Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath

The Pharisees were not happy with Jesus and His disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath. Here is the Lord of the Sabbath day, the one who made all things, now in His incarnation, is being challenged by these Pharisees for His behavior on the Sabbath day, and He's saying to Him, what? You're telling me what I can do on the Sabbath day?

Who do you think made the Sabbath day? Well, that was a showdown with the Pharisees on one side and Jesus on the other. Unfortunately, it was a typical exchange, one that happened over and over during Jesus' earthly ministry. The Pharisees not understanding the truth of God's law, even though Jesus explained it to them.

Today on Renewing Your Mind, we continue Dr. R.C. Sproul's verse-by-verse sermon series from the Gospel of Luke. Once again, Luke tells us of a conflict that arises between Jesus and the Pharisees, and this time again it occurs on a Sabbath day. We read the somewhat innocuous report that Jesus was walking through one of the grain fields with His disciples, and they plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. Now what kind of grain this was is a question. Many believe that these were ears of corn, and that the disciples plucked a few ears of corn from this corn field, and to get the kernels loose from the ear, they rubbed the corn cobs in their hands to free the kernels so that they could eat them. They didn't have the opportunity to cook them and smear them with butter and salt the way we do in our culture. But in any case, while the disciples were busy picking corn, the Pharisees were busy picking nits, which was their custom. And they began to nitpick this action that Jesus and His disciples were involved in. Now keep this in mind that according to the Deuteronomic law of the Old Testament, it was indeed permissible for passers-by to go into a corn field or a grain field and help themselves to the basic necessities that were available there. Of course, sojourners were not allowed to come in and harvest the whole crop and steal it from the farmer, but this was part of the broader principles of gleaning and the like that were set forth in the Old Testament. So by no means was Jesus and His disciples breaking the law of God. But we remember that the Pharisees were not content for the law of God to stand by itself, but they had to add all kinds of details to their interpretation of what was permitted and what was allowed in terms of Sabbath keeping. And they added literally over a thousand specifications in their extreme casuistry to their traditions in defining according to their understanding what could or not be done on the Sabbath day. And according to their traditions, Jesus had violated the Sabbath in terms of the prohibition against unnecessary labor on the Sabbath day. For by picking an ear of corn, Jesus and His disciples were guilty of harvesting. And by rubbing the corn together, they were guilty of threshing on the Sabbath day. And so there the Pharisees were shaking their finger once again in the face of Jesus. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're not allowed to do this. You know, it's a wonder that Jesus being God incarnate didn't at this point have enough and just unleashed the full power of His deity on these rascals. But in any case, He patiently answered their objection and reminded them of Old Testament history by calling attention to the account in the book of 1 Samuel of an event that took place in the life of David and his comrades, that when they were very hungry and had no food available to them, they went into the tabernacle and into the holy place where the Temple of Showbread was, not into the Holy of Holies, but there this showbread that was on the altar as part of the ceremonies of Old Testament worship. David, realizing this was the only food nearby that would be available for him and for his comrades, he went in and took the bread from the altar and fed himself and his soldiers with it. And Jesus obviously shows His approval for what David and his men had done in the Old Testament because Jesus is enunciating the principle that no ceremony outweighs the fundamental needs of human life.

David and his men were not involved in an act of vandalism or just in a frivolous way helping themselves to the food that was in the altar, but they were eating because they had genuine hunger and were enabled to use this food that was available to them and still be working in the honor of God. And so what Jesus does simply is rebukes the Pharisees for their failure to understand what David had done in the Old Testament and for their failure to be concerned about the needs of Jesus and His disciples with respect to the elementary matters of food. However, this passage is so much more about what Jesus and His disciples did and how He answered the criticism of the Pharisees for what they did because in this narrative and on this event, Jesus makes a pronouncement that is overwhelming in its importance for us and for our understanding of Him. He said to the Pharisees, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. Now we could spend the next six months exploring the depths and the riches of this one statement that Jesus makes on this occasion to the Pharisees, and I'm going to divide it into two parts. The first part is where Jesus calls Himself once again the Son of Man.

We've heard Him do this before. We remember when He announced the forgiveness of sins for the paralytic. The Pharisees were all over Him for that, and Jesus said on that occasion, I do this that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Now in previous years, we've looked at the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Mark and the gospel of John, and so this designation for Jesus, Son of Man, is not strange or unusual to us if we've been here for any length of time or if we've studied the Scriptures to any degree. But at the risk of boring you, I'd like to go back and rehearse some of the significance some of the significance of the use of this title for Jesus.

Just in this last week, I had two occasions to think about it. On one, I received a letter, a lengthy letter from a man who was severely chastising me for teaching people the terrible heresy of the Trinity and of the deity of Christ. And he was saying that the Bible doesn't teach the deity of Christ, and nowhere does the New Testament affirm the deity of Christ, and so on. And he went through all of his arguments for his Unitarianism. But in any case, I did respond once, and then when he came back, I let it go the second time, which I usually do. But in any case, also at a weekly Bible study of some men that we had this week, this question of the significance of this title, Son of Man, arose.

And so we looked at it there as well. And to remind you that if we count up the times in which Jesus is described in the New Testament by this title or that title, and we look at the numerical frequency, we see that far and away the number one title that is described to Jesus in the New Testament is the title Christ or Christos. It's used so often that we sometimes think that Christ is Jesus' last name, Jesus Christ. No, that is Jesus is His name. Christ is His title, which is the New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament word for Messiah. So when the New Testament talks about Jesus Christ, it means Jesus Messiah, Jesus the Anointed One. That's the number one title that is described to Jesus. The second most frequently given title to Jesus in the New Testament is the title Lord, which is extremely significant because the way in which is expressed in the New Testament by use of the term curios, the use of the title Lord for Jesus corresponds to the Old Testament title Adonai that is given exclusively to God as His supreme title. When the Bible says, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, what the Hebrew is saying is, O Yahweh, that's His name, our Adonai, that's His supreme title, how majestic is Your name. So that the highest title that is given to God in the Old Testament in terms of the Greek translation of the Hebrew is the title Lord. And we recall Paul's writing to the Philippians saying, Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God took His equality with God, not as something to be tenaciously grasped or held on to, but He emptied Himself, entered into His humiliation, took upon Himself the form of a servant, became obedient even unto death. And you know how Paul goes on to say, Wherefore hath God highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name. The Father gives to the Son the name that is the highest name that can be given to anyone. Then Paul says, So at the name of Jesus every knee would bow and confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The name that is above every name is not the name Jesus.

It's that title Lord, Adonai, Kyrios. That's the title that is given to Jesus. That's the second most frequent title ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament. In third place in terms of numerical frequency is the title Son of Man.

Now what's strange, extraordinary about this, I don't have my one book that I use for this occasion at home. I think my son has it, but in any case I believe that the numbers are correct that this title Son of Man occurs in the New Testament for Jesus 92 times. And that only gets it to third place in terms of frequency. But the extraordinary thing is that of those 92 references to Jesus as the Son of Man, 89 of them are from the lips of Jesus Himself. And what does that tell you? That tells you that in terms of numerical frequency for what Jesus calls Himself, Son of Man is number one.

Well, what does it mean? Well, we know that the Bible calls Jesus Son of God and Son of Man. We know that the church's confession is such that we believe that Christ is fully man and fully God, truly man and truly God, that He has a divine nature and is a human nature. And so we are tempted to look at these titles in this manner and to think, oh, well, Son of God, that must refer to His deity, and Son of Man must refer to His humanity. Well, that's a vast oversimplification because although the title Son of God does have some reference to it, to Jesus' deity being the only begotten of the Father, nevertheless the title also refers to His human work of obedience because to be called a Son of God biblically is to be describing one who is obedient to God. You are the Son of whom you obey, Jesus said. So the Son of God title doesn't refer exclusively to deity. It also incorporates an element of His humanity.

And in the same manner, the title Son of Man, though it has an element of reference to His humanity, the dominant reference to that title is to His deity. Let's take just a moment to go back to the Old Testament to Daniel chapter 7 where we read Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days, beginning in verse 9 where he writes, I watched until thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days, that's the title for God the Father, was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. And a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him, and a thousand thousands ministered to Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

The court was seated, and the books were opened. And then he goes on to say in verse 13, I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with clouds of heaven. And He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. Now a lot of people think that this reference to the Son of Man refers to Jesus, His second coming at the end of the age.

I don't think so. If we look at the book of Revelation, we see that the Son of Man there appears in heaven as He ascends into heaven on the shekinah cloud of glory, and when He returns to heaven from which He came originally, the chorus in heaven begins to sing, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive honor and glory and dominion and power. And at the ascension, Jesus is elevated to the right hand of God.

He goes to His investiture. He goes to His coronation, and He is seated at the right hand of the Father as the King of the kings and as the Lord of the lords. Now during His earthly ministry, He made the observation, no one ascends into heaven except He who has descended from heaven. No one ascends into heaven except He who has descended from heaven. So when Jesus speaks of ascending into heaven, He's not merely talking about going up there. Enoch went up to heaven, and other people go to heaven when they die. So what does Jesus mean when He says, no one ascends into heaven? Well here the word to ascend has specific reference to His going up to a particular place for a particular reason.

He's going again to His coronation. And the only one who ascends to be seated at the right hand of God is the one who first came down here from the presence of God. As Jesus prays in this high priestly prayer in John, Lord, restore to me the glory I had with You from the foundation of the world. So the title Son of Man, the way Jesus is using it, referring to Himself, He's saying to the Pharisees, I'm doing these things that you may know the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. The Son of Man is one who comes from heaven, who carries the full measure of His deity with Him, and with that deity the full authority that is associated with Him. And so then, we see the second part of the statement that you might know the Son of Man, this heavenly being, this divine being, is the Lord of the Sabbath.

What? Jesus never uttered words more startling to the ears of the Pharisees when He said that to them. We ask ourselves, when was the Sabbath day established? We know that it was part of the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Sinai, and some people think that the sanctity of the Sabbath was established with the covenant that God made with His people through Moses as the mediator there on Sinai in the Ten Commandments.

No, no, no, no, no. Though the Sabbath is part of the Ten Commandments, it's not established at Sinai. It's not instituted at Sinai. It's instituted in creation. The Sabbath is a creation ordinance established by God in His original work where He worked for six days creating all that there was, and on the seventh day He rested, and He hallowed it.

He sanctified it. The Sabbath was sanctified in creation, and the only one who had the authority to hallow the Sabbath day in the work of creation was not the birds of the air or the fish of the sea or the creatures that God made in His own image. Only the Creator had the authority to institute and consecrate the Sabbath day.

So do you get the inference? Only the Creator can be Lord of the Sabbath day, and here is the Lord of the Sabbath day, the one who made all things. Now in His incarnation He's being challenged by these Pharisees for His behavior on the Sabbath day, and He's saying to them, what? You're telling me what I can do on the Sabbath day?

Who do you think made the Sabbath day? He didn't say it quite that way. He said, quite that way.

That's the way I would have said it, but He didn't say it that way. But that is the import of what Jesus is saying to them. You see now why they couldn't wait to kill Him as a blasphemer? Jesus is saying, I decide what is lawful and what is not lawful on the Sabbath day. You know another controversy that rages throughout Christendom and didn't end centuries ago is the question of which day is the proper day in which Christians come together to worship. We know that the original Sabbath in Israel was established on the seventh day of the week, and now Christians almost universally worship God in solemn assembly on the first day of the week rather than on the seventh day in the week. The Sabbath cycle is still maintained, one and seventh, because that's what Sabbath means. But now it's the first day rather than the seventh day.

Why? Because the Lord of the Sabbath was resurrected on the first day of the week, and in His resurrection proved the ultimate intent and purpose of the original Sabbath day by which God provides for His people a time of rest pointing forward to the future time when His people would enter into their rest by resurrection. And now the Lord of the Sabbath is raised on the first day of the week, and so the early church came together to worship, to celebrate the sacraments, and to hear the Word of God on the Lord's day, on the Lord of the Sabbath's day, which is now the first day of the week. All these things and so much more are contained in this title, Son of Man, and this claim by our Lord that He as the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. This is a clear declaration of the deity of Christ, that the One who went into the grain field to feed Himself and His friends is the One who has come down from heaven, the only one who ever ascended to heaven, to be installed at the right hand of the Father as the King of the kings and the Lord of the lords. It is this Son of Man that we serve and worship on His day. We worship on His day. Jesus proclaimed His deity loud and clear in that grain field. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Sunday.

I'm Lee Webb, and I'm glad you've joined us today. Each week we return to Dr. R.C. Sproul's sermon series, From the Gospel of Luke. In the six chapters we've studied so far, we have learned a great deal, benefiting from Dr. Sproul's careful exposition.

You can further your own study when you contact us today and request R.C. 's commentary on this gospel. It's drawn from decades of analysis and pastoral reflection, and it communicates his desire to clearly explain God's Word. Contact us today with the financial gift of any amount, and we will be glad to provide you with a digital download of this commentary on Luke. Our offices are closed today so that my colleagues and I can worship with our families at church, but you can make your request and give your gift online when you go to renewingyourmind.org. And before we go, let me extend my personal thanks to you for listening to this program and for your generous financial support. We are grateful that the Lord is using this outreach to proclaim the holiness of God to as many people as possible around the world. Well, next week we will return to our study in Luke as Dr. Sproul examines the calling of Jesus' twelve apostles. That's next Sunday, here on Renewing Your Mind.