“It Is Never
a Bad Day to Heal or to Save”
Luke 6:1-11 (SBC, Sligo
IE)
8 April 2018
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever found yourself in a
situation where you were the subject of unrelenting criticism, unreasonable
expectations, and ridiculous rules? Then you know how hurtful it is! Perhaps
it happened in a job where your supervisor just did not like you and set out to
make your life a living hell. Maybe it happened in school where you had one of
those miserable, misanthropic teachers who take pleasure from tormenting students
and making them feel small and look stupid. Or maybe you found yourself in a
situation where people misunderstood your motives and accused you falsely? Or perhaps
you were the victim of injustice, or other people’s stupidity, or legalistic
thinking? Sadly, that can even happen in a church! Jesus faced all these things and more! As He went about sharing
the Good News of salvation and healing people He was subjected to a constant
barrage of hatred and jealousy from cruel, misguided religious people who
should have known better.
TRANSITION:
In our text for this morning we will look at two
incidents in the early ministry of Jesus that show how the opposition to Him
was beginning to take shape. The charge against Him in both cases was that He and
His disciples were Sabbath-breakers, religious scofflaws, and though it might not
seem like it, these were serious accusations, albeit totally misguided and false.
MAIN BODY:
Verse 1: Now it happened that He was passing through
some grain fields on a Sabbath; and His disciples were picking the heads
of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain.
·
So,
this happened either on a Friday in the early evening after the setting of the
sun, or sometime on Saturday before sundown.
·
The
KJV here identifies the grain as “corn”; however, the word Luke uses is just the
general term for grain of any kind. We do not know specifically what kind of
field it was, but most likely wheat, or barley. I can relate to this story because
I used to do this all the time as a boy. I lived in wheat country in Eastern Oregon
where everybody does this now and again.
·
How
much work is it to pluck off a few heads of grain and then rub your hands
together to break off the chaff? Not much. And in fact, this kind of gleaning was
permitted by Deuteronomy 23:24-25. “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may
eat grapes until you are fully satisfied, but you shall not put any in your
basket. When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the
heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s
standing grain.” So according to Scripture the disciples were doing
nothing wrong! And if this had happened on any other day of the week the
Pharisees would not have found fault, but this occurred on the Sabbath, a day
for which they were ever zealous.
Verse 2: But some of the Pharisees said, “Why do you do
what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
·
The
first thing that I find kind of creepy about this story is that the Pharisees
were apparently skulking around and spying on Jesus and the disciples, just watching
and waiting for a chance to bring an accusation. But why did the Pharisees say
that they were breaking the Law? It was because the Pharisees were judging
Jesus and His followers by their own strict interpretation of the Law, not
by what it said. The Law prescribed things that could and could not be done
on the Sabbath and in the minds of these religious teachers Jesus and His guys
had violated not one, but four Laws:
1.
By
pulling off the heads of grain they were “reaping.”
2.
By
rubbing the heads of grain between their hands they were “threshing.”
3.
By
blowing the chaff away they were “winnowing.”
4.
By
eating the grains, they were “preparing food on the Sabbath.”
·
For
most of us this sounds ludicrous, but the Pharisees were deadly serious about
this and they really believed that Jesus and His men were violating the sacred
Law of God, a matter of life and death for the Pharisees.
Verses 3-4: And Jesus answering them said, “Have you
not even 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
consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone,
and gave it to his companions?”
·
Here
Jesus reminds the Pharisees of 1 Samuel 21:1-6 about an incident in the life of
King David. He said, “Have you not even read what David did?” And
of course, they had, but they had failed to learn what it meant! This
just shows that a person can know the Bible backwards and forwards yet still
not comprehend its real meaning. Once when David and his men were very hungry
they ate the shewbread on the altar in the Tabernacle. Every Sabbath morning there
were offered to God twelve wheat loaves, one to represent each of the 12 Tribes.
According to Leviticus 24:5-9 only the priests could eat of it. However, the
need of David and his soldiers took precedence over ceremonial law. Jesus’
point was that if David could do in an emergency that which was ceremonially unlawful,
why could not He?
·
When
we study Scripture, we must bring to it an open mind and heart, seeking to know
and apply the truth of God, rather than using it to verify and support our own preconceived
notions.
Verse 5: And He was saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord
of the Sabbath.”
·
So,
in addition to the authority to forgive sins, Jesus also claimed His sovereignty
over the Sabbath. Indeed, as we have already learned, Jesus has authority over
all things: over all the powers of Heaven and earth, over everything in the
created world, and even over sickness and death.
·
Because
He is God, the same God who gave us the 10 Commandments, He is certainly Lord over
the Sabbath, which is enthroned in one of those Commandments. The Giver of the
Law is the Lord of the Law!
Verses 6-7: On another Sabbath He entered the
synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was
withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him
closely to see if He healed on the Sabbath, so that they might find reason
to accuse Him.
·
Here
we have the second incident that I mentioned earlier. The situation was similar,
but it occurred on a different Sabbath, but probably soon after the first
incident. This time, instead of being out in the fields, Jesus was teaching in
the synagogue. And again, the scribes and Pharisees were on the scene analyzing
His every word to find something with which to accuse Him. They were undoubtedly
still smarting from their previous run-in with Jesus when He had beaten their
argument and had discredited them before the people. Now they were getting desperate!
They were watching to see if He would heal anyone so that they could charge Him
with breaking the Sabbath. They were angry and vindictive and were eager to entrap
Him.
·
Oddly,
Jesus played right into their hands! Why would He do that? Couldn’t He see that
this was a setup? In this case Jesus quite openly broke the Pharisees’
interpretation of Sabbath law. He did it blatantly, not just to tweak the
Pharisees but to establish His own authority over the Sabbath!
·
From
the Pharisees’ viewpoint, to heal was to work, and work was prohibited on the
Sabbath. It was true that the Law allowed for a life to be saved on the
Sabbath. If there was real danger to life, then steps could be taken to
preserve a life. Even the scribes and Pharisees agreed with that. However, this
man’s infirmity was not life-threatening. He just had a withered hand,
probably some sort of muscular atrophy. He had suffered with this infirmity for
a long time. Another day or two would not have made any difference, except
Jesus wanted to use this as a test case to establish His authority as Lord of
the Sabbath and Lord over every other human institution.
Verse 8: But He knew what they were thinking, and He
said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And he got
up and came forward.
·
Nothing
got past Jesus. He could look right into the scribes’ nasty little minds and read
their nasty little thoughts. So instead of backing down, Jesus wound them up
like a clock! He poked the bee’s nest with His stick!
·
Turning
away from the Pharisees and scribes Jesus focused His attention on the man with
the bad hand. He told the man to get up and come forward so that everyone could
clearly see what He was about to do. He was not going to do this thing in a
corner. In defiance of the scribes and Pharisees He wanted everyone to see what
He did and hear what He said.
·
We
do not know anything about this man. We do not know what he believed about
Jesus. All we can say with accuracy is that he was willing to obey the Lord.
Perhaps he had heard about this healer from Galilee. Perhaps his heart was
filled with hope that Jesus could do something for him.
·
Now,
with the man standing at His side, Jesus looked upon these misguided religious
leaders and posed a question to them, giving them a chance to answer. You could
have heard a pin drop in that room!
Verses 9-10: And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful
to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?” 10
After looking around at them all, [Jesus] said to him, “Stretch out your
hand!” And he did so; and his hand was restored.
·
In
Matthew’s Gospel chapter 12 verses 11-13 we can glean a little more
information: “And
He said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls
into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12
How much more valuable then, is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do
good on the Sabbath.’ 13 Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your
hand!’ He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.”
·
Of
course, if Jesus had been an ordinary doctor He would have had to expend energy
to heal the man. He would have had to make observations, put together a
diagnosis and treatment plan, massage the man’s hand, apply ointment, exercise
the limb, and perhaps even do surgery. All of that would have required energy,
work. But in Jesus’ case, how much work did He have to expend to heal? He was
able to do it with just a word. It required no work on His part. But in the
minds of the Pharisees any healing was work and therefore forbidden on
the Sabbath. Their minds were totally closed.
·
Jesus’
argument went like this: “Since it is
lawful to do good on the Sabbath, and since healing is a good deed, then the
healing must be above criticism.” That seems so basic to us that it is hard
for us to relate to the logic of these religious fanatics that stood there
glaring at Jesus.
Verse 11: But they themselves were filled with rage
and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.
·
They
did not want to listen to logic. They did not want to admit to any “truth” but
their own. They were filled with rage that this scruffy carpenter from Nazareth
would dare to contradict them, especially on their own turf.
·
Therefore,
He had to go! They did not have a plan yet but starting that day they began to
look for a way to kill Him. They saw Him as a threat to their power and
authority. They considered Him to be a blasphemer and a trouble-maker, and they
wanted Him dead. Period.
CONCLUSION:
When you really stop to analyze all
that we have looked at today, it all comes down to the scribes and Pharisees saying,
“OK, it’s fine to walk around and eat grain
and heal people on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday up
until 6:00 PM, but don’t you dare ever do it on Friday night or Saturday
because those days are special and we make the rules for those days!”
How ludicrous! How childish! Yet that is what the scribes and Pharisees were
saying. They were more concerned about their stupid made-up, manmade
interpretations of Scripture than they were about human need and human suffering.
There was no mercy or compassion in them and Jesus showed them up for what they
truly were.
Here were religious leaders who were
so blinded by their religion that they took the extraordinary course of hating Jesus
who had just cured a man from a debilitating infirmity. They are a perfect
example of closed-minded zealots who love their religious system more than they
love God or the people that God loves. Their rules and regulations were dearer
to them than God. Sadly, this happens in churches as well. Many times, disputes
among Christians are not about the great matters of the faith but about matters
of Church government, or what color to paint the children’s Sunday school room.
Petty jealousies and power struggles can destroy the work of God in the local
church!
We must be ever vigilant against loving
our religion more than we love God. We must be careful to value people over our
traditional religious practices. We must never allow our religious preferences in
things like style of music and worship to separate us from others who truly
love God and desire to worship Him in “Spirit and in truth.” We must be
diligent to maintain the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And we
must always be willing to humbly reexamine our own closely held theological positions
in the light of Scripture, so that we do not become rigid and unrelenting
toward those who might disagree with us. We must value truth over tradition,
Scripture over styles, and people over programs so that we do not fall into the
sins of the scribes and Pharisees. May God help us.
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