A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 11
Luke 6: 1-11
“Sometime ago I heard about a pastor who was taking a Boy Scout troop on
a tour of the church, explaining the meaning of the windows and some of the symbols. One
of the scouts asked about a plaque displayed prominently in the foyer (narthex) that
listed a long roster of names. On being told that those were members of the church who had
died in the services (of the church) he asked what seemed the next logical question.
“Which service, the 9:30 or 11? We may laugh, but we have to admit that for the
average small boy and maybe a good many grownups as well, the Sunday morning services,
through not exactly fatal can seem pretty dull.”
[Bruce Larsen. The Communicator’s Commentary : Luke.
(Waco. Word Pub., 1983) p. 114]
George Barna, the statistician, in one of his polls has determined that
“among people who regularly attend Christian churches; 32% have never experienced
God’s presence, 48% have not experienced His presence in the past year, which means
of the millions who regularly attend church worship events relatively few worship.”
[George Barna. Inward, Outward, & Upward: Ministry That Transforms Life’s.
George Barna Seminar 1999.]
The church of today seems to be torn in what some have called “the worship wars.” The church is being torn apart in a tug-of-war over the “style” of worship, some holding to the “traditional” others wanting to move to a more “contemporary” style. In the process churches have even split. This must truly sadden the heart of God.
“Worship is a means of feeding the soul, there are different ways of doing
that, just as there are different ways of feeding the body. We may be fed at an
old-fashioned Victorian dinner party with twenty-seven forks and knives and spoons and
many courses. In that situation, we have to be aware of proper etiquette, the protocol of
serving and clearly correctly. That’s eating of one sort. On the other hand, you may
be starving in a Third World country, without food for days, when an airlift drops down
rations. Nobody cares about a proper fork or
spoon. You tear open the package and you eat. In both cases you are eating, but in the
first you eat as a part of an elaborate pageant and in the other you eat for survival. We sometimes forget that the process of worship is
a means of survival, and we can get caught up in the form. We criticize the procedures:
I don’t think
it’s being done right. It was done much better several years ago. . . . The music is not ‘conductive.’ If
we are desperately hungry for the food only God gives, we come simply to eat.”[Bruce Larsen. The Communicator’s Commentary: Luke. (Waco:
Word Books, 1983). pp. 115-116.]
In the text today we see a great confrontation between Jesus with his radical views of worship and the Pharisees and Scribes. The sixth chapter of Luke gives us tremendous insight into our Lord’s thoughts about the Sabbath. I think that Jesus is saying some very important things in these verses about worship.
Before we look at the text, I need to clarify a few things. First, it is not my purpose to be drawn into a debate about seventh day vs. first day worship. The Jews of course worshipped on the seventh day, the Sabbath, our Saturday, literally from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday. Some groups like the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Seventh-Day Baptists, believe that Christians should still worship on Saturday. But since the vast majority observe Sunday as the day of worship, that will be our focus.
Secondly, although I disagree with the Seventh-Day Adventists who insist that Christians should observe a strict Sabbath on Saturday is at least consistent. Those who claim that we should observe a strict Sabbath observance on Sunday are really contradicting themselves. We should not confuse the issue by calling Sunday “the Sabbath,” for that is to confuse the first day of the week (Sunday) with the seventh day of the week (Saturday). The Sabbath is a reminder of the completion of “creation,” while the Lord’s Day commemorates our Lord’s finished work on the cross. “The Sabbath speaks of rest after work and relates to the law, while the Lord’s Day speaks of rest before work and relates to grace. The Lord’s day commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit and the ‘birthday’ of the church.” [Warren Wiersbe. Be Compassionate. (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1988) pp. 59-60.] The early church met on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor. 16:1-2). But Paul made it clear that the observance of certain days had nothing to do with being saved (Gal. 4:1-11).
Having established those truths we need to also admite that we have traditions
today that if we were change them many would think that we had broken God’s law. We think that it is law that we meet at 11:00 A.M
and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday’s and on Wednesday evenings for a mid-week service. What
is a right length for a worship service? You would conclude from our Western customs that
one- hour must be exactly right. Do
you realize that those are only traditions?
The command of God concerning the Sabbath is found in Exodus 20:8-10, “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 the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work:…”
Centuries passed and by the time of the Pharisee’s of Jesus time, the simple commandment concerning the Sabbath had grown into impossible tangle of rules. The Pharisees and scribes turned the Sabbath into a burden instead of the blessing that God intended it to be. For our consideration, today, are two Sabbath controversies, one concerned harvesting on the Sabbath (vv.1-5) and the other concerned healing on the Sabbath (vv. 6-11). What is important is that in both case Jesus or his disciples violated the “traditions” of the Pharisees.
Some people seem to be so consumed with making sure that no one else is doing sometime wrong, that they do not take the time to examine why they are doing the things they do.
The Pharisee thought that their legalism insured morality. But the fact is that there are many crimes that are not sins and there are many sins that are not crimes. Witnessing, spanking disobedient children and meeting at a church to worship is in some places a crime, and may be someday be even in our country, but they are certainly not immoral. But conversely, abortion may now be legal in this country, but it is an immoral act. Legality and morality are not necessarily the same.
Jesus delivers his response beginning in verse three, “But Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read this,
what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: (4) how he went into the house of God, took and
ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but
the priests to eat?” (5) And He said to them, “The Son of Man is also Lord of
the Sabbath.”
Jesus responded to the Pharisees harassing question with a stinging rebuke, “Have you not even read …?” The Pharisees were the professional students of the law. This was what they considered their calling in life. Jesus began by asking the scholars of the law if they had ever even read the text of which he referred. It was a way of saying, “Your question is so elementary that is almost absurd, and one that reveals that however much education you have, you have a very poor grasp of the Scriptures.” These words must have come as a verbal slap in the face to these proud students of the law.
Jesus first raises the issue of the precedent that King David set in (1 Sam 21), where he and his men were running from Saul and hadn’t had time to get provisions for their journey. So David goes to the Tabernacle and asks the priest for some bread. Well, the only bread the priest had was the consecrated bread, the Show Bread that had just been removed from the Holy of Holies. This bread was consecrated each day and presented to the Lord as the cereal offering. When the new loaf was taken into the Holy of Holies the previous days bread was removed and was then given to the priests for them to eat. Only they could eat this bread because it was holy, dedicated to the LORD. Yet David had taken this bread and given it to his soldiers. No one criticized David for his action because he was the rightful king of Israel. Jesus as that anointed one of Israel and the Lord of Lords and King of Kings had even more right to eat. If David’s men had the right to eat the “bread of the Presence” because of the authority of David, how much more could the disciples eat grain plucked in a field on the Sabbath.
Luke does not record the reaction of the scribes and Pharisees, my guess is that they went away stunned and silent.
Verse six introduces us to the second
Sabbath controversy. We are told that the
scribes and Pharisees were watching Jesus (v. 7) to see if he would violate even the
smallest part of the Law. “Now it happened on another
Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right
hand was withered. (7) So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would
heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. (8) But He knew their
thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Arise and stand here.”
And he arose and stood. (9) Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it
lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?”
There was a man present as Jesus taught in the synagogue on this particular
Sabbath, who had a withered hand. I suspect that he had been place there by the Pharisees. They knew that Jesus had a compassionate heart and
they wanted to goad Him into performing a healing on the Sabbath so that they might accuse
Him. They wanted the man healed, but not for
his benefit. Although the religious leaders
had no compassion for this unfortunate man, yet they were certain that Jesus would have
compassion on him. They in their lack of
compassion, sought to use the compassion of Christ to their advantage. The question that we must ask ourselves is, “Have
I ever used my knowledge of the mercy of the Lord to my advantage?”
According to Matthew (5:7) a merciful spirit is a sign of having received mercy, while an unmerciful spirit is the sign of not having experienced mercy. No matter how “religious” you are if you don’t care about other people, if you have no concern whether they are saved or lost and going to Hell, then I fear that you have not yourself received God’s gift of mercy and forgiveness.
True Christianity has always produced mercy. It should be no surprise that the movement to abolish slavery was rooted in Christianity, led by Christians such as William Wilberforce. The same is true for social concerns, with men like William Booth Likewise, the elevation of women and protection and care of children sprang from the concerned hearts of followers of Jesus.
But Jesus pointed out that the true aim of God’s laws among men were mercy and compassion. God did not give His laws in order to deprive men of their pleasure but to keep them from harm. You do not tell your infant children about not touching the stove to deprive them, but to keep them from being hurt.
The thought in the hearts of the Pharisees was, “It is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath.” Jesus responded by asking, “ Is it lawful to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” Jesus knew that their primary motivation was to trap Him in order that they might kill Him. Jesus called for the man to come forward, to stand in the very middle of Jesus’ enemies.
Then according to verse ten, “when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
Apparently after asking his question, Jesus paused to look around, undoubtedly the synagogue became as quiet as a tomb as his eyes went from face to face. Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And as he did so his hand was complete restored before their very eyes. Surely now they would be moved to believe, not so for Luke closes the story in verse eleven by pulling back the curtain allowing us a glimpse of into the soul of the Pharisees. “But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
The other gospel accounts tells us that they actually plotted to kill Jesus (Matthew 12:14, Mark 3:6). Literally here it says, “they were filled with madness.” The Greek word used here in Luke is (anoia) which describes “foolish anger” or “senseless rage,” it suggest an absence of mind.
1. We need to do as much work as possible on days other than Sunday so that we can reserve that day for rest and worship. Don’t save all your housework or household projects for Sunday afternoon. Students do your homework on Saturday rather than wait until Sunday evening. Billy Graham once said, “Jesus tells us it is OK to help our ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath. But, if your ox gets in the ditch every Sabbath, you need to either get rid of the ox or fill up the ditch.” Some of you may need to fill up the ditch. It really hurts me to say this but if your motorcycle keeps you from being in your church on Sunday, you may need to get rid of your motorcycle. The same goes for y.our boat, your hunting rifle or your golf clubs.
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