Luke- Week 11- Day 2

(3)  And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;  (4)  How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?  (5)  And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

Luke 6:3-5

Explanation:

This week we are looking at how to miss out on what God is doing.  The pharisees completely missed out on what God was doing in three ways in this weeks passage.

Today we are going to continue to see the first way that the pharisees missed out on what God was doing.

They were disregarding his authority by asking him a question as to why He was breaking the sabbath.

Now notice how Jesus responded.  Jesus challenged their interpretation of the sabbath by bringing up a person for which they would have high regard.  He brought up David.  “Have you not read so much as this” would have been offensive to them.  They would have defintely read this and known the story.  The pharisees were big on Bible knowledge without Bible understanding.

In this narrative, David was running from King Saul, and had gotten to the place where He needed food but could not go out in public to get it.  So he went to the priest, Ahimelech, to survive.  We see this in 1 Samuel:

Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?  (2)  And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.  (3)  Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.  (4)  And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.  (5)  And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.  (6)  So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 

1 Samuel 21:1-6

Jesus was claiming that the priest and David would not have held to their interpretation of sabbath observence.  When it came to choosing the cermonial over David’s survival, both David and Ahimelech chose preserving life. 

Jesus is making it clear that their interpretation of strict observance to the ceremonial made them miss the bigger point.  In this case they were missing out on the bigger point of the authority of scripture and Jesus Himself.  They were comfortable with holding people to rules that God did not make in the name of God.  This was taking God’s name in vain.  They were comfortable with opposing Jesus’ authority in God’s name.  So look what Jesus said to them in summary:

(5)  And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

Luke 6:5

He is the one with the authority over the Sabbath.  They are calling him out for breaking the Sabbath and the Sabbath was his idea.  Work was his idea.  Rest was his idea.  Days were his idea.  Man was his idea.  Therefore this question amounted to the creature telling the Creator how to do things.  Jesus is saying, I have the authority to say what is right and wrong.

Application:

Make no mistake about it.  Jesus Christ claimed authority not just from God.  Jesus Christ claimed authority as God.  He created the world, and came in the flesh to bring glory to God by redeeming fallen mankind.  We miss out on what God is doing when we do not recognize His authority.  One of the ways that happens is through unscriptural religious tradition. 

Response:

Are there any traditions in your life that denies the authority of scripture and therefore the authority of Christ?