The Lord of the Sabbath

Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." (Luke 5:5. See verses 1-11)

Here, we find a story where the Pharisees become murderously angry at Jesus merely for healing a man. Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field on the Sabbath day, and the disciples were picking, shucking, and eating heads of grain. At this point in Luke, the Pharisees have been growing more and more hostile Jesus. In verses 1-2, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, but in reality they were the ones breaking the law. In his response, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees' for their hypocrisy.

Unbiblical traditions obscure the Law
     The Pharisees were accusing Jesus based on their own traditions. They had defined "work," so broadly as to include nearly all actions that take even modest effort. The problem with the Pharisees' teaching is that they were denying the ultimate purpose of the Law. The Bible teaches that the ultimate purpose of the law is to grow in love: love for God and love for neighbor. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." In Leviticus 19:18b God says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus combined these two statements in his own summary of the whole law in Mark 12:

[28] And one of the scribes...asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" [29] Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [30] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' [31] The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

In case you think this was a novel interpretation of the Law, the same scribe agrees with Jesus' answer. Mark 12:32:

[32] ..."You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. [33] And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

Jesus commends this man, telling him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." The Pharisees in Luke 6 may have been avoiding work outwardly, but they were using the law to unjustly accuse the disciples.

David and the holy bread
    Jesus defends his disciples by bringing up the story of David when he was on the run from Saul (1 Sam. 21:1-6):

[1] Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, "Why are you alone, and no one with you?" [2] And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, 'Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.' I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. [3] Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here." [4] And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women." [5] And David answered the priest, "Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?" [6] So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

    David asked Ahimelech the Priest if he could spare any food for him and his men, but the priest had only bread from the Tabernacle. The Old Testament teaches that this holy bread was reserved for the priests alone. Leviticus 24:9 says that the holy bread "shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the LORD's food offerings, a perpetual due." However, Ahimelech had nothing else to offer. In an act of kindness to David, Ahimelech gave him a few loaves of the holy bread. The Law provided that the priests had an exclusive right to the holy bread. Ahimelech used his legal right to show mercy to David.

Jesus heals a man
     Jesus then illustrates this principle in Luke 6:6-10. In the synagogue, he sees a man with a withered hand. He asks the congregation, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?" Jesus then heals the man. The Sabbath was the occasion for Jesus to see the man in need of healing, so he took the opportunity to help the man. The Pharisees' response to Jesus' action reveals their hearts. They were "filled with fury." The Pharisees revealed, not love, but contempt for Jesus and for the man with a withered hand.

     In both cases, one who had received a gift through the law (the holy bread and the sabbath rest, respectively) used the benefit of that gift to show mercy to someone in need (David and the man with the withered hand). In his person, he demonstrates for us the perfection of God's word. In his perfect fulfillment of the God's word, he exhibits the very righteousness that he passes along in mercy to those who follow him. And just like he defended his disciples from the unjust accusations of the pharisees, he defends anyone who turns to him in repentance from the accusations of guilt and shame. Jesus Christ truly is the Lord of the Sabbath.

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Saturday, 3/10/2018
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons