
or defensiveness.
Once I remember
the husband saying,
he said,
you know,
we have our standards.
That is our sort of
distinctive traditions
and way of life
as Amish people.
We're committed
to maintaining them,
but our standards
don't save us.
We're only saved
by the grace
of Jesus Christ.
He said,
that's very important.
And because they were rooted
in the grace
of Jesus Christ,
they recognized us
as brothers and sisters
in Christ,
even though our traditions
and habits
and way of life
was very different
than theirs.
not only did they
stay up with us
until 11,
they were out of the house
the next morning
by 6 before we even
woke up to go to work.
We planned to meet
some mutual friends
at a local,
or we planned to meet
the friends we actually knew
for breakfast
at a restaurant.
The husband stopped by
to say hello
and then paid our bill
without us knowing it
before,
without us even knowing
that he did it.
Now, these people
had never met us beforehand
and had no guarantee
they would ever see us again.
But I think they recognized
Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath.
And that's why
they both maintained
a very countercultural
way of life,
and at the same time
they were some of the most
gracious and hospitable
people we had ever met.
And it struck me
that this is what
every follower of Jesus
is called to be
and to do.
However we dress,
wherever we work
and live,
is to be
unflinchingly
countercultural
in the way that we live
as we seek to live out
biblical principles
and utterly hospitable
to all those
who God sends our way.
That's when we recognize
Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath.
That's Lord over all
of our spiritual practices
and traditions.
I think that's the attitude
that results.
So first,
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
But second,
we see that Jesus
embodied everything
that the Sabbath represented.
We see this in verses
6 to 10.
While Jesus is teaching
in the synagogue,
He sees a man
whose hand was withered.
His right hand,
Luke points out,
was withered.
In the ancient world,
as for most people today,
the right hand
was the dominant hand.
That was the hand
you would use
to perform most work,
to convey blessings,
to swear oaths,
raise your right hand,
to give alms,
to make deals.
So a man with a withered
right hand
would have been
disgraced and disempowered.
The word withered
means shriveled
or dry
or lifeless.
Perhaps it was atrophied
or paralyzed.
Jesus sees this man
and He wants to heal him.
He wants to restore him
to a place of honor
and health
and proper function
because that's what
the Sabbath was meant
to do in the first place.
It was meant to be
a day of restoration,
a day of healing,
a day of refreshing,
a day of delight
in God's good creation,
a gift from God
to humanity.
And Jesus came
to embody and fulfill
all that the Sabbath
was meant to be.
When Jesus spoke
in His first sermon
in the synagogue
at Nazareth,
what did He say?
He said,
the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me
because He has anointed me
to preach good news
to the poor,
to proclaim liberty
to the captives
and release from darkness
for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor.
Jesus says,
I've come to do
all that the Sabbath
was pointing towards.
I've come to give you rest.
I've come to renew
your relationship with God.
I've come to bring peace
between God and humanity.
Jesus came to begin
the process of restoring
and healing His people
physically, spiritually,
emotionally, and socially.
And yet,
Jesus healing
the man in the synagogue
provoked the Pharisees
even more
than the disciples
eating grain
in the cornfields.
By now,
the Pharisees
were watching Him.
They were looking
for a reason
to accuse Him.
Verse 7.
And Jesus didn't back down.
He wasn't intimidated
by them.
In fact,
He questioned them.
Is it lawful
on the Sabbath
to do good
or to do harm,
to save life
or destroy it?
You see,
sometimes,
Jesus says,
doing nothing
to help someone
is as good
as doing them harm.
In other words,
being godly
is not just about
avoiding sin.
Apathy and indifference
can be a form
of hatred.
And the Sabbath
is no excuse.
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