Luke 06.01-11 What we will study this morning in The Lord of the Sabbath: 01.
The Sabbath Regulations (Luke 06); 02. In the Grainfields (Luke 06.01-05); and 03. In the Synagogue (Luke 06.06-11).
01. The Sabbath Regulations
The fourth commandment, given by
God to Moses and the children of Israel is about the Sabbath (Exodus 20.08-11).
The word “Sabbath” means, “rest” and it begins at sundown Friday night and ends
on sundown Saturday night. The Sabbath has its beginning in creation (Genesis
02.02-03). For the Jew’s, resting on the seventh day was not only a
beneficial thing for their bodies, but also for their animals that did work (Exodus 20.10;
Deuteronomy
05.14). There was to be no work done (Exodus 20.10; Leviticus 23.03),
nothing could be bought or sold (Nehemiah 10.31; Nehemiah 13.15-17), no one could bear any burdens (Nehemiah
13.19; Jeremiah 17.21). The idea of making the
Sabbath a day of rest was so that God’s people would not have anything
hindering them from worshipping God. The only work that God allowed His people
to do on the Sabbath was anything that was associated with worshipping God (Numbers 28.09;
Matthew 12.05;
John 07.23).
Worship and prayer were to be done (Ezekiel 46.03; Acts 16.13) as well as reading
from the Scriptures (Acts 13.27; Acts 15.21) and teaching from
the Word of God (Acts 13.14-15, 44; Acts 17.02; Acts 18.04).
Keeping the Sabbath was to be a great testimony to the
surrounding pagan nations, for to them, it was just another day. Not working
for one day can mean not making money, which can be scary, but as the people of
God, they needed to trust in God for everything and that He will provide all
that we need (Psalm
23.01; Philippians 04.19). Its trusting that He knows
what is best for us. Nehemiah dealt with this after he rebuilt the wall of
Jerusalem (Nehemiah
10.31; Nehemiah 13.15-22). This is the only
commandment that is not repeated in the New Testament as a commandment for us
today.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that the Sabbath was a
foreshadowing of the rest that we find in Jesus (Hebrews 04.01-16).
The reason that we now worship on Sunday is because Jesus
rose from the dead on a Sunday (Matthew 28.01-08; Mark 16.01-11; Luke 24.01-12
John
20.01-10). Dr. Luke records for us in Acts 20.07
that the early church gathered on the “On the first day of the week”. Paul, writing
to the Corinthian church encouraged the saints to take up a collection for the
saints in need in Jerusalem when they gathered for worship “On the first day of the week” (1Corinthians
16.01-04). Paul does state though that it really doesn’t matter what
day we worship on (Romans 14.05-06; Colossians 02.16-17), for every
day we ought to worship Jesus.
Through time, the Pharisees added their interpretations of
the Law and actually onto the Law itself. Some of the restrictions that the
Rabbis put on the people regarding the Sabbath: In
the book of Acts we are told about “a Sabbath day’s journey” (Acts 01.12),
which the Pharisees declared to be 2,000 cubits, or
3,000 feet. This dictated that a person could not travel more than 3,000 feet
from his home, (Exodus 16.29), and they
got this distance from Numbers 35.05 and Joshua 03.04. But, there was a way
around this. What a person could do before the start of the Sabbath was to take
a plate of food and carry it 3,000 feet away from your house. Thus making that
place where they put the food was another home! If
you took a piece of wood or a rope and strung it across the end of a narrow
street or alley, it formed a doorway, thus making it your home. If you lifted something in a public place, you could only
set it down in a private place, and vice versa. If
you tossed something in the air and caught it with the other hand, this was
prohibited, yet if you catch it with the same hand that tossed it, that was ok.
If a person reached out to get some food just as the
Sabbath started, you had to drop the food, and bring the arm back, because you
were forbidden to carry anything on the Sabbath. It was not allowed to carry something heavier them a dried fig, but if
the fig was divided into two pieces, you can carry them one at a time. You could not shake our your clothes before getting dresses
because you might accidently kill an insect. Warm
water could not be poured into cold water, but cold water could be poured into
warm water. You were not allowed to bathe on
the Sabbath because if you spilled water on the floor, the floor would be
cleaned and that was work. Moving a chair was
not allowed since it might make a rut in the dirt floor, which is similar to
plowing and thus not allowed. A lamp could not be lit or extinguished on
the Sabbath. Women were forbidden to look into a mirror on the Sabbath because
they might see that they have a white hair and try to pull it out! If a person
had false teeth, they were not allowed to wear them because if the teeth fall
out, that person will bend down to get them and carry them, and you are not
allowed to bear a burden of the Sabbath. You couldn’t tie knots and untie
knots; you couldn’t sweep dirt up and could not break up a clod of dirt. A
radish may be dipped into salt, but not left in too long, since this would be
to make pickle. If you break a bone on the Sabbath, it cannot be set, and there
was to be no medical procedures done, unless it was a life-threatening
situation. If a person had chickens for the purpose of getting eggs, and a hen
laid an egg on the Sabbath, the egg was forbidden. But if the reason you had
the hen was to fatten her up and eventually eat her, and she laid an egg on the
Sabbath, the egg could be eaten because now it was a part of the chicken that
had fallen off! (cf. Alfred Edersheim, The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Peabody; Hendrickson, 1993], Appendix
17, p1046-56, 2.777-87)
The Pharisees also taught that
before you sat down to eat, the proper way to wash your hands was to wash all
the way up to the elbow (Mark 07.01-05). To fail to do so was a
grievous crime and inviting Shibta, an evil spirit to
have permission to sit on the food of the one who failed to properly wash, and
cause great harm to him.
Jesus addressed these traditions
of men in Mark
07.07-09, stating: “IN VAIN DO THEY [the Pharisees] WORSHIP ME,
TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ “Neglecting the commandment of God,
you hold to the tradition of men…You are experts at setting aside the
commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”
Jesus in our text this morning
address the Pharisees, showing them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath and that their traditions are just that;
traditions. Traditions are good when you
remember why you do them. Most like to keep traditions because it makes them
feel like they are close to God, hence the rise in the Emergent Church and more
Protestants going to the Roman Catholic Church.
02. In the Grainfields (Luke 06.01-05)
Luke 06.01 “1 Now it happened that He was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath”
The King James Version (KJV) and New Kings James (NKJV) have this written as “on the second
Sabbath after the first” and Dr. Luke uses a unique word in the
Greek, and it has given Bible expositors great difficulty. The Greek word that
Dr. Luke uses for “Sabbath” here is (G1207)
deuteroprwtov and it means the
second-first, specifically it is referring to the
first Sabbath after the second day of Passover. This means that the text
that we are studying this morning took place a day before the Feast of Weeks,
which was commanded to the Jews by God to “bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest
to the priest. ‘He shall wave the sheaf before YHWH for you to be accepted; on
the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (Leviticus
23.10-11) Most people seem to be in agreement that this took place
on a Sabbath between Passover and Shavuot
(Pentecost) (Leviticus 23.15; Deuteronomy 16.09)
The disciples of Jesus were
following behind Jesus as He went along a path that wound its way through a
field of grain. We are not told what type of grain this is that they are
walking through. Matthew tells us in his gospel account that the disciples were
hungry (Matthew
12.01), so they “were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands,
and eating the grain.” (Luke 06.01).
Any other day of the week this was allowed under the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy
23.25), but because it was the Sabbath, the disciples were sinning
according to the rabbinic regulations.
Luke 06.02 According
to Rabbinical beliefs, picking the heads of grain was reaping, rubbing the
husks together to separate the grain was threshing, winnowing was done by
throwing the husks away, and therefore preparing food. So, according to the
Pharisees, these disciples were guilty of breaking the Sabbath. This violation
of the law committed by the disciples was according to the Rabbinic law, which
was not Biblical, but the traditions of men (Mark 07.08-09).
We see this same attitude today
in the church, where modern day Pharisees try to make others feel guilty for
not reading their Bible every day. Or they condemn you for how you dress at
church, saying that the only proper way to dress is to dress up…good thing
these modern day Pharisees weren’t around, for they would kick Jesus and His
disciples out of the church for not conforming to their man-made traditions!
Taking the grain like the
disciples did was not stealing, in fact the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 23.25) stated that
if you were traveling through a field and were hungry, you were allowed to pick
off what you need to fill you up, but you were not allowed to harvest it for
yourself.
Luke 06.03-04 Jesus
didn’t argue with the Pharisees, but instead took them to the Word of God. Always
go to the Word of God for your answers, never what is the popular opinion,
never what your experience was and what you think should be done. Always do the
opposite of what Oprah tells you to do! Know the Word so that you can use the
Word in response (1Peter 03.15).
Jesus answered the Pharisees in a typical Jewish way,
answering the question with a question. Jesus reminds them about what David did
when he was fleeing from King Saul in 1Samuel 21.01-09. David came to the priests at
Nob and David asked Ahimelech for some bread to feed him and his men. The only
food that was available was the Showbread, that was to be set apart.
The showbread was placed every Sabbath on the Table of the
Showbread located in the inner court of the Temple. Every Sabbath the showbread
would be replaced with fresh bread, and the high priest had the right to take
half of the old showbread. (cf. Alfred Edersheim, The Temple—Its Ministry and Services, Ch
04, p30, pdf version)
Ahimelech then gave David and his men the showbread, and it must
have been on the Sabbath that this happened because we are told that “there was no
bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before YHWH,
in order to put hot bread in its place
when it was taken away.” (1Samuel 21.06; Leviticus 24.08)
Mark tells us that Jesus also said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 02.27) and Matthew records
Jesus rebuking them, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION,
AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12.07)
quoting (Hosea
06.06). Jesus adds one last statement about this, by “saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”” (Luke 06.05) Using the example of David, Jesus told
the Pharisees that mercy, kindness and meeting basic human needs is more
important than keeping the letter of the Law. And that if the priest allowed
David to eat of the consecrated bread and David committed no sin by eating of
the bread, then the same is true about His disciples eating the grain on the
Sabbath.
By stating that He is the “Lord of the Sabbath.” (Luke 06.05),
Jesus was stating that He is equal with God, since God in Exodus 20.08-11 established the
Sabbath. As the Son of God, He is the final authority on the Law, and only He
has the right to decide what is acceptable on the Sabbath because He is the “Lord of the
Sabbath.” (Luke 06.05) Jesus was not the slave of the Sabbath,
but the master (G2962. kuriov) of it.
The comparison that Jesus makes was
obvious to the Pharisees. David and his men were permitted to break the Law
because the priest gave them permission to, for the Law was not to be above
basic human need. Jesus and His disciples were not bound to the man-made law of
the Pharisees. The incumbent king of Israel, Saul was pursuing God’s anointed
king of Israel (1Samuel
16.13), David and his men. The Pharisees much like Saul, were
pursuing Jesus, the Son of David (Isaiah 11.01; Matthew 01.01; Matthew 09.27;
Matthew 12.23;
Matthew 15.22;
Matthew 20.30-31;
Matthew 21.09;
Matthew 22.42;
Mark 10.47-48;
Luke
18.38-39; Revelation 05.05), God’s Anointed Son and His
disciples. Saul saw David as a threat to his kingdom, just as the Pharisees saw
Jesus as a threat to their man-made laws.
03. In the Synagogue (Luke 06.06-11)
Luke 06.06 We
are not told how much time has passed between Luke 06.05 and Luke 06.06, but all three Synoptic
Gospels (Matthew
12.09-14, Mark 03.01-06 and Luke 06.06-11) all have this
immediately after the grainfield incident.
Luke 06.06 “He entered the synagogue and was teaching;”
We are not told the content of His teaching, but we know it would have been
with authority (Luke
04.32), “TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” (Luke 04.19;
Isaiah
61.01-02), preaching the Gospel to the poor, release to the
captives, sight for the blind and to set free those who are oppressed (Luke 04.18)
Luke 06.06 “and there was a man there whose
right hand was withered.” Of the three Gospels that record this
account (Matthew
12.09-14, Mark 03.01-06), only Dr. Luke mentions that it was
the right hand of this man that was withered, having atrophied because it was
paralyzed.
Luke 06.07 The
scribes and the Pharisees were there in the synagogue “watching Him
closely”, or in the Greek (G3906) parathrew which means to spy.
There are some people who think that this man was brought to the
synagogue on purpose to see what Jesus would do. If Jesus would heal the man,
then they could in their eyes rightfully charge Jesus with breaking their Law
of no healing on the Sabbath.
The Rabbis at this time stated
that in order to keep the fourth commandment, and do no work on the
Sabbath (Exodus
20.08-11), there could be no healing done by a doctor. It was not
allowed to even bind up a broken leg. For to do so meant that work was done, thus
violating the Sabbath. The only exception to this was if it was a matter of
life or death, or if a woman who was pregnant went into labor on a Sabbath. There
was no room for compassion or mercy, for to do so made you a lawbreaker.
Luke 06.08 “But He knew what they were thinking,”
Jesus knew that they wanted Him to heal this man so that they could catch Him
breaking their laws for the Sabbath. Jesus knows the thoughts of man (1Chronicles
28.09; Psalm 44.21; Hebrews 04.13; Revelation
02.23), nothing is hidden from Him because He is God. It is
interesting to point out that the Pharisees wanted and expected Jesus to heal
this man, just so that they would have a reason to accuse Him of breaking the
Sabbath. In Matthew’s Gospel he tells us that the Pharisees asked Jesus “Is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath?”--so that they might accuse Him.” (Matthew 12.10)
Luke 06.08 “and He said to the man with the
withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And he got up and came forward.” Jesus had the
man get up and come forward, so that everyone there in the synagogue could see
him.
Now that the man has come forward, Jesus doesn’t address the
man, but the Pharisees.
Luke 06.09 Jesus
bluntly asked them if it was all right to heal and do something good on the
Sabbath. This mans problem was not life-threatening, so according to the
teachings he could not be healed on the Sabbath. To leave a sick person in a state
of misery was just plain evil, and the Pharisees were willing to not help just
because it was the Sabbath.
The Pharisees knew that the trap they laid for Jesus was now
turned on them. To answer that it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath would
undermine what they had been teaching for years and in a sense put their stamp
of approval on Jesus to heal the man, and thus not being able to bring charges
against Him for healing on the Sabbath. But to say that it was not lawful to
heal on the Sabbath would reveal the wickedness and evil in their hearts in
front of everyone there in the Synagogue. Being the self-righteous, prideful
men that they were, they refused to admit that they were wrong so they stayed
silent. By asking this question, Jesus made it clear that refusing to do
good on the Sabbath was the same as doing evil.
Luke 06.10 “After looking around at them all,”
Mark tells us in his Gospel that “After looking around at them with anger,
[Jesus was}
grieved at their {the Pharisees} hardness of heart” (Mark 03.05).
Luke 06.10 “He said to him, “Stretch
out your hand!” And he did so; and his hand was restored.” Jesus then commanded the
man to do something that was physically impossible, to “Stretch out your hand!” In faith, that man stretched out his hand “and his hand was
restored.” (Luke 06.10). The Greek word that Dr. Luke uses for “restored”
here is (G600) apokayisthmi and is written in the
Aorist Passive Indicative, essentially meaning that there was a complete restoration of the hand.
One other interesting note to
highlight is that Jesus physically did no work here, all He did was command the
man to stretch forth his hand, and Jesus healed his hand without touching it!
Jesus didn’t wave His coat around or wave His arms around, He simply spoke and
it was healed. Jesus healed the man without breaking the laws of the Pharisees.
Luke 06.11 “But they themselves were filled with rage,”
The Greek word that Dr. Luke uses here for “rage” is anoiav from (G454) anoia
and it means insanity expressing itself
in rage.
Luke 06.11 “and discussed together what they might do to
Jesus.” Mark tells us in his Gospel: “The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians
against Him, as to how they might
destroy Him.” (Mark03.06). They wanted Him dead.
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