Luke 6:1-5--Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6:1-5
English Standard Version
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Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
6 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not 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 bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” 5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

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As we're discussing right now in the Gospel Foundations lessons that I'm recording (reference Volume 4, Session 3:  God's Uncompromising Judgment), and as we've discussed when we talked about the Law in our blogs, the Sabbath is a big deal to the LORD.  It was one of the ways in which the people of the LORD identified with the LORD, but it was also a way to give tribute to Him and show how much He was worth to them as they were willing to give one day a week to Him (though the time was not even theirs to give, but rather, everything we have already belongs to Him, including the time that He gives to us--so this too is something we are telling people when we observe the Sabbath).

This passage is not about which day that the Sabbath is or isn't--clearly this passage means to say that it was on the seventh day and even the Gentile audience that Luke was writing to understood that and didn't need it explained to them.  We're still in the portion of the book of Luke where we see the Pharisees following Jesus around waiting for Him or His disciples to make a mistake, and there is nothing they'd like to catch Jesus in more than breaking the Sabbath, for that is what the LORD sent the people in Exile over and the people now take it super-seriously so as to never be taken into Exile like that again.   If they can catch Jesus teaching that it's okay to break the Sabbath, then they will have caught Him, or even if they catch His disciples and He seems to be permissive of their actions, then they have caught Him (or so they think).

For this reason, Jesus is going to intentionally have confrontations with the Pharisees on the Sabbath, many times because they think they are setting Him up, but He knows exactly what's going on, and other times because He's doing it just to make a point to them.  They're so concerned about not breaking their laws that they've made regarding keeping the Sabbath (they weren't exactly sure what it meant to work on the Sabbath, so they made many restrictive rules to make sure that no one did work according to their definitions) that they ignored the ignored the other laws God had given them about how to treat their brothers every hour of every day, no matter if it was the Sabbath or not.

In this case, the disciples are walking alongside a grainfield and picking heads of grain from the part of the field that was along the road and eating them (perfectly legal, and in fact the farmers were prevented from harvesting this area of their fields so that travelers who were hungry could do exactly as the disciples were doing right now).  To the Pharisees this was equivalent to the disciples harvesting the grain and preparing it to eat (as if they were cooking something) and they had broken multiple rules the Pharisees had made regarding the Sabbath just by plucking the grain, rubbing it in their hands to separate the kernels of grain from the chaff, and blowing the chaff away so they could eat just the good grain.

When the Pharisees confronted them about this, Jesus reminds them of another time in Scripture where the Law was clearly broken to take care of David and his men when they were hungry.  It seems that the LORD is willing to forgive such transgressions on account that they needed to do what they needed to do in order to stay alive, and God did not punish David or his men for violating the sanctuary to hide when they were being hunted, nor did He punish the priest for giving them the Showbread that was only meant for the priests to eat (imagine if we fed someone who was hungry from our Communion Table even though that bread and wine are holy and you get the idea) of what Jesus is referencing here--it is always good to do good on the Sabbath).

Then comes the kicker for the Pharisees.  Jesus as Creator of all things and Judge of the Living and the Dead is the one that the Sabbath belongs to (He created and instituted it), therefore, He is the only one that decides if it has been broken or not, as breaking the Sabbath is breaking God's Law and is a violation of His nature and character.  There is something special that day teaches us about God, but if we are doing the very things that God would do if He were here to do them (what Jesus did in the flesh), then how are we breaking the Sabbath, because He is the one who is Lord of the Sabbath.  Now doesn't that mess things up for the Pharisees who thought they were the ones who controlled the rules regarding the Sabbath and what it meant to keep or break the Sabbath.  They turned it into something about them and their rules, but Jesus points us back to God (and to Himself) to say that it's something about Him and reminding ourselves that He is in control and we are not.  As far as Jesus was concerned, the disciples were not guilty and that was the final word on the matter as far as if He would pass judgment on them or not, however, that's not the last we will hear from the Pharisees on this matter as they will escalate the situation to try to trick Jesus into breaking the Sabbath, not understanding what He's said that He can't break the Sabbath because the Sabbath is subservient to Him, not the other way around, for He created it, and He as Creator is the one that defines it parameters and purposes.  This is not an argument that is going away.