Luke 6:6-11
Three Strikes, You’re Out!
Luke deliberately strung three Sabbaths together so it makes sense
that we should study them together. The first two are mentioned in
verse 1.
Luke 6:1 And it came to pass on the second
sabbath after the first,
The first had occurred in \\#Luke 4:31\\ when Jesus first went to
Capernaum. The second was here. They were not one after the other
in terms of time but they both recorded Jesus offending the religious
leaders.
1. First when Jesus came to Capernaum, healing so many.
2. The second in Luke 6:1-5, when Jesus’ disciples plucked and
ate corn on the Sabbath.
3. The third in our text.
Luke 6:6 And it came to pass on another
Sabbath….
Luke did not say this was the "next" Sabbath. Instead, he used a
phrase which makes me think it definitely was not but it was the next
Sunday where Jesus’ actions conflicted with the religious leaders and
to them, it was the final straw.
Let’s continue to study and ask, "Did anyone break the Sabbath?"
I. Did Jesus’ disciple break the Law in Luke 6:1-5?
A. Jesus plainly said NO.
Mt 12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I
will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not
have condemned the guiltless.
B. Why not? The Bible did not tell us but I speculated it was
because what the disciples did in plucking and shucking the
corn was not servile work.
1. As I pointed out the word "servile" is used 12 times in
our King James Bible. All in Leviticus and Numbers.
2. However, the Hebrew word itself is used 125 times in the
Old Testament.
a. The root of the word is "service" or "servant,"
meaning to serve, either oneself or another.
b. Perhaps the best way to understand it is to say that
the people could not profit from their work, not them
and not others. They could only do the most basis
of necessities.
c. Were the disciples attempting to serve themselves?
3. They were attempting to eat and some work had to be done
to eat.
a. Jews cooked their food the day before and just ate it
on the Sabbath, but walking to where the food was and
unwrapping it or getting it out of a jar that it had
been stored in was still work.
b. And the disciples worked when they pulled the corn off
the stock, removed the husks that God had stored it
in, and ate it.
c. But note:
(1) They did not prepare it for another or even for
themselves.
(2) They did not cook it.
(3) They did not perform a harvest for their barns.
(4) They merely retrieved and unwrapped the corn then
ate it.
(5) Jesus decaled that was not servile work.
4. The religious leaders declared it was. Jesus was
saying it was not.
a. Who are you going to believe?
b. It was at that time, Jesus made a statement about
Himself:
Luke 6:5 …the Son of man is Lord also of the
sabbath.
c. That was not Jesus saying that He was above the Law
for He was not \\#Gal 4:4\\.
d. That was Jesus saying that He knew what the Law meant
for He was the Giver of the Law! He and He alone
knew WHY God gave the Law, WHAT its purposes were,
and WHAT it meant.
e. We can give the religious leaders of Israel credit for
trying to understand the Law but on this account,
they had it WRONG.
f. Jesus was telling them that they should be coming to
Him not for the Law’s interpretation not arguing with
Him about their interpretation.
II. Did Jesus break the Law when He healed?
A. In \\#Luke 6:1-5\\, I answered that question with one word,
"NO" and did so even before we began to study the issue.
1. Why? Because if Jesus broke the Sabbath, He would not
have been our Savior but just another sinner.
2. What is sin?
1Jo 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law: for sin is the transgression of
the law.
a. If Jesus broke the Law, He committed sin!
b. This reasoning is plain and simple and it settles the
issue for me.
3. I don’t know how you read the Bible, but I will tell
you how I always read it.
a. I always start with the assumption the Bible is
true and my thinking is either limited or wrong.
b. I then look to add to or to correct my thinking.
c. Others read the Bible with the assumption that the
Bible is either wrong or needs to be proved.
(1) They say my assumption taints my view of the
Bible. (They are right but so does theirs.)
(2) They say my assumption causes me to always accept
the Bible while rejecting man’s logic. (They
are right and theirs causes them to reject the
Bible while accepting man’s logic.)
(3) They say my assumption is not grounded in fact.
(On that they are wrong. In fact, their
assumption is the one not grounded in fact for
God is true and every man is a liar and man’s
logic is most often faulty.)
d. But I do not "just" accept the Bible.
(1) I accept it then I look into it to see why it is
so.
(2) Some have a hard time calling me a "preacher" in
the south because I teach a lot when I preach.
(a) Many preachers preach messages to enjoy a
truth and I do on occasion.
(b) But most of my sermons are not just for our
enjoyment but also for our learning. They
are for us to find out "why" a truth is so.
(c) So, although I do not need the Bible to know
Jesus did not break the Sabbath, I will
look into it to find out "why" what Jesus
and his disciples did was not a violation
of the Law.
B. Was helping people breaking the law?
1. Again, "NO." I don’t need to study the issue to find that
out. Jesus would have been a sinner if he had broken the
Law, but we will study more anyway.
2. Was it work for Jesus to heal and to help people on the
Sabbath Day?
a. We have already pointed out that some work was allowed
by the Jews and by the Law.
b. On this point, the religious leaders seemingly had a
better case against Jesus.
(1) To heal was more than just to get by. It was to
do service for another.
(2) Indeed, the ruler of a synagogue had a pretty
good compromise for healing that both allowed it
and kept the Sabbath Day holy.
Lu 13:14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered
with indignation, because that Jesus had healed
on the sabbath day, and said unto the people,
There are six days in which men ought to work: in
them therefore come and be healed, and not on the
sabbath day.
c. But Jesus addressed the issue with a question.
Luke 6:8 But he knew their thoughts, and said to
the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and
stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood
forth.
9 Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one
thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do
good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy
it?
10 And looking round about upon them all, he
said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he
did so: and his hand was restored whole as the
other.
d. Jesus’ question was not answered and perhaps He did
not intend it to be, but the question itself implies
that it is not wrong to do "good" or to "save lives"
on the Sabbath Day, but I believe He was doing more
than that.
(1) Just to say that it was lawful to do good on the
Sabbath Day would have opened a big hole in what
could be done for a lot of activities could be
called "good."
(2) I think Jesus was defining "good" as "to save
life."
(3) In other words, a work which is to save a life or
to alleviate suffering is not a forbidden work,
even on the Sabbath.
e. The commentary given by Mark goes on to tell us that
Jesus was angry that these people’s hearts could grow
so cold as to think that God would want us to let men
suffer and die because it was the Sabbath Day.
Mark 3:1 And he entered again into the
synagogue; and there was a man there which had a
withered hand.
2 And they watched him, whether he would heal
him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse
him.
3 And he saith unto the man which had the
withered hand, Stand forth.
4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do
good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save
life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
5 And when he had looked round about on them
with anger, being grieved for the hardness of
their hearts,
(1) The notion that Jesus (God) was angry that man
would ever think that God would rather us
preserve the Sabbath Day at the cost of
another’s suffering or death.
(2) Mark called that condition "the hardness of
their hearts." \\#Mark 3:5\\
f. As far as we know, the disciples never plucked and ate
corn on the Sabbath Day again. Not because it was
wrong but perhaps just to keep the peace.
(1) However, Luke will go on to record other Sabbath
Days where Jesus healed the helpless and the
hurting.
Luke 13:10 And he was teaching in one of the
synagogues on the sabbath.
11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a
spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him,
and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from
thine infirmity.
13 And he laid his hands on her: and immediately
she was made straight, and glorified God.
(a) This woman had suffered with this bend back
for 18 years.
(b) She was hurting and helpless.
(2) Then a man suffering from excessive fluid
building up on his body. There was no cure and
he was hurting and helpless.
Luke 14:2 And, behold, there was a certain man
before him which had the dropsy.
3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and
Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the
sabbath day?
4 And they held their peace. And he took him,
and healed him, and let him go;
(3) In Luke 4, Meter’s mother-in-law was sick and
bedridden. She was helpless and hurting.
(4) On the streets outside, more sick and demon
possessed people. They were helpless and
hurting.
(5) In Luke 6, the man had a withered hand. He
was helpless and hurting.
(6) In all of these cases Jesus healed them.
3. Back to the question. Was healing people breaking the
Law?
a. No. It was work but it was not breaking the Law.
b. God never intended one to allow another to suffer just
because it was the Sabbath Day.
c. That might not be something that we could discern from
the Law itself, but Jesus pointed out that even the
religious leaders had figured it out.
Lu 14:5 And answered them, saying, Which of you
shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit,
and will not straightway pull him out on the
sabbath day?
(1) While in the Law, no such exception existed. In
practice, the religious leaders allowed a Jew
to rescue their livestock from suffering or
death.
(2) Indeed, they probably allowed people to tend to
someone who was injured or took sick on the
Sabbath.
(3) So the concept was not at all foreign to them.
d. They just refused to apply the exception to Jesus.
(1) Why?
(2) It would seem that they had already gone from the
curious to cynical.
Luke 6:7 And the scribes and Pharisees watched
him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day;
that they might find an accusation against him.
(3) And they found that for which they looked, a
reason to reject to Jesus.
Luke 6:11 And they were filled with madness; and
communed one with another what they might do to
Jesus.
(a) Madness - Fury so great that they could not
reason.
(b) I suppose it might have been the religious
leaders who first coined the phrase,
"Three strikes and you’re out!" for Jesus
was certainly "out" as the Messiah for
them.
The major issue the religious leaders had with Jesus was that they
felt He broke the Sabbath, but that breaks down into just two issues.
1. Jesus’ disciples plucked and ate raw corn.
2. Jesus healed and helped people.
Jesus made it clear that neither of these were in violation of the
Law.
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