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The Book of Luke, The Sabbath Controversy – Lesson 67
Luke 6:1-5, And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. 2And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? 3And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with him; 4How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? 5And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Luke’s purpose in providing these Sabbath accounts is to show some of the reasons that led up to Christ’s rejection, his arrest and conviction, and his crucifixion.
He is careful to identify the issues which made enemies of the Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders, as well as enemies of the people of Israel.
Since the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus Christ Luke has related to us the principle events which reveal an increasing hatred of Jesus Christ and this hatred continues to be revealed in the Sabbath experiences of Chapter Six.
Even with the simple eating of grain from the fields on the Sabbath the Pharisees are there to spy on the Lord and to collect evidence against him.
In Chapter four of Luke the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus and attempted his death because He would bring blessings on the Gentiles (Luke 4:16-30).
As reported in Luke 5 the Pharisees rejected Jesus because He claimed to be God and because He associated with sinners, and now, because He did not keep the Sabbath as they interpreted it.
These issues and similar issues to come, establish the relationship between the Pharisees and Jesus which will result in His crucifixion.
The book of Luke is like a pot that comes to a boil.
The events of past chapters show the water heating up in the pot as the Pharisees confront Jesus in various situations.
In this chapter the Sabbath experiences of Jesus and his disciples, added to the previous experiences of confrontation with Jesus, bring the search for evidence of wrong doing to a conclusion.
In Chapter 6 the Pharisees and scribes now discuss what they might do to Jesus.
Our passage in Luke Six tells us that the Lord Jesus and His disciples were passing through some grain fields on the Sabbath, followed by a delegation of Pharisees.
A present-day example of what we see in scripture is prominent today as we see the press following the candidates for president hoping to catch the candidate in any wrong saying or doing.
The press, like the Pharisees, is also trying to maintain their position.
If there is no news they intend to make news.
No doubt the Sabbath was a slow news day but the Pharisees intended to find something against Jesus and were using the Sabbath to find it.
And what a misuse of the Sabbath this was.
They were accusing the Lord Jesus of working on the Sabbath but did not see the beam in their own eye.
So like the press follows politicians Jesus was being followed by the Pharisees who were hoping something bad would take place, something of which they could accuse him.
The Pharisees were present because Jesus’ popularity was increasing among the people and they were troubled because Jesus was not in their camp and in fact he often confronted their positions.
As the religious police, they wanted to catch Jesus in some transgression of their rules, so that they could point their fingers at Him and accuse Him of being an offense and abomination to God.
One of the Pharisees may even have been designated to count the steps that Jesus was walking since their Sabbath rules would only allow a limited amount of travel on the Sabbath.
And we see in this passage that Jesus rewarded their search because Jesus allowed them to witness his disciples in what the Pharisees defined as an act of work.
But Jesus Christ is light and every thing he does is to open up truth and uncover darkness.
This simple act of eating in the fields on the Sabbath was done to uncover the darkness of the Pharisees.
So he allowed the Pharisees to see his disciples stripping heads of grain from the field, rubbing them in their hands to separate the grain from the sheaf, and putting the grain into their mouths.
This simple act of eating was to the Pharisee harvesting and threshing grain, something which one could do on any other day, but not on the Sabbath according to their rules.
They had so codified the law so as to bind the
people by it.
The Sabbath commandment is short and to the point:
Exodus 20:8, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Without the Sabbath law the wicked heart of man will compel the son, the daughter, the manservant, the maidservant the cattle, the stranger to work on all days.
The wicked heart will plow the mule and the oxen and ride the horse without thought of the welfare of the animal.
The Sabbath day was not made by God as a punishment but as a gift, for it prescribed a day of rest for all, once per week.
Everyone was to get a day of rest.
It was to be in every labor contract, it included a man’s son, a man’s daughter, and his man and maid servants.
It included his stock and even strangers who came to visit.
In Mark 2:27 Jesus made clear who the Sabbath was made for.
Mark 2:27, And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
In light of the truth of the Old Testament scriptures there was nothing wrong with the actions of his disciples.
But the Pharisees had so corrupted the Sabbath that they tried to gain holiness by their observing a multitude of extra biblical rules and regulations governing their behavior on the Sabbath.
Again they focused on the external to gain favor with God.
So as far as the Pharisees were concerned, the disciple’s actions, in eating of the grain on the Sabbath was totally corrupt and against the Sabbath.
Their Sabbath rules were bindings around the people and the purpose of the Sabbath was lost.
God’s gift was turned into chains by these religious rulers.
This is another principal by which religion operates!
Religion turns God’s gifts into bindings.
Gal 5:1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Now in this instance the Lord Jesus could very easily have pointed out to His critics that there was a world of difference between the Pharisee’s interpretation of the law and the actual law itself.
But Jesus does not argue in this manner.
He brings into the discussion a man highly revered by the Pharisees and scribes, the man David.
And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungered, and they which were with him; 4How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?
In this passage the words “Have ye not read,” come across as an accusation that the Pharisees were not acquainted with the very scriptures in which they claimed to be expert.
The Pharisees claimed to be professional students of the law.
This was their high calling in life, their claim to fame.
Jesus began by asking these scholars if they had ever even read the text to which He referred.
It is His way of saying, “Your question is a very elementary one, and one that reveals a very poor grasp of the Scriptures.”
It was as if he was saying: You pride yourselves in being the very people who uphold the law, and your scribes deem themselves to be so thoroughly versed in it as to teach others; yet you are yourselves unacquainted with the fact that even this very law allowed its ceremonial restrictions to be ignored in case of need.
Why? Because the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath!
So these words of Christ must have come as a slap in the face to these proud men, these proud students of the law.
Technically speaking, David did break the letter of the law when he ate bread that only the priests were allowed to partake of.
David also gave this bread to his men, and was not to be condemned for doing so.
Why didn’t the Pharisees condemn David’s actions?
This is the question which Jesus seems to be pressing.
David’s actions could be justified as right.
David was hungry, as were his men. He might have died without this bread.
The answer which Jesus is seeking is something different, however.
Jesus wants His critics to admit that they don’t condemn David’s actions because David did them.
David was so revered by the Pharisees that they didn’t dare to condemn his actions here, even though they were in technical violation of the law.
This deviation from their Sabbath rules by David and their lack of condemnation of David revealed their respect of men.
They respected one man over another man.
The point that Jesus was making was if David could break the law as they saw it because of who he was, they now saw a man greater than David.
The central issue, then, was not whether or not Jesus broke the Sabbath, but who Jesus was.
They allowed for David to deviate in case of need and here was one who was greater than David.
And he reveals this by saying in:
Luke 6:5, And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
In light of the importance of Sabbath keeping by the Jew imagine how this saying astounded the ears of the Pharisees and scribes.
Imagine how it contributed to their rage that was expressed in the synagogue where he healed the man with the withered hand.
The Lord Jesus by saying that he is the Lord of the Sabbath implies his lordship and authority over the Sabbath.
He is saying that He is greater than the Sabbath, and the final authority in matters pertaining to the Sabbath.
To be Lord of the Sabbath is to be Lord over the Sabbath.
When Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, He claimed to be greater than the Sabbath, in authority over the Sabbath, and therefore infinitely more qualified to obey the spirit of the Sabbath.
Jesus Christ was the author of the Sabbath and therefore he was the one to define the Sabbath and not the Pharisees.
And he defined it as a gift for man and not as the Pharisee’s defined it as a binding upon man that was not a help to man.
The Sabbath was not designed to be something to gain points with God by keeping it in such stringent and binding Pharisee defined ways.
This same Sabbath account is given in Matthew and Matthew relates additional words of the Lord Jesus:
7But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
God instituted the Sabbath because of his mercy and all matters pertaining to the Sabbath must be judged in that light.
This, the Pharisees refused to do but insisted upon applying rigid and binding rules to the Sabbath which took away the very purpose of the Sabbath as a day of rest.
Luke does not record any response to Jesus’ defense of His disciples’ action.
My guess is that the Pharisees went off, stunned, silent, and sullen. |