Luke 6:1-5 (3)

Joshua holder

The Gospel of Luke • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Jesus explains why neither He, nor his followers, were breaking the Law of God in regard to the Sabbath Day

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Introduction:

-We’ve come to Luke 6:1, this morning

Invite you to follow along

What we have in the text before us appears to be...

…the final two installments in a series of...

…thematically ordered events that...

…center around Jesus’ conflict with:

The Pharisees, and

The Teachers of the Law (Scribes).

Remember, how, that with each of these conflicts...

…Jesus had given them additional, yet scandalous (to them) truths about:

Who he was

What he had come to do.

This morning’s text is no exception.

If we had time (and we don’t) we would work our way through verse 11...

…and that’s because both are centered around:

The Sabbath,

Its own true nature, and (more importantly)...

The nature of Jesus’ relationship to it!

So, we’re going to spend our time on verses 1-5 today.

Their focus is going to be PRIMARILY...

(though not exclusively)

…on that final (and most important) point:

Jesus’ relationship to the Sabbath.

Let’s read Luke 6.1-5

Luke 6:1–5 (ESV)

1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”

3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:

4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?”

5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

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Pray

(3 minutes)

Verse 1:

-Look at verse 1 again.

There, Luke tells us that this event took place:

Luke 6:1 (ESV)

1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields,...

-Notice that He doesn’t connect it chronologically...

…to the events of the last two weeks.

-Only Matthew, in his account...

…appears to make such a connection.

But even there, the connection seems to be...

…more focused on the theme of the event...

…rather than its sequence.

He places it during Jesus’ Galilean preaching ministry...

…and within that context...

…right after he (Jesus) had said this:

(It doesn’t appear to be accidental)

Matthew 11:28–12:1 (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath...

That would be… on the day of rest!

Now, notice what they were doing on that day:

Luke 6:1 (ESV)

1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

Now, it’s important that we understand WHY they were doing this:

They weren’t motivated by:

Greed, or

Commerce...

…but by:

Need, and

Hunger!

Matthew points this out:

Matthew 12:1 (ESV)

1 ...His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

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-Now it’s hard for us to understand what’s happening here...

…given our Western notions of the primacy of private property.

But, we need to understand that...

...what’s most likely happening here is...

Jesus and his disciples are:

Traveling from one place to another,

Going THROUGH someone’s farm,

and are helping themselves to its produce along the way!

-This is where we’re scandalized, right?

-What do we call that in our day?

Trespassing

Larceny!

But this wasn’t a violation of Israel’s civil laws.

In fact, it was protected by them!

-This was one of the provisions that God had obligated...

(within the theocracy of Israel)

…for the care of the poor and needy.

Here is the statute:

Deuteronomy 23:24–25 (ESV)

24 “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag.

25 If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

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Still protected private property from plunder

But also provided for the immediate NEEDS of the destitute

This affirms:

Jesus and his disciples were operating within the legal parameters of the Law

(7 minutes, 10 Total)

But, Look at the response from the...

...self-proclaimed “keepers of the Law” in the next verse (verse 2)

The Pharisees (not surprisingly) take offense at Jesus on account of this.

Luke 6:2 (ESV)

2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you (Y’all) doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” - (Emphasis Mine)

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So, they weren’t accusing him of:

Trespassing, or

Larceny...

…but of violating the Sabbath.

Now, this was a very serious accusation:

Remember that the Sabbath was a part of the Moral Law...

…that served as the foundation for the:

Civil,

Ceremonial Laws...

…that would follow it.

-The Sabbath wasn’t just a Jewish thing.

It had been established as a moral precept...

…at the very beginning of the world.

And if you examine its language in the Ten Commandments closely...

…you’ll see that even there.

Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV)

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep 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, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

-The Sabbath was/is a very, very important moral command.

It was a MOST HOLY obligation for God’s people

It made the First Tablet!

(Our duty to God!)

And like the rest of the Laws on the first tablet...

…its disobedience was a capital offense.

Later on, Moses told the congregation of Israel:

Exodus 35:2 (ESV)

2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

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So, understand what this means for our text:

If Jesus and his disciples really were breaking the Sabbath...

…then they deserved to be executed.

What’s more important is that if Jesus was:

Violating the Sabbath

Permitting His disciples to do the same...

…then He Himself, is a Transgressor of the Law.

A “covenant breaker”

-It surprises me how readily so many...

…just agree with the pharisees and say:

“Yep, he broke the Sabbath, what of it?”

“We’re in the “Grace Age” now”

God forbid!

Want me to prove to you that he didn’t break the Sabbath?

Acts 13:28–30 (ESV)

28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.

29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

30 But God raised him from the dead,

Acts 2:24 (ESV)

24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Why?

He was:

Hebrews 7:26 (ESV)

26 ...holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners...

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(7 minutes, 17 total)

So, why do the Pharisees make this slanderous accusation?

It’s because of the verbs that Luke uses in verse 1.

“going”

“plucking”

“rubbing”

A reading of the UN-INSPIRED Jewish Talmud will help us to understand.

The Talmud says: ‘In case a woman rolls wheat to remove the husks, it is considered as sifting;

if she rubs the heads of wheat, it is regarded as threshing;

if she cleans off the side-adherencies, it is sifting out fruit;

if she bruises the ears, it is grinding;

if she throws them up in her hand, it is winnowing’ ” (Edersheim, “Life and Times of Jesus”).

You see, Jesus never...

Transgressed the Law of God, nor...

Taught others to do so.

The only thing that He had violated by doing this...

…was the sacred traditions of the Jews.

And, he didn’t cower under...

sinful pragmatism, and

the fear of man...

…and let them corrupt the true essence of the Law either!

He would later tell them:

Mark 7:6–9 (ESV)

6 ...“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

Even later on, He would indict them more severely:

Matthew 23:23–24 (ESV)

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

This is exactly what the Pharisees were doing in our text.

Straining over technicalities (un-inspired ones at that)...

…and neglecting God’s merciful provision for the poor.

(4 minutes, 21 total)

-But… Notice the way Jesus defends...

…the propriety of his actions in verse 3.

It’s a little different:

Luke 6:3(ESV)

3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:

Why David?

The Lord’s anointed

Consecrated for service unto the Lord

Along with his followers.

Very similar scenario.

What did they do?

Luke 6:4 (ESV)

4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence (NASB: “consecrated bread”) which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” - (Emphasis mine)

What’s He getting at here?

?That the Sabbath Laws don’t apply to God’s anointed servants?

Not really. I don’t think

I think there are several things...

…brought out by the various gospel writers here.

Mark records this explanation:

Mark 2:27 (ESV)

27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

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We’ll come back to this in a minute