Rev. Dr. Ric Strangway
Luke 6:1–16
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 the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
An Invitation to Rest
Rest.
Rest is the invitation to pause and stop. To recognize you can’t keep the frantic pace.
It is a reminder that you have limits. That you are getting older. That you need to replenish and recover. It is the recognition that you are created, flesh and blood, and that you are given life from the Creator.
It is the realization that you need God, that it is his breathe that gave you life, and it is his Spirit that sustains you. It is the invitation to enter the heart of the Living God. It is what we need the most.
And it is a gift for those who enter in.
But rest is more than a pause. In the Genesis account we learn that the seventh day gave way to the rest of God. Creation was complete. The universe was ordered, and life was set in motion. God was on his throne. The earth was now his footstool. The reign and rule of God was an expression of his goodness and love.
From the beginning, sabbath rest was an invitation to not only pause, but to stop and recognize our need for the Living God, and to realize above everything else that we have been invited to abide in him as we participate with him in his redemptive work in the world. This is at the heart of the creation story. And this is what it means to be human. We live and move and have our being as we rest in him (Acts 17).
In Luke 6:1-11 we find two sabbath stories placed one after the other.
They follow Jesus’ proclamation in Nazareth when he announces that good news has come to the poor, prisoners have been set free, the blind have been given sight, and the year of the Lord’s favour has arrived (Luke 4). From that moment on we see that something is on the move. Jesus’ teaching has a new kind of authority (Lk 4:12), the kingdom is breaking in (4:43), and followers are beginning to form around him (5:1–11). But Luke doesn’t stop there. He wants us to see the power of God at work in healing the leper (5:12–16) and offering forgiveness to the paralyzed man (5:20). And then comes possibly the most dramatic scene of all, Jesus sitting at the table of Levi, with the least, lost, and discarded (5:27–32). By the end of the fifth chapter Jesus indicates through his teaching on the new wine and new wineskins that the reign and rule of God is bursting into the world and making all things new. The old wine skins won’t be able to hold it anymore, for the new wine is full of too much of God himself (5:36-39).
Luke 6 begins with bickering over a right understanding of the law as given by Moses. But Jesus makes it clear, this is not about the old, for the new now is here. It’s bursting forth with fullness and life, and it’s located in him.
What was hoped for in the creation story of Genesis is now happening in and through Jesus. The fullness of God’s reign is now on earth. And Jesus is both the giver and sustainer. The message and the gift. The year of the Lord’s favour is now here amongst us because Jesus is the Lord of the sabbath.
The second of the two sabbath stories builds on the first (6:7-11). But this time the questions arise because Jesus heals on the sabbath. It is not so much the action of Jesus’ healing, though that clearly points to the new. It is the words of Jesus that Luke wants us to see again.
Not only is Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath, but he is also the one who is at the heart of the restoration of all things. The listener is drawn into Jesus’ rhetorical question, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it” (6:9). The answer lies in the question. The echo of the seventh day of creation is found in the sabbath, and the sabbath is about the goodness of God reflected in the restoration of life. Goodness and restoration. Life and abundance.
The gift of Sabbath is now here in Jesus himself. It’s bursting into the old with a newness of life.
Luke is inviting us to consider two things: to see Jesus and enter in. We must see Jesus as the Creator of life and the giver of all good things, to see him as the one who is both the sustainer and provider. And then, we must enter his rest. It’s the kind of rest that reaches out in faith and trusts him for the new.
Luke invites us into the reign and rule of Jesus. The Lord of the Sabbath, the giver and the sustainer, the message and the gift. His is the rest that leads to restoration.
The scripture invites us to stop and rest and look to Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath. It is an invitation to recognize that the year of the Lord’s favour is here, and Jesus is offering us the goodness and life of new creation. Like the man with the shriveled hand, Jesus is inviting us to restoration and life.
Take a few moments to pay attention to the following:
Pay attention to Jesus. Pause and stop the striving and simply focus on him.
Pay attention to what Jesus is saying to you. What does he want you to see or hear? How does he want to express his goodness and love? And where does he offer you restoration and life?
Finally, pay attention to what Jesus is asking of you. Where is he asking you to trust him? What is he asking you to stretch out in faith?
Author Bio:
Rev. Dr. Ric Strangway, DMin is the Associate Professor Pastoral Theology at
Ambrose University.
Luke and Acts taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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