Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6:1-11


It's Saturday – the Sabbath – and the disciples are walking thru' a cornfield.
As they walk along, they pick a few heads of corn, rub them in their hands and eat the grain. Usually, this would be perfectly legal – you were allowed to pick grain with your hands from the edge of a field.
But today was the Sabbath. And the Pharisees were on them in a flash, 'Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?'

It wasn't hard to break the Pharisees' Sabbath rules - they listed 39 types of work that were illegal - and the disciples had successfully broken at least 3 of them: harvesting; grinding and threshing.

Now it's true that in the OT, the people of God, Israel, were not allowed to work on the Sabbath – it was the day of rest – that's what 'Sabbath' means.

But when God told his people to have a day of 'rest' – a 'Sabbath' - he never meant that they should do nothing.
God's idea was that his people should take time out of the everyday work to enjoy the goodness of creation and especially to enjoy God.

So the Sabbath pointed back to the day when God had finished creating the world and he sat down to enjoy his perfect creation – and he particularly enjoyed the company of his special creatures: men & women.

But of course that enjoyment didn't last long. Soon men and women rebelled against God and ruined the goodness of creation. So they were expelled from God's presence, and suffered the horrific consequences of their sinful rebellion.

But as soon as the world been ruined by man's sin, God vowed to do something about it – to defeat evil and renew creation. This was God's plan of salvation.
As part of that plan God gave his people some rules for living. They're in what we call the OT.
But these rules were never an end in themselves – they always pointed ahead to what God would do to defeat evil, renew creation and win back our love.

And so on the Sabbath, God's people looked back with longing on the time before evil ruined everything.
But it wasn't only a time for looking back. The Sabbath also pointed forward to a new 'day of rest'. A day when God's plan of salvation would be complete & people would once again enjoy peace & friendship with God.
A day that would never end – an eternal day of perfect unity and loving friendship between God and his people. The Sabbath was a foretaste of heaven.

At least, that was God's idea for the Sabbath.
But the Pharisees had ruined everything. They'd created endless extra rules to make sure no-one ...did ...any ...work.
The focus was no longer on enjoying God, but obeying rules.
It was no longer a time of anticipation and hope, but a time of fear in case you broke one of the Pharisees' rules.

As some of you know, I play a bit of golf.
When I come home, Sarah always asks, 'How was it?'
And this week, it was great. Fabulous weather, I drove the ball straight, made 2 birdies and won 8 & 7. Great fun!
But imagine I came home and said, 'Brilliant! I caught Steve breaking rule 13-4: grounding his club in a bunker by the 7th green! Wonderful!'
But that's where the Pharisees have got to in their attitude to the Sabbath – rules dominated. Enjoyment of God was lost.
They'd turned the Sabbath on its head. The rules have become an end in themselves, and they're neglecting the real purpose of the Sabbath – to help people enjoy God and remind them of the prospect of pardon for sin; healing for sickness; release from evil; restoration of joy.
And if ever we find ourselves focusing on petty rules rather than on the Lord Jesus then we're in serious trouble – people who focus on the buildings or what we wear or whether we sit or kneel have left behind enjoyment of Jesus and replaced him with mere religion.

Anyway, back to the disciples – there they are, munching on their freshly picked corn, as the Pharisees accuse them of law-breaking.
In steps Jesus, "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."

David had the right idea about the law: yes, he broke the letter of the law, but only because there was a greater need and cause.
The Pharisees never criticised David for that, so why are they criticising the disciples for doing exactly the same thing?

But then Jesus takes the issue to a whole new level: v5, 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath'.
By calling himself 'the son of man', Jesus is pointing to his authority to speak and act for God – an authority which means he himself is more important than the Sabbath – he is Lord of the Sabbath.
That doesn't sound too shocking to us, but it would be like Wayne Rooney saying, 'The England football team exists only because of me and for me'.
Jesus is saying, 'The Sabbath exists only because of me and for me. It finds its fulfilment in me.'
In other words, if we're looking for the defeat of evil and a renewed relationship with God then we'll find them in Jesus – and only in Jesus.

If the Sabbath pointed forward to heaven, Jesus is saying that he's been sent by God with the authority to rule heaven, and to bring people into his heaven.
Now that's a big claim to make, and Jesus needs to provide some sound evidence to back up his claim.
And that's just what he does in vv6-8 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7The 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. 8But 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.
9Then 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?”
10He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

The Sabbath points to the restoration of our relationship with God; the overthrow of evil, and heaven.
And while the Pharisees weigh people down with rules, Jesus proves that he has the power to fulfil the purpose of the Sabbath – v10, he “completely restores” the man's arm.

This 'complete restoration' points to the fact that Jesus has begun the restoration of God's creation.
And he does this as, one-by-one, people like you and me have our relationship with God restored by the grace and forgiveness of Jesus.
He fills us with the power of the HS, and we begin to hate evil and love God. Day by day our lives are restored into the likeness of Christ.

And so we begin to live each and every day as a Sabbath – living in a right relationship with God and enjoying a foretaste of heaven.

But religious people like the Pharisees hate this joy and freedom that we have with God.
They still want to set up a new world order by law-enforcement. They don't want to be changed from the inside. They're leopards who don't want to change their spots.
And they get angry with Jesus for challenging their religion. So angry that they begin to plot how to get rid of him.

And so we must ask ourselves whether we're relying on our own goodness to see us right with God, or whether we believe that we need God's radical intervention – that we too need to be completely restored.
If the thought of needing complete renewal raises your heckles, then I want to say as gently but as firmly as I can, that you're in serious danger of being like the Pharisees.
If on the other hand, you realise that unless God steps in and transforms your life, you're a lost cause, then you're in just the right place for restoration.
If this is you, then pray with me now.


For further reading: Hebrews 3:1-4:13; Colossians 2:13-3:4; Galatians 4:8-11. Andrew Shead has written an excellent article about the NT fulfilment of the Sabbath, which should be available once the beginningwithmoses.org website is up and running again.