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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.” ~ Luke 6:1-5
When God gave the Ten Commandments, He needed only five English words to condemn adultery; four to denounce thievery and murder. But when He came to the topic of rest, HE SAID THIS ...
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath Day of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day…” (Exodus 20:8-11).
Luke 6 gets to the heart of the growing conflict between the Jewish religious leaders and the Lord Jesus. At the heart of it surrounds the Sabbath, because Judaism's anchor was the Sabbath observance.
In our text for today, the Lord Jesus is addressing the self-righteousness of these religious leaders. Their actions were perpetuating the idea that we can earn our salvation by our good works, particularly observance of the regulations of the Sabbath. They taught that if we do all the Sabbath stuff, we will have earned our righteousness.
The religious leaders were wrong about the Sabbath and THE LORD Jesus was concerned about the truth. Through His actions in today's text, He was forcing people to choose between the truth and the spiritual pride and self-righteousness of the religious leaders.
In v.1 we read, "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.”
The fourth of the Ten Commandments is the observance of the Sabbath. On this day we are told to take a day off, refresh your body, refresh your spirit, refresh your soul. Although God rested from His creation on the seventh day in Genesis, He didn't command man to do that until the law of Moses.
The Pharisees had added a list of some 39 principle works to the law which were forbidden on the Sabbath, including ordinary household chores and the healing of the sick. You could not carry a bed, even if you had just been healed by Jesus and he asked you to pick up your bed and walk (John 5). Rubbing grain between one's hands was considered work. According to rabbinic tradition, "picking" and "rubbing" were tantamount to reaping, threshing, winnowing and preparing food, and thus a capital offense punishable by stoning. Thus, the Sabbath had become a burden, creating fear in the people's hearts.
The command to observe the Sabbath was ceremonial, not moral and thus it is not repeated in the New Testament because it wasn't a part of moral law.
It is wise to take a day off, and recuperate. But along the line, the Jews began to look for ways that they could earn their salvation with God by filling that day with all kinds of rules and regulations. This is the reason there was such conflict between the teachings of the religious and the teachings of God.
God gave the Sabbath to be a day of rest, but the religious leaders made it a day that is a burden. This is why the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, "28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
In today's text we learn "the Lord 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." Harvest was near, the fields were full of grain. The fields were laid out in long narrow strips and between them, between the rows, were paths and that's how people went places.
In v.2, we read, "Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" The religious leaders were desperate to find the Lord Jesus guilty of sin.
In v.3 the Lord Jesus responded by saying, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?"
In Leviticus 24:5-9 God gave guidelines for the tabernacle. God wanted in the tabernacle a golden table. And on the golden table was the showbread, a reminder of the fact that God is our provider. Every week the old bread that was removed and was eaten only by the priests because it has been consecrated to God.
According to 1 Samuel 21:1-6 David is being chased by Saul and he is running for his life from a place called Gibeah. He's got a few guys with him. They come down to a place called Nob which is a mile outside Jerusalem where the tabernacle was located. David gets down there and he and his men are hungry. David goes to the tabernacle and asks the priest for the five loaves of bread. And, the priest gave him consecrated bread.
The message of mercy and compassion is far more important than ceremony and ritual. In fact, in Jesus' day, the whole Sabbath system had become oppressive, lacking compassion, grace, and kindness.
David was allowed to violate a divine law to fulfill the truest law of mercy. Certainly Jesus and His disciples could supersede a human law to fulfill the true law of mercy.
We read in v.5: "Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." The Lord Jesus is the author and great interpreter of God's law because He is it's fulfillment in every way.
In Mark 2:27 the Lord Jesus tells us, "Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man." We weren't designed to somehow conform to some impossible rules, but rather we are designed for relationship with God. This was the point of the Law. The Sabbath day was made for our benefit, for our blessing, joy, fulfillment, and rest.
The late Mike Yaconelli had some great words on the subject of the rest. He said, “Rest is a decision we make. Rest is choosing to do nothing when we have too much to do, slowing down when we feel pressure to go faster, stopping instead of starting. Rest is listening to our weariness and responding to our tiredness, not to what is making us tired. Rest is what happens when we say one simple word: "No!" Rest is the ultimate humiliation because in order to rest, we must admit we are not necessary, that the world can get along without us, that God's work does not depend on us. Once we understand how unnecessary we are, only then might we find the right reasons to say yes. Only then might we find the right reasons to decide to be with Jesus instead of working for him. Only then might we have the courage to take a nap with Jesus.”
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