I have a scenario for you. You are on an African safari in a caravan and the caravan stops. There is a little kitten which you see tiptoeing toward a watering hole full of crocodiles. Here’s the catch. You can easily go rescue the kitten but if anyone catches you hopping out of the vehicle you could face hefty fines and perhaps jail time for trespassing unlawfully in the African savannah. Do you risk it? Is the kitty worth it? In the first 16 verses of Luke chapter six, Jesus breaks Sabbath regulations twice and even claims to be Lord of the Sabbath.

Verses 1-11.

As those who are far removed from being under Mosaic law and observing the Sabbath in the way first century Jews did, it might seem difficult to grasp why the Pharisees and Scribes were so upset at Jesus and His disciples for doing what they deemed unlawful on the Sabbath. In Christian western culture, the Sabbath is observed as a time once per week where people might go to church, come home and relax and perhaps watch sports. A first century Jew would look at the Sabbath schedule of a modern Christian in the west and would not be able to believe this was what Christians did on the Sabbath. In fact, they probably wouldn’t believe it could even be the Sabbath with all the seemingly nonreligious activities that fills up a modern Sunday schedule.

A Jew under Mosaic law was required to do no work on the Sabbath. In fact, they weren’t even allowed to move beyond a certain distance. While the Sabbath commandment was to “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy,” the scribes and Pharisees so regulated Sabbath activities that it was more commensurate to maximum security lockdown than a day to worship God.

Jesus knew this and came to set people free from the oppressive human regulations imposed on Sabbath observers. In the first instance, Jesus defends the actions of His hungry disciples as they glean the heads of grain and eat them. Technically, this was not an unlawful act according to the provision given to the poor in Deuteronomy 23:25. But that wasn’t the point. The Pharisees see their religious control being threatened by this action, and instead of caring about the wellbeing of the disciples, they accuse them of being lawbreakers.

As usual, Jesus uses the Scriptures to defend their actions by pointing to David who allowed himself and his men to eat the twelve loaves of holy showbread that was placed weekly in the Holy Place of the tabernacle. David believed that it was better for him and his men to be fed than to keep the Sabbath law. Jesus not only affirms David’s actions but then claims superiority over the Sabbath by declaring, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (5). Jesus is essentially telling the Pharisees that He is God and was ushering in a perfect understanding of what keeping the Sabbath really means.

In the second example starting in verse six, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue which was a common thing for traveling Bible teachers to do. He is closely watched by the Scribes and Pharisees who are seeing if He would heal on the Sabbath. There is a man with a withered hand. They are waiting to pounce on Jesus for doing such a dastardly deed of healing this man.

Jesus calls the man to stand right in front of everyone and says, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” (9) Jesus is making clear in this example that keeping the law of God means doing the right thing. Man has a tendency to push manmade rules in order to gain power and control over others. The Scribes and Pharisees cared nothing for this man’s needs, although they claimed to be the spiritual shepherds of the people. Instead, they were threatened that this new rabbi was undermining their control structure and exposing it for the godless fraud it was.

A skeptic will point to the 613 laws given by Moses to the Israelites in the wilderness and claim that Jesus was going against what His own heavenly Father mandated and therefore should have waited until after the Sabbath to heal and let His disciples eat grain. As for the other laws about stoning adulterers and the like, why was Jesus ignoring Mosaic law or passing out pardons, such as by forgiving the woman caught in adultery in John 7?

Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, “I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill them.” The law and the prophets are summed up in this, love God and love others. Jesus was claiming to not only have a fuller understanding of the law of God than those who went before Him, He was claiming to be the fulfillment of the law. The scribes and Pharisees knew this and they were enraged.

But the man with the withered hand didn’t seem to mind that it was the Sabbath. He obeyed Jesus by standing up and he obeyed Him by stretching out His hand. The fact was that he was unable to stretch out his hand. If he was able to do this then he wouldn’t have needed healing. Stretching out his hand was impossible. Yet by faith he stretched out his hand and was made well.

Those who want to be counted among those who do good and save lives must also extend out their withered hands. This might be surrendering to the fact that Jesus indeed fulfilled the law and the prophets and it’s time to stop believing in legalistic, heartless brands of Christianity. For others, this might be reaching out the withered parts of your own life and saying, “God, this part of my life is like a withered hand. It’s completely messed up and needs restoration. Will you restore my life as you restored this man’s hand?”

The gospel of Jesus is this – not only did Jesus’s hand become withered, but His whole body was crushed and bruised so that we could not only have restored limbs, but restored souls – it was His life for ours. When Jesus rose again on the third day it was a Sunday, which was a day after the Sabbath. Christians began observing the Sabbath on Sunday very early on in the early church and it continues to this day. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath by being our Sabbath rest, as the writer of Hebrews 4:9-11a states: “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as Christ did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest.” The true Sabbath is fulfilled by entering into the rest of Christ.

Verses 12-16.

Jesus spent all night in prayer to God before he selected twelve disciples whom He also named apostles. An apostle is someone who delivers a message from a sender. It has the idea of ambassadorship. Jesus chose twelve men to represent the kingdom of God to a sinful world. The men whom He chose were ordinary men. The most prominent of them were fishermen and Matthew worked as a despised tax collector before Jesus called him.

The Gospels mention Judas Iscariot as one who betrayed Jesus, and John writes in his gospel that Judas regularly helped himself to the money bag. The Bible doesn’t explain why Jesus chose him to be a disciple whom he later called “a devil.” Yet He also says it would have been better for him to never have been born. For the sake of clarity, it bears mentioning that Bartholomew is called Nathaniel in John 1:45, Judas the son of James is called Thaddeus in Mark 3:18, and Matthew is called Levi one chapter earlier in Luke.

In the Gospels the disciples are not portrayed as pillars of strength. Much of what is recorded in the Gospels is growing pains as the disciples grapple to understand the words and works of their Master. Matthew, John, and Peter pen gospels and epistles that record personal lowlights while writing some of the most powerful content ever written.

Jesus continued all night in prayer to God before choosing the twelve. Nobody has ever had a closer relationship with the Father than the Son and He prayed all night before making His selection. Jesus was a man who was so popular that He had to take irregular routes in His ministry travels yet He always found time to pray to His Father, and pray extensively. He knew the importance of every decision He made and it was always covered in prayer.

Not only did Jesus come to be our true Sabbath rest, He also chose a team of preachers to proclaim that message to the world. To truly remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy is to find rest in the finished work of Christ.

Questions:

1. Jesus and His disciples twice break the rules of the Sabbath: once for eating and the other for healing. In verse 5 he claims to be “the Lord of the Sabbath.” What does this say about Jesus’ views on religious rules? (verses 1-11).
2. Jesus called 12 apostles. This mirrors the 12 tribes of Israel in the OT. How do the 12 apostles compare/contrast to the 12 tribes?
3. Jesus prayed all night before choosing the 12. What does this teach us about prayer?