Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath & A Man with a Withered Hand

Gospel Meditation

Luke 6:1–11

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         Over the centuries laws regarding what was permissible to do on the Sabbath, 6pm Friday to 6pm Saturday, grew immensely. The focus was on any form of work. The Pharisees, (today the Orthodox) in particular, observed these.

2.         The disciples of Jesus picked off heads of grain (wheat, barley?) and ate the kernels. (Note that Jesus did not miraculously provide for them.)

3.         Some Pharisees, and we might ask, “What were they doing there?”, complained. And Jesus reminded them that even David and his men, when hungry and fleeing from Saul, ate the bread of the Presence, which only the priests had a right to.

4.         Then Jesus said, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath,” thereby identifying Himself as the Messiah and thus could act as did David.

5.         On yet another Sabbath, Jesus, while teaching in a synagogue, healed a man who had a withered hand, and it was his right hand, his ‘working’ hand, a very serious injury.

6.         Jesus asked the man to come forward, stand before Him, and asked a question about doing good (seen as working) on the Sabbath. Jesus then asked the man to stretch out his hand and when he did, it was healed.

7.         No rejoicing by the scribes and Pharisees; rather they were filled with a senseless fury and began to think of ways to stand against Jesus.

Jesus Calls Levi & A Question About Fasting

Gospel Meditation

Luke 5:27–39

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         Jesus observed a tax collector named Levi (later to be known as Matthew) sitting at his station.  Jesus said to him, “follow me” and he did, abruptly leaving everything behind.

2.         Levi threw a big dinner party at his home and other tax collectors joined in. Some Pharisees and scribes, observing this, wondered how it was that this Jesus would have anything to do with such sinners.

3.         Jesus, sensing this “righteous” attitude stated that only those who were sick needed a physician. Then He uttered the incredible fact that He had come to call “sinners to repentance.”

4.         Jesus’ detractors reminded Him that John’s (the Baptist) followers fasted but that His did not, which was not proper in their eyes.

5.         Jesus, using an analogy from Jewish weddings, in that while the bridegroom is there at the festivities, there is no fasting. But when the bridegroom is gone, and the party is over, then there will be fasting.

6.         Jesus then gives out two parables about practical things, one, not sewing new cloth to patch old garments and two, not putting new (unfermented)d wine into old wine skins. In both cases, the cloth and the new wine would be lost.

7.         Here now was being observed new cloth and new wine. Jesus would not adhere to the old, and useless ways of the Law keepers.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

Gospel Meditation

Luke 5:17–26

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         Yet early in Jesus’ ministry, many of the religious establishment were coming to hear him, and here now are the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees, perhaps even Essenes, and these from all over.

2.         One day, sitting to teach in the home of what most commentators think is that of a wealthy person, a group of four (Mark tells us there were four), bring to Jesus a man who cannot walk, a paralytic.

3.         Unable to gain access to Jesus due to the large crowd, they climbed up, likely by means of an external staircase, to what is likely a flat roof made up of sun hardened mud slabs or tiles.

4.         They lower the paralytic, lying on a bed of some sort, to the room Jesus is in. Jesus takes this event as one of faith, that these men thought Jesus could heal their friend.

5.         Jesus’ opening statement is, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Whereupon the religious folk thought they were hearing Jesus utter blasphemous words. Jesus could detect their mumblings and asks which is easier to forgive sin or heal an obvious serious physical malady.

6.         For the first time Jesus utters to words, “Son of Man,” code for Messiah, and says to the paralytic, “rise and pick up your bed and go home.”

7.         The result was that “awe” and the Greek the word is best translated “fear,” those who witnessed the miracle said that they had seen “extraordinary things today.”

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

Luke 5:12–16

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         While Jesus was travelling in Galilee, he is approached by a man with leprosy. This skin disease took many forms, and one could pass it on to others by a mere touch.

2.         The diseased man, taking a great risk by being around others in a city, saw Jesus, approached Him, fell on his face and begged Jesus to heal him, if He would.

3.         Jesus reached out and touched the man and said, “I will; be clean.” The touching could have put Jesus into real trouble from others, of course Jesus knew this, but did it anyway.

4.         In an instant the man was healed, which is typical of Jesus’ other healing. There was no period of time elapsing between word or touch and the complete healing.

5.         Jesus then commands the man to perform what the Law of Moses said, this found in Leviticus 13 and 14, so we see Jesus being obedient to the Law.

6.         The word of the healing, so very dramatic, spread far and wide with great crowds coming to Jesus. And Jesus, it is assumed, both continued to teach and heal.

7.         After some unknown period of time, Jesus withdrew to desolate places, we imagine deserts, to pray.

8.         Here we see both the divine nature and human nature of Jesus. His need for prayer is a reminder to us of our need to spend time with our Lord in prayer.