Bible Study Notes: St Luke's Gospel
Session 17
Chapter 6:1-11
On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field
of ripe grain. His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing
them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them. Some Pharisees
said, "Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?"
But Jesus stood up for them. "Have you never read what David and
those with him did when they were hungry? How he entered the sanctuary
and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were
allowed to eat? He also handed it out to his companions."
Then he said, "The Son of Man is no slave to the Sabbath; he's in
charge."
On another Sabbath he went to the meeting place and taught. There was
a man there with a crippled right hand. The religion scholars and Pharisees
had their eye on Jesus to see if he would heal the man, hoping to catch
him in a Sabbath infraction. He knew what they were up to and spoke to
the man with the crippled hand: "Get up and stand here before us."
He did.
Then Jesus addressed them, "Let me ask you something: What kind of
action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people
or leaving them helpless?"
He looked around, looked each one in the eye. He said to the man, "Hold
out your hand." He held it out - it was as good as new! They were
beside themselves with anger, and started plotting how they might get
even with him.
© The
Message
After looking at Jesus in the synagogue let us turn our attention to Jesus’ attitude to the subject of Sabbath observance; a subject of dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees. Biblical teaching insisted on two ways to observe the Sabbath. First, people should rest and relax and renew themselves, hence there should be no manual labour on that day (Ex. 20:11). In this way the believers imitated God's rest on the seventh day, after working six days to make the world. Secondly, the Sabbath was a day to renew one's love relationship to God by prayer and worship. That is "keeping holy" the Sabbath (Dt. 5:12).
Religious laws forbade work on the Sabbath such as reaping, threshing, winnowing, and preparing food. Technically, the hungry disciples broke this rule by picking a few grains in a field. They reaped a piece of grain, threshed it by rubbing it in their hands, winnowed it by throwing away the husk and "prepared" food which they ate on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees grumbled to Jesus about the disciples' behaviour. Jesus replied with a story about David and his companions eating the forbidden temple bread (only priests were allowed to eat it) when he was hungry. Survival needs were superior to such rules. The Sabbath was made for human rest and renewal, as well as prayer and worship it was never meant to harm people or deprive them of essential human needs.
Luke's second Sabbath story made the same point. Jesus cured man's withered hand on the Sabbath. He did this in a synagogue, the one place where the strictest observance of the Sabbath should take place. The law said that doctors and healers must not work on the Sabbath except to save a life or to treat eye and throat ailments. By his healing act Jesus taught that the law was never meant to forbid acts of love, kindness, caring, or mercy on the Sabbath.
Enlightened rabbis held similar views, but obsessively strict 01 disagreed and they controlled most Sabbath custom in the majority cases. Jesus identified himself with the more sensible rabbis, but h went much further, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (verse 5). He would give the true meaning of Sabbath. It was meant to be people focus on their relationship with God and renew them physically and emotionally. His position naturally angered the guardians of the law and intensified their opposition to him.
Jesus Calls His Apostles Chapter 6:12-17
At about that same time he climbed a mountain to pray.
He was there all night in prayer before God. The next day he summoned
his disciples; from them he selected twelve he designated as apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter,
Andrew, his brother,
James,
John,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
Matthew,
Thomas,
James, son of Alphaeus,
Simon, called the Zealot,
Judas, son of James,
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
© The
Message
We have already read of the call of Peter, James, John, and Matthew. Luke describes here Christ's call of all the apostles. The first calling story was in the context of a fish miracle and the mystery of faith required from those called. Prayer frames this second calling story. Jesus went to a mountain retreat where he spent the whole night in prayer and meditation.
The selection of his apostles was one of the most important decisions of his ministry. It demanded careful thought and divine' wisdom, for these apostles would become the pillars of Christianity. The fact that Jesus devoted so much time to prayer prior to his decision tells us how seriously he treated the choices and how closely the divine will was involved in it.
He did not pick perfect candidates, but people with a mixture talents and flaws, gifts and frailties. They were pilgrims, not saints! They represented a range of human foolishness: vanity, ambition, jealousy, cowardice, doubt, bravado, betrayal, and overreaching. Still, in the end, they proved to be made of the stuff of saints. The Holy Spirit led them to be loving, truthful, brave, loyal, assured, humble, and saintly. Most of them witnessed Christ even to the point of martyrdom. Only one of them failed Christ's expectations.
© Fr Michael Fuller: March 2009