Luke 6: 1 - 5, Jesus confronts legalism on the Sabbath
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. Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 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."
Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
The disciples are hungry and, as is the custom, they get a small amount of food by "gleaning" in the wheat fields. There is nothing unlawful about this ... except that the Pharisees consider this to be "work" (harvesting) and so it should not be done on the Sabbath.
David's request for consecrated bread occurs in I Samuel 21: 6. There are more important things than mere religious ritual!
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 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.
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. 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?" 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.
But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
The Jewish Sabbath (beginning at sunset on Friday) was a common time of community meeting and worship. And so it is not surprising that a healing would occur there. But presumably this meant Jesus was "working" and so the Pharisees object to this good deed.
We can each be so obsessed with an idea that we completely ignore more important principles and actions. The Pharisees are so obsessed with defending their religion by defending the Sabbath that they miss the Messiah!
Luke 6: 12-16, The twelve (after a night in prayer)
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
What would it be like spending a whole night praying? Wouldn't it be boring? What do you say?
Jesus picks out Judas, who would become a traitor. Why?
Luke 6: 17 - 26, The Beatitudes
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
Jesus begins a series of teachings often called "The Sermon on the Mount". (Here is Wikipedia's article on the sermon.) Luke here records the sermon as occurring on a flat place after coming down from a mountainside. Thus some conclude that this is a separate event from Matthew's sermon on the mountainside (see Matthew 5:1-2.) It is likely that Jesus gave versions of this sermon numerous times and in numerous places. But it is also easy to believe these could be the same event, a sermon given on a flat spot on a mountainside.
Much more important than where Jesus spoke is the moral "geography" he sets by overturning the popular assumptions about the world system. "Blessed are the poor, ... those who weep, ... those who are hated...." Jesus's sermons will continually overturn the popular beliefs, emphasizing a "Kingdom of God" viewpoint that is 180 degrees from the popular viewpoint of the earth political and religious systems.
As chapter 6 is another long chapter in Luke, we will break it into two pieces. We will continue with Jesus's sermon tomorrow, in the remainder of chapter 6.
Moral geography. I like that!
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