Luke 6:1-11
Rev. Rebecca M. Heilman-Campbell
My first two years of ministry began in New York City in the affluent neighborhood of the
Upper East Side. I was called to a church that housed a small homeless shelter in the basement
of their building. It slept 12 men and a volunteer. I must admit to you and I’m ashamed to say
it, I was nervous about this ministry. I held a bias towards people experiencing homelessness, it
was ingrained into me. Following seminary, wide eyed and excited by my studies, I loved the
idea of volunteering, serving, advocating, and being a voice of justice for people experiencing
homelessness, but to be honest, I never thought I would work closely with that community. I
was simply uneducated, naive, and shadowed by my biases. As with any ministry, we struggled
for volunteers and often I received a phone call to fill in at the last minute. I’m not going to lie;
I was often scared. I didn’t know these men, I didn’t know their background, I didn’t understand
their experience. I didn’t know what I would talk with them about. I didn’t know that they had
full time jobs or sending money home to their family or saving up for an apartment. I didn’t
know that they were doing everything they could to save up for an apartment in an economy
that almost makes it impossible. I just knew that they looked different, smelled different, and fit
the stereotype of a homeless man as seen on TV. Before running that shelter, I was good at
creating stories about their life experience, not based in reality. And aren’t we tired of this, yet?
We, humanity, we do this all the time – Catholics verses protestants, black verses white,
immigrant verses American, Palestinian verses Israeli, rich verses poor, republican verses
democrat, left verses right, housed verses unhoused, Pharisees verses Christ and his followers.
And yet, yet, we are all a child of God when we finally, finally see our humanity. Why is this so
difficult for us?
Well, I want to invite you into our story today that has its own biases. The Pharisees in
the New Testament are not portrayed well, especially in Luke. Luke does not write about the
traditional Jewish leadership in good light, when really the situation between the two parties is
more complex. We, as Christians, know the Pharisees as hostile towards Jesus and his disciples,
but Amy-Jill Levine, the leading professor in the theological and Biblical scholarship of New
Testament and Jewish studies, reminds us that we only receive one perspective of the Pharisees
in the Gospels. And that’s from the authors of the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
In fact, the only written, firsthand perspective we have of a Pharisee is Paul of Tarsus, who is
notorious for writing, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you
are all one in Christ Jesus.”1 So we have a slanted perspective of the Pharisees.
In an interview to give light and a better understanding to the Pharisees, Levine says,
“Very often, Christian children are taught about Pharisees as this horrible group of hypocritical,
money loving, elite, nasty opponents of Jesus so that they get the impression that Jesus comes
to fix what the Pharisees screwed up.”2 It’s so much more complex than that. Jesus, a Jewish
man himself, is living in a culture where the Pharisees were the leaders that people looked to to
keep them grounded, steady in their faith during the unrest and unknown of the Roman
Empire.
And so the Jews surrounding Jesus, according to Levine, were “looking at [the
Pharisees] as the ones who were able to preserve Judaism despite the disasters of a war
against Rome in the middle of the first century, the destruction of the temple, and the
increasing numbers of Jews taken into diaspora as slaves. The Pharisees were the ones who
helped them maintain their identity apart from land and apart from temple.” They interpreted
the laws and constituted what was holy and what was not. This was their job. And Levine adds
in this quote, “in our increasingly secularized world, holiness is a really important topic that I
think we’ve lost. And we can learn from the Pharisees how to recover those moments when
we’re closer to God, and closer to sanctifying our lives, and sanctifying our homes, and
sanctifying the body.”3 I bet you never imagined walking into this space today thinking I would
invite you to learn something from the Pharisees.
And so when a Jewish man, Jesus, goes up against the Pharisee’s job and laws, of
course there is conflict like we see in our text today. Here are two instances where Jesus pushes
against the tradition. First, it is not that the disciples are eating on the Sabbath, but that the
disciples worked to get food on the Sabbath. That’s the conflict. And so because they
“worked” for food, the Pharisees named their mistake. Jesus responds to the Pharisees with a
story about David taking pieces from the bread of the Presence (a holy bread) to help feed
himself and the hungry. Jesus was not saying the Sabbath is not important, but instead saying,
“The Human One is Lord of the Sabbath” meaning the Sabbath can be life giving not a day of
neglect. If there is hunger, then provide food.
Friends, I bring all of this to our attention so that we are careful in our interpretation of
Scripture. While there is certainly a difference of opinions in the conversation between Jesus
and the Pharisees, when you look at the context, there is not a staunch right way or wrong way.
Both represent and honor the Sabbath in the eyes of the Lord.
And then we read the second part of our Scripture. On another Sabbath day, Jesus,
while teaching notices a man with a withered hand. Already Jesus has healed on the Sabbath
and so Luke tells us that Pharisees have keen eye on him. Jesus knows this. He asks the man
with the withered hand to stand and then Jesus faces the Pharisees and asks, “Is it legal on the
Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” Elisabeth Johnson, a pastor in
Minnesota writes, “The answer to Jesus’ question is obvious. Of course it is lawful to do good
and not harm on the Sabbath, to save life and not destroy it. The rabbis agreed that one must
act to save a life on the Sabbath, even if it meant breaking a commandment.”4 But one aspect
of our story is important. Jesus does not touch the man or perform any action, he merely
speaks. “Get up. Stretch out your hand,” he says and the man is healed. He hasn’t broken any
Sabbath laws, there is no prohibition on speaking.
One interpretation for us to consider today is maybe Jesus isn’t completely changing the
meaning of the Sabbath, maybe Jesus is inviting the Pharisees to enhance the meaning of the
Sabbath. He’s inviting them to use the Sabbath as a means to be closer to the kingdom of God
where all are feed, all are healed, all can be their best selves. The Pharisees certainly saw the
laws of the Sabbath in strict interpretations. And that’s not to say that they were wrong, but
when a man enters the scene inviting them to unburden themselves from those restrictions, of
course he seen as a threat. And I can’t help but think about us, today, in our modern world,
how have we put restrictions on our own Sabbath? How have we managed to turn God’s
Sabbath, our Sabbath, our time of worship into a burden instead of life giving?
We are a busy culture. We value busyness. I recently had a conversation with other
clergy Comparing the words contentment and laziness. Some would say if you are content,
then you are lazy. I would say that that is feeding into the value of a busy culture. What’s wrong
with being content? At peace with what you do and how you’ve done it? I don’t consider that
lazy at all. No we would much rather complain at how busy we are, how there is no time for
Sundays, no time to be in community, no time for anything. Trust me, I’m really good at tell you
how busy I am. Just ask me after worship. We’re a culture that values less time, more energy,
less quiet, more chaos, less contentment, more go go go, be better, do better.
While the Pharisees placed heavy restrictions on the Sabbath, here we are with no
restrictions as well. Sundays have become a day for sports from our children’s sports to the
NFL. Every store you could ever need is open for business. “It’s Sunday, so they are closed,” is
no longer in our vocabulary. A day off from work, oh yeah, I’ll use this day to catch up on chores
and projects. We’ve had to squeeze church into our schedules, making us more exhausted and
that’s not the intention of worship. I say all of this with understanding and grace. My goodness,
when I was on maternity leave, Douglas, Marius and I made it to worship twice. Once here and
once at my home church. But to be exhausted by worship and the Sabbath, our Sundays, is not
how it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a day of rest. Worship is supposed to be a place to
find renewal, a quietness with God. A place where people are metaphorically fed and healed,
like Jesus reminded the Pharisees. As place that isn’t supposed to drain you, but instead give
you life.
Jesus reminds us that the Sabbath was made for us. For you and me. A gift that if we
choose to be a part of will give us life and renewal. A place away from the busyness of the
world. A place where you can stop and breathe, rest and be yourself. How can we savor the
Sabbath and enjoy the life-giving treat where for an hour, one hour all we have to do is be. Be
right here with God and each other. What a gift, what a treat if we choose to embrace it.