Luke 6:1-11

Butler's Comments

SECTION 1

Mercy (Luke 6:1-11)

6 On a sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2But some of the Pharisees said, Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath? 3And Jesus answered, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him? 5And he said to them, The Son of man is lord of the sabbath.

6 On another sabbath, when he entered the synagogue and taught, a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, Come and stand here, And he rose and stood there. 9And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it? 10And he looked around on them all, and said to him, Stretch out your hand. And he did so, and his hand was retored. 11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Luke 6:1-5 The Perfection of the Law: Actually the controversy over Sabbath traditions and Jesus-' approach to them came to a head just before this incident. Jesus had gone to Jerusalem to Passover, just prior to this. The student should read chapter 5 of John's Gospel for that confrontation. Apparently Luke is recording an incident in a grain field as Jesus was returning to Galilee with His disciples. Perhaps the Pharisees were travelling alongor they may have been local residents.

The Sabbath was the most unique aspect of Judaism. Practically all other religions (even pagan) had sacrifices, priests and temples, but only Judaism made one day out of each week so emphatically significant in religion. First century Judaism had literally hundreds and hundreds of minute traditions concerning Sabbath observance. The law concerning the Sabbath is really quite simple (Exodus 20:8-11); no work is permitted on that day. Exodus 34:21 specifies that no harvesting is allowed on the Sabbath. But the Israelite traveler going into his neighbor's standing grain was permitted to pluck grain by hand and eat as much as he wished (Deuteronomy 23:24-25). Such action was not considered harvesting. God would not contradict Himself. As Fowler points out (Matthew, Vol. II. College Press), the Pharisees presumed to be able to state God's will more clearly with their myriads of traditions than He was able to state it Himself. The Sabbath law was not complicated. God intended the Sabbath to be a day of rest and worship. The Pharisees had legislated practically every movement of the human body on the Sabbath day. This made void the word of God and defeated God's purpose for the Sabbath. No man could have rested or worshiped under such conditions.

The disciples did not violate the law of Moses: (a) Jesus did not rebuke the discipleshad they broken God's law He would have chastened them; (b) actually, the Mosaic law permits plucking grain (Deuteronomy 23:24-25) without distinction as to the day; (c) Jesus pointed out that mercy for hungry human beings would not be a violation of the law, even if a specific law were contravened. Jesus referred to an illustrious case in their own history. God did not strike David dead when he entered the Tabernacle and took show-bread (the law specifically stated only priests were to eat this bread, Leviticus 24:9) and fed his starving army (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Human need takes precedence over any ritualeven over a specific law of God. How can that be? Because the very spirit and essence of the law of God for mankind is to supply the highest good for the individual. God's highest good to man is mercy. Man's highest good to a fellow-man is mercy. Whatever is truly merciful is the fulfillment of the law (cf. Romans 13:8-10; 1 John 4:20-21). Jesus proved that with God, human need comes even before divinely sanctioned ceremonies! If this be true, how much more did hungry disciples come before the human traditions of the Pharisees? Christians must guard against their opinions or traditions coming before mercy and human need lest they be found standing with the Pharisees of old.

With masterful finesse and subtlety Jesus stakes out His claim to deity here. He declares the Son of Man controls the Sabbath instead of being controlled by it. And who has just given an authoritative statement on Sabbath prioritiesHe has! Matthew mentions that He gave them an even stronger clue about Himself when He reminded them that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath (by circumcising infants, etc.), and are guiltless; and One greater than the temple was in their midst! (Matthew 12:1-8). Mark adds this interesting statement of Jesus, The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath, (Mark 2:27). The sabbath does not precede human need.

Luke 6:6-11 The Protection of Life: God intended man to use the sabbath to sustain life, both physical and spiritual. He did not intend man to be destroyed by the sabbath. To worship God and glorify His name by ministering to the needs of others is life-sustaining. It sustains the physical life of others (and perhaps even their spiritual life), while enriching and edifying the spiritual life of the one ministering.

On another sabbath, in Galilee, Jesus went to a synagogue crowded with worshipers. As He began to teach, He noticed a man present who had a withered right hand. Dr. Luke notes it was the right hand. This would incapacitate the man from earning a living. If Jesus were to heal the man He would be saving the man's life. The scribes and Pharisees glued their eyes on Jesus to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. The Greek word translated watched is pareterounto, a compound word-para means, near and tereo means, keep watch or guard.

The Pharisees were plotting to put Jesus on the spot in this crowded place by asking Him, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath? Jesus anticipated their plot and, calling the man with the withered hand to the front of the auditorium, said, I ask you, Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to harm, to save life or to destroy it? Matthew reports Jesus reminded the audience that the Pharisees and their traditions were more considerate of an animal than of a man since their tradition permitted them to rescue one of their sheep on the sabbath if it had fallen into a pit. It is at this moment, as Mark notes, Jesus looked around at these hypocrites with anger (Gr. orges). The one time we are told Jesus was angry it is in connection with hypocrisya sin of the spirit, not one of fleshly passion. Of course, Christ never approves of any sin, but it does appear that He is more disturbed over the unique obtuseness of the sins of pride and self-righteous hypocrisy than those of fleshly indulgence; probably because of the almost total lack of compassion in the self-righteous hypocrite.

Jesus then demonstrated the divine answer to His question by healing the man's withered hand. The Greek word translated restored is apekatestathe. It is a word commonly used in the everyday language of the stonemason to explain that when a workman accidentally broke a stone, he made good the breakage by substituting a new stone in place of the broken one. Matthew (Matthew 12:13) says the man's withered hand was restored, whole like the other. Jesus gave the man back his livelihood. But the Pharisees were filled with fury. And here the Greek word is anoias which literally means, out of their minds. Their rage was senseless, mindless, blind fury. They were so bereft of reason in their passionate hatred of Jesus at this moment they rushed out and teamed up with the Herodians (Mark 3:6), some of their bitterest political enemies, how they might do away with Jesus. It is rather awesome and frightening how pride, self-righteousness and hypocrisy will, in order to justify itself, blind itself to compassion and goodness in mindless rage. Pride is a monster, whipped into a devouring passion by the devil himself (Genesis 3:4-5).