Amy C Walters

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath | Luke 6:1-11

When the Pharisees complain that Jesus’ disciples are breaking Sabbath rules, Jesus comes to their defense with a strange story of King David from 1 Samuel, demonstrating that the Sabbath is not about a set of rules, but about a person.

Luke turns our attention now to a topic that’s a major point of contention between Jesus and the Pharisees: the Sabbath. Sabbath was the Jewish practice of a weekly day of rest. God commanded it and repeated it several times throughout the Old Testament. 

Even though the Sabbath command is often repeated, there are very few specific regulations around it. The Israelites are given reasons for Sabbath rest, both grounded in God’s creation (Ex. 20:11) and in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt (Deut. 5:15). But the actual details of what they can and cannot do on the Sabbath are very general. 

So many Pharisees, in their efforts to not break the Sabbath laws, created their own rules. This is where the disagreement lies. 

Luke’s writing now leaves a sequential timeline and instead goes to the topic of the Sabbath. The passage starts with “One day.” So we don’t know exactly when this takes place, but the emphasis is on the Sabbath.

Jesus is going through the grain fields and his disciples begin to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat the kernels. In the rules that the Pharisees had created to protect everyone from breaking the Sabbath, harvesting and threshing were not allowed. The disciples broke those rules by picking the heads of grain and rubbing them in their hands. 

So the Pharisees asked the disciples, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 

Once again, the Pharisees pick on the disciples but Jesus comes to their defense and responds to them with a story about King David.  

Before we get into that story, let’s first notice a few things that Jesus doesn’t say. First of all, he doesn’t say, “Actually the Sabbath doesn’t apply anymore. Now that I’m here, you don’t have to do Sabbath.” 

He doesn’t throw the disciples under the bus and say, “Well, they were the ones picking the grain, not me. I wasn’t breaking the law.” 

Jesus also doesn’t say, “Actually those are just your rules about the Sabbath. Those aren’t from the Bible.” 

Instead, Jesus tells a story from the Old Testament. In fact, he starts with, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?” It’s a jab at the Pharisees who were supposed to be experts in religion and Scripture. Of course they had read it, but they had missed the point. 

Notice too that Jesus goes to the written word of God. “Have you not read?” And he references a Bible story. It’s like Jesus is saying, “Let’s get away from human traditions here and let’s look at what God’s Word says about it.” 

The story Jesus tells comes from 1 Samuel 21. It’s a strange story of David running away from Saul who was trying to kill him. Some of David’s men are with him and as they flee, they run out of food. 

So they come to Nob, which is where the tabernacle was at that time. (The tabernacle was a Jewish place of worship.) They ask the priest there for some bread, but he doesn’t have any.

The only bread that’s there is the holy bread. It’s also called the Bread of the Presence or Show Bread or Consecrated Bread. This bread was used in worship. Every Sabbath, 12 loaves of fresh bread were placed in the tabernacle. And the bread from the previous week was removed. That old bread was then available to the priests to eat, but only priests. 

As Jesus retells the story, he says that “David went into the house of God and took the consecrated bread, which is only lawful for the priest to eat.” So he draws attention to David’s rule breaking. 

You’ll also notice, if you read the story from 1 Samuel, that David lies to the priest about why he was there. He says he’s on a secret mission for the king, instead of the truth that he’s fleeing from the king. 

So David comes across as a bit of a rule breaker in this story. He takes the bread from the priest and gives it to his men and they eat. 

So what is the point of this story? Why does Jesus tell it? 

For one thing, David is eating bread that is unlawful, but the Bible story does not say anything in condemnation of David for it. There’s no mention of him being right or wrong in this. 

I believe what Jesus is saying here is that the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus is preaching about cannot be reduced to a set of rules, a checklist of right and wrong. That’s what the Pharisees were attempting to do and in doing so, they were making themselves lords of the Sabbath. 

But Jesus moves on from that story and says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” In essence, “You Pharisees are not the ones that set the rules for this. You are not the authority over it.” 

“The Son of Man” was a term that Jesus often used to refer to himself. And by saying that he is Lord of the Sabbath, he is saying that he is the authority of it, the creator of it. He alone gets to determine right and wrong for the Sabbath. 

Not only that, if you are Lord of something, then that thing serves you. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath serves him, not the Pharisees and their purposes. 

The Sabbath was not meant to be an end in itself. Yes, Sabbath is an important pattern of rest for our lives, but ultimately, it points to something even greater than just one day a week. It points to the rest that we have in Jesus, the rest from the work of earning our salvation. That is in Jesus itself. 

Jesus himself is our Sabbath rest. He is the sovereign and the source. 

Consider, too, how in the previous story, when the Pharisees were mad at the disciples for not fasting like other disciples did, Jesus’ did not answer with, “You’re interpreting that wrong, you’ve created the wrong rules around fasting.” 

Instead, Jesus tells the Pharisees who he is. “I’m the bridegroom, and these are my friends, and it would be wrong for them to fast while the bridegroom is here.” When there’s a wedding, you celebrate and spend as much time as you can with that bridegroom. 

In this story, Jesus says, “I’m the Lord of the Sabbath,” so the best way to celebrate the true Sabbath is with him, in his presence, resting in him. It would be inappropriate and counterproductive to try to celebrate Sabbath any other way. 

Our key truth for today is that Jesus is our rest. The Pharisees, in trying to create their own rules to figure out what they can and cannot do on that day, miss out on the rest that Jesus offers.

Our relationship with God, our Christianity, cannot be boiled down to a set of rules. It is about our rest in Jesus. If you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus, if you have not rested from your efforts to be good enough and to keep all of the rules, today is the day.

Today is your Sabbath day of trusting in Jesus alone for your salvation and resting from the work that you do to try to earn God’s favor. Rest in Jesus. 

I also believe that this pattern of a day of rest out in our week is still important and valid. Remember, Jesus doesn’t say that Sabbath is done away with. He says there’s actually a greater fulfillment in himself. But that pattern that God established for us, I believe, is still important.

I know at different phases of life it can be extra challenging to practice, like when you have little kids to care for or in super busy seasons of life and work. But I want to challenge you to try to set aside some time each week to rest in Jesus. 

I recently came under conviction that I needed to do this, and so I have started to intentionally set aside time once a week, a full 24 hours to rest. I’m still figuring out exactly what that looks like. I’m trying to enjoy the good gifts that God has given me. But sometimes I neglect focused time with Jesus. And that’s what this story reminded me of today, the need to do that.

Today as you go, first of all, if you have not trusted Jesus as your Sabbath rest, do that today. And if you have, I challenge you then to set aside time this week to celebrate that Sabbath rest in the best way possible with Jesus himself. Spend time resting in and enjoying Jesus, because he is our rest.