Jesus, Lord of All!

Luke 6:1-19

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

1 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. 2 And some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"

3 But Jesus answering them said, "Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?" 5 And He said to them, "The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."

Healing on the Sabbath

6 Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. 8 But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, "Arise and stand here." And he arose and stood. 9 Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?" 10 And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 11 But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

The Twelve Apostles

12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13 And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; 15 Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

Jesus Heals a Great Multitude

17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, 18 as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

Jesus is Lord of and over all.  As Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus had the authority to do work with His disciples that they might eat just as His earthly ancestor King David did by eating the showbread in the holy place when he and his followers were hungry (1 Samuel 21:6).  This food on the Sabbath day of rest was consecrated for the priests to eat of whom David as the leader in the lineage of the Messiah was in a sense and which Jesus as the Most High Priest (Hebrews 4:14, 6:20) was completely holy and worthy of all consecrated offerings to Himself as Lord.  Therefore as the Son of Man in the line of David and Son of God from before time began, Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath rest into which He invites His followers to partake with Him as perfectly lawful on the sacred day of the Sabbath rest since He Himself is that rest (Hebrews 4:2-3) which we enter by faith.  Hebrews 4:9-10 reminds us that we stop our vain attempts to earn God’s favor for salvation by working our way there and that no symbolic Sabbath day can bring us into eternal rest that is only found in Jesus who Himself is our Sabbath in whom we find rest for our weary souls (Matthew 11:29).  As such, having fulfilled the requirements of the Law He became our rest by faith and is the sovereign ruler over that shadow rest of the true as much as the eternal sacrifice of Himself was offered once for all (Hebrews 7:27, 10:10) and need not be repeated ever again.  This is what Jesus Christ meant when He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath and could heal and feed those who follow by faith in Him on the shadow of the true Sabbath being followed each week in anticipation of His coming.  We find our sabbath rest in the work and person of Christ Jesus, not in keeping a ceremonial version of rest as God did from His works since we now rest from ours in His on the cross for us.  Jesus further demonstrated this by healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day in the presence of judgmental religious witnesses in the synagogue where He was teaching them about the kingdom of heaven.  He pointedly asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” in order to drive the point home that God made rest for man, not man to blindly serve the ceremonial Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28).  This truth set the religious observers of this day in a rage against the LORD God (Psalm 2:1-2) and His Anointed Christ.  After these things, Jesus chose the twelve He called to be apostles from His followers (disciples) after a long night in prayer with His Father.  This call was followed by more work of the Christ to heal the body and soul (Isaiah 53:5-6, 11 and 1 Peter 2:24-25) of the multitudes below.  We find eternal sabbath rest from our works in the One who worked righteousness for us and invites us into Himself that we may be made perfectly well in His sight.  His stripes of punishment were ours but Jesus took them to make us acceptable to the Father as we enter that rest that we might have true healing of our souls.  Jesus is Lord of all!