Skip to main content

66. Another Sabbath, Another Law


Key verse: Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 
Luke 6:5

What an incredible situation!  Here are these religious leaders, in all of their pomp and piety, telling the law giver Himself, that, once again, He is breaking the rules.  The situation seems preposterous on the face of it, but there you have it; humans, telling God how He should behave. 

What were they doing wrong this time?  Well, the disciples probably thought that they were just taking a few grains of wheat or barley to stave off hunger until they reached their destination.  After all, in Deuteronomy, God instructs the people, "If you enter your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain.”  (Deut.  23:25)  That's all the disciples were doing.  They were cutting through the field and plucking some grain to munch as they walked.  There was no harm being done as far as they were concerned.  

In the Pharisee's eyes, however, they were harvesting.  Harvesting is work.  Work is not allowed on the Sabbath.  Thus, Jesus' disciples were breaking the law and in the process, giving the Pharisees another opportunity to criticize.  Probably one of the main reasons that the Pharisees loved the law so much was that it gave them the ability to determine who was good and who was bad, based on externals.  How fortunate that the Lord looks at the heart. 

Jesus, however, does not pull rank or justify the actions of His disciples, and maybe Himself.  Instead, once again, He points out human inconsistency, by reminding them of their great ancestor David, who ate the bread set out for the priests, in a desperate situation.  And, in fact, was even helped to do so by the priest, Abiathar, Himself. 

It's so easy to get caught up in rules.  The law was originally intended to help us understand God; to learn what He approves of and what He doesn't.  It was never meant, however, to be used as a weapon, an opportunity to play "gotcha,” and find fault with as many people as possible.  Too often, when we become religious, this is what we reduce our worship to, a list of dos and don'ts.  When we do this, what we miss is "GRACE!” 

It was grace that compelled God, "the law” giver, to let us in on the rules in the first place.  Not so that He could condemn us, but so that we could understand how to please Him.  In this story of David, Jesus tries to help His critics see grace and show grace in return.  The disciples were not flaunting the fact that they were breaking the law as an act of rebellion.  No, they were nibbling a bit of grain.  They had no basket in hand and they weren't staying in one place to make sure that each stalk was plucked clean.  The religious leaders were being frivolous and Jesus knew it.  For Him, there was no need to correct or apologize. 

This doesn't mean that we can ignore God's law.  Jesus Himself said, "I did not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it.”  (Matthew 5:17) He does, however, call us to a life of grace and understanding toward others.  We are not the judge.  We are not God.  We are fellow travelers with imperfect people.  We need grace and understanding from them as much as they need it from us.  May we live a life of grace toward others today. 

Hymn: "Marvelous Grace

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

211. The Sons of Thunder's Request

Matthew 20:20-28 , Mark 10:35-45 , Key verse: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." Mark 10:43B-44 In our readings for yesterday, in which Jesus outlined what was about to happen to Him, for His disciples, the passage in Luke ends: "The disciples did not understand any of this. It's meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about." ( Luke 18:34 ) Now, we see just how truly clueless they were. Jesus had laid out a plan before them of pain and suffering and death and now James and John are focused on a promotion. The disconnect is so obvious. It's really not important to know whether James and john came up with this request on their own or if their mother put them up to it. The request was made and James and John thought that they could handle the responsibility that would come with it. What is that saying, "Fools rush in where angels fe...

These Boots are Made for Walking

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-15 These Boots are Made for Walking. Of course, I picked that title because it has a reference to popular culture, and it connects with our text today about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” I was tempted to play the video of that song, but it’s really not amenable to worship. If you remember that old song, it was quite confrontational. The singer had a righteous complaint against a boyfriend or spouse who was cheating on her. She’s not going to put up with that, and the song goes on to say, “One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!” And that “take a stand” bravado made her a hero! It was a #1 hit in 1966. I mention it because it has one interesting parallel and one major contrast with the message of grace and forgiveness. That parallel is this. God has a righteous complaint against the entire human race for cheating Him out of the loving relationship He desires with us. As the God who created us, he h...

186. Ten Healed, Or One?

Luke 17:11-19 Key Verse: Then He said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:19 At last, Jesus has left the crowd behind and again is continuing His journey toward Jerusalem. His path takes Him and His disciples along the border of Judea and Samaria, between the pure Jews, and the hated half breeds of the day. On His way, Jesus encounters an interesting group of people. We only learn the nationality of one of them and, though we don't know the nationality of the others, because Jesus sends them to the priests in Jerusalem we can probably assume that at least some of them are Jews. Isn't it interesting that through leprosy, a disease that causes much suffering, the dividing wall of hatred has come down for the sake of companionship? We encountered one leper earlier on our Journey. Lepers were the dreaded untouchables of the day. Their disease cut them off from all they loved. It was a very lonely life. No wonder these people had ...