Luke 6:1-6:16
We have been going through the book of Luke, chapter by chapter, line by line, and now we come to Chapter 6. In Chapter 5 last week, we saw the beginnings of tension between Jesus and the priests and teachers of the Law. We heard the story of how a paralytic was unable to get past the crowd to see Jesus, so his friends cut a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching and lowered him in, Before healing this man, Jesus told him “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” That didn’t go over too well – they thought, “Only God can forgive sins!”
One thing I didn’t go into about this last week is the “why” this is true. Clearly, if I sin against someone here, I can go to that person, ask for forgiveness, and that person, if they so choose, can forgive me. What is the difference here? The difference is that Jesus is implying that all of the paralytic’s sins are being forgiven.
Some of our sins are against particular people, but all of our sins are against God. Why? Because we have violated His rules about how we are to live. Since He made us, He has the right to make these rules, and He has the right to punish us when we violate these rules. Furthermore, God is the only One we sin against every single time we sin.
If I sin against one person, and then ask another person to forgive me, that is rather foolish, because only the person I have sinned against has the ability to forgive me – only that person has something to forgive. My sins aren’t really forgiven until the person I have sinned against forgives me. And thus, when Jesus forgives all of the sins of the paralytic, what He is doing is nonsense unless He is God. And that thought does not go down well with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.
Also last week, we saw Jesus being criticized for spending time at a party hosted by the tax collector Levi (Matthew) and attended by his friends of questionable repute. Jesus gave a parable, really two, one about patching clothing and another about putting wine in wineskins, and with both, Jesus was identifying Himself and His teachings as the “new.” He then said that nobody who was used to the old likes the new, a rather unflattering reference to His critics. You can be sure that if they could figure out the meaning of His parables, they sure didn’t like it.
And so now we come to Chapter 6. We are about to see the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees, priests, and teachers of the Law continue to grow.
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. Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" – Luke 6:1-2
Once again the Pharisees are bothered by what Jesus is doing. The Sabbath, the fact that they are doing these things on a Saturday, was the issue. To understand the implications here, we should look at some key passages about the Sabbath in the Old Testament.
The idea of Sabbath rest goes all the way back to Genesis 2, where we read:
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. – Genesis 2:2-3
The Sabbath become holy; the Hebrew word is qadash, which means to set apart. God set apart the seventh day because He Himself rested on that first Sabbath.
We see very little additional reference to the Sabbath in Genesis. In Exodus, we see the concept reappear even before the Ten Commandments are handed down at Sinai. In particular, the idea of resting on the Sabbath is tied to the gathering of manna discussed in Exodus 16. If you recall, the Israelites were told to gather what they needed each day and not to store it overnight. Those who tried to do so found it “stinky” and full of maggots. The exception, however, was the day before the Sabbath. On this day they were to gather twice as much and store it, because they were to rest on the Sabbath.
So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any." – Exodus 16:24-26
Being “stiff-necked” folk, some of them could not resist going out to look.
Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out." So the people rested on the seventh day. – Exodus 16:27-30
The lesson the Lord is teaching the Israelites is pretty clear: “Trust Me and rest on the seventh day, and I will provide for you!” I believe there is a principle for us here: Trust God enough to rest. Some of us never rest, because we don’t really believe that God will take care of us. We may say we trust God, but our actions reveal the weakness of that trust.
And then a few chapters later we come to the Ten Commandments. And somewhere in the middle, we have this:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. – Exodus 20:8-11
It is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. What was the purpose? I can think of three reasons: First, the Sabbath reminds us that we are made in the image of God. God worked for 6 days and then rested. We are made in His image, and we are to be like Him. His goodness, compassion, love, wisdom, holiness, are all things we should emulate; indeed, these are things we were made to do. Second, the Sabbath is a gift of rest. Recall that our “work” is a curse, the result of the sin of Adam and Eve. God does not intend, however, for us to work without ceasing; the Sabbath is a gift, a “blessing” of rest to us. And third, the Sabbath gives us time to contemplate and worship God. The first commandments give the priority of worshipping God and worshipping God alone. This commandment enables us to do this in depth.
This commandment is restated slightly differently in Deuteronomy. It reads about the same up to the part about the not working, but instead of talking about creation, it says this:
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. – Deut. 5:14-15
In the Exodus passage, the focus on the relationship between the Sabbath and the 7 days of creation, whereas in Deuteronomy, the emphasis is on being brought out of Egypt. In particular, the Deuteronomy passage emphasizes that the Israelites are to let those under them (even their animals!) rest, just as they get to rest. They are to remember how awful it was to be in Egypt without rest, and to be compassionate to those under them by letting them rest, just as it is God’s compassion that has rescued them from slavery in Egypt. So I would say there is a fourth reason for the Sabbath: The Sabbath reminds us to show mercy to others as God shows mercy to us.
What was the punishment for disobeying the Sabbath, for working on the Sabbath? Death! Does this seem harsh? It does to me, but the wages of sin is death. Why would God make the penalty so severe? One reason I can think of is that disobeying the Sabbath is contagious. Before long, everybody would work on the Sabbath, would make those under them work on the Sabbath, and nobody would be spending time worshipping God. The people would soon become just like the heathen nations around them. Numbers 15:32-36 describes this punishment actually being carried out.
Again, this seems harsh to me. But that was the Law. The Israelites, stiff-necked (also known as human) as they were, had to live under the Law. You lived by the Law, and you died by the Law. We know that one of the most important purposes of the Law was to drive people to Christ; their inability to obey the Law (and our inability to obey even the easiest parts of it) reveals the depths of our own sinfulness and our complete inability to make ourselves righteous by our own efforts. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
In Exodus 35, we see an additional detail about Sabbath observance.
Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, "These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day." – Exodus 35:1-3
This rule was later abused – Jews figured it was OK to have a fire, but not to light one. Were they right? I have my doubts. Fires were primarily used for cooking, not for keeping warm. I think the idea was that they should eat food cooked previously and not work to prepare food. This is consistent with the details about the preparation of the manna.
Much later, Nehemiah, in addition to directing the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, also struggled to make the people of Jerusalem observe the Sabbath. Here is what he wrote:
In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. Men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn't your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath." – Nehemiah 13:15-18
When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, "Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on, they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. – Nehemiah 13:19-22
The prophets in a number of instances tie the observing or not observing of the Sabbath to blessings and curses. Examples include Isaiah 58 and Jeremiah 17. Here is part of the Jeremiah passage:
But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever... – Jer. 17:24-25
But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.'" – Jer. 17:27
How did the Pharisees and teachers of the law observe the Sabbath? You can be sure they were very legalistic about it. Listen to this description:
"They enumerated about forty primary works, which they said were forbidden to be done on the Sabbath. Under each of these were numerous secondary works, which they said were also forbidden. . . . Among the primary works which were forbidden, were plowing, sowing, reaping, winnowing, cleaning, grinding, etc. Under the head of grinding, was included the breaking or dividing of things which were before united. . . . Another of their traditions was, that, as threshing on the Sabbath was forbidden, the bruising of things, which was a species of threshing, was also forbidden. Of course, it was violation of the Sabbath to walk on green grass, for that would bruise or thresh it. So, as a man might not hunt on the Sabbath, he might not catch a flea; for that was a species of hunting. As a man might not carry a burden on the Sabbath, he might not carry water to a thirsty animal, for that was a species of burden; but he might pour water into a trough, and lead the animal to it. . . . Yet should a sheep fall into a pit, they would readily lift him out, and bear him to a place of safety. . . . They said a man might minister to the sick for purpose of relieving their distress, but not for the purpose of healing their diseases. He might put a covering on a diseased eye, or anoint it with eye-salve for the purpose of easing the pain, but not to cure the eye." [Sabbath Manual of the American Tract Society]
Now, with this background on the Sabbath, we can return to our passage:
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. Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" – Luke 6:1-2
Now you might think the Pharisees would complain about their stealing grain, but the Law actually permitted this:
If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain. – Deut. 23:25
The objection was not stealing (because it wasn’t stealing, based on this law), but on breaking the laws of the Sabbath. What was the lawbreaking? Something like this, from the Talmud:
“In case a woman rolls wheat to remove the husks, it is considered as sifting; if she rubs the heads of wheat, it is considered threshing; if she cleans off the side-adherences, it is sifting out fruit; if she bruises the ears, it is grinding; if she throws them up in her hand, it is winnowing."
Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 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." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." – Luke 6:3-5
This is an interesting answer. Perhaps you might have thought Jesus would ridicule their silly man-made rules about observing the Sabbath. But instead, Jesus goes to a deeper issue: their hearts.
The event Jesus is talking about is in I Samuel 21. David is fleeing for his life from King Saul, and he is hungry. He goes to Nob, a town where the Tabernacle is currently located, and asks the priest for food for himself and for his companions.
“Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find." - I Sam. 21:3
The only food available is the special consecrated bread for the Tabernacle that has just been replaced with fresh bread. Regarding this bread, here are the rules for eating it:
This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire." – Lev. 24:8-9
Was David a priest descended from Aaron? No! Nevertheless, the priest agrees to give David and his men the bread, because he sees the need and because he has compassion on David. Look again at Jesus’ answer:
Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 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." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." – Luke 6:3-5
Mark, in his gospels, adds another sentence that Jesus said in this incident:
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. – Mark 2:27
What do you think the Pharisees thought of Jesus’ story and his comment recorded in Mark? No doubt they were angry. This went against everything they believed in. They were trying to justify themselves by their ability to follow thousands of detailed rules, and here Jesus was saying that, in effect, rules were made to be broken! The deeper message was of the heart – God would rather that you love Him and love your neighbor as yourself than He would have you become a compassionless, merciless, proud follower of detailed rules! Jesus’ point about the Sabbath is so important! Indeed, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. As we have said, it is a gift, a blessing, not a curse.
And then Jesus says something that once again must have blown everyone away: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. The phrase Son of Man was a loaded phrase referring to the Messiah. And calling Himself the Lord of the Sabbath was an even greater statement about Who He was. Only God, the Creator, the One who rested on the seventh day, is the Lord of the Sabbath.
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. – Luke 6:6-8
Can you feel the anticipation? The tension? Jesus did not shy away from confrontation with the Pharisees and teachers of the law; if anything, he almost seemed to run towards such confrontations. Jesus did not have to heal this man. He is not doing any healings at the moment; he is teaching. And yet, because He knew what they were thinking, because they wanted to attack Jesus over healing on the Sabbath, Jesus entered boldly into the showdown, inviting the man with the shriveled hand to stand up so everyone can see what is about to happen. Why did Jesus do this? Part of the reason was that He had compassion on the man with the shriveled hand, but part of the reason also had to be that He saw this situation as a wonderful teaching opportunity for everyone who was there in the synagogue.
Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. – Luke 6:9-11
There is an amazing irony in this passage. Who did good? Jesus. He healed this man. Did it save his life? I don’t think so, but Jesus’ words were live-giving and life-saving; they had an effect on eternal life. But the irony is that as soon as Jesus completes this miracle, the Pharisees and teachers of the law are furious and began to plot evil against Jesus. Jesus’ contrast in His question, between doing good or doing evil, between saving life or destroying it, was between Himself and the Pharisees and teachers of the law! For it is the Sabbath, and on the Sabbath, these so-called leaders are doing evil, and ultimately will not only plot to destroy His life, but will destroy it!
I will come back to the Sabbath in a moment, but first I want to complete our Luke passage for this week.
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. – Luke 6:12-16
I don’t want to belabor this passage, but simply point out that once again, we see Jesus going out alone to pray. This time it is for the entire night. What was He praying about? Presumably he prayed about whom to choose for His disciples. This was a critically important decision! The future of the Church, the future of the gospel, the future of salvation spreading to the ends of the earth, depended on this choice. As we will see in coming weeks, these guys are definitely “raw material.” They are a motley crew. In the world’s eyes, they are nobodies compared to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. But the world was totally wrong. Was Judas a mistake? No. These twelve were indeed God’s will, even Judas.
But now, let us come back to the Sabbath. Are we supposed to observe the Sabbath? If so, how? This is a question that has caused division and confusion in the history of the Church. Some have emphasized strict rules that rivaled anything the Pharisees had: no playing, no talking, no thinking about anything except spiritual matters, no reading except the Bible, etc. Is this how we should observe the Sabbath? Consider this passage:
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. – Col. 2:6-8
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. – Col. 2:9-12
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. – Col. 2:13-15
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. – Col. 2:16-17
So should we observe the Sabbath? I think the answer depends on what you mean by that. Do we get legalistic about the Sabbath? No. But there is a Sabbath for us; there is a rest for us. That rest is found in Christ, and the depths of that rest blow away anything we could manufacture by making up rules about a particular day of rest.
The principle of Sabbath rest has valuable lessons for us. We need to rest! God never meant us to go without it. And I would argue that we can’t go without for long; our bodies will break down if we don’t rest. But let us not be legalistic about it! There is nothing wrong with what I might call “secular rest” – simply relaxing, spending time with family, watching or playing sports, or taking a nap. These are wonderful things!
But these things, as wonderful as they are, are a shadow of something else – the Sabbath rest we can find in the Lord of the Sabbath. Sometimes, like Jesus, we don’t find this Sabbath rest staying still, but we find it being with our fellow believers in Christ, we find it caring for and bringing healing to those who are hurting around us; in fact, we can find it doing what looks like work! But this kind of Sabbath rest strengthens our souls, not just our bodies. Sometimes, like Jesus, we find this Sabbath rest being alone and praying, even staying up at night to pray. Isn’t that interesting, that a lack of sleep could be an avenue for the Sabbath rest we find in the Lord of the Sabbath!
I encourage you to get times of physical rest – one day out of seven is certainly a good model to use. But even more, I encourage you to find Sabbath rest in the fulfillment of the Old Testament law, the reality behind the shadow; find Sabbath rest in the Person of Jesus Christ.
We have been going through the book of Luke, chapter by chapter, line by line, and now we come to Chapter 6. In Chapter 5 last week, we saw the beginnings of tension between Jesus and the priests and teachers of the Law. We heard the story of how a paralytic was unable to get past the crowd to see Jesus, so his friends cut a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching and lowered him in, Before healing this man, Jesus told him “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” That didn’t go over too well – they thought, “Only God can forgive sins!”One thing I didn’t go into about this last week is the “why” this is true. Clearly, if I sin against someone here, I can go to that person, ask for forgiveness, and that person, if they so choose, can forgive me. What is the difference here? The difference is that Jesus is implying that all of the paralytic’s sins are being forgiven.
Some of our sins are against particular people, but all of our sins are against God. Why? Because we have violated His rules about how we are to live. Since He made us, He has the right to make these rules, and He has the right to punish us when we violate these rules. Furthermore, God is the only One we sin against every single time we sin.
If I sin against one person, and then ask another person to forgive me, that is rather foolish, because only the person I have sinned against has the ability to forgive me – only that person has something to forgive. My sins aren’t really forgiven until the person I have sinned against forgives me. And thus, when Jesus forgives all of the sins of the paralytic, what He is doing is nonsense unless He is God. And that thought does not go down well with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.
Also last week, we saw Jesus being criticized for spending time at a party hosted by the tax collector Levi (Matthew) and attended by his friends of questionable repute. Jesus gave a parable, really two, one about patching clothing and another about putting wine in wineskins, and with both, Jesus was identifying Himself and His teachings as the “new.” He then said that nobody who was used to the old likes the new, a rather unflattering reference to His critics. You can be sure that if they could figure out the meaning of His parables, they sure didn’t like it.
And so now we come to Chapter 6. We are about to see the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees, priests, and teachers of the Law continue to grow.
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. Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" – Luke 6:1-2
Once again the Pharisees are bothered by what Jesus is doing. The Sabbath, the fact that they are doing these things on a Saturday, was the issue. To understand the implications here, we should look at some key passages about the Sabbath in the Old Testament.
The idea of Sabbath rest goes all the way back to Genesis 2, where we read:
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. – Genesis 2:2-3
The Sabbath become holy; the Hebrew word is qadash, which means to set apart. God set apart the seventh day because He Himself rested on that first Sabbath.
We see very little additional reference to the Sabbath in Genesis. In Exodus, we see the concept reappear even before the Ten Commandments are handed down at Sinai. In particular, the idea of resting on the Sabbath is tied to the gathering of manna discussed in Exodus 16. If you recall, the Israelites were told to gather what they needed each day and not to store it overnight. Those who tried to do so found it “stinky” and full of maggots. The exception, however, was the day before the Sabbath. On this day they were to gather twice as much and store it, because they were to rest on the Sabbath.
So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any." – Exodus 16:24-26
Being “stiff-necked” folk, some of them could not resist going out to look.
Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out." So the people rested on the seventh day. – Exodus 16:27-30
The lesson the Lord is teaching the Israelites is pretty clear: “Trust Me and rest on the seventh day, and I will provide for you!” I believe there is a principle for us here: Trust God enough to rest. Some of us never rest, because we don’t really believe that God will take care of us. We may say we trust God, but our actions reveal the weakness of that trust.
And then a few chapters later we come to the Ten Commandments. And somewhere in the middle, we have this:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. – Exodus 20:8-11
It is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. What was the purpose? I can think of three reasons: First, the Sabbath reminds us that we are made in the image of God. God worked for 6 days and then rested. We are made in His image, and we are to be like Him. His goodness, compassion, love, wisdom, holiness, are all things we should emulate; indeed, these are things we were made to do. Second, the Sabbath is a gift of rest. Recall that our “work” is a curse, the result of the sin of Adam and Eve. God does not intend, however, for us to work without ceasing; the Sabbath is a gift, a “blessing” of rest to us. And third, the Sabbath gives us time to contemplate and worship God. The first commandments give the priority of worshipping God and worshipping God alone. This commandment enables us to do this in depth.
This commandment is restated slightly differently in Deuteronomy. It reads about the same up to the part about the not working, but instead of talking about creation, it says this:
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. – Deut. 5:14-15
In the Exodus passage, the focus on the relationship between the Sabbath and the 7 days of creation, whereas in Deuteronomy, the emphasis is on being brought out of Egypt. In particular, the Deuteronomy passage emphasizes that the Israelites are to let those under them (even their animals!) rest, just as they get to rest. They are to remember how awful it was to be in Egypt without rest, and to be compassionate to those under them by letting them rest, just as it is God’s compassion that has rescued them from slavery in Egypt. So I would say there is a fourth reason for the Sabbath: The Sabbath reminds us to show mercy to others as God shows mercy to us.
What was the punishment for disobeying the Sabbath, for working on the Sabbath? Death! Does this seem harsh? It does to me, but the wages of sin is death. Why would God make the penalty so severe? One reason I can think of is that disobeying the Sabbath is contagious. Before long, everybody would work on the Sabbath, would make those under them work on the Sabbath, and nobody would be spending time worshipping God. The people would soon become just like the heathen nations around them. Numbers 15:32-36 describes this punishment actually being carried out.
Again, this seems harsh to me. But that was the Law. The Israelites, stiff-necked (also known as human) as they were, had to live under the Law. You lived by the Law, and you died by the Law. We know that one of the most important purposes of the Law was to drive people to Christ; their inability to obey the Law (and our inability to obey even the easiest parts of it) reveals the depths of our own sinfulness and our complete inability to make ourselves righteous by our own efforts. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
In Exodus 35, we see an additional detail about Sabbath observance.
Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, "These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day." – Exodus 35:1-3
This rule was later abused – Jews figured it was OK to have a fire, but not to light one. Were they right? I have my doubts. Fires were primarily used for cooking, not for keeping warm. I think the idea was that they should eat food cooked previously and not work to prepare food. This is consistent with the details about the preparation of the manna.
Much later, Nehemiah, in addition to directing the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, also struggled to make the people of Jerusalem observe the Sabbath. Here is what he wrote:
In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. Men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn't your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath." – Nehemiah 13:15-18
When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, "Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on, they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. – Nehemiah 13:19-22
The prophets in a number of instances tie the observing or not observing of the Sabbath to blessings and curses. Examples include Isaiah 58 and Jeremiah 17. Here is part of the Jeremiah passage:
But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever... – Jer. 17:24-25
But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.'" – Jer. 17:27
How did the Pharisees and teachers of the law observe the Sabbath? You can be sure they were very legalistic about it. Listen to this description:
"They enumerated about forty primary works, which they said were forbidden to be done on the Sabbath. Under each of these were numerous secondary works, which they said were also forbidden. . . . Among the primary works which were forbidden, were plowing, sowing, reaping, winnowing, cleaning, grinding, etc. Under the head of grinding, was included the breaking or dividing of things which were before united. . . . Another of their traditions was, that, as threshing on the Sabbath was forbidden, the bruising of things, which was a species of threshing, was also forbidden. Of course, it was violation of the Sabbath to walk on green grass, for that would bruise or thresh it. So, as a man might not hunt on the Sabbath, he might not catch a flea; for that was a species of hunting. As a man might not carry a burden on the Sabbath, he might not carry water to a thirsty animal, for that was a species of burden; but he might pour water into a trough, and lead the animal to it. . . . Yet should a sheep fall into a pit, they would readily lift him out, and bear him to a place of safety. . . . They said a man might minister to the sick for purpose of relieving their distress, but not for the purpose of healing their diseases. He might put a covering on a diseased eye, or anoint it with eye-salve for the purpose of easing the pain, but not to cure the eye." [Sabbath Manual of the American Tract Society]
Now, with this background on the Sabbath, we can return to our passage:
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. Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" – Luke 6:1-2
Now you might think the Pharisees would complain about their stealing grain, but the Law actually permitted this:
If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain. – Deut. 23:25
The objection was not stealing (because it wasn’t stealing, based on this law), but on breaking the laws of the Sabbath. What was the lawbreaking? Something like this, from the Talmud:
“In case a woman rolls wheat to remove the husks, it is considered as sifting; if she rubs the heads of wheat, it is considered threshing; if she cleans off the side-adherences, it is sifting out fruit; if she bruises the ears, it is grinding; if she throws them up in her hand, it is winnowing."
Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 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." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." – Luke 6:3-5
This is an interesting answer. Perhaps you might have thought Jesus would ridicule their silly man-made rules about observing the Sabbath. But instead, Jesus goes to a deeper issue: their hearts.
The event Jesus is talking about is in I Samuel 21. David is fleeing for his life from King Saul, and he is hungry. He goes to Nob, a town where the Tabernacle is currently located, and asks the priest for food for himself and for his companions.
“Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find." - I Sam. 21:3
The only food available is the special consecrated bread for the Tabernacle that has just been replaced with fresh bread. Regarding this bread, here are the rules for eating it:
This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire." – Lev. 24:8-9
Was David a priest descended from Aaron? No! Nevertheless, the priest agrees to give David and his men the bread, because he sees the need and because he has compassion on David. Look again at Jesus’ answer:
Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 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." Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." – Luke 6:3-5
Mark, in his gospels, adds another sentence that Jesus said in this incident:
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. – Mark 2:27
What do you think the Pharisees thought of Jesus’ story and his comment recorded in Mark? No doubt they were angry. This went against everything they believed in. They were trying to justify themselves by their ability to follow thousands of detailed rules, and here Jesus was saying that, in effect, rules were made to be broken! The deeper message was of the heart – God would rather that you love Him and love your neighbor as yourself than He would have you become a compassionless, merciless, proud follower of detailed rules! Jesus’ point about the Sabbath is so important! Indeed, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. As we have said, it is a gift, a blessing, not a curse.
And then Jesus says something that once again must have blown everyone away: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. The phrase Son of Man was a loaded phrase referring to the Messiah. And calling Himself the Lord of the Sabbath was an even greater statement about Who He was. Only God, the Creator, the One who rested on the seventh day, is the Lord of the Sabbath.
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. – Luke 6:6-8
Can you feel the anticipation? The tension? Jesus did not shy away from confrontation with the Pharisees and teachers of the law; if anything, he almost seemed to run towards such confrontations. Jesus did not have to heal this man. He is not doing any healings at the moment; he is teaching. And yet, because He knew what they were thinking, because they wanted to attack Jesus over healing on the Sabbath, Jesus entered boldly into the showdown, inviting the man with the shriveled hand to stand up so everyone can see what is about to happen. Why did Jesus do this? Part of the reason was that He had compassion on the man with the shriveled hand, but part of the reason also had to be that He saw this situation as a wonderful teaching opportunity for everyone who was there in the synagogue.
Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. – Luke 6:9-11
There is an amazing irony in this passage. Who did good? Jesus. He healed this man. Did it save his life? I don’t think so, but Jesus’ words were live-giving and life-saving; they had an effect on eternal life. But the irony is that as soon as Jesus completes this miracle, the Pharisees and teachers of the law are furious and began to plot evil against Jesus. Jesus’ contrast in His question, between doing good or doing evil, between saving life or destroying it, was between Himself and the Pharisees and teachers of the law! For it is the Sabbath, and on the Sabbath, these so-called leaders are doing evil, and ultimately will not only plot to destroy His life, but will destroy it!
I will come back to the Sabbath in a moment, but first I want to complete our Luke passage for this week.
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. – Luke 6:12-16
I don’t want to belabor this passage, but simply point out that once again, we see Jesus going out alone to pray. This time it is for the entire night. What was He praying about? Presumably he prayed about whom to choose for His disciples. This was a critically important decision! The future of the Church, the future of the gospel, the future of salvation spreading to the ends of the earth, depended on this choice. As we will see in coming weeks, these guys are definitely “raw material.” They are a motley crew. In the world’s eyes, they are nobodies compared to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. But the world was totally wrong. Was Judas a mistake? No. These twelve were indeed God’s will, even Judas.
But now, let us come back to the Sabbath. Are we supposed to observe the Sabbath? If so, how? This is a question that has caused division and confusion in the history of the Church. Some have emphasized strict rules that rivaled anything the Pharisees had: no playing, no talking, no thinking about anything except spiritual matters, no reading except the Bible, etc. Is this how we should observe the Sabbath? Consider this passage:
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. – Col. 2:6-8
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. – Col. 2:9-12
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. – Col. 2:13-15
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. – Col. 2:16-17
So should we observe the Sabbath? I think the answer depends on what you mean by that. Do we get legalistic about the Sabbath? No. But there is a Sabbath for us; there is a rest for us. That rest is found in Christ, and the depths of that rest blow away anything we could manufacture by making up rules about a particular day of rest.
The principle of Sabbath rest has valuable lessons for us. We need to rest! God never meant us to go without it. And I would argue that we can’t go without for long; our bodies will break down if we don’t rest. But let us not be legalistic about it! There is nothing wrong with what I might call “secular rest” – simply relaxing, spending time with family, watching or playing sports, or taking a nap. These are wonderful things!
But these things, as wonderful as they are, are a shadow of something else – the Sabbath rest we can find in the Lord of the Sabbath. Sometimes, like Jesus, we don’t find this Sabbath rest staying still, but we find it being with our fellow believers in Christ, we find it caring for and bringing healing to those who are hurting around us; in fact, we can find it doing what looks like work! But this kind of Sabbath rest strengthens our souls, not just our bodies. Sometimes, like Jesus, we find this Sabbath rest being alone and praying, even staying up at night to pray. Isn’t that interesting, that a lack of sleep could be an avenue for the Sabbath rest we find in the Lord of the Sabbath!
I encourage you to get times of physical rest – one day out of seven is certainly a good model to use. But even more, I encourage you to find Sabbath rest in the fulfillment of the Old Testament law, the reality behind the shadow; find Sabbath rest in the Person of Jesus Christ.
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