“The Lord of the Sabbath!”

“The Lord of the Sabbath!”

“On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 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?” And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Luke 6:1-5 ESV)

In the 1950s and 1960s, when I grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, we had what were called “Blue Laws” that restricted commercial activity on Sunday. We couldn’t shop for groceries, get gas for our cars, or shop at a convenience store. These “Blue Laws” dated back to colonial America and were designed to enforce the 4^th commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.” The civil lawmakers at the time wanted to emphasize the importance of keeping the 10 Commandments as given in Exodus 20:1-17 by making sure that no one would do, or cause others to do, actual work on “the Sabbath”. The first problem they had was that the day Scripture calls “The Sabbath” is from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, not our “Sunday”. The other major problem is that trying to regulate the heart of man and make him honor his creator doesn’t work either.

It didn’t work for the Jews when the 10 Commandments were given to them at Mount Sinai in 1440 BC.  Trying to regulate men’s hearts didn’t work when the Pharisees added to the 613 Mosaic written laws hundreds of “oral” regulations; it didn’t work in the 1950s with the “Blue Laws,” and it doesn’t work today. We can’t regulate man’s heart to be tender to our God.

Do you remember when Jesus was asked, “What was the greatest commandment?’ in Mark 12:29-31? He didn’t answer with the 4^th Commandment of “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”; He didn’t answer with any of the laws that govern man's outward activities. His answer was what is known as ‘The Shema’: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." The Second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Matthew, in his Gospel account, tells us that Jesus also said: “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:40).

Maybe except for circumcision, keeping the Sabbath day holy was culturally the most important thing a Jew could do. So, in Chapter 6, Luke shows us that the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus were beside themselves that anyone, much less this “self-educated” teacher of the Law, wasn’t keeping the Law when they asked Him, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” By the way, the actual Law of Moses never forbade eating on the Sabbath. Still, the Pharisees were so intent on never even getting close to violating one of God’s Laws that they built a hedge around everything and added additional rules surrounding all 613 Laws that God had actually given. They made it impossible to keep all of their rules, and here we have Jesus walking by some grain fields, and His disciples were picking and eating the grain as they were traveling.

So many times, Jesus confronted these Jewish leaders that had appropriated God’s true Law and used it as an instrument to force the faithful to follow them and not the Law itself. Remember when Jesus confronted them and said: “It is not what goes in the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth.” He said, “For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

Here today in Luke chapter 6, Jesus is saying the same thing to them, to try to help them see that, “Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.” Jesus, throughout His earthly ministry, tried to show His followers and His detractors that God is not interested in the outward appearances of man, but God wants the heart of Man.

My friend, if you are trying to keep all the 10 commandments, if you are making sure you pray at least 5 minutes a day, and give a tenth of your money to the church, if you feed the hungry and clothe the poor but do not have a heart for God, you are doing nothing more than the Jewish Pharisees. You are tending to the outward appearances; you are checking the boxes on your list, but what God wants is your heart. God wants you to change your mind about trying to work to gain acceptance and love from Him. God wants you to come to the Father through His Son. God wants you to agree with Him that you need a Savior and that Jesus is the only way of Salvation, and to accept the gift of salvation that is offered.

Jesus “the Lord of the Sabbath” doesn’t want you to ‘Keep the Sabbath’ out of obligation, trying to earn your salvation. He wants you to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” That’s how you please your creator.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"