Luke 6:1-16
What to do about Jesus?
To say Jesus is an interesting person is an understatement.
He grew up in a devout Jewish family,
He studied Torah
He knew the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Pharisees were religious leaders,
they knew Torah,
they knew the Hebrew Scriptures
but they are wondering what to do about Jesus.
The Pharisees believed that God gave Moses an oral law as well as the written Law, or Torah, at Sinai. The Torah, or Written Law, set down a series of laws that were open to interpretation. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied.
The Pharisees wanted people to live lives connected to God and faithful to God every day, not just in the Temple.
Basically, the “Pharisees were the liberal, mainline Protestants of first century Judaism. While other Jewish sects claimed the people needed the priesthood and the temple to mediate between them and God, the Pharisees democratized religious experience.”
There are several examples in the gospels of the Pharisees and Jesus have different ways of looking at how to live faithful to God.
In the passage today, the Pharisees ask Jesus about gathering grain, to eat, on the Sabbath.
Now Sabbath is about rest, it is not about doing nothing. Sabbath comes from God resting on the seventh day of creation, and the people of Israel being able to take a day from work each week after being freed from being slaves in Egypt.
With gathering grain, you could not harvest your field on the Sabbath.
Anyone who was hungry could take some grain to eat, that was not considered stealing. The question is, are you allowed to pick grain to eat on the Sabbath if you are hungry?
The other situation is about healing. The text notes that the Pharisees are keeping on eye on Jesus to see what he will do when he sees the man with the withered hand. I wonder if this is a setup.
Jesus askes the Pharisees: “On the Sabbath should we do good deeds or evil deeds? Should we save someone’s life or destroy it?”
Jesus does not touch the person who was healed, so did he heal him?
There is still debate in Jewish communities today about what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. There are places where the traffic lights have a Sabbath mode, that means you do not need to press the button to be able to cross the road, because pressing the button makes something happen and is therefore work. Some Jewish families leave lights on in the house because on the Sabbath you cannot turn the light on.
“Jesus says that the Sabbath was made for humankind. It is meant to be life-giving, not life-draining. It is meant to be a gift, a time apart from the relentless demands of daily life, a time to rest in God’s presence, a time to saviour the goodness of God’s creation and celebrate God’s deliverance, a time to do what is good and what gives life.”
The Pharisees were wanting things to be done in good order. The Sabbath was there for rest, renewal, prayer, not work.
What is work?
For one person cooking will be work, for another cooking is a joy.
For one person gardening is work, for another gardening is relaxing.
The thing that stands out for me in this series of incidents is the way the Pharisees have structured what is good.
I was thinking of an example from the Christian tradition.
We share in Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper. Some churches celebrate this sacrament each week, some monthly, some less often.
Some places celebrate with a loaf that is broken and shared, some with special wafers.
Some places have a common cup, some individual glasses
Some move forward to be served, some stay in their seats.
Which one is right, or correct.
They all are.
The point of the sacrament is to remember the meal Jesus shared with his disciples,
to see our connectedness with God and each other,
to remember the story of Jesus, his life, his death, and his resurrection.
Sometimes we have treasured traditions,
about the time we worship,
the way we worship,
the songs we sing,
the instruments played.
What is the point of worshipping together?
We gather to share faith,
to be embraced by prayer when we cannot pray ourselves
to support each other as we live out our commitment to Jesus, to following the call of Jesus, together and as individuals.
Does it matter where we meet or what time we meet or how we meet?
What matters is that we meet.
The Pharisees were wondering “What to do about Jesus?”
Do we want to do something about Jesus?
Does Jesus make you uncomfortable in these stories
breaking with tradition
questioning
looking deeper into the meaning behind the ritual.
I wonder what Jesus would question about our life,
our life as a Parish, as well as our individual lives.
What do we do out of habit?
How often do we go along with the crowd to avoid conflict?
Are there parts of our worshipping life together you do not understand?
I wonder how much of our life is ‘going through the motions’
Doing what we did last week and the week before and the week before that.
In Luke, Jesus reminds the hearers that changing or breaking with tradition is done by those who value the tradition. Departing from the sabbath is not inherently bad. Instead, the question becomes how, when, and why departures are made.
I remember when I started leading worship and preaching, I followed the same order of service as our Minister. I didn’t know why things were in that order, so I followed it exactly. Then I did the studies to be a Lay Preacher, I learn about the different parts of worship, I understood why we usually put parts of the service where we do, and I then had the freedom to change from the standard order when it fits.
This Parish, with every other church, is facing a time of great change. COVID has changed people’s patterns of worship attendance.
Some of the people in our Parish are less mobile than twelve months ago.
Some prefer live streaming to attending worship in person.
Some will wait until most people are vaccinated.
One of the biggest surprises for me has been the number of people connecting with this Parish for the first time in the past 12 months. Even when we were not meeting in person, 2 new people came to the Parish.
I hear people asking, how will we survive as a Parish,
we are getting older,
we can’t do what we used to,
we need younger people to take on various roles.
Maybe this is a time to think about church differently.
About how we worship
Not only in ways that encourage and support our own spiritual life
But in ways that encourage and support people with questions
about Jesus
about faith
about life and death and relationships and ….
Maybe this is a time to think about church differently.
What it means to be the church
What are we offering people – a chance to go on a roster or committee,
or an invitation to new life in Christ
Is the way we live out our Christian faith life-giving or life-denying,
Do people see joy and hope in our lives
or tiredness and duty
Is our focus in on ourselves,
or is our focus on
God,
creation,
justice,
serving the community
The Pharisees were not bad people, they were challenging a system that required priests and Temple to connect with God. Which sounds like the Reformation, remember Martin Luther, and the beginning of the Protestant church.
The Pharisees want Jesus to follow the standard order, not to push the boundaries.
When the dictates of religion become burdensome and harmful, it is time to change.
When we use religion to shame people,
to oppress people
to put people down.
when our faith tells us
not to untie what binds them
not to feed the hungry
or offering healing and hope
then we are not living out the gospel of Jesus Christ.
