The Lord Of The Sabbath Series

The Lord of the Sabbath

Introduction: Maybe it happened more than once, but there was at least one time when Jesus and the twelve disciples were so hungry they found some raw grain for their meal! Even though this was permitted under the Law of Moses (Deut. 23:25), some of the religious leaders promptly tried to find fault with them!

1 Finding Food

Text: Luke 6:1-2, KJV: 1 And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.

There’s a bit of irony, sometimes, in the Bible. For example, Jesus and the disciples had, likely, enjoyed a dinner when Levi-Matthew gave a farewell party. He invited his friends, many tax-collectors, like himself, as well as other “sinners”, however defined. From what we can gather, Levi left everything and followed Jesus for the rest of his days on this earth.

The irony is that maybe, not long after that feast, Jesus and the disciples were so hungry they grabbed some standing (raw) grain! The King James Version calls it “corn” but that was the basic or general term for any kind of grain, whether barley, wheat, and so on. According to Deuteronomy 23:25, anyone could take handfuls of grain but not bring a sickle!

Now in this passage we have a hint of how people ate non-harvested grain. Threshing wheat was known as far back as the days of Gideon (after all, the Angel of the LORD found him when he was threshing wheat in the winepress per Judges 6:11) and fine flour was part of at least the “meat” or grain offering of Leviticus 2. The provision of Deuteronomy 23:25 was of course not intended to be an unlimited source of free food but more likely a temporary means to get enough food for one or two meals.

So far, so good, right? Jesus and the others were simply reaching for a handful of grain which they rubbed with their hands and ate. This most likely means they removed the husk or outer covering so they could eat the “germ” or edible part of the grain. Wheat germ is one such type of this food, sold even today at many stores. Not only was the grain available, it was nutritious, and what they ate seemed to keep Jesus and the others going until they arrived at their next destination. Since this was a Sabbath day, these men were likely going to the nearest synagogue.

2 Finding Fault

Text, Luke 6:3, KJV: 3 And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?

I have to wonder why the Pharisees, the most religious—outwardly—of the Jews would and did spend so much time in, basically, the pursuit of Jesus. I’ve lost count of the times when Jesus did or said something and, sure enough, either the scribes, Pharisees, or both would be found. This is one such example: Jesus and the disciples simply walked through a certain field of grain, took some of the kernels, and ate but soon enough, here came the adversaries!

What doesn’t seem to make sense is that harvesting grain, by hand, was legal and good so long as nobody used a sickle in the field. So then, that wasn’t the charge, but digging a little deeper, we can find what the Pharisees were really trying to do.

This was because Jesus and the disciples did this on the Sabbath day, which was supposed to be a day of complete rest, not even lighting a fire in one’s dwelling (Exodus 35:3) or leaving one’s dwelling (see Exodus 16:29)! It goes without saying that the LORD was serious about Israel keeping the Sabbath even in the early days of Israel as a nation. Even though Israel was not a sovereign nation at this time, being firmly under Roman rule, there were those who desired to keep the Sabbath—including an unknown number of ordinary Jews.

And the charge was even worse, in the eyes of the Pharisees: Jesus had not only harvested on the Sabbath, they had eaten and dressed the grain (per notes on Matthew 12:2 at Benson’s on-line commentary at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/benson/matthew/12.htm). This was clearly considered work, condemned by several other passages in Exodus and Leviticus alone.

Even so, what leaves me shaking my head is why any of them were walking about on the Sabbath when the command was to stay in your dwelling (Ex. 16:29)! We’re never told just where Jesus had spent Thursday or Friday evening (Levi’s house, maybe?) but He and the disciples were on the way to the synagogue (Matthew 12:9). Perhaps the Pharisees and scribes were on their way as well. The contrast was great and it was real: one group coming to worship and another to find fault as they all went towards the synagogue!