Lord of the Sabbath
Introduction: The Tyranny of the Tidy
There are two ways to corrupt the law of God. The first is to ignore it, which is the path of the libertine and the antinomian. The second is to "improve" it, which is the path of the legalist. And while we are often quick to spot the first error, the second is far more insidious because it presents itself as a form of super-piety. The legalist is not content with God's law as it stands. He feels it needs his help. He builds what the rabbis called a "fence around the Torah," a set of man-made regulations designed to keep people from getting anywhere near breaking the actual law. But the inevitable result is that men begin to worship the fence instead of the God who gave the law. The traditions of men displace the commandments of God.
This is the very thing we see happening in our text. The Pharisees were the masters of the tidy, regulated life. They had a rule for everything, a subsection for every contingency. Their religion was a starched collar, stiff, clean, and choking the life out of them. They were not irreligious men; they were intensely religious. But their religion was a system of control, a way to manage God and man through an elaborate code of conduct. It was a religion of exterior performance, not interior transformation.
When Jesus arrives on the scene, He does not come to abolish the law. He comes to fulfill it, which means He comes to restore it to its true purpose and meaning. And in doing so, He brings a glorious liberty that looks like rank lawlessness to the brittle and the self-righteous. The conflict here is not between law and lawlessness. It is a conflict between two rival understandings of the law, which is ultimately a conflict between two rival kings. It is a battle over whose rules matter, the petty tyrannies of men or the life-giving authority of the Son of Man.
The Text
Now it happened that on a Sabbath He was passing through some grainfields, and His disciples were picking and eating the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, "Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?" And He was saying to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
(Luke 6:1-5 LSB)
Criminals in the Cornfield (vv. 1-2)
The scene is set on the Sabbath, in a grainfield. Jesus' disciples are hungry, and so they do what the law explicitly permitted.
"Now it happened that on a Sabbath He was passing through some grainfields, and His disciples were picking and eating the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, 'Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'" (Luke 6:1-2)
Now, we must be clear about the accusation. The disciples were not stealing. The law of God made provision for this very thing. Deuteronomy 23:25 says, "When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain." This was a gracious provision for the hungry traveler. The Pharisees knew this. Their objection was not to the taking of the grain, but to the timing of it.
In their intricate system, they had identified 39 categories of work forbidden on the Sabbath. By plucking the grain, the disciples were guilty of "reaping." By rubbing it in their hands, they were guilty of "threshing." By blowing away the chaff, they were guilty of "winnowing." And by eating it, they were "preparing a meal." In the space of a few moments, these men had managed to rack up a series of grave violations against the traditions of the elders. The Pharisees, ever vigilant, were there to point it out. Their question is dripping with accusation: "Why do you do what is not lawful?" They are not asking for information. They are prosecuting a case, and they believe it is an open and shut one.
This is the dead end of legalism. It majors on minors. It strains out a gnat and swallows a camel. It is utterly blind to context, to mercy, and to the purpose of the law. The Sabbath was given to Israel as a gift of rest and refreshment, a sign of God's covenant grace. These men had turned it into a minefield of tripwires and regulations, a day not of rest, but of anxiety. They were not guarding the Sabbath; they were holding it hostage.
When the King is Hungry (vv. 3-4)
Jesus does not debate their rabbinic definitions. He sidesteps their entire fussy framework and appeals to a higher authority: the Scriptures themselves. He takes them back to a story they should have known well.
"And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have you never read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?'" (Luke 6:3-4)
The story is from 1 Samuel 21. David, God's anointed but not yet recognized king, is fleeing from the corrupt King Saul. He comes to the tabernacle at Nob, and he and his men are hungry. The priest, Ahimelech, has no common bread, only the consecrated bread of the Presence, the showbread, which the law reserved for priests alone. Seeing the urgency and legitimacy of David's mission, the priest gives him the bread. He rightly discerned that the ceremonial law must give way to the needs of God's anointed king.
Jesus' argument is a classic argument from the lesser to the greater. He is saying, "You Pharisees claim to honor the Scriptures. Have you never read them? Do you not understand the principle established there? If it was lawful for David, the anointed king in waiting, to set aside a ceremonial rule in a time of need for himself and his men, how much more is it lawful for me?" The unspoken premise is devastatingly clear: "A greater than David is here."
He is not setting Scripture against Scripture. He is teaching them how to read their own Bibles. He is showing them that the law is not a flat, two-dimensional list of rules. It has a center, a purpose, a hierarchy of values. The ceremonial laws were designed to point to the King and facilitate fellowship with God, not to starve the King's men and hinder His work. The Pharisees had turned the means into the end. They honored the bread of the Presence but would have dishonored the Lord of the Presence. Jesus is exposing their hypocrisy by showing them that their zeal for the law was actually a form of rebellion against the God of the law.
The Owner of the Day (v. 5)
Having laid the groundwork with Scripture, Jesus now delivers the final, authoritative blow. He moves from precedent to principle, from David's authority to His own.
"And He was saying to them, 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.'" (Luke 6:5)
This is one of the most staggering claims He ever made. He does not say, "I have a better interpretation of the Sabbath." He does not say, "The Sabbath rules should be relaxed." He says, "I own the Sabbath." The Sabbath is His personal property. He is the Lord over it. This means He has the absolute right to legislate it, to define it, and to govern its observance. The maker of a thing is the one who knows its purpose. Jesus, as the eternal Son through whom all things were made, including time itself, is the one who instituted the Sabbath in the first place.
The Pharisees were acting like tenants who had forgotten the landlord's name and had started writing their own lease agreement. Jesus arrives on the property and informs them of the change in management. Or rather, He reminds them who the management has always been. Their entire system of Sabbath observance was illegitimate because it was divorced from the Lord of the Sabbath. They were trying to honor the wedding anniversary while despising the groom.
This statement resolves the entire conflict. The disciples are not lawbreakers because they are with the Lawgiver. Their actions are righteous because they are done in submission to the Lord of the Sabbath. The question is no longer, "What do the rabbinic traditions say?" The question is now, "What does the King say?" This shifts everything. The center of authority is not a book of rules, but a living Person.
Conclusion: Feasting in Freedom
So what does this mean for us? This passage is a glorious declaration of freedom. It is freedom from the tyranny of man-made religion. It is freedom from the joyless, box-ticking piety that honors rules but despises people. But it is not a freedom from the law itself. It is a freedom to keep the law rightly, from the heart, in submission to our King.
The Sabbath was given as a gift. It is a picture of the gospel. On that day, we are to cease from our own works, our own strivings for righteousness, and rest entirely in the finished work of another. That other is Jesus Christ. He is our Sabbath rest. The disciples, eating grain in the field, are a beautiful picture of this. They are hungry, and they are fed. They are not working for their sustenance; they are receiving it as a gift from the hand of their Lord, on His day.
The spirit of the Pharisees is still very much with us. It thrives in any environment where human traditions are elevated to the level of divine law, where external conformity is prized above internal faith and love. It produces people who are quick to judge, slow to show mercy, and blind to the presence of the King in their midst.
The call for us is to recognize who is Lord. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He is Lord of our time, Lord of our worship, Lord of our rest. True Sabbath keeping, for the new covenant believer, is to delight in this Lord. It is to feast on His grace, to celebrate His resurrection, and to rest in the glorious truth that He has done everything necessary for our salvation. It is to turn from the brittle regulations of men and to joyfully obey the Lord of life.