Friday 08/05/2026
Luke 6
What did Jesus think he was doing on the Sabbath when he picked the grain and rubbed it to separate wheat from chaff, and when he healed the man with the shrivelled hand? Surely this was ‘work’, and breaking the Sabbath law of ‘no work’ called for the death penalty (Ex 31:15)? First he claims to have a higher authority than the Sabbath law, being the one who created the Sabbath, and second he widens their understanding of the purpose of the Sabbath: it is for doing good, for saving life. It is to be life-enhancing. How shall we react to such laws and rules? Shall we be furious, like the Pharisees, that Jesus broke the law (that he had made), or shall we look to see what can be life-enhancing through keeping them?
The Revd. David Hildred
