Lesson 951

(Lesson 951)(04-20-14) Luke 6:1-11

"And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? 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; 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? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."

Today's is another lesson that demonstrates how the rules contained in the Law of Moses were sometimes wrongly interpreted so as to give the appearance that the Law, in certain circumstances, collides with what is the right thing to do when basic and moral common sense is applied.

That same misjudgment is still applied by many today. As was demonstrated in yesterday's lesson, it makes no sense to restrict oneself to some chaste and safe surroundings while at the same time trying to bring the lost to Christ who, by the way, are seldom if ever going to show up in that place.

The letter of the Law demanded that the Jews were to avoid contact with the "sinners" or anyone else who was considered, under the Law, to be "unclean".

How on earth could they, or we, bring God's word to the lost if we never go around them? That makes absolutely no sense at all, just as going hungry in a field of food makes no sense at all.

The point Jesus was making, in today's quote, by justifying His Apostles for picking and eating corn from the field on the Sabbath, was that if they were hungry and there was no other available food, as was also the case with king David and those with him, it was sensibly within the Law to take from whatever food was available to eat.

Using the rationale of the scribes and Pharisees, one could have broken the Sabbath by simply picking up a piece of bread and putting in one's mouth.

The latter part of today's lesson relates how Jesus further made His point when the priests in the temple challenged Him for healing the man's crippled hand on the Sabbath. Jesus said, "Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?"
Jesus thereby demonstrated that no rule applies when doing something good is ultimately accomplished by a certain act.

Christianity today should carefully consider and balance the importance of the rules and customs that are placed upon us by today's "Churches" and for that matter "Christianity" as a whole.

In my opinion, we should sometimes step out of our protected circle, leave our comfortable pews and take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the places where lost souls actually hang out. We should remember the phrase was "go ye", not 'come ye'.

I fear that today's "Christians" will share the fate of the Laodicean Church mentioned in Revelation 3:15-16, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."~