SUNDAY DESIGN: THE RESTING GOSPEL
Luke 6:1-11: LIFEWAY WINTER QUARTERLY 2020/21 SESSION 11
Lately, I have found myself really enjoying racing movies and video games based off of actual car and truck races. My “top three” movies are: Ford vs. Ferrari with Matt Damon and Christian Bale, Le Mans with Steve McQueen, and Grand Prix with James Garner. One thing these movies highlight is the world of endurance racing. In The Le Mans cars compete in two major classes: high performance, and GT (Grand Touring). High performance cars are specifically designed for racing at high speed, high horse power, and lightning maneuverability and you can’t buy them at your local dealership! GT’s, while modified are much closer to what you can buy at your local dealer and often have the same engines and design as manufacturers’ models that are sold on the lot. Endurance racing is designed to put these vehicles, their mechanics, teams and drivers through the ultimate test with 24 hour racing in day and night with all kinds of weather conditions, on professional designed track all the way to local “rough roads” with turns and S-curves while using only one vehicle per team and a limited number of drivers. In Le Mans there is no “Finish Line” you are not trying to outrun other vehicles but outlast them- the different pitched engine roars of Fords, Chevrolets, Ferraris, and Porsches propels the winner not through whoever can drive fastest but whoever can drive the longest distance on the circuit in exactly 24 hours- not just whose fast, and skilled but who and what is best designed to endure towards victory!
Christ Followers are much the same way! We have been created, (designed) and prepared in Christ Jesus for the enduring of His good works (Eph 2:10) for, in, and thru us to others. Like the thunderous sound of a Ferrari, or an Air Force Jet Engine denotes it enduring power and brings a BIG grin to the “gum-chewing sunglassed” driver and pilot’s faces so a “knowing” smile comes to the face of God when He thinks of what He has designed and equipped you and I for! Enduring for the Kingdom, for His victory! Yet, we still need a “track” we need the guidance and submission to God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, and we are not designed on this earth to run 24/7 we need the “rest of Sabbath” if we are to endure and God has specifically given us His “Sunday Design” the “resting gospel” of a new Sabbath in Christ Jesus!
So, what happens when this Sabbath is perverted? When it is manipulated not to the “rest” for our endurance, but the “senseless rule keeping” as an added burden? This is what our lesson in Luke 6 will reveal. I am approaching this lesson through the “Design of Sabbath” in its 3 major components: God’s design of rest, God’s design of Sabbath for the needs of people, and God’s design of the Church for Sabbath. Again, we will examine these components through our interpretive framework of Luke’s Gospel: Jesus and the Gospel as a gift given from heaven, Jesus and the Gospel as a gift received, and Jesus and the Gospel as a gift proclaimed… We will find in our story today that we are not designed for Sabbath but Sabbath was designed for us that we might accomplish Luke’s pronouncement and testimony of Messiah Jesus and the greatness of God. Let’s take a look!
Last week we looked at how the Pharisees’ and Teachers of the Law were predisposed to their critical and legalistic views towards Jesus and his teachings, and how their selfish pride in their own authority blinded them to Jesus’ salvation message/mission and made them harsh, and vindictive towards Jesus and His Disciples. Not much has changed when we get to Chapter 6! The irony of the Pharisees’ legalism is that all their rule keeping has not helped them to maintain righteousness but made them fault finding with others while being blind to the Truth of their own deceived hearts- and their treatment of their neighbor, in other words, hypocrisy. Verse 1 and 2 show the Disciples casually gathering and eating grain as they walk either to or from Synagogue on the Sabbath (it’s not much different than if you and I picked some blackberries off a nearby bush as we walked into church from the parking lot {our church in California had blackberry bushes along the parking lot- I made a many a cobbler for fellowships from those bushes!}) The Pharisees were basically saying- “it’s not legal what you are doing.” But Jesus is not interested in “legality” He has come to “fulfill” the Law and its intent of righteousness, holiness, and welfare. Jesus’ story about David reveals that the Pharisees have missed the intent of Sabbath.
Sabbath is a gift from heaven- after Creation, God “rested” (the Hebrew Word Shabbat- which means ceased or stopped) on the Seventh day. He did not stop because He was tired or needed to, but because He was finished and He “surveyed” reflected on all He had created like a painter or architect reflects upon their design (Genesis 1:2-3; Eph 2:8-10) upon their masterpiece. You see, God doesn’t just “create” haphazardly, He designs- there is purpose, there is divine reason and providence to everything He does and good intelligent design points to its maker and deserves praise and reflection. God’s creation (our creation, our neighbor’s creation, this world’s creation) deserves reflection and always points to the praise of its Maker. In our rest we praise and reflect upon God in worship and point to His sustenance and His design- the light of His love revealed in what He has made! Sabbath is a gift of rest and ceasing and an invitation to trusting in God’s provision over and above the often futile attempts of our own hands to provide completely for ourselves. He commands this in order that we might worship and reflect upon Him and His creative, enduring and sustaining greatness that is at work on our behalf. Do we “work” on the Sabbath? OF COURSE WE DO! Worship and praise, preaching, fellowship, proclaiming the Gospel, singing, and reflection itself is a form of work… Sabbath doesn’t mean we stop cease from everything, it means we stop those lesser things, so that we might continue, rest and praise Him in the greater things of His glory and rejuvenating, redeeming hand over our lives. We cease that which doesn’t matter as much so we may extenuate that which does! Exodus 20:8-11 (the 4th Commandment) was a radical departure from the “work-a-day” ancient world and the world today. It proclaimed that God in Heaven gifted us with rest, we gratefully receive that rest, and in resting we proclaim His all sufficient power and care for and over us!
The Pharisees perverted God’s praise on the Sabbath through forcing people to decipher a whole bunch of legal traditions and rule keeping that actually put more stress and burdens on people for that one day a week than Jesus the Law Giver ever intended! People weren’t resting they were stressing because of the Pharisees’ traditions. They weren’t “reflecting” on God and the “coming Messiah” but “reflexing” to the harsh legalistic threats of the Teachers of the Law. Which makes me wonder how often in our own “Quiet Time,” “devotional time,” “Prayer Time” and day of rest with God- how often are we “reflexive” and keeping Sabbath merely as a rule instead of a delight; A “have-to” instead of a blessed necessity for our rejuvenation, peace, well-being and joy? It makes me think of that old hymn by Cleland McAfee: Near to the Heart of God… “There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God, A place where sin cannot molest, Near to the Heart of God. O Jesus blest REDEEMER sent from the Heart of God, Hold those who wait before thee Near to the heart of God.” It’s near impossible to be “near to the heart of God” when we are running around crazy, or just as impossible when we are senseless and mindless in our actions- mere motions do not lead to worship but intentional, reflective ceasing to concentrate on what really matters does… Which brings us to Jesus’ second component of design: Sabbath is designed for the needs of God’s people.
Why were the Disciples “defying” the Pharisee’s traditions? Their needs demanded it. Why did David and companions eat the shew bread? The conditions demanded it. When Jesus gives his treatise- Sermon on the Mount on His fulfillment of the Law in Matthew 5-7 part of that fulfillment is to display the Father’s good pleasure to care for His Creation- to care for us and meet our needs just like any good, good father would do for His children. When I was small (and even when I got big) my parents were there to help meet my needs. I didn’t have to be afraid of what I would eat, or wear, I didn’t have to “worry” even if I had felt needs because I knew they were near. Catching up with them every day reminded me of this. Sabbath reminds us that God cares for us, and meets our needs much more so than we can meet them ourselves.
The greatest heresy of the Pharisees’ traditions is that they took the focus off of God and put them on the regulation and whether it was being “kept” or not. Jesus would have none of it as LORD of the Sabbath (verse 5). Traditions and rituals in and of themselves are not bad; they can be helpful ‘habits’ that can point us towards God except when they do not! When traditions separate us from love and care for our neighbor or hinder us from clearly seeing God and worshiping Him then we are not “following the Commandments” but our own predispositions and presuppositions about those Commandments. Jesus designed the Sabbath for our healing and rest for people to focus on Him not for them to focus on the keeping of the rule or to sit in judgment on others. In the last 6 verses Luke uses Jesus’ healing of a man on the Sabbath to again proclaim Christ’s LORDSHIP, His redemptive mission of healing, and expose the hardened and corrupted hearts of the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.
In verse 6 the Pharisees are looking to trap Jesus and find an excuse to charge Him with wrongdoing so He brings the man with the withered hand to stand beside Him as He teaches and asks the Pharisees a question that will expose their hearts: “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” If the Pharisees answered “do good” then they would have no charge against Jesus’ healing that was contrary to their traditions. They dare not answer any other way and reveal their darkened hearts to the congregation so they remained silent. It should not be lost on us that Jesus healed a “withered hand” the very source of the man’s livelihood and sufficiency which he had lost but Jesus restored on a day of rest! Jesus truly has come to save not by our efforts but His! Which brings us to our final component of Jesus’ design of the Sabbath; how should we as a church observe the Sabbath?
The Early church moved Sabbath observance from Saturday (the last day of the week) to Sunday the First day of the week in honor of Jesus’ resurrection and the new life He brings us. As God’s people we have received the gift of rest in Christ Jesus and the question we have as His church is how do we proclaim His greatness, glory, and salvation by what we do and do not do on our Sabbath? Our goal and the design of Sabbath for the Church is not being caught up in our “busyness” and numerous programs (I hope that COVID-19 has taught us how to rest in the LORD and His provision instead of our own efforts) but in declaring and proclaiming God’s greatness by trusting Him with our day while still balancing and recognizing the needs of others and the goodness and salvation Jesus brings to them often through us by having like-minded concern and compassion for them. This requires discernment, listening and following the Spirit and understanding that the Spirit’s mission is to be our mission in proclaiming the goodness, greatness and salvation of our God in Christ Jesus our LORD as proclaimed through the design of Sabbath! My prayer for us today and in the days ahead is that in our rest we would reflect on Him and not reflex to the troubles of this World. Jesus has come, He meets our needs, salvation and healing He offers us every day! We don’t have to worry and we don’t have to be afraid! All the best!
Love in Christ, Darrin.