Hey friends, happy December 6th!
David Skinner is reading chapter 6 in the video. Let us know if you’d like to read.
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Tomorrow in church we begin a new sermon series entitled, “What Child Is This?” We sang that carol in the city centre today. Thank you to those who joined us! One of my favourites we sang was “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” And as we think about the Sabbath in Luke 2, consider the rest that Christ can give. On the very first Sabbath in the Bible, God rested from His work of CREATION on the seventh day. But then, after man sinned, a new work began – the work of REDEMPTION. And that was the work Christ came to do. He would not rest from that work, and when challenged about it, He replied, “My Father worth hitherto, and I work.” But on the cross He would say, “It is finished,” and we now can rest in the work He has accomplished. So, He is Lord of the Sabbath, and He is Lord of everything else.
In Luke 6, this is a great chapter if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to follow a Master who is who completely upside-down from the world.
The chapter opens on a couple of Sabbath days that set the religious leaders on edge.
First Sabbath scene: The disciples are walking through a cornfield, rubbing grain in their hands to eat because they’re hungry. The Pharisees pounce: “Why do ye that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?” (v. 2). Jesus answers, “The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (v. 5).
Second Sabbath scene: Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, and there’s a man with a withered right hand. The scribes and Pharisees are watching like hawks, waiting to see if He’ll heal on the Sabbath so they can accuse Him. Jesus knows their thoughts, calls the man forward, and asks one devastating question: “Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” (v. 9)?” Then He says, “Stretch forth thy hand.” The man does, and it’s restored whole. The religious leaders are filled with madness and start plotting what they might do to Jesus.
Right after this, Jesus spends all night in prayer on a mountain, comes down at daybreak, chooses the Twelve apostles, and then—here’s the beautiful detail Luke gives us—He descends with them and stands “in the plain” (or “on a level place,” v. 17) with a massive crowd pressing in from Judea, Jerusalem, even the Gentile coast of Tyre and Sidon. They’ve all come to hear Him and to be healed, and verse 19 says, “the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.”
And right there, in the chaos, with thousands of desperate, sick, demon-possessed people pushing in, power flowing out of Him; but then, most importantly, Jesus turns to His disciples and starts teaching the Sermon on the Plain:
- Love your enemies
- Bless them that curse you
- Give to every man that asketh, even if he takes your coat, let him have your cloak also
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
- Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful
- Judge not… condemn not… forgive
- Give, and it shall be given unto you
- Every tree is known by his own fruit
- And the climax: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (v. 46)
Then He tells the story of the two house-builders, one on the rock, one on the sand, and says the difference shows up when the storm hits.
So what’s going on here? Why teach the hardest sermon ever in the middle of possibly the loudest, messiest crowd imaginable?
I think Jesus is doing exactly what He’s telling.
He’s showing His disciples, in real time, what the words look like with skin on.
- He’s Lord of the Sabbath → so mercy triumphs over man-made rules.
- He’s healing Gentiles and Jews alike on a level place → because His kingdom levels every social peak or valley.
- He’s letting the broken and demonised touch Him → because He came for the poor, the prisoner, the mourning, the hated (vv. 20-22).
- He’s loving the unlovely, giving without expecting return, refusing to curse those who will soon crucify Him → because that’s what citizens of His kingdom do.
And He delivers the whole sermon surrounded by people who are literally being made whole the moment they touch Him, so nobody can say, “That’s impossible.” It’s happening right in front of them.
My favourite verse today is verse 19 (KJV):
“And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.”
Every single person who came to Jesus in Luke 6 walked away healed. Every one.
Friends, the same Jesus is still Lord of the Sabbath, still Lord of the storm, still the same virtue still flows out of Him today. And He’s still looking for disciples who will show the same mercy, sacrificial, giving love, and actually build our lives on the Rock of His words (not just admiring them)
Because the disciple is not above his Master. If they hated Him, they’ll hate us. If He loved anyway, so must we.
So let me leave you with the question Jesus asked on that level place:
“Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
May the answer, by His grace, be different for us today than it was for the Pharisees back then. Rest in His power today.