In their legalistic mania to justify themselves in the sight of God, the Pharisees took God’s Sabbath requirement and blew it up to ridiculous proportions. It was work to have a snack while walking through a field? It was work for Jesus to do a miracle of healing? Really?

So, it’s easy for modern Christians to read this passage and come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t keep the Sabbath anymore. But if we do that, we will have made just as big a mistake as the Pharisees did. For what does Jesus tell us the Sabbath is for? In verse 9, He tells us it’s all about doing good and saving life. And this is just common sense, isn’t it? How many of us will return to the workplace refreshed after yesterday’s holiday that we spent with friends and family? So, how can we doubt that taking a day off every week is a healing thing?

But in verse 5, Jesus also tells us that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and this reminds us of another important truth: the Sabbath is the Lord’s Day, a day for us to turn our attention away from our worldly cares and concerns and turn to look at God. It’s a day to shift our focus off of the creation and onto our Creator, the One Who made us in His image so that we might be in relationship with Him.

So, perhaps if we look at the Sabbath in relational terms it will make more sense. For at root, it’s all about spending quality time with our Heavenly Father, isn’t it? And how can we doubt that such a day spent with God and with God’s people would be good for us and our relationships with others?

So, I suppose we could look at the Sabbath the way the Pharisees did – as an onerous, restrictive commandment. But how many of us would have to be commanded to take a day off from work and spend it with our sweethearts? The good news is that the God Who loves us enough to give His Son to die for us wants a weekly date with us. Let’s not disappoint Him.

Luke 6:1-11 (ESV)

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.
2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?”
5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered.
7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him.
8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there.
9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”
10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored.
11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.