WEEKLY SUNDAY
SCHOOL LESSON
An international
Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday January 5, 2014
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HONORING THE
SABBATH
(Keeping the
LORD in our Sabbath)
(Luke 6:1-11)
Human need must always take
precedence over ritual law, and even the Pharisees, who vehemently opposed
JESUS, had always taught that people should adhere to that principal.
Strangely, however, when JESUS applied this same principal in their presence,
over and over again, they acted as if HE were violating GOD’s Will by attending
to the needs of the people.
One Sabbath day when
JESUS and HIS disciples were walking through some wheat fields, HIS disciples
begin to pick off some of the heads of
the wheat, rub off the husk with their hands and eat them. A group of Pharisees
who were spying on the group, begin to rebuke them for their actions. “It is
against the law to do such things on the Sabbath” they cried.
Here in this passage
the disciples were being scrutinized and rebuked by Israel’s religious
hierarchy for several actions that they deemed to be contrary to the Word of
GOD, and as forbidden work on the Sabbath. Here they actually cite these four,
rather ridiculous, violations;
·
Reaping
(by picking the wheat),
·
Threshing
(by rubbing the husk from the wheat in their hands),
·
Winnowing
(by tossing the husk in the air to let it blow away), and, believe it or not,
·
Preparing
their food on the Sabbath (the very fact that they then ate the wheat).
In verses 3-5 JESUS
reminds these teachers of religious law of what King David did when he and his
companions were hungry (1 Samuel 21:1-6), and they went into the House of GOD
and ate the special “showbread” (the Bread of Presence) that was reserved for
the priests only. He took these twelve loaves of special bread that was placed weekly
(on the Sabbath) on a table made of solid gold, three feet long, eighteen
inches wide, and nine inches high, and he ate it, and gave some to his men. In that
particular incident, David’s human need took precedence over their religious rules
and regulations, JESUS cites. Then JESUS exclaimed, “I, the SON OF MAN, am
master even of the Sabbath”.
I’ve often said that it
is extremely important that man approach the Scriptures with an open mind, and
time and time again, it was clearly demonstrated by the Pharisses that, they
did not come to GOD with an open mind. Despite all of their deep studies,
somehow, they regularly seemed to miss the moral and spiritual message in GOD’s
Word. It is something that has become the absolute downfall of leadership in
the professed Christian Churches, even here in the twenty-first century. So often,
man has come to Scriptures, not to learn of GOD’s Word, but rather, to find
their own theology, within GOD’s Word. Man has long sought a god that is made
in his own image, instead of desiring to serve and worship the GOD WHO made us
in HIS. When we come to GOD’s Word with no sense of need, we always miss the
most profound importance of its meaning. Here in this passage of Scripture,
once again, we see these leaders of religion in Israel, doing just that.
In verses 6-11, on yet
another Sabbath day, even as JESUS was teaching in the synagogue, we see a man
with a deformed hand catch the attention of JESUS. The teachers of religious
law closely watched JESUS to see what HE would do, because they were eager to
find some legal charge to bring against HIM. JESUS, knowing their thoughts,
said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand here where everyone can
see you”. After the man came up, JESUS said to HIS critics, “I have a question
for you. Is it legal to do good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing
harm? Is this a day to save a life, or to destroy it?
JESUS intently looked
around at each of them, one by one, and then said to the man with the deformed
hand, “Reach out your hand”. The man reached out his hand and it became normal
again. The religious leaders became very angry, and they began to discuss among
each other what they should do about JESUS.
Here in Luke 6:1-11,
conflict with the religious hierarchy in Israel over Sabbath-keeping heats to a
boil. Their emphasis on ceremonial observances has clearly distorted what GOD’s
intent was on giving man a Sabbath day of rest. They, perhaps unwittingly, had
set aside the more important issue of caring for the needs of others.
JESUS clearly
understood that the man in question was not in a life-or-death situation,
however, what JESUS is demonstrating and expressing here is that, anything that
impairs the quality of human life, as GOD intended it to be, does, over time,
destroy life. When we fail to set right, those things that impair the quality
of life, we, in effect, show disrespect to GOD’s greatest gift, which is life. And
JESUS says that, when HE returns, HE is going to judge us according to how we
reacted to “human need”, in our lifetime (Matthew 25:31-46).
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official
Website
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