Luke 6:1-11
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Turn to the sixth chapter of Luke. As word about Jesus began spreading the opposition by the Pharisees began to grow. At the end of chapter 5 we read about how some Pharisees and teachers of the law had traveled all the way from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They didn’t like what they were seeing and hearing.
In our text this evening, the Pharisees oppose him on two different occasions, both of which are on a Sabbath. Jesus was breaking their Sabbath traditions. It was because of these traditions that the Pharisees had run-ins with Jesus. The second one took place in a synagogue. The first one took place out in a field.
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 I was growing up the man across the street from us had some apple trees. One day my brother and I decided to eat one of his apples. When my mother found out about it she was not happy and made us go apologize to our neighbor. I’m sure none of you ever did that when you were young.
The problem in our passage was not that the disciples were picking grain from a field that didn’t belong to them. Actually, the law allowed them to pick grain. It even allowed them to pick grapes from a vineyard.
24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain. (Deuteronomy 23:24-25)
You could snack from your neighbor’s field but you were not to take a meal home from it. The problem the Pharisees had with the disciples was not what they were doing but when they were doing it. They were doing it on the Sabbath. They were to do no work on the Sabbath and the Pharisees considered what the disciples had done as work. In his commentary on the passage William Barclay pointed out:
On any other day there would have been no complaint; but this was the Sabbath. Four of the forbidden kinds of work were reaping, threshing, winnowing, and preparing food; and technically the disciples had broken every one of them. By plucking the corn they were guilty of reaping; by rubbing it in their hands of threshing; by flinging away the husks of winnowing; and the very fact that they ate it showed that they had prepared food on the Sabbath. To us the whole thing seems fantastic; but we must remember that to a strict Pharisee this was deadly sin; rules and regulations had been broken; this was a matter of life and death.
My question is how did the Pharisees even know what the disciples had done? Were they following Jesus? Were they hiding behind bushes? They were certainly looking for something to use against Jesus. Even though we aren’t told that Jesus was eating the Pharisees hold it against Jesus because he is their rabbi. He’s in charge and responsible for whatever they did.
Jesus’ response is comical. He asks, “Have you never read.” Jesus was being sarcastic. The answer is yes, they had read. The story Jesus referred to is found in 1 Samuel 21. Even though Saul had tried to kill David a couple of times it had now become apparent that he was intent on killing David. David had told Saul’s son Jonathan goodbye and headed off to the town of Nob and the tabernacle. When he arrived the priest asked him what he was doing. Instead of telling him that he was running for his life from Saul, David told him he was on a secret mission for Saul. When he asked if the priest had any food he was told the only food available was the bread from the tabernacle.
Once a week twelve loaves of fresh bread were placed in the tabernacle as a sacrifice to God. The previous loaves were removed and could only be eaten by the priests and their families at the tabernacle. No one else was allowed to eat the bread yet David and his men were allowed. Why? The answer is that there is something more important that rules, human need.
Turn to Isaiah 58. While you’re turning I want to read a verse that point out God’s desire for us to help those who are in need. In fact, these verses tell us that God desires it more than he desires rituals. God said through the prophet Hosea:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6)
God says pretty much the same thing in Isaiah but it is much longer. The people have been going through their rituals and God doesn’t seem to be paying attention. They want to know why. Why should they bother if God is not going to bless them? Here is God’s answer.
1 Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3 “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?” Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:1-7)
Taking care of human need was a greater responsibility than their religious rituals. And that was true of the disciples as they walked through the field that day picking the grain and eating it. If that answer was not enough, Jesus added the fact that he was Lord of the Sabbath. If he was in charge and didn’t have a problem with it they shouldn’t either. Of course part of the problem was they didn’t recognize his authority.
Isn’t it interesting to think that Jesus is in control of a day for rest? Remember, the Sabbath is on Saturday and was a God given day of rest. The word means to rest or cease from work. The first mention of it is in Genesis 2 at the end of the creation story.
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. (Genesis 2:2-3)
At Mount Sinai this day of rest became a command from God for his people. They were to take the seventh day off every week. We find it in the Ten Commandments:
8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 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)
God commanded his people not to work on the seventh day of the week. We can think of it as an imposition or we can think of it as a gift. We can think of it as what God is making us do or as what God is allowing us to. Remember, the Israelites had spent the last two hundred years as slaves. There were no days off. They worked seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. There were days off and no vacations. God understood the need for rest and gave them one day off every week. Only recently have people begun to understand this need for rest.
A study divided a work crew into two groups. Each group was tasked with moving heavy bars. The first group worked all day with minimal rest. By the end of the day they were exhausted. They had worked until they just couldn’t carry any more. The second group was given a rest after every trip. At the end of the day each man in the second group had carried hundreds more pounds of bars than the first group. The first group had worn themselves out and then needed a longer time to rest than the second group that took small breaks all day long and never reached the point of exhaustion. We need periods of rest. God in his wisdom knew that and placed it in his commands for his people.
However, through the years questions arose about what it meant to work. Some teachers of the law believed that the Messiah could not come until his people had perfectly kept the Sabbath. For that reason, keeping the Sabbath was of utmost importance. For that reason, they wanted to make sure no one broke it. So, the religious leaders wrote an explanation of God’s command to keep the Sabbath so that no one could misunderstand it. And then, they wrote explanations of the explanations. These explanations and explanations of explanations became tradition and the traditions became so difficult to follow that people just gave up on trying to follow God’s laws. They couldn’t keep them and if they were going to be punished for not doing what they couldn’t do why try? So they didn’t. These people became known as the “sinners.” We read about them last week when they came and ate with Jesus at Matthew’s house. But all God wanted to do was give them a day of rest. They just couldn’t understand it and make it something to do. Instead of being a blessing it became an oppressive set of rules and a burden for the people. Jesus challenged their understanding of the Sabbath and declared he was in charge of it.
As I’ve already mentioned, the second story also took place on a Sabbath. It took place later though we’re not sure how much later. Luke says:
6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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?” 10 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. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:6-11)
Doctor Luke, who was always more precise than the other gospel writers when writing about physical ailments, tells us that it was the man’s right hand that was shriveled.
Again we find the Pharisees on the lookout for Jesus to say or do something wrong. I think it’s interesting that the Pharisees expect Jesus to do something when he sees the man. It tells us just how well they knew him. By now they could predict that Jesus would heal the man. And again, it’s not the act itself that was a problem but the day on which the act was committed. There was to be no work done on the Sabbath. Interestingly, if someone were injured on the Sabbath their traditions allowed you to prevent the cut from getting worse, but you couldn’t it get better. That meant you could put a band-aid on a cut but you couldn’t put an antibiotic cream on it. That’s how crazy their system of traditions had become.
Luke tells us that when Jesus entered the synagogue the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely because they wanted to find something to use against him. They didn’t come to learn from Jesus but to condemn him. Many of the people were wondering if Jesus was the Messiah but the Pharisees were already firmly convinced that he was not. So, they came seeking to find something for which they might accuse him. And Jesus, knowing what they were thinking, knowing that they were trying to find a reason to oppose him, called the man to his side. By doing so, notice what Jesus is doing. He’s not ignoring the man. Everyone knew he was there. Like the Pharisees they were expecting Jesus to heal the man. Jesus doesn’t pretend he’s not there. Nor does he whisper to the man to meet him out back after the service so that no one will see what he’s doing. Nor does he wait a few hours till the sun went down and the Sabbath is over. He knows the Pharisees would be offended but he does it anyway because they are wrong. They were wrong in their judgment of him and they were wrong in the conclusions they had reached about what was lawful on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees liked coming up with questions for Jesus for which they thought there was no good answer. That way it didn’t matter how Jesus answered he would be in trouble. It’s like asking someone if they’ve stopped beating their dog yet. If they answer no then they’re still beating their dog. If they answer yes then they were beating their dog. Those are the kinds of questions they would ask Jesus.
They’ll do that in Luke 20. They’ll come to Jesus asking where he received his authority. Jesus replies that he’ll tell them where his authority comes from if they’ll tell him where John the Baptist received his authority. Was it from heaven or from men? Knowing they couldn’t answer from men because the people all thought he was a prophet. But they couldn’t say it was from heaven because then Jesus would ask why they hadn’t listened to him. Both answers would make them look bad so they refused to give an answer.
Here, Jesus is asking them a question:
What do you think? Does the law allow us to do good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is it lawful to save life or to only to destroy it?
In his recount of this story, Matthew adds this:
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:11-12)
How could they answer and not get themselves into trouble? They couldn’t say that the Sabbath was for doing evil or destroying life. And of course they would pull a sheep out of a pit even on a Sabbath. But if they answered that the Sabbath was for doing good things, how could they then object to Jesus healing the man on the Sabbath? Having no way to answer and save face it appears that they just didn’t an answer. Jesus wants to help the man and he wants to know if they it is lawful. The Bible teaches us that if you have the ability to do something good and you don’t do it then it’s evil. Jesus has the ability to heal the man. Therefore, it would be sin to not help him. There was no way to answer him.
Knowing he wasn’t going to receive an answer just stared at them. Mark tells us that Jesus was angry. He was angry because they would allow the man to continue to suffer when help was available. Why would they do that? Why would they deprive this man of God’s healing power? The answer is because their rituals were more important. Their traditions were more important than this man’s wellbeing.
Jesus then instructed to stretch out his hand. Understand, Jesus was asking the man to do something he did not have the ability to do. Like asking the man who hadn’t walked in some time to pick up his mat and walk, Jesus asked them to do something completely outside their ability to accomplish. The man on the mat who had been lowered down to Jesus through the roof couldn’t walk. That’s why he had been brought to Jesus. This man with the withered hand could not stretch it out. Knowing the limitations of each man Jesus asks them to do what he knows they could not do. They could not but he could.
This man was therefore presented with a decision. First, he could offer some pretty good reasons for why he could not obey Jesus’ command. Can you picture the man telling Jesus why he could not obey him?
Lord, you don’t know how much I would like to stretch out my hand. You don’t know how many times I’ve already tried to stretch out my hand. It’s just not possible. There’s something wrong and my hand will not work.
The man could have argued with Jesus and given a long list of reasons why what Jesus had asked him to do was just not possible. That was the first option. The second option was to trust Jesus and obey. It didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t been able to do it before so why should he be able to do it now? But he obeyed Jesus because he believed Jesus could do for him what the doctors could not. Jesus could heal him. He hadn’t seen it yet but if Jesus said it he would do it.
We know which decision the man made. He chose to obey. And what happened? When he chose to do
We know what they did, they obeyed and because of their faith they were healed. He couldn’t do it but Jesus could do it for him when he trusted and obeyed.
That’s the lesson we need to learn today, Jesus can. Jesus never asks us to do something that he doesn’t also give us the ability to do. We can be pretty good at coming up with excuses for why we can’t do something. Surely our excuses can’t be better than what this man with a withered hand could have given. Therefore, when Jesus asks us to do something we must trust that he will also give us the ability to do it. Otherwise, why would he ask us to do it? It is when we decide to obey what may seem to be an impossible command that Jesus gives us what we need to accomplish it. Do we think Jesus doesn’t already know all our weaknesses and inabilities? Do we think he does not already know our fears and anxieties? But why should he help us if we have no plan to obey? Too many want to see before they will believe. That’s not the way it worked in the Bible so why do we think that it will now work that way for us? What the Bible says is you will see once you believe. If you don’t believe you will never see.
The man held out his hand and it was restored. It was made whole.
The story continues. It might have been good if it ended there but it doesn’t. It only gets worse. Luke includes the response of the Pharisees after seeing this miracle of God. It was a miracle of God. There is no man who ever lived who could perform a miracle like that. Only God could do it. So, God heals this man’s withered hand and how do the Pharisees respond? Did they join the people in giving praise to God? No, they were filled with rage and began to make plans about what they should do to Jesus. How could they get rid of him? We’ve already seen that they didn’t like him but now their anger turns to hate.
Both of these stories took place because Jesus refused to accept their traditions concerning the Sabbath. Jesus desires to give us true rest. Jesus still invites us to rest in him. He says:
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. (Matthew 11:28-30)
Jesus gives us true peace and rest.
