Sermon Title: The Lord of the Sabbath
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 1:11-17; Isaiah 58:6-14
Introduction
The reason the Gospel writers place such emphasis on
Jesus’ conflict with the “religious elite” is because the controversy
documented throughout the Gospels transcends time and culture. Jesus’ conflict
with Judaism was not about Judaism, but about the underlying principle that
exists in every religion outside Christianity: works-based righteousness.
Do not separate yourself too far from the Pharisee’s
paradigm of thinking. If you begin hearing this message and think to yourself,
“Here goes another message denouncing ‘religion,’” you will make a big mistake.
You are not above what you are about to hear. The problem is that it is so
deeply ingrained in you that you don’t see it.
Although there are a million variations of how this
looks, most people in the world believe that if there is a God, you relate to
Him by being good.
Religion: If I perform, if I obey, I am accepted.
Gospel: I am fully accepted in Jesus Christ, and
therefore I obey.
Before you tune me out, how can you know if this message
is for you?
Before I answer the question, let me preface it with this
promise: I am not picking on any one of you. I am not using the pulpit as a
platform to insensitively call you out. I am preaching the Text.
Look at what is happening here:
“After three days they found him in the temple, sitting
among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who
heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46-47).
“And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by
all” (Luke 4:15).
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he
stood up to read (Luke 4:16)…And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to
the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on
him (Luke 4:20)…And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words
that were coming from his mouth” (Luke 4:22a).
They all were amazed at Him… They all glorified Him… They
all spoke well of Him…until He failed to deliver on their expectations of how
He should behave, rule, and redeem.
How does your heart respond when Jesus shatters your
desires and expectations?
Look at the progression:
- The Pharisees and scribes began to question Him in their thoughts (Luke 5:21-22).
- The Pharisees and scribes began to grumble or complain verbally (Luke 5:30).
- The Pharisees and scribes were filled with fury against Jesus (Luke 6:11). If they could find a way to get to Jesus, they would destroy Him.
- Well, thanks be to God, they did get to Him and they did destroy Him – (We know he laid down His life voluntarily [John 10:18]) (Luke 22-23).
God is gracious to allow earthly pain and suffering that
comes through unexpected shattered expectations. Why?
Because while you were amazed by Him, glorifying Him, and
speaking well of Him, you were doing so with a certain expectation of what He
would do in response. You expected that your good works would earn you ease and
the fulfillment of your expectations. You expected that your obedience would
earn you a party on earth (Luke 15:28-31).
Your response to unmet expectations often reveals the
“why” of your heart.
Here the drama increases as Jesus is accused twice of
violating the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was originally given by God in the Mosaic Law
to be a day of rest, worship, and renewal (Exodus 20:8-11). But by the first
century, it had accumulated an enormous number of extrabiblical restrictions
and regulations, that rather than restful, the Sabbath became the most
burdensome day of the week.[2]
The Talmud (Hebrew: instruction and learning) is a
central text of Judaism, considered second to the Torah. The Talmud is over
6,200 pages long and contains the opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety
of subjects. The Talmud devotes twenty-four chapters to Sabbath regulations,
describing in detail what is permissible on the Sabbath.
The disciples were not violating the Sabbath. Jesus’
accusers counted plucking the “heads of grain” as reaping, which was (true
reaping) prohibited on the Sabbath (Deuteronomy 23:25; Exodus 34:21).[1]
The incident Jesus referred to is recorded in 1 Samuel
21:1-6. As David was running for his life from Saul he came to a place called
Nob and was hungry. David and his men entered the tabernacle and asked
Ahimelech the priest for five loaves of bread.
The tabernacle, of course, was not a bakery, and the only
bread available there was the consecrated bread (Exodus 25:30), which was
designated only for the priests (Leviticus 24:9). Jesus’ point was that mercy,
compassion, and human need were more important than rigid adherence to even
biblical ritual and ceremony.[2]
The word Sabbath means a deep rest, a deep peace. When
Jesus says, “I am the Lord of the Sabbath,” Jesus means that he is the Sabbath.
He is the source of the deep rest we need. Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus is not
concerned with the “surface” purpose for rest – taking time off. Jesus is
concerned with the deeper level of rest, the kind we read about at the end of
Genesis 1 where God is said to have rested from His work. What does that mean?
Does God get tired? The rest described in Genesis 1 is to sit in satisfaction
and joy because of a finished work. Because of the finished work of Christ, we
should sit in deep peace, joy, and satisfaction.
Look with me at Matthew’s account of this exact story.
What precedes the controversy over keeping the Sabbath? Immediately before this
account we read, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Again, Jesus’ point was that mercy, compassion, and human
need were more important than rigid adherence to even biblical ritual and
ceremony.2 Hence, the Scripture reading this morning. The only reason you are
alive today and the world as we know it exists is because there is someone
alive who was redeemed by the blood of Christ who has not yet repented. We
exist to glorify God by taking part in God’s plan of redemption.
Is your life centered more around “sacrifice” and
religious practice or the mercy and compassion of evangelism? In Matthew’s
account of this event we read Jesus’ added rebuke, “And if you had known what
this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned
the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:7-8).
Jesus’ message was this: He did not disagree with the
necessity of the hard work of worship, obedience, and adherence to the Law.
Jesus is not communicating that the Sabbath doesn’t matter. “Do not think that
I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
He was saying, “I am the Lord of the Sabbath,”
Jesus is a saying there is a work underneath your work
that you need rescue from.[3] The thing that makes you truly weary is when you
try to “rest” to prove yourself, because you will never be good enough.
The reason why we do what we do is often revealed when
God fails to do what we desire Him to do.
We often know little or nothing of why God allows our
expectations to be shattered. But the Cross tells us one thing we can know: It
is not because He doesn’t love us.
Mark also adds another interesting element to this story.
Tim Keller makes excellent application to the details significance in his book
The King’s Cross[3]:
The Herodians were the supporters of Herod, the nastiest of the corrupt kings who ruled Israel, representing the Roman occupying power and its political system. In any country that the Romans conquered, they set up rulers. And wherever the Romans went, they brought along the culture of Greece. The Herodians were cosmopolitan, immoral, and pagan. The Pharisees long list of rules was driven by a desire to prevent contamination by the pagans.
The Herodians were moving with the times, while the Pharisees upheld traditional values. The Pharisees believed their society was being overwhelmed with pluralism and paganism, and they were calling for a return to traditional moral values. These two groups had been longtime enemies of each other – but now they agree: They have to get rid of Jesus.
That is why this sentence hints at one of the main themes of the New Testament. The gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to both religion and irreligion. It cannot be co-opted by either moralism or relativism.
The moralist says, “The good people are in and the bad people are out – and of course we’re the good ones.” The self-discovery person says, “Oh, no, the progressive, open-minded people are in and the judgmental bigots are out – and of course we’re the open-minded ones.”
Both moralism and relativism lead to self-righteousness. In Western cosmopolitan culture there’s an enormous amount of self-righteousness about self-righteousness. We progressive urbanites are so much better than people who think they’re better than other people. We disdain those religious, moralistic types who look down on others.
The gospel does not say, “the good are in and the bad are out,” nor the open-minded are in and the judgmental are out.” The gospel says the humble are in and the proud are out. The gospel says the people who know they’re not better, not more open-minded, not more moral than anyone else, are in, and the people who think they’re on the right side of the divide are most in danger.
Because of what you have learned, what should you do?
Humbly expect that the Lord will spare no expense to
rescue your heart from blindness. When it happens, fight strategically.
And when He does, read and apply the following:
- Hebrews 4-5
- Job
- Hebrews 12:1-17
- Lamentations 3
- Psalm 73
- “The Bruised Reed” by Richard Sibbes
- “The Acceptable Sacrifice” by John Bunyan
- “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment” by Jeremiah Burroughs
“My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary
of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in
whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11-12).
Sources
- Sproul, R.C. The Reformation Study Bible. Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005.
- MacArthur, John. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 6-10. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2011.
- Keller, Timothy. The King’s Cross. New York, New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2011.
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