The Lord of Worship

Luke 5:33–6:11

Main Idea: May the Lord himself cure the lurking Pharisee and scribe in us all.

1. Should We Fast and Pray or Eat and Drink (5:33-39)?
   1. The religion of the Pharisees denies pleasure (5:33).
   2. Faith in Jesus is all about joy (5:34-35)!
   3. Faith in Jesus begins a new era (5:36-39).
2. Should We Serve the Law or Serve the Son (6:1-5)?
   1. Jesus has not broken the law.
   2. Jesus owns the law.
3. Should We Do Good and Save or Do Harm and Destroy (6:6-11)?

Every Easter we Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. As surely as Easter comes every year, network television stations will broadcast special programs about Jesus. “Who is Jesus?” “Was Jesus actually the person most Christians believe him to be, or was he some other kind of figure?”

The speculations will not end with questions about Jesus’s identity. They will continue with questions about what it “truly” means to follow Jesus. How you follow Jesus depends on what you think you know about him.

No doubt there will be rival interpretations of these questions. Some shows will do a better job than others at reporting the various points of view. One of the problems that comes with this treatment is that no point of view is dismissed as improbable, and some are privileged. Usually the privileged points of view have very little to do with the Jesus we find in the Bible.

If we want to know Jesus, we must consider him as he reveals himself in the Gospels. We don’t want to know Jesus as scholars or television producers present him. As we look to the Bible, we will discover that a clear understanding of who Jesus is profoundly affects how we worship him.

Two major sets of characters involved in our text are the Pharisees and scribes. These two parties in ancient Judaism were significant in shaping the worship of ancient Israel. The Pharisees were the “Bible guys.” They were the ancient equivalent of the fundamentalists. They believed in the Bible. They believed in miracles. They were strict in their observance of biblical rules. In fact, they loved the law, or the rules of God. The scribes were the teachers of the law. They explained God’s word to God’s people.

Often we find the scribes and Pharisees in cahoots with one another. That fact prompted me to ask myself, Why are the scribes and Pharisees so often mentioned in the Gospels? They garner a lot of real estate in the Gospels. One answer is obvious: they are the major villains in the story. Their actions lead to the crucifixion of the Lord.

There may be a second reason the scribes and Pharisees are so often mentioned in the Gospels. The Pharisees and scribes are us—at least the temptation to become Pharisees is common to us all. That temptation first manifests itself in wrong thoughts about who Jesus is and how to follow him. The temptation prompts three questions on the nature of Christian worship:

Should We Fast and Pray or Eat and Drink?

Luke 5:33-39

The Religion of the Pharisees Denies Pleasure (5:33)

Verse 33 continues with the scene started in verse 27. The Lord Jesus visits the house of a new disciple. Levi, a tax collector, calls together “a large company of tax collectors and others” (v. 29) for a dinner party with Jesus. Scribes and Pharisees visit Levi’s home too, but they grumble and complain that Jesus eats with sinners (v. 30).

The conversation at the dinner party continues at Verse 33. The scribes and Pharisees challenge the Lord by saying, “John’s disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but yours eat and drink.” They continue to think that Jesus’s attendance at a dinner party scandalizes religion.

The comment assumes that abstaining from eating and drinking is better than partaking. The comment illustrates that the scribes and Pharisees are religious ascetics, people who believe you must avoid all forms of pleasure or self-indulgence as an act of self-discipline for religious purpose. The ascetic believes abstaining makes you godlier and that it pleases God. They think the severe treatment of the body and avoiding pleasure leads to holiness (see Col 2:20-23).

In that way the Pharisees also seem to assume that religion is not about joy. They are suspicious of joy. Religion is not supposed to make you happy. Happiness, in their mind, gets in the way of religious devotion. For them, asceticism is better than joy.

But on what basis do they believe this? They rest their argument on the authority of their own example and tradition. They contend, “The Pharisees’ disciples fast and pray. So why don’t your disciples do it?” Their comment and their way of thinking are really self-righteousness. They cite their own authority not the Scriptures. They generalize from their example to everyone else.

The first step in becoming a self-righteous religious Pharisee is using our personal religious example as a requirement for everyone else to obey.

What does Jesus think about all of this? The Lord gives a two-part reply.

Faith in Jesus Is All About Joy! (5:34-35)

Our Lord uses a wedding analogy. Ancient Jewish weddings had three basic phases. First there was the contract, when the parents of the bride and groom agreed their children would marry and a bride price was given to the father of the bride. That contract, according to Jewish law, effectively began a marriage, though the couple did not yet live together as husband and wife. Second came an indefinite period of time when the groom returned to his father’s house to prepare a place for himself and his bride. Meanwhile, the bride was to watch for his return and ready herself for a marriage that could take place at any time. Not until everything was ready and her father gave him permission could the groom return to his bride for the actual wedding celebration. The wedding celebration marked the third phase. It was often a seven-day period full of dancing, music, food, and drink. Finally, after the celebration came the consummation, when husband and wife began to live together in marriage.

With the metaphor in verse 34, the Lord seems to be referring to the celebration. The bridegroom’s coming was a time of joy and indulgence, not gloom and denial. No one during a wedding celebration would expect the guests to fast; it is time for rejoicing and thanksgiving. So it is with his disciples. They are the guests at the wedding. Jesus is the bridegroom, the one they have been waiting for. He is here to gather his bride. This is cause for rejoicing!

What Jesus says to those who have ears to hear is that following him is all about joy! It’s about delight. It’s about gladness. It’s about feasting. It’s about the great sumptuous meal the Savior spreads before us. To discover who Jesus is and to receive him as Lord and Savior is to find your greatest happiness. Finding Jesus is entering into a celebration far longer than seven days; it is an eternal joy.

In Matthew 13:44 Jesus uses a parable to describe the kingdom of heaven: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field” (emphasis added). The kingdom that Jesus brings is so overwhelmingly wonderful that with joy we give up everything else in order to have this one treasure—namely Jesus himself. Christians are those who finally have discovered the fountain of joy in Christ! When we are with him, we celebrate.

Faith in Jesus Begins a New Era (5:36-39)

The Lord compares this situation to a new garment and new wine. With this second parable the Lord teaches that a new era has arrived. There’s a significant change in the administration of God’s saving purposes in the world.

Imagine coming home from the mall with a new shirt or pants. Who takes that new shirt or pants, cuts off a piece, and then sews it onto some old ratty shirt or pants from college? Nobody does that. The Lord says, even if you did, the new piece will not match the old piece (v. 36).

Likewise, “no one puts new wine into old wineskins” (v. 37). The new wine will burst the old wineskins—wasting the skins and spilling the wine. It ruins everything. New wine and old wineskins are incompatible. You need supple wineskins that are appropriate for the new wine (v. 38). Also, if you have a taste for the old, you will not want the new (v. 39).

The old garment and old wineskins represent the old worship of Israel. Their view of fasting and their view of approaching God were part of the old covenant. But a new covenant was about to be offered in the blood and body of Christ. That’s the new wine and new cloth. The old and the new do not mix or match. You cannot pour Christ into the old wineskins of the Mosaic law. He bursts those skins, and you lose Christ (Gal 5:1-6). You cannot attach Christ to the garment of the old system. He doesn’t match, and trying to attach him will “tear the new” (v. 36) work of Christ apart. If you have been worshiping God in some old, man-made way, then the newness of the kingdom cannot be held in your wineskins.

We cannot have the gospel with just a little touch of law and legalism. We cannot have the law with just a few ounces of “Jesus” poured in. The gospel is an entirely different garment—a complete garment in itself. The gospel requires the fresh wineskins of New Testament Christianity for the fresh wine it brings. Those who drink the old religion of self-righteousness will not enjoy the new wine of the gospel (v. 39). There’s something about legalism and self-righteousness that is natural to us. We are tempted to cling to it and to reject the new vintage that is altogether different.

Perhaps you have been thinking about God and how to worship him. Perhaps you have some ideas, maybe even some rules. If that is you, this text screams out to you, “Do not develop rules for self-­righteousness! You will not earn your way to God’s favor. You cannot pray enough, fast enough, or do any religious thing enough to satisfy God’s righteousness.” So do not hang on to self-righteousness. Even our best deeds have enough sin mixed with them to condemn us before a perfectly holy God.

Our righteousness must not be trusted. Our righteousness admits too many weaknesses and imperfections. It will never be sturdy enough to build a ladder to heaven. So we must repent before God of our righteousness. We must abandon our righteousness so that we can receive the righteousness of another—the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ the Savior. He obeyed God perfectly where we failed. In obedience to the law in order to satisfy the law, Christ gave himself as a sacrifice for us to pay the penalty of our sins. In that penalty payment and through the righteousness of Christ, sinners are reconciled to God and forgiven. Through faith in Christ, we begin to follow Jesus in a way that God would recognize as worship.

Christian, be careful of holding others to your example rather than to the Scriptures rightly understood. It is easy to think an application appropriate to us, or a practice that seems to serve us, ought to be followed by everyone else. It is easy to slide over to the authority of our own example while thinking we stand on the authority of Scripture. We become Pharisees when we do that.

So let me offer a simple lesson on applying Scripture. There are necessary applications and possible applications. Necessary applications apply to all. They follow directly from the text of the Bible. For example, the command “Do not covet” (Exod 20:17) applies to us all and forbids any type of envy we can conceive. How we keep that command may vary. One person may say, “I will not watch commercials in order not to covet.” That’s great for you. That’s one possible application, but it’s not necessary for everyone to observe. The Pharisees take the possible and make it necessary for all people all the time. By doing so they effectively destroy Christian joy and Christian freedom. The Lord frees us from Pharisaism by binding our consciences to his Word, not to the preferences of men. Only the Word of God can legitimately bind the conscience.

That brings us to our second question.

Should We Serve the Law or Serve the Son?

Luke 6:1-5

Pharisees don’t give up easily. They tend to show up again and again, especially around religious times, like the Sabbath. Verse 1 says the disciples were going through “grainfields.” This means they were in a rural area. They plucked enough grain to rub together in their hands. They were not exactly farming with large reapers. How did the Pharisees know that a few men walking in grainfields had rubbed a little grain in their hands? The Pharisees are all in the business. They are stalking Jesus. They spy on him and his disciples, looking for a way to trap him. You know you are being a Pharisee when you start inspecting grain!

They raise their concern in verse 2. They now switch from the authority of their own example to what they think is the authority of the Scriptures. God commanded Israel to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy by not working but resting. The Sabbath is patterned after the days of creation. God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. When God established a covenant with Israel, he commanded that Israel rest on the seventh day just as he did.

Breaking the Sabbath by working required the death penalty in ancient Israel. Because of this stiff penalty, we can well understand why faithful Israelites would want to understand exactly what is meant by “work” on the Sabbath. So they devised rules and lists for defining “work” on the Sabbath. You could not walk very far or it was considered work. You could not cook on the Sabbath. You could not light a fire. And on it went. Pretty soon, according to the Pharisees’ rules, it became almost impossible to keep the Sabbath. So to the Pharisees, walking through a field and picking a handful of grain was profaning the Sabbath.

In verse 2 their question seems to spring from an assumption that keeping Sabbath regulations was more important than the needs of people—in this case, hunger. Because they elevate law over people, they become hard toward people and indifferent toward needs. They do not understand Hosea 6:6, which says, “I desire faithful love and not sacrifice.” The Pharisees desire the opposite. They want sacrificial obedience to the law instead of loving mercy to fellow Israelites in need.

Here then is the second step in becoming a religious Pharisee: Make our religious rules more important than Jesus himself. They do this because they want Jesus to submit to their rules. They want Jesus under their law.

Jesus Has Not Broken the Law

The Pharisees charge the Lord with breaking the law. The Lord’s first reply is simple: He has done no such thing (vv. 3-5).

In fact, the Lord calls on another section of the Scripture, the history of Israel’s greatest and most celebrated king, David. In 1 Samuel 21:1-6 David is not yet king. He is running from King Saul, who is trying to kill him because David is God’s chosen king to replace Saul. While on the run, David and his men grow hungry. There’s only one safe place they can go: the temple. In the temple there was always to be “the Bread of the Presence” (v. 6) kept before God as a memorial. The only people who could eat that bread at the end of the prescribed time were the priests. David and his men ate the bread with the priest’s blessing. Yet nowhere does the Bible rebuke or condemn David for doing so.

Jesus reads the Old Testament narrative as applicable for his day and situation. Maybe the Pharisees object, “But David did not eat the bread on the Sabbath. It was a different day of the week and an extraordinary circumstance.” When Matthew writes about this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees, he adds an important detail. In Matthew 12:5-7 Jesus says,

Or haven’t you read in the law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” you would not have condemned the innocent. (Emphasis added.)

Have you ever wondered to yourself, If God forbids work on the Sabbath, how does he regard the priests who work on the Sabbath? The priests are the holy representatives of God before the people. Each Sabbath is full of work for them, and yet God does not regard it as sin. This is the Lord’s point. In Matthew’s account the Lord adds, “I tell you that something greater than the temple is here” (Luke 6:5). In Luke’s account that comment stands right next to Jesus saying, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8).

Jesus Owns the Law

What they do not yet see as they look to trap Jesus is that Jesus is greater than their law. He is not meant to submit to their law. He is Lord over the true law of God.

Luke 6:5 says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” As Lord of the Sabbath, he rules the Sabbath. He can only rule the Sabbath if, in fact, he owns it. He can only own it if he is the one who made it and gave it. The seventh day—like all days—is put beneath the Lord’s feet. Verse 5 is a powerful statement from Jesus’s own mouth that he is God. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, not servant to it, and he is guiltless before it.

When the scribes and Pharisees get legalistic about the Sabbath, they enslave men to the Sabbath as if the Sabbath were the greatest thing. But here before them is one greater than the temple, as Matthew tells us, and greater than the Sabbath. He is the Great Lawgiver who interprets the meaning of the law without any error.

Mark records this scene in his Gospel, too. Mark 2:27 adds one further thing. The Lord Jesus says there, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”

The Pharisees serve the law, but the law was meant to serve them. The law was intended to protect them from overwork and the idolatry of work. It was to protect them from the routine that regularly forgets God by reminding them for a full day at the least that God is their God and they are his people. God gave the Sabbath to refresh the souls and bodies of people by having them meet with the Lord. How kind of God to dedicate an entire day for us to do nothing but know him, meet with him, enjoy him, and find ourselves refreshed by him. This is why good worship never exhausts but fills, energizing and making ready.

This is why neglecting the Lord’s Day brings such self-harm. We harm ourselves when we busy ourselves with the world’s pursuits or the work we bring home. This may not be wrong in itself, but it’s not the best thing. The best thing is what Mary discovered sitting at the Lord’s feet, hearing his voice, enjoying the needful thing, being refreshed by his presence (Luke 10:39).

If we’re going to worship in a manner that pleases God, we must serve the Son. When we serve the Son we discover that the law was made for us, to bless us not to burden us. That’s the case with all of God’s Word, but it’s especially the case with the law about keeping the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a shrine in time. It’s not a holy place but a holy period. It’s time dedicate d to rest and refreshment with the Lord. God made the Sabbath so that we would have a regular day for meeting with him and having our souls revived. The Sabbath was a gift to Israel, just as the Lord’s Day (Sunday) is a gift to the church.

Jesus, the Lawgiver, has not come to demand that we obey the law. This is what makes Pharisaical religion so odious to God. Pharisees demand we keep the law when even the Lawgiver does not demand that for righteousness. We have already failed at keeping the law. The law requires that we die for that failure. But Jesus has come to perfectly fulfill the law (Matt 5:17) and to pay the penalty the law requires. Every demand that God places on us, Jesus Christ has fulfilled—even the keeping of the Sabbath. That is why Jesus lives a perfect life in obedience to God: to offer to God the righteousness we do not have. And that is why Jesus voluntarily and lovingly sacrifices himself on the cross: to pay the penalty of death and to suffer God’s condemnation in our place. Everyone who believes in this Jesus stops trying to work their way to God and, turning from any hopes of self-righteousness, they enter into the true rest, an unending Sabbath, based on faith.

That is why the writer of Hebrews tells us the real Sabbath is, first, ceasing from working to earn righteousness with God and, second, by faith in Christ entering the rest that Jesus gives (Heb 4). The Sabbath, like all the law, prophesies about the coming of Christ and a coming rest. That rest is not merely the seventh day, but eternity. We who believe have rested from our war with sin and have entered the rest Christ purchased by his blood. In that rest we flourish without effort. This is the true Sabbath, and all who believe in Christ live in it.

Should we serve the law or serve the Son? Oh, beloved, serve the Son and find rest for your souls.

Should We Do Good and Save or Do Harm and Destroy?

Luke 6:6-11

Verses 6-11 provide us with another encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees “on another Sabbath” (v. 6). Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, and there’s a man there “whose right hand has shriveled” (v. 6). The scribes and Pharisees are up to their old tricks. They “were watching [Jesus] closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him” (v. 7).

Can I say a word to any skeptics among us? As a skeptic, you are doubtful about Jesus and the claims of Christianity. The scribes and Pharisees represent your position. I think God has kindly included them in the Gospel narratives so that you can learn from their mistake. They watched Jesus, not to find evidence that would lead them to Jesus, but to find something to accuse him with. They are in the synagogue on the day of worship hearing the word of God taught, literally looking for a miracle—a miracle they know he can do and have seen before—not so they can believe in him, but so they can reject him. In the social sciences we call this “confirmation bias.” Confirmation bias happens when a person takes whatever evidence that is contrary to their position and interprets it in a way that confirms their position. When we operate with a confirmation bias, we do not really adjust our thinking with the new evidence presented. We rearrange the evidence to leave our bias undisturbed. That is not honest thinking.

If you are skeptical of Jesus, beware this kind of confirmation bias. It will blind you just as it did the Pharisees and scribes. Do not repeat the Pharisees’ mistake. See the evidence. Let it speak for itself. Then follow the evidence where it leads. Pay particular attention when the evidence feels most threatening or inconvenient to you. That is where your bias will be lurking.

The Lord has a wonderful sense of the dramatic. He calls the man to himself in front of them all and immediately heals the man’s hand (v. 8). Our Lord knows what they think, so he’s setting up a confrontation—not so much between himself and them but between what they are thinking and what they know is right. Our Lord publicly shames them by asking the powerful question of verse 9—“I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

It’s like asking, Why would healing on the Sabbath be a problem? Healing is good. It relieves suffering. It restores the body. All of us would want to be healed were we sick. So Jesus effectively asks, “What is it about your understanding of the Sabbath, a holy day, that prevents people from doing holy and good things to bless others?”

The scribes and Pharisees seem to assume their religious rules for the Sabbath are more important than the need of the people worshiping on the Sabbath. That’s the third step in becoming a religious Pharisee. Their rules become more important than life itself.

Our Lord’s question adjusts their thinking and our thinking, doesn’t it? Consider how Jesus thinks in verse 9. The question assumes (1) doing harm to anyone is not lawful; (2) destroying life is not lawful; and (3) it is always the right time to do good and save life. These simple statements seem obvious, don’t they? But our religious rules and our biases can blind us to the obvious.

We might put it this way: To fail to do good or save life when you can is, in fact, to do harm and destroy life. There’s no neutrality in the worship that Jesus teaches and models for us. We cannot pretend to worship Jesus if we refuse to help those in need

So, as Christians who follow the Lord, we cannot be silent about the plight of the unborn because we are on the way to worship—as if there exists a way to worship that calls a time out on saving life. As Christians, we cannot avoid developing a Christian view of Black Lives Matter because black lives do matter. We cannot excuse ourselves from thinking this through because “it’s time to preach the gospel”—as if the gospel has nothing to say about doing good and saving life. We cannot pit eternality against temporality. Sometimes you have to save a physical life in order to have an opportunity to save a soul.

We don’t have to sign off on everything that comes under the banner of “Black Lives Matter” any more than we have to sign off on everything that comes under the banner of “the pro-life movement.” We do not endorse the shooting of abortion clinic doctors. We intend to save lives not take them. We do not endorse riots in the cause of protecting black lives. We are interested in the saving of life as a Christian obligation and responsibility as we follow our Lord and proclaim his gospel. There is no contradiction in these things.

The religious Pharisee in us would tempt us to think we cannot both proclaim the message of eternal life and defend the sanctity of all human life. We can do both things in the course of a sermon. So we must strive to do both things in the course of our daily lives.

Our worship must propel us to do good and to save lives. And it is always the right time to do what is right. That’s our Savior’s example here.

Conclusion

Becoming Pharisees is easy. All we need to do is

• require everyone to follow our personal religious example and judge them when they fail;
• make our religious rules more important than Jesus himself; and
• make our religious rules more important than the well-being of others around us.

We might be surprised at how easily our hearts slide in this direction. But worship that pleases the Lord has a very different character. God-pleasing worship

• emphasizes our joy not merely our duty;
• frees us to serve the Son rather than to attempt our own righteousness by the law; and
• frees us to do good and save life in the midst of worship as an act of worship.

Christ Jesus has come to save sinners so that we might truly worship. He is the Lord of worship and tells us what pleases him.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Consider the Pharisees and scribes. The Pharisees emphasize rule keeping, and the scribes often denied fundamental truths of the faith. Which tendency do you most often notice in your life? In the church?
2. What do you think is the relationship between happiness and holiness? Can you think of any biblical passages to support your view?
3. Have you ever thought about the distinction between necessary and possible applications of the Bible? How does maintaining that distinction promote freedom in the Christian life?
4. How commonly do you think Christians hold others to their personal rules instead of to the necessary application of Scripture?
5. What would you say is the difference between obeying God’s Word and creating religious rules that we try to hold others to? Do you think it’s ever appropriate to treat our religious rules as more important than people? Why or why not?
6. Our Lord takes the opportunity to heal a person in the middle of religious worship. What does that teach us about true worship?
7. What good things do you feel the Lord calling you to do in the church and the community?