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THE KING’S BUSINESS
The act of the disciples was harmless, in itself. Most of us have done just the same thing at some time. But tradition con demned it because, said the scribes, pluck ing the grain was reaping, and rubbing the chaff was threshing, and that was working on the day of rest. Far fetched, was it not? Our Lord in quoting David’s act was not necessarily defending it; but rather showing His critics that if they condemned His disciples, they must condemn their great king, which they would be loath to do. He certainly seems to have taught by what He said that actual human need is superior to any ceremonial law. Man is the object of God’s love, and the law and the Gospel must be understood in the light of John 3:16. Then He asserted His own supreme authority. He is Lord of the Sabbath. The lawgiver is superior to the law that He gives. He can set it aside, or modify it as He chooses. Be careful to notice that He did not say that man himself is lord of the Sabbath. His claim was a claim that He was God, for only God is superior to His law. Plucking, rubbing and eating the corn because they were hungry, cannot be con strued into warranting us in plowing, planting, or reaping, or working in the flower garden, or mowing lawns on 'the rest day. None of these are truly works of necessity for that day, unless under Some very extraordinary circumstances. , II. Jesus in th e Synagogue on the Sab bath Day, 3:1-6. This was the synagogue in Capernaum, built by that good centurion mentioned in Luke 7. What are believed to be the ruins of it are to be seen at Tell Hum, at the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. A piece of marble from it is on exhibition in our Institute Museum and Mission Study Room, the gift of the monk in charge of the excavations a few years ago to one of our workers. This was not the first nor only time
place for a “religious” man. The Lord declared that just because Matthew’s friends were “publicans and sinners” they needed Him all the more. Again the scribes and the Pharisees thought fasting, not feasting, fittest for Jesus and His disci ples; but Jesus defended Himself and His disciples by saying that then was the feast ing time for He was with them, they would fast when He was gone, and a new order of things could not be confined in old forms. Thus we realize the attitude of the scribes. and the Pharisees towards Him— unsympathetic and hostile. The lesson proper begins at this point, and consists of two encounters that Jesus had with these same classes of people concerning His con duct on the Sabbath day. - 1. Jesus in th e Fields on th e Sabbath Day, v r. 23-28. Try and .imagine the attitude of these scribes and Pharisees to the Sabbath and its proper observance. They did not go by the law of Moses, but by their oral tradition of what Moses commanded in addition to what he wrote ; and by the further explana tions of their rabbi as to what Moses meant by what he said. It was their tradi tions that made the Sabbath burdensome, not the law of God. What the Word of God says is' one thing ; what we say it says may be another. Recognize that a man may differ from you in your interpretation of thé Word and yet be just as honest as you are. He may be honestly wrong of course. You will be more likely to help him to get right by recognizing his honesty than by violently denouncing him. The scribes and the Pharisees were so self- satisfied with their interpretations that they had no patience with any man who did not see and do exactly as they did. Jesus saw no harm in a quiet walk through the fields on the Sabbath with His' disciples. One can easily guess what they would talk about (cf. Luke 24:13-25). But one could hardly stretch this to cover the Sunday spent on the golf-links, or in joy-riding, or other so-called “harmless” amusement where God is never remembered.
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