Lord of the Sabbath

Meditations in the Season of Epiphany 

February 4, 2022

Lord of the Sabbath

And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath.”

Luke 6:5

Read: Luke 6:1-11

Today’s reading includes two Sabbath day experiences of Jesus; he had no problem preparing a meal on the Sabbath, and on the Sabbath, he made whole a man’s deformed hand.

Jesus got into a lot of trouble on Sabbath days: “At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him.” (v.11)

In the first instance, the Pharisees were really reaching to accuse Jesus’ disciples of harvesting grain when all they did was break off heads of grain and eat the grain. In the second instance, technically Jesus did nothing to violate the Sabbath law. He simply asked the man to extend his hand. God took it from there. But this was yet another sign, another epiphany, that Jesus was different. This was another sign that Jesus was ushering in a new way of living. God’s Kingdom was bursting into the world and the establishment was not happy about change.

In both instances, Jesus used scripture to correct the Pharisees. He reminded them of David’s taking of sanctuary food and that the law permits doing good deeds on the Sabbath. The essence of these reminders is that God created the Sabbath for humankind, not the other way around.

My Takeaway: If we truly recognize Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath, our Sunday worship would follow his lead: “I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” (5:32) And if we follow the lead of the Lord of the Sabbath, our Sunday worship will grip us with wonder and awe.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.