Healing on the Sabbath—Luke 6:1-16

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath.” On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward. Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him. One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names: Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).

In this week’s reading Jesus starts close in, feeding the hungry that are right in front of him, and then healing a man with an obvious need. And when this gets him in trouble (because of the day on which both events occurred), Jesus is forced to widen his lens to tackle the large and weighty topic of Sabbath. And within his various responses we find references to David’s actions, we see Jesus claiming Lordship over the Sabbath, and we hear him asking the Pharisees what purpose this holy day is supposed to serve. Is it a day for good, or a day for evil? A day to save? Or a day to destroy? And since he leaves us to consider more broadly what God is up to in the Sabbath, and perhaps that’s where we should start with our congregations. 

It would be good to explain the depth in this practice that was given as a rejection of the slavery God’s people once endured. It would be good to explain how this practice touches not just the community of faith but also the strangers and foreigners living among them, as well as the servants and even the animals in their land. And it might be helpful to tease out some of the connections to wider practices like the year of Jubilee or the rest given to the land itself that ensures crops continue growing into the future. 

But perhaps on the back end of this larger discussion it would be fitting to return to where we started this text. Close in. Because that is where Jesus also returns as our last lines have him seeking the Father in prayer before choosing the 12 apostles who he will teach and train in the upside down ways of his Kingdom.  

This portion of the lectionary Jesus begins and ends with the people right in front of him, with the few rather than the many. And I wonder if that was a purposeful decision meant to remind us that even while discussing the formation of society as a whole, Jesus chooses to be faithful in the small things, trusting that the Father’s plans will be fulfilled for the world at large so long as he is faithful with the next step he takes.

And I think that could be good news for the people in our congregations who are struggling with the reality of broken things beyond their control. Because this text is a reminder that God cares about that grander scale— that’s what the Sabbath is for, and it’s why Jesus willingly moves toward the cross. But it also seems to be an invitation to start close in, and to let that be enough.

Because following Jesus often means healing where we can, and feeding who we can, and choosing wisely where we invest our time, knowing that it’s still good to do for a few what you wish you could do for all. As it’s written in Pirkei Avot “It is not up to you to finish the task, but you are not free to avoid it.”

And in all of this I’m reminded of the David Whyte poem, Start Close In, which you can find here: https://davidwhyte.substack.com/p/start-close-in-ec8. Because it seems to me that the Spirit is whispering something similar to all of us through the text we’re given this week (and I wonder if that isn’t exactly what our congregations need to hear).

Blessings as you preach this week,

Alex

P.S. I’ve been having some issues with availability for the paperback version of my recent book (which I’m hoping to have sorted out soon). But for anyone that was waiting to get the book until there was an e-reader option, the Kindle version of Abandon the Orderly House is available now!