Lucas 6

Lucas 6

From Jensen's Survey of the NT by permission John MacArthur's Introduction to the Gospel of Luke Charles Swindoll's Introduction to Luke Luke Overview Chart by Charles Swindoll Click chart to enlarge LIFE OF CHRIST IN GOSPEL OF LUKE (See Shaded Areas) Chart from recommended resource Jensen's Survey of the NT - used by permission Ryrie Study Bible -Borrow Source: ESV Global Study Bible Luke 6:1 Now it happened that He was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath; and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain. (NASB95) NET Luke 6:1 Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples picked some heads of wheat, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. GNT Luke 6:1 Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν σαββάτῳ διαπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν διὰ σπορίμων, καὶ ἔτιλλον οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἤσθιον τοὺς στάχυας ψώχοντες ταῖς χερσίν. NLT Luke 6:1 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. KJV Luke 6:1 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. ESV Luke 6:1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. NIV Luke 6:1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. ASV Luke 6:1 Now it came to pass on a sabbath, that he was going through the grainfields; and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. CSB Luke 6:1 On a Sabbath, He passed through the grainfields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. NKJ Luke 6:1 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. NRS Luke 6:1 One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. YLT Luke 6:1 And it came to pass, on the second-first sabbath, as he is going through the corn fields, that his disciples were plucking the ears, and were eating, rubbing with the hands, the second Exodus 12:15; Leviticus 23:7,10,11,15; Deuteronomy 16:9 (See the Sabbath confrontations in Lk 13:10-19+; Lk 14:1-6+) that - Matthew 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28 Luke 5:1-6:16 The Gathering of Disciples - Darrell Bock Luke 6:1-5 Jesus: The Divine Truth Teller - John MacArthur Luke 5:33-6:5 Avoiding Gospel Killjoys - Steven Cole Luke 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Summary of first section - The Son of Man Asserts His Authority as Lord of the Sabbath Luke 6:1–5 Picking, Rubbing, and Eating Grain on the Sabbath Luke 6:6–11 Healing a Shriveled Hand on the Sabbath Parallel passages - Words in bold not found in Luke Matthew 12:1+ At that time (kairos = season, opportune time) Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. Mark 2:23+ And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. Dt 23:25+ "When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain. Fruiting Heads of Wheat MAKING A SCENE ON THE SABBATH! Observe Irving Jensen's Luke Overview chart above and notice that from Luke 4:14 through Luke 9:51+ Luke's focus is on (1) the Identification of Jesus as the Son of God and (2) the authentication of His identity by miracles performed during the time of ministry in Galilee over His first 18 months (approximate). In this next section in Luke 6:1-11 we see that one of the other objectives of His early ministry was to challenge the legalism of the Pharisees, a challenge which naturally resulted in opposition which would crescendo on the Cross where the Jews would crucify their Miracle Working Messiah! Recall the context of these next two sabbath confrontations - Jesus was about age 30 (Lk 3:23+), He had been baptized by John (Lk 3:21+), the Spirit had come upon Him like a dove (Lk 3:22+) and He had been tempted by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness (Lk 4:1-13+), and now Jesus "in the power of the Spirit" (Lk 4:14+) began His official presentation (as Messiah) to Israel in His hometown synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath by standing up and reading from the prophet Isaiah 61:1-2a+ (Lk 4:16-21+). SABBATH SCENE #1 - He was initially well received ("gracious words" - Lk 4:22+), but after speaking of the healing of a "Gentile dog," "Naaman the Syrian," (Lk 4:23-26, 27+) such opposition and rage arose that the hometown Jews cast Him out of the city and took Him to the brow of the hill (See picture, cf modern Mount Precipice) in order to throw Him off the cliff (Lk 4:28+). So from the very outset, this first Sabbath experience ended in Jewish opposition which was to be a harbinger of Sabbath scenes to come! TECHNICAL NOTE - It is interesting that Mark only records 5 SABBATH SCENES (Mk 1:21-28, Mk 2:23-28, Mk 3:1-6, Mk 6:2-5, Mk 16:1 "When the Sabbath was over" = the resurrection) and Matthew only 3 SABBATH SCENES (Mt 12:1-8, Mt 12:9-14, Mt 28:1 "after the Sabbath" = the resurrection). When one compares Luke's account, he records SEVEN SABBATH SCENES (including the resurrection). This inaugural Sabbath (sabbaton) scene was followed by His SABBATH SCENE #2 in which He taught in the synagogue in Capernaum, a city in Galilee, (Lk 4:31-36+) where He cast out a demon from one of the men attending the synagogue (so much for church being a place of holy people), with the result that "the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district." (Lk 4:37+). Luke's subsequent SABBATH SCENES #3-7 (you might consider reading them for context) are described by Luke in Lk 6:1-2+ (SABBATH SCENE #3 in the grain fields - disciples doing "work"), Lk 6:6-9+ (SABBATH SCENE #4 "another Sabbath" in the synagogue - healing a withered hand); Lk 13:10-16 (SABBATH SCENE #5 in the synagogue - healing a woman ill 18 years) and Lk 14:1-5+ (SABBATH SCENE #6 in the home of a leader of the Pharisees - healing man of dropsy). It is notable that Luke's final mention of the Sabbath, the final SABBATH SCENE #7, so to speak, was the description of Jesus' tomb (Lk 23:54-55+), in a sense symbolizing that as the God-Man, the Lord of the Sabbath had accomplished His work of providing the "rest" found in His redemption and was Himself "resting on the Sabbath," and so the women who had visited the tomb also "rested according to the commandment." (Lk 23:56+). So we see that Luke describes seven Sabbaths, seven scenes on the seventh day, the holy day to the Jews which Jesus had strategically selected to challenge their "addition of tradition." (to wit, many traditions!) He knew that the seventh day of the week was the weekly day of rest and worship for Jews and therefore His Sabbath confrontations did not occur by chance (see more on this below) for in so doing He was confronting one of the four major distinctives of Judaism - (1) Sabbath keeping, (2) Circumcision, (3) rules about eating clean and unclean foods and (4) worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. God's setting aside of the seventh day, the Sabbath, was originally thoroughly Biblical for God had instituted this special day in the Pentateuch, a day which among many other things, would serve to separate the behavior of the Jews and serve as a witness to the Gentiles that there was something "different" about the Jews, that difference being of course that they had been given access to the only true God in stark contrast to the Gentile worldview plagued by a plethora of pseudo-gods. Can you imagine what the Gentiles thought when they heard some of the absurd, inane, even humorous things the Jews did (see below; see also Messianic Jewish writer Alfred Erdersheim's description of the perversion of the Sabbath) to pervert (and in fact ultimately profane) the holy Sabbath! And so the Sabbath was a set aside to be a special day, Moses recording... Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves. (Exodus 23:12+) ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. (Deuteronomy 5:13-14+) The Jews had thoroughly perverted God's good day of rest especially abusing the phrase "you shall not do any work" and made it in essence into a "heavy burden" that was onerous! And even though they had made it a day of burden rather than blessing, the Jews still held the Sabbath in such high regard that their "sages" (so-called even though in truth they were not that Biblically wise!) had written the Sabbath would actually be observed in hell (b Sanh 65b). The sages had also written that if Israel kept two Sabbaths perfectly, the Messiah would come (b Shab 188b)! That is how sacred this day was to the Jews. As an aside I often hear Christians today saying things like "Have a wonderful Sabbath day," (and similar statements) in referring to worship on Sunday, which is in fact the first day of the week and NOT the seventh day, which was the only true Sabbath Day! While I understand what they mean, such greetings do confuse the importance of the first day of the week, the Lord's Day (Sunday) and the last day of the week, the Sabbath, for as Warren