Lifestyle of a True Christian-Luke 6:1-16
Luke 6:1-16
Key verse: 6:9Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
Luke 6 covers many events: What is the point of all these stories? From these events, we learn the lifestyle of a true Christian. A major theme that under girds Luke chapter 6 is that God is kind and merciful. In verse 6:1-11, we learn that Christian lifestyle is not a matter of following religious ceremonies but it is displaying God’s kindness and mercy. Christian life is not information, but transformational. When we personally and intimately know our kind and merciful God, God enables us to live transformational lives.
FIRST, FIND REST IN GOD. (1-11). Let us look at verse 1 and 2 “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”Jesus’ ministry was in its initial stage. Jesus was full of vision to spread the gospel. His love for sinners and his vision for world salvation compelled him to work hard, even on the Sabbath. For his young disciples, it was not easy to keep up with Jesus. Jesus worked so hard to heal the sick and preach the good news of the kingdom of God that they scarcely had time to eat and sleep. According to John 4:32, Jesus’ food was doing the work of God. However, the disciples were more interested physical food. In those days they didn’t have drive-thru. So the disciples tried to make every opportunity to find food. One day as they were going through fields of grains. The disciples decided to help themselves with some free energy food. They started to pick heads of grain and eat them. It was fine to eat any other day. But the day they ate in abundance was the Sabbath day. From the stalks of grain, popped the religious leaders, they pointed their scrawny fingers at the disciples and asked “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” They broke the law by “working” on the Sabbath day.
Let us think for a moment about the origin of the Sabbath day and why it was such an important day. The term “Sabbath” derives from the Hebrew Shabbat meaning “to cease.” It means to cease from any type of “work”. It was first used in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation (Genesis 2:3). On the seventh day, God rested after six days of creating the world. God was so serious about resting that it was included as part of the 10 commandments. However, we should not ignore the first part of the commandment. “…six days you shall labor and do your work.” God worked hard to create the world in six days. In the same way, we must work hard for six days. St. Paul was very serious about keeping the first part. He said if a man does not work he shall not eat. As Christian we must work hard at school and our jobs. Col 3:23 says, we should work hard with all our hearts as if working for the Lord. It is interesting to note the religious leaders did not make an issue with the six days. Perhaps they ignore this part of the command and just took it easy the first six days. God is not a slave driver. He knows we need a time of rest. So God blessed man with the Sabbath day. The Word of God makes it quite clear that Sabbath observance should be a lasting ordinance for generations (Exodus 31:16–17). Why do we need a time of rest? It is because, we get tired. We live in a curse world. During those six days, we get really tired from work, dealing with difficult people, traffic jams, family life, exams, etc. Not only this, we are burdened by weighted down by guilt, shame, fear, selfishness. We are oppressed, depressed, compressed and repressed. God knows we need some time off.
How do most people find rest? Generally, people think rest is mainly physically. The media bombards us with products and services that provide endless comfort and ease. Even though we have many choices that provide physical rest, we still remain a society of restless people. In fact, the desire for more physical rest has caused more problems than it solves. When we considered of some of the causes of the recession, we can all agree that greed is the main reason for the current recession. But a more subtle reason is the desire for more physical rest and comfort. People try to buy things that comfort and provide rest that they can’t afford. Still rest escapes them. Many are tormented by personal demons; they are like Cain who became a “restless” wanderer. One person who came back from a vacation said he needed “a vacation after a vacation.” Some have resorted to wild drinking parties, divorce, drugs, medication, violence and suicide to find rest. Blaise Pascal, a Christian scientist and philosopher said “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.” No created thing can fill our hearts with rest, only our Creator God.
What does Jesus say about rest? Then Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’” Here the “Son of Man” is Jesus himself. Basically, he was saying, “I define what it means to rest means.” Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me all you who are weary and burden and I will give you rest.” Jesus understands we need physical rest, but most of all we need spiritual rest. We need time to unwind and recharge our spiritual batteries. We need time to restore our spirit. We need time to re-examine our values and priorities, reconnect with God and with others. Jesus states that true rest for our souls can only be found in him alone. Jesus gives us true rest because he cleanses us from sins, the real source of our restlessness. Practically, we can find rest when we deeply accept God’s word in our hearts. We can have rest when we do not live for the perishing things of this world, but put our hope in the kingdom of God and treasure in heaven. When we do, then every day becomes a Sabbath day, a day of true rest.
SECOND, CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT A INFORMATIONAL BUT TRANSFORMATIONALAs we learn, God gave us the Sabbath day to rest. But in Jesus’ day the Sabbath began to lose its meaning. In Jesus’ day, the day of rest became a day of stress! It finally became the most painful day of the week. It was a day of tremendous restriction and imposition. For example, in the Talmud there are 24 chapters of Sabbath laws. The Sabbath became a complex system of “dos and don’ts” by which you could earn your salvation. For example, one Sabbath rule states that you could not travel more that 3,000 feet from your home. You could not eat food larger that an olive. In some modern buildings occupied by orthodox Jews, they have something called a Sabbath elevator. The interesting thing about this elevator is that there are no buttons. It automatically goes to each floor. Why? Because pushing a button is defined as “working.” In this passage, the disciples were guilty of working on the Sabbath. By picking heads of grain, they were harvesting; by rubbing them in their hands, they were threshing; by removing the husks, they were winnowing.
Since Jesus is the “Lord of the Sabbath” He shows what should be done on the Sabbath. Our Christian lifestyle should show God’s kindness and mercy. Our Christian life should not be informational but transformational. What is an informational lifestyle? The religious leaders lived like this. They had a lot of information in their heads. They memorized the 24 chapters of “do’s and don’ts”. They were “experts” in the law. However, all their Biblical knowledge did not transform others. People felt burden by informational overload regarding the rules of the Sabbath. Perhaps they were fearful of stepping out of the door and getting caught and fined by the Sabbath police. God does not call us to have a lot of information. God called us to lives that are transformational. What does it mean to live a transformational life? 1 Peter 2:12 says “People who don’t believe might say you are doing wrong. But lead good lives among them. Then they will see your good works. And they will give glory to God on the day he comes to judge.”(NIRV). In business school, they teach transformational leadership. It is defined as leaders who inspire them. It is a person who plants vision and passion to achieve great things. It motivates people to get things done with enthusiasm and energy. Jesus’ lifestyle and leadership was always transformational. He inspired and motivated others because he display God’s mercy and kindness. Whomever Jesus met, He rekindled hope and passion; he healed and restored. Jesus could have attacked the religious leaders, instead he wanted to transform their lives. Jesus decided to help the religious leaders learn God’s mercy and kindness through the story of David and the healing of a man with a shriveled hand.
Jesus told his accuser a story about David and a merciful priest named Abimelech. Since Abimelech was a priest, it might strike a chord in their hearts since they themselves were of the same profession. David was on the verge of starvation. He went for days without food trying to escape King Saul’s murderous plots. One day he entered the temple of God. Abimelech was there. Apparently, there was no food available. Maybe Abimelech did not go grocery shopping for the week. The only food that was left was holy bread which was allowable for priest to eat. Abimelech could have become legalistic and refused to give him the bread. When the priest Abimelech saw David, he offered him consecrated bread without second thought. The priest Ahimelech, understood that displaying compassion, and kindness, and goodness, is more important than ceremony. Jesus hoped that the religious leaders would understand and be compassionate to his disciples. The book “Les Miserable” is a story of the life of Jean Valjean’s life. His life was changed because of a priest who displayed God’s kindness and mercy. Jean Valjean was guilty of stealing the some of the church’s valuables. When the police caught Jean, the priest could have confronted and said “You did what was unlawful, go to jail!” Instead, he defended Jean and said “he gave it to him” Jean was so much moved by the priest kindness, he decided to show the same kindness to others. One of them was Cossette, the orphan daughter of a prostitute. Tim Fitch never fails to remind us of how his bible teacher Grace how she constantly loved him with God’s kindness and mercy. He said she even allowed him to stay at her house, trusting he would not trash the house. Because of this act of kindness, he is ready to display this to his wife, children and Bible students.
Jesus silenced the teachers. It doesn’t comment whether or not they thanked Jesus for helping them understand the Sabbath. The teachers of the law had a week to digest what Jesus did. They had a week to change their legalism and show mercy and kindness. Then on the next Sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue to teach, and a sorrowful man with a shriveled right hand was there (6). Since this man had a shriveled hand he could not play sports or play the piano. He was rejected and teased because of his handicap. Because of his deformity, his heart became shriveled as well. He had a deep life problem that could not be solved.
The legalistic Pharisees were there again. Did they have a change of heart? No. Look at verse 7. It says “they were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus.” Their eyes were focused on the man with the shriveled hand. It was a great tragedy that they saw this man as bait to trap Jesus. They absolutely had no concern about this man’s life problem. What did Jesus do before such intimidating Pharisees who wanted to slander and discredit him? Read verses 8-10. “But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, ‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.’ Jesus had deep sorrow in his heart because they had no compassion for this suffering man. They were supposed to be Israel’s teacher and shepherd, but they did not have one ounce of compassion. So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.” In this way, Jesus revealed his mercy and kindness to a man who had suffered so much because of his ugly shriveled right hand. Jesus again appealed to the religious leaders to do good on the Sabbath by being kind to this suffering man, rather than insist on their blind legalism of “no work allowed on the Sabbath.” Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” Jesus asked them a very simple question that even Gracie Fitch answer. But the religious leaders refused to listen to reason. They refused to respond to reason and appeal, and they began plotting Jesus’ destruction (11). Here we learn from Jesus that a transformational lifestyle is a life of doing good and to save life. A life of information is evil and destructive. We must know that legalism is always destructive and merciless (Mt 23:23-25); it never leads people to our God, who is kind even to ungrateful and wicked people. Let us examine our walk with Christ. Has our Christian life become habitual? Is our Christian life more informational than transformational? Are we just going through the motions? Are we displaying the mercy and compassion of God for upon those whose lives are shriveled? Let us come to God and remember God’s kindness and mercy upon our lives.
THIRD, CHRISTIAN LIFESTYLE MEANS A LIFE OF PRAYERRead verse 12. “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” What might Jesus have spent all night praying about? Jesus was deeply discouraged by the callous religious leaders. Perhaps Jesus felt like Elijah who said in 1 Kings 12:4 “I’ve had enough, take my life!” The religious leaders should have been the most merciful and kind and leading people to God. However, they were blocking people to know God by their legalism of using rules, laws and traditions to control people. By their legalism, they misrepresented God who is kind and merciful. Instead, by their legalism, they revealed God as a dictator who controls people’s lives, oppresses them, and lords it over them against their free will. What could Jesus’ do? He prayed! After all night prayer, Jesus received God’s wisdom and clear direction.Jesus was the son of God, yet he prayed. How much more should we? What is prayer? Life of prayer means to have total dependence on God. A life of prayer means we don’t depend on our feelings, strength and abilities, but depend on the Almighty God. It is through prayer that we can sustain our life of kindness and mercy. Without prayer, we can easily become the devil’s agent. We can degenerate to a legalistic lifestyle life the religious leaders. We should pray until God renews our hearts. We should pray until God blesses us with a merciful and compassionate heart. It is very easy for our hearts to become cold and unthankful. We can easily become apathetic and just don’t care to the needs of suffering people. We turn a blind eye to suffering people. Let us come to God in prayer. May God renew our hearts through prayer and help us to continue to show God’s mercy and kindness to young people. May God bless West Loop Church to make 1,000 friends.What the result of his prayer? Read verse 13. “When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” So with God’s wisdom, Jesus began a new history with a handful of men who were not bound by legalistic rules and traditions. He wanted to raise disciples who can be transformational.
FOURTH, CHRISTIAN LIFESTYLE MEANS LEARNING FROM JESUS’ LIFE OF MERCY AND COMPASSIONLook at verse 13. He called his disciples. A disciple is a learner. A disciple is eager to learn from a great master. A disciple is ready to learn anything from the master. Jesus wanted his disciples to learn his lifestyle of God’s mercy and compassion. Not only were they called to be disciples, they were also designated as apostles. An apostle is one who is sent out. They were called to spread the message of God’s mercy and compassion. When we consider the disciples, they were so different in character and background. Some where educated and some were not. To Jesus, these outward qualities did not really matter. To Jesus, being a disciple is a matter of the heart and attitude. Peter was a blue collar fisherman who worked hard and lived hard. There was Andrew who was a kind younger brother of Simon. There was James and John who were like ambitious business men. Philip was a brainy mathematician. Matthew like the modern day Bernie Madoff, who swindled and cheated people of their life savings. Simon the Zealot was like a modern day terrorist. There was Bartholomew who was quiet and faithful. One thing common in all of them except one, was their desire to learn from Jesus. Even though they were full of weaknesses, God can use them. Sometimes, I think the work of God can be done only through people like St. Paul, men with brilliant minds and endless energy. But God can use anybody. At West Loop we have a diverse group of people. We have people of different races, ages and backgrounds. We have artists, cab drivers, doctors, computer programmers, students, etc. God can use us if we decide to learn from Jesus.In this passage, we learn a Christian lifestyle is one who works hard six days a week and finds rest in Jesus. A Christian lifestyle is not informational but transformational. A Christian lifestyle finds renewal through prayer. Finally, a Christian lifestyle is a life of learning from Jesus. May God bless each of you to display God’s kindness and mercy.
