Luke 6:1-5

Luke chapter 6. I’m going to read verses 1 to 5, but we’re only going to cover a portion of this this morning. Lord willingly, we will continue studying it in the week to come. Weeks to come. And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields, and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, did eat rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering them said, Have you not read so much as this what David did when himself was a-hungered? And they which were with him. How he went into the house. of God, and did take and eat the show breath, and gave also to them that were with him, which it is not lawful to eat, but for the priest alone. And he said unto them that the son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. May God bless to us the reading of His sacred and holy holy. word this morning. Some people thrive on fault finding. It seems that they’re always critical of others. I read a story about a wife who was married to a miserable, hard-to-please-please- husband. She tried her best to satisfy her husband, but it seemed that it was going to be an impossible task. For example, she asked her husband, what would you like for me to make you for breakfast. And he growled coffee and toast, grits and sausage, and two eggs, one scrambled and one fried. Well, she did her best to prepare the breakfast the way he liked it, set it out on the table for her, hoping maybe I’ll get a word of praise for doing it right. After a quick glance at the food, he exclaimed, well, if you didn’t scramble the wrong egg. As you follow Christ’s ministry, you may be surprised to find that it seems that the Pharisees are always present. It seems these Jewish religious leaders were following Christ everywhere he went. Then they weren’t doing this in order to hear Christ’s teaching. Yes, they were listening in on his teaching, but they weren’t doing it to be spiritually benefited. No, they were carefully watching to find fault and to criticize so that they could discredit Christ. They have nothing good to say about Christ or his disciples. If they’re not happy with either the disciples, they’re not happy with Christ, but in both cases, the master will get blamed if there’s a fault with the disciples. They only wish to condemn. How sad it is. that they would so follow Christ about that they actually saw the disciples plucking the grain as they went through the cornfields on the Sabbath. Think about that, man. They wouldn’t have known it if they weren’t following, if they weren’t watching every little thing that they were doing. So here are the Pharisees fine fault with regard to the Sabbath. According to their traditions, to their extraditions, to their extra, biblical regulations, the disciples of Christ had violated it, and they had committed a grievous sin in the eyes of God. Our Lord here, I think, provides some important instruction for believers with regard to the Sabbath day. And thus, it’s beneficial for us to know this, and it demands our earnest attention. Let me begin by saying this. You can do works of necessity on the Sabbath. Now notice verse one, and it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, that he went through the cornfields, and the disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. This special Sabbath is of benefit for you. as one who is under the Christian Sabbath. It says here this cryptic phrase, and it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first. Now, this has puzzled many people as to exactly what in the world is he talking about. It’s never used anywhere else in Scripture, so we don’t have any other comparisons to this. Now, I’m not going to weary you with the various interpretations of this passage and this phrase in particular. Simply, I’m going to give you my best understanding of it this morning, and hopefully that will be of help. It appears that this Sabbath belonged to one of the feasts of the Jews, either the feast of the Pentecost, the feast of the first fruits, the feast of the tabernacles. You’ll notice that phrase in verse two. They don’t say Sabbath day, but the Sabbath days here, as is used in the book of Colossians, that same phrase, with reference, it seems, in Colossians, to the feast days of the law. So each of the feasts, if you read about them, had Sabbaths associated with them that would be in addition to the regular Sabbath day. These were known as, in John’s Gospel, they’re called a high Sabbath. In John 1931, for that Sabbath day was a high day. In other words, it wasn’t the regular Sabbath. It was a special Sabbath on which was coming up, and they wanted to break the legs of those crucified so that they would be crucified so that they would be. dead, so they wouldn’t be hanging on the cross on the Sabbath day. So you can have two Sabbaths in one week. You could have the special Sabbath, and then you could have the regular Sabbath on the seventh day. So one is associated with the feast, and one is the regular Sabbath. Now, among these high Sabbaths, which were annually observed in connection with the feast, this one in our text, it seems, is called the second in time. In other words, the first special Sabbath would relate to the feast of the Passover, whereas the second special Sabbath then would relate to the feast of the first fruits. If this is the correct interpretation, this is Kelvin’s interpretation, and I think he’s on to something here, This certainly would fit the context because the grain is ripe. It’s ready to be plucked or harvested, and so it would be a good time to be plucking and eating the grain. So that all fits together. Now, as a New Testament Christian, what I want you to appreciate about this is this fact. You should appreciate that Sabbath days are not always on Saturday. There are Sabbath days on other days of the week, even under the law, so that it’s our Sabbath day can be on a Sunday. And it’s still be in keeping with God’s law as the Sabbath day. It is a Sabbath day. It is a day of Christ’s resurrection that we celebrate. So you’re reminded here, not to rigidly think of the seventh day of the week as the only Sabbath day that there is. And I think that’s good for us to keep in mind, because a lot of people say, well, we’re not under the Sabbath of the Old Testament. Well, not all the Sabbaths of the Old Testament were on Saturday. And that’s what we should realize. Now, your Sabbath is the first day of the week. And now the observance of the last day of the week has been abolished. But this special Sabbath is beneficial for you as one under the Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath. And so I think that’s what it means with the second Sabbath after the first. We’re talking about the second annual feast and one of those Sabbath days associated with it. It’s still a Sabbath day, and therefore, what he has to say would apply to all Sabbaths. Now, you are permitted to satisfy your needs here on the Sabbath day. You find that traveling may be necessary on the Sabbath day. Jesus and his disciples were without a doubt here going from some place of worship on the Sabbath day, and they perhaps were on their way to the synagogue or another synagogue in which to reach and that Christ could preach on the same day. And so they were going from one place to another. on the Sabbath. And as they were going, by Providence, they went through an area where there are some fields of corn or grain, if you would. Now, this indicates to us perhaps that Christ and his disciples didn’t always stick to the main road. Sometimes maybe they took a shortcut through the fields of people to get where they were going. What the father had assigned for Christ to do, required him to travel on this day. It may have been some distances between these two synagogues, which required a lot of walking. And with a similar purpose of reaching, the singular purpose of reaching the house of God on time, or their specified hour of worship, they’re making their way, maybe even taking a short cut through the fields in order to get their, on time. But they perhaps had to travel a great distance on the Sabbath day. I suggest you that distance to the place of worship should not discourage you from making the journey. Here they are, they’re making this journey, they just do what they have to do to get there. That’s all. It may take some effort for us to get to the house of God. And for you as a believer that should not you shouldn’t begrudge God, I think, this sacrifice. If it takes a distance to get there, so be it. So you may find traveling on the Sabbath day necessary. Now, your needs may have to be met by the simple provisions of God’s providence. Christ and his disciples were so intent on doing Christ’s work, and you can imagine Christ had a son. singular focus. He’s always setting his face like Flint to do whatever God had him to do. He was busy about the work. So here they are traveling some distance. And Matthew’s account in Matthew 121 says, the disciples were hungry. Verse 3 indicates to us that this is what David did when he himself was hungry. So the implication was the disciples here were also hungry. So perhaps having spent some time in their morning worship, they had to rush off without someone preparing a meal for them, without taking the time to prepare anything, in order to get somewhere else, either to hear, you know, so that Christ could preach, or they could get to the next synagogue for the word of God to be proclaimed. By Providence, as I said, their journey took them on this Sabbath day through this field of grain. and this manner their needs were supplied. So the disciples began to pluck the ears of corn or grain, to rub them in her hands to get the husk off of them, and then eat the raw grain. And so that’s what they were doing. They were contented with this simple fare. This will take care of it. This will assuage our hunger. And so that’s what they do. Now, God’s law provided for anyone traveling through the fields of a neighbor, they could eat something from the fields. Here’s what the law said in Deuteronomy 23, 25. When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbors, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand. But thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor’st. standing corn. So what this law did is it forbade abuse. You couldn’t go in with your sick on, you know, gather as much as you wanted. But you could, if you were hungry, pluck some grain and eat it. In other words, God is saying to his people, you know, be generous. If somebody, you know, somebody comes through the field and wants to eat some a little bit, you know, don’t begrudge of that. That’s what the law said. So the disciples saw this, I think, is God saying, you know, providing for their needs. Okay, we can eat this grain as we go along. God has ways of providing suitable provisions for his people when they are focused on him and worshiping him. He’s always going to provide for his people. You may not have a feast on the Sabbath day because your time is taken up in worship. You may not have time to prepare large meals and things of this nature. many Christians are happy just to have plain meals on the Sabbath day to satisfy their hunger. Now this should, you should have the attitude, I think, of Job. This is the attitude we ought to have on the Sabbath day. Here’s what we read about Job in chapter 23, verse 12. Job says, I have esteemed the words of His, God’s mouth, more than my necessary food. Food isn’t what is most important. Feeding my soul is what’s most important. He saw that. And so the priority should be the feeding of the soul, but God doesn’t begrudge us the satisfying of our hunger on the Sabbath day. Sometimes God’s provisions may be slender, and you may have to be contended with what he provides. I’m reminded of a story that when I was younger, that when I was younger, we attended a small church in the neighborhood for a period of time, and we become well acquainted with the elderly pastor of the church, a Reverend Falmley, was his name. And later on, my parents found a better church to attend than that one, and we began to go to a different church. But the pastor of the previous church would still drop by on occasion. He had a habit of coming after the evening service on Sunday night sometimes and just showing up at the door and eating whatever provisions we had. He would eat them with us. He’d come unannounced. One day, my father told me he dropped by, and that particular week for some reason, we run out of everything. And all we had was left. over cereal from, you know, a couple weeks. You know, so much in each, you know, maybe this much in each bottom of each box or so forth. We had like five or six boxes of cereal. So it wasn’t even new cereal. It was leftover cereal. That’s all they had. So they offered that to the pastor if he would like to have that because that’s what mom and dad were going to eat that night. So they all sat down. They gave thanks. Each took a small amount of each box and put it in. into their bowl so they would have like a mixture of cereal. Each one would have a mixture of cereal in their bowl so they each would have a full bowl. They added milk and, you know, they had rice checks and cocoa pops and sugar smacks and rice crispies and probably shredded wheat and, you know, all mixed up into one bowl. Who knows what all, and quake, who knows what all they had in there. God had provided it and it was a simple affair and they ate it and thank God for it. Sometimes you have to be committed. are contented, excuse me, with having something to eat. It may not be much. Be thankful if you have something to eat that God has provided. So your needs may have to be met by the simple provisions of God’s providence, and this is what God provided, this is what they ate. Whatever work you do to provide for your bodily needs does not violate the Sabbath day. Now, Jesus does not condemn his disciples because they plucked the ground. or they rubbed off the chaff and ate it the Pharisees with all their little regulations of course rubbing the grain you know getting the chaff off of it that has to be a terrible violation of the Sabbath day so that’s what they’re accused of when Jesus healed Simon Peter’s wife’s mother what did she do she rose up and ministered to their needs she made provisions for them on the Sabbath Sabbath day requirements are not so harsh and so grueling to obey that we can’t provide for our family something to eat. He doesn’t require you to fast all day and eat nothing when you may be hungry. He doesn’t forbid you to prepare something to eat on the Sabbath. The truth is God wants you to call the Sabbath of the light. It’s supposed to be a day of joy. It’s supposed to be a day of joy. It’s supposed to be. A day where we actually in a sense are in a celebration mood. You know, Isaiah 58 says that we’re to call the Sabbath a delight. A day when we set aside all our earthly concerns, but we focus on the worship of God. But at the same time, God doesn’t say, well, you have to be hungry all day. You don’t eat anything. You can eat something. You can prepare something and eat it, and he’s not going to condemn you for that. So you can do it. works of necessity on the Sabbath. We have the special Sabbath as beneficial for you as one under the Christian Sabbath. They’re not all on Saturday. And you are permitted to satisfy your needs here on the Sabbath day. That’s what we see. But you also find religious hypocrites attach great importance to trifles. You’ll notice in verse two here. and certain of the Pharisees said unto them, why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? It’s nothing new for outwardly religious people to be the greatest adversaries of Christ’s true people. Think about that. Who are the greatest adversaries of Christ and the disciples? The religious leadership of the Jews. So the malicious and unchanging attitude of the Pharisees to Christ and his disciples and seen is seen in them constantly spying on them here. And they’re watching every move in order to find fault. Oh, well, I saw that plucking grain on the Sabbath day. Remember how Daniel, how the other presidents and princes were seeking an occasion in order to condemn? get rid of him? It seems like it’s the same idea here. They’re seeking some kind of an occasion. We can discredit Christ and his people, his disciples. Sick in their carpet everything Christ did. And they’ll all often put the worst possible spin on what they see. The worst possible construction on the actions of Christ and his disciples. Here they blame the disciples for violating them. the law of God regarding the Sabbath so that their master may be viewed as someone who isn’t concerned about the Sabbath day. He’s a Sabbath break. Well, they’re going to say the same thing when he heals on the Sabbath day too. Oh, you’re healing on the Sabbath day. You’re terrible person. Well, look at the same chapter here. We’ll have the same problem. Different perspective, different situation, but the same argument. Now, if you’re a different chapter. study the Pharisees, you know that they were known for their external piety. So that they appeared, that’s the key word, they appeared to be righteous before men. They weren’t righteous before God. Jesus repeatedly calls them hypocrites. Some seven times in Matthew 23, he calls them hypocrites. He said, you clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Now, the first. Pharisees’ hearts were not right with God, else they wouldn’t seek to criticize Christ at every turn and condemn him and so forth. And you will find outreel religious people are often puffed up with pride, and they look down on others who don’t live up to their standards, so that they want to discredit your faith in an effort to turn others away from the true faith. It is nothing new. for outwardly religious people to be the greatest adversaries of Christ and his people. Now notice this also, that religious hypocrites focus solely on external observances while omitting the weightier matters of the law that have to do with the spirit. The Pharisees had an exaggerating zeal about the Sabbath day, which did not extend to the other commandments of the law. God. What Christ’s disciples did was interpreted as servile work, the same as if you went out and reaped the field on the Sabbath Day. They had these traditional regulations that they piled on top of the Sabbath Day. Here’s one of them, according to John Gill. He that reaps on the Sabbath Day ever so little is guilty. they should be stoned to death. And plucking ears of corn is a derivative of reaping and therefore you ought to be put to death for it. Wow. The disciples, according to them, they’re deserving of death. And all they are trying to do is satisfy their hunger on a Sabbath day going from one place of worship to another. For such a trivial thing. For a few handfuls of grain. they would put you to death. Now these same Pharisees who held such a strictness and regard for the Sabbath seemed to be very lax with regard to the other commandments of God. They certainly were careless about the 10th commandment regarding covetousness. Look with me at Luke Chapter 16, if you would. In verses 13 and 14. Jesus says here at verse 13, no servant can two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You can’t serve God and Mammon or money. And the Pharisees also who were covetous heard all these things and they derided him. They didn’t like this idea of him striking at the heart of things here with regard to their covetousness. They were covetous, the Bible tells us. So here they are. They’re violating it a 10th command. and without any thinking, you know, no big deal. And they undermine the fifth commandment by their traditions. Look at Matthew Chapter 15, if you would, with me. Versus 3 to 6. And he answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother. He that honoreth father or mother, he that, excuse me, he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, in contradiction to what scripture says, but ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or mother, it’s a gift, but whatever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the command of God of none effect by your tradition. Huh. I guess they weren’t so concerned about the fifth commandment, were they? Need I talk to you about the commandment that the scripture talks about with regard to murder? Thou shalt not kill the sixth commandment or the seventh commandment with regard to adultery. Thou shalt not commit adultery. What did Jesus say in this sermon of the mount? That it wasn’t just the actual physical murder of someone, but unlawful, I’m just anger in your heart is murder and a violation of the commandment. Contrary to their thinking. And so with regard to adultery, with their thinking on it, if you didn’t commit the act, you’re okay. You can look as long as you don’t touch. Jesus says you better not look in lust either because he says that is a violation of the commandment as well. So when we look at the other commandments, it seems to me that they’re violating these pretty readily without any qualms whatsoever. And all of this reveals that really the Pharisees were quite hypocritical. Or as Jesus said, you blind guides which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Here you are. straining out the gnat here with regard to plucking and rubbing a few bits of grain from a farmer’s field while you can violate the law with regard to honoring your parents, with regard to covetousness, with regard to sexual sin, with regard to murder. When you condemn others for trifles while you yourself are guilty of blatant violations of the law of God, that’s a terrible thing. When you focus solely on the outward religion, then you’re ignoring the state of your heart. When ceremonies and traditions are deemed the essence of your religion, you’ve missed the point that Jesus makes repeatedly in the Gospels about your heart condition. When you condemn others for what God does not condemn them for, then your religious traditions have gone beyond the Word of God. How much better if they had focused on does this person repent a sin? Do they believe in Christ? that they live a holy life. Those are the things we have to focus on, not trifles here. So let us not be like the Pharisees in our text, because they were big hypocrites. So you find religious hypocrites attach great importance to trifles. Well, the wife, married to the critical husband, could never seemingly do anything right. He scrambled the wrong egg. In the eyes of the Pharisees, Christ and disciples don’t do anything right. Even the Sabbath day is violated. But as we shall see, Christ does not condemn his disciples for satisfying their hunger on the Sabbath day. You can do works of necessity on the Sabbath. That is a basic rule of thumb. We’ll talk a little more about this, but this is the introduction to this section, this teaching that we have here, in Luke chapter 6 in the first few verses. Let us go with a word of prayer.