Luke 6:1-5

Luke 6:1-5

And it became in the Sabbath for him to go through the sown fields.  And His disciples plucked off and were eating heads of grain while rubbing them in their hands.  But some Pharisees said, “Why do you all do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath?”  And answering, Jesus said to them, “Neither do you all read these things that David did when he and the ones who were with him hungered?  He went into the house of God and after taking the bread of presentation – which is unlawful to eat except for only a priest – he ate it and gave it to the ones with him.”  And He was saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I find it interesting that there are always people watching.  On one hand, this is a good thing. Our actions should lead people closer to God.  Our actions should cause people to ask questions about our faith and our relationship with God.  Discipleship happens because people ask questions from us.  However, there are also people who are watching us to accuse us.  That is the case of the Pharisees.  They could ask Jesus why His disciples are working.  They could ask Jesus what is different.  But they don’t.  They focus on the unlawfulness of the act.  They point out that they have the ability to judge Jesus and His actions – or at least they think that they do.  There are always people watching.  Some with good intent.  Many with poor intent.

Do you ever watch people to see what you can learn?  Do you ever watch people to judge them?  Have you ever been judged?  How does that feel?

Second Thought:

Jesus turns the table on the Pharisees.  Yes, technically picking seeds off of a growing plant is work.  Yes, technically it is the Sabbath.  But Jesus then reminds the Pharisees that David – a man after God’s own heart – was not always concerned with having a legalistic approach to life.  It is good to know what is right and wrong.  But there is no point in something being wrong just for the sake of being wrong, either.  In other words, rules are good to have.  But there is no point having a rule just to have a rule, either.  David knows that it is good to give to God out of our possession – that’s the point of the showbread.  But David also knows that starving is not how God desires us to live, either.  We should obey the rules.  But we should not be forced to be a slave to them when common sense dictates otherwise.

Have you ever been a slave to the rules?  Why is that an easy position to take?  Have you ever had to bend a rule that didn’t have a reason for being applicable in a given time?  What is the danger of bending rules?  When is it okay to ignore rules?

Third Thought:

I enjoy Jesus’ direct teaching at the end.  The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.  In other words, Jesus is more powerful than the Sabbath.  The Sabbath was created for us to remember God.  The Sabbath was created to make sure that we all took a day to do the Lord’s work.  But the Sabbath wasn’t created so that our every action could be scrutinized and we could be made to feel guilty about subtle actions done on the Sabbath.  Jesus and His commands are more important than those things that are created solely because we are sinful human beings.  The Lord is lord over the Sabbath.

What does it mean to you that the Lord is Lord of the Sabbath?  What do you think Jesus is really saying to the Pharisees here?

Passage for Tomorrow: Luke 6:6-11