Day 21

Luke 6:1–11 (NIV)

¹ One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. ² Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” ³ Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” ⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁶ On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. ⁷ The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. ⁸ But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. ⁹ Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” ¹⁰ He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. ¹¹ But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Helpful Information

Vs 1-2 by Misnah (handbook on how to apply Old Testament to life) rules the act of plucking could be regarded as part of harvesting, which was forbidden on the Sabbath The preparation of food by rubbing corn was also forbidden, so much so that one was required to prepare a meal in advance for any traveler who might happen to arrive on the Sabbath Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Gospel of Luke : A commentary on the Greek text. The New international Greek testament commentary. Exeter [Eng.: Paternoster Press.

Pray for God to show you something to use from the passage

Read the Passage

Who is in the passage?

What action verbs do you see?

What other words stick out in your mind

Questions

What is lawful on the Sabbath?

How does what Jesus says about the Sabbath apply to me today and how I keep it?

How can ritual and rules get in the way of truly worshipping God?

vs 3 Jesus reply comes from 1 Sam 22:1-7, David uses the bread of presence intended only for priest to eat to feed he and his men as they fled Saul. Jesus point is David did what was illegal because they needed the bread to meet their need. God did not punish them for it. So the disciples were meeting their basic need. From Mark an added verse helps understand Jesus' point Mark 2:27- “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." In other words God's primary concern is for humans, not the Sabbath.

vs 5 Bold statement saying Jesus gets to define what is right to do on the Sabbath. He is the creator of it

Uses next story to define what is right to do on the Sabbath.

Right to do on Sabbath

· teach (no problem with Pharisees)

· heal (problem for Pharisees- they define healing as work if the problem was not life threatening.)

· to do Good- opens wide variety of things permissible that the Pharisees would not agree with

Jesus could not believe that the Pharisees would have a problem with healing someone on the Sabbath

vs 6- Shriveled Hand- probably hurt badly many years before and not able to be set or used therefore the hand became useless and small

vs 7 - Pharisees had already viewed Jesus as problem to be watched so he could at least be discredited. They begin to move from discrediting him to getting rid of him in vs 11. (See Mark 3:6)

vs 9- Good way to look at what it means to Keep the Sabbath holy.

to destroy- ironic that the very ones upset at Jesus doing good on the Sabbath are the ones that actually use the Sabbath to do evil, seek to destroy Jesus.