Introduction
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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.” 6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:1–11 ESV)
To this point in Luke, we’ve examined the authority of Jesus. This motif will continue throughout the entire gospel of Luke. Jesus’ authority to do what he says and how that is demonstrated. Very important we understand this continual theme over and over again. So far we’ve observed Jesus’ divine authority, his authority over sin and temptation, he authority to proclaim the good news, his authority to heal and deliver, forgive sins, and call people to himself. Only God can make these claims and therefore, only God can claim authority over his creative order, including the Sabbath.
Another theme that emerges in Luke is the Mercy motif. This is a merciful work of Jesus to heal, deliver, forgive sins, and receive people to himself. We see this in the demonic, calling Peter and Levi, the Leper, or the paralytic. What is important to understand is that mercy has little value without the accompanying authority.
If Rob steals Jason’s car, and I come along and say, “Don’t worry Rob, all is forgiven.” My act of mercy bears little weight. I don’t have the authority to forgive the debt. But If Rob steals my car and the police bring him to me, and I say, “I will have mercy on Rob,” all of a sudden my mercy is powerful because I have the authority in my hands to prosecute or forgive.
Mercy is the act of not administering justice when justice is punitive. Because of our sinfulness, we deserve death and eternal separation from God (Rom. 6:23, Isaiah 59:2), but God provided an atonement for sin and through it shows us mercy. That is, He does not deliver to the Christian the natural consequence of his sin which is damnation. That is why Jesus became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) and bore the punishment due to us (Isaiah 53:4-5). It was to deliver us from damnation. (Compare with justice and grace). So grace is the act of giving something we don’t deserve, while mercy is the act of withholding something we do deserve.
The Pharisees shared little of either. They were religious but cared little for the needy or the needs of others. Religious service that doesn’t look after the plight of others is unacceptable. God abhors religion without mercy:
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He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 ESV)
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For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6 ESV)
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But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? (1 John 3:17 ESV)
1. The Issue of the Sabbath
We have to understand this to understand the heart of Jesus’ teaching of the Sabbath. The issue of the Sabbath will be a repeated issue between Jesus and the Pharisees because of this authority. Ownership of the Sabbath is not given to man, it is in God’s authority, given to man by God, and like everything of God that man takes over is perverted. This was the case with the Pharisees.
The law of the Sabbath is a fundamental law of God.
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And on the seventh day God finished His work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. (Genesis 2:2 ESV)
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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. (Exodus 20:8–11 ESV)
The Sabbath was originally given by God in the Mosaic law (not before) to be a day of rest (the Hebrew word translated “Sabbath” comes from a verb that means, “to cease,” “to desist,” or, “to rest” [cf. Gen. 2:2]), refreshment, and worship for His people (Ex. 20:8–11). But by the first century, it had accumulated an enormous number of extrabiblical restrictions and regulations, so much so that it had become the most oppressive and burdensome day of the week.
The Talmud devotes twenty-four chapters to Sabbath regulations, describing in painfully exhaustive detail what was and was not permitted to be done. The result was a ridiculously complex system of external behavior restraints—so much so that one rabbi spent two and a half years studying just one of the twenty-four chapters.
For example, traveling more than 3,000 feet from home was forbidden. But if one had placed food at the 3,000 foot point before the Sabbath, that point would then be considered a home, since there was food there, and allow another 3,000 feet of travel. Similarly, a piece of wood or a rope placed across the end of a narrow street or alley constituted a doorway. That could then be considered the front door of one’s house, and permit the 3,000 feet of travel to begin there.
There were also regulations about carrying items. Something lifted up in a public place could only be set down in a private place, and vice versa. An object tossed into the air could be caught with the same hand, but if it was caught with the other hand, it would be a Sabbath violation. If a person had reached out to pick up food when the Sabbath began, the food had to be dropped; to bring the arm back while holding the food would be to carry a burden on the Sabbath. It was forbidden to carry anything heavier than a dried fig (though something weighing half as much could be carried two times). A tailor could not carry his needle, a scribe his pen, or a student his books. Only enough ink to write two letters (of the alphabet) could be carried. A letter could not be sent, not even with a non-Jew. Clothes could not be examined or shaken out before being put on because an insect might be killed in the process, which would be work. No fire could be lit, or put out. Cold water could be poured into warm water, but not warm into cold. An egg could not be cooked, not even by placing it in hot sand during the summer. Nothing could be sold or bought. Bathing was forbidden, lest water is spilled on the floor and wash it. Moving a chair was not allowed, since it might make a rut on a dirt floor, which was too much like plowing. Women were forbidden to look in a mirror since if they saw white hair, they might be tempted to pull it out. (MacArthur)
Other forbidden things included sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, grinding, kneading, baking, shearing, washing, beating, dyeing, or spinning wool, tying or untying a knot, catching, killing, or skinning a deer, salting its meat, or preparing its skin. (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974], 2:777–87.)
So what happens is resting is more laborious than the actual intention of the rest.? How many times have you said, “I need a vacation from my vacation.” This is what was happening with the sabbath and how tradition, in an effort to honor the sabbath, actually undermined the heart of what God intended.
2. In the Grainfields
In the first instance, we find Jesus and his disciples walking through a grainfield on a Summer Sabbath day. As they walked through the fields they were grabbing the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff, and then eating the grain. To do this was not a violation of the law, since the Law of Moses had provisions for hungry people to do this.
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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. (Deuteronomy 23:25 ESV)
Doing this on the Sabbath was also not a violation of the Mosaic law, but a violation of rabbinic traditions. The Pharisees considered this “work” since picking the grain could be viewed as reaping, rubbing them in your hands could be considered threshing, and separating them could be considered winnowing, and preparing the food. When the Pharisees see these violations of their traditions, they equate it to a violation of Scripture.
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But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” (Luke 6:2 ESV)
This was a serious accusation. The problem was not God’s law, but their law. They were legalists and as a result, they were weighing people down with regulations that were not intended by Scripture. Instead of the Sabbath is a time of restoration, self-care, and communion with God, it was a burden. We see that Jesus assumes responsibility for the actions of his disciples.
Jesus could have said that this was no big deal, he could have argued against their legalistic views. He could have ignored them. What Jesus did is turn back to Scripture. Jesus wanted to go deeper to free the law from the perversion of the Pharisees by explaining its underlying purpose. So he told a story from the Old Testament: “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 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?” (Luke 6:3–4).
The precedent to which Jesus appeals comes from when David was a fugitive from King Saul (1 Sam 21:1–6). In hunger, David entered “the house of God” in search of food. There were twelve loaves that were placed on the altar Sabbath by Sabbath as food for the priests (Exod 40:23; Lev 24:5–9). Jesus cites David’s violation of the Torah not as an excuse for his action but as a precedent for it. This was the right thing to do.
What the disciples did on the Sabbath was not a violation of the law at all; it was perfectly proper. Like the men of David, they were in the service of God’s anointed king, they were on a holy mission, and they had a physical need. So if it was permissible for David to eat the bread of the presence, it was all the more appropriate for the disciples to eat enough grain to give them the strength they needed to follow Jesus. They were serving God’s Son on God’s Sabbath.
The point of the account, which was lost on the Pharisees, was that mercy, compassion, and human need were more important than rigid adherence to even biblical ritual and ceremony. Mark 2:27 records that Jesus also said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,” The problem with the Pharisees was not simply that they were too strict. Their problem was that they did not understand the true inward purpose of the law, which demands love for God and love for our neighbor. And because they did not understand this, they did not know how to apply the law properly, the way Jesus did. We are warned by their poor example not to use the Sabbath to avoid showing mercy or to use our own ideas about how to live as an excuse for not doing what God requires.
3. Stretch Out Your Hand
The other incident Luke shares is a man attending synagogue who had a withered hand. We’re not sure if this was a birth defect or injury, but the point is that he was significantly handicapped. Here again, the church police were watching every detail and word of Jesus, waiting for an opportunity to accuse him. Their attitudes were sinister and pridefully led. There was no mercy or respect; they only looked down on Jesus through haughty eyes, having no compassion for a man in need. “The self-righteous mind is not interested in mercy. It is not even interested in the truth. Rather, it is interested in observance. (Hughes).
Obviously, Jesus does heal the man. When Jesus commanded the man to “stretch out your hand,” He commanded the man to do something impossible in his current condition. But Jesus gave both the command and the ability to fulfill it and they are incensed by the action. The point was clear as were Jesus’ words. The customs in their honoring of the Sabbath actually violated the heart of the Sabbath.
The fact is, true faith produces mercy. It is no surprise that the abolitionist movement was rooted in evangelical Christianity. The same is true for the roots of modern social concerns. Mercy or compassion does not make one a Christian but a product of our faith: the compassionate to the needy—the poor, the immigrants, the addicts, prisoners, and sinners.
“Dynamic mercy in all its dimensions is nothing less than the life of Christ in us.” Such a life is costly. It is inconvenient. It raises tension. It brings conflict. It is humbling. It is countercultural. But it is our calling, for God says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
