Luke 5:33-6:16 "Calling Disciples, Cleansing the Unclean, Confronting Pharisees, Part 2" Who was Jesus? What was Jesus all about? We often try to abstract Jesus out of his setting. Jesus becomes this kind, moral teacher who makes these brilliant statements that transcend time and place. What we forget was that Jesus was a particular Jewish man, who lived in a particular place at a particular time. There is no better way to understand what Jesus was all about than by understanding his relationship with the Judaism of his day. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that Christianity only makes sense if you see it in relation to the Judaism of the Pharisees that Jesus confronted. Today we are concluding our two-part sermon on Luke 5:1-6:16. In these 55 verses Jesus is calling disciples: And as he calls disciples he is also cleansing the unclean: showing that his work of cleansing physical uncleanness points to his work in cleansing us from sin. And as he calls disciples and cleanses the unclean, Jesus is also confronting the Pharisees. In every section from 5:17-6:11 Jesus is confronting the Pharisees. Just like the "synagogue" played a key role in structuring chapter 4, so also "Pharisee" helps structure chapter 5 and the first part of chapter 6 (and then the Pharisees are only mentioned a couple of times until the end of chapter 11). Introduction: Who Were the Pharisees? Pharisaism was a religious movement within Judaism. Like most Jewish religious movements, it was based in Jerusalem, but seems to have had followers in every part of the Jewish world. There were two basic approaches within the Pharisaic movement: the school of Hillel (which was known for being more lenient and didn't want to rock the boat) and the school of Shammai (which was stricter and also more likely to support revolution against Rome). But these two schools of thought were sort of like the difference between two men in the same presbytery they might have great debates between themselves, but in the end, they're both in the same camp. Philo, a contemporary of Jesus, who lived in Egypt says that the Pharisees were "full of zeal for the laws, strictest guardians of the ancestral institutions, merciless to those who do anything to subvert them." (Quoted in Wright, JVG, 379) Both parties of the Pharisees were interested in the purity of Israel. What does purity mean? 1) ceremonial purity we looked last time at the law of the leper in Leviticus 13-14. The Pharisees insisted upon strict adherence to the Mosaic purity laws. 2) moral purity Israel must live faithfully and God's holy people. But why were the Pharisees interested in purity? Sometimes, I think, we see the legalistic tone of the Pharisees, and we stop there. Why did the Pharisees emphasize ceremonial and moral purity? Why did the Pharisees want Israel to be pure? You see, if the Pharisees simply wanted to see a ceremonially and morally pure Israel, they would have loved Jesus! We'll look next time at Luke's version of Jesus' sermon on the mount and the Pharisees would have loved that! Jesus' moral teaching was generally stuff that the Pharisees would embrace. The only way to understand why the Pharisees objected to Jesus is to understand why the Pharisees wanted to see a morally pure Israel: The Pharisees believed that God's promises to Israel would come to pass when Israel finally lived up to God's law. In other words, they read Isaiah's servant songs the ones that say, "Israel is my servant"-- and believed that Israel was God's servant who would pass through suffering and come to glory. The reason why the Pharisees wanted to see Israel achieve the ceremonial and moral purity the Law demanded was because God had promised blessing to righteous Israel. And so long as Israel continued to fail, the kingdom of God would never be established. If you want to understand the Pharisees, read the books of Maccabees. The basic point of 1 and 2 Maccabees is that God's law must be obeyed. There can be no compromise with the idolatry of the nations. The Pharisees insisted upon strict conformity to the law of God in order to protect Israel. After all, think back over Israel's history: what happened when Israel rebelled in the wilderness? God destroyed a whole generation. What happened during the apostasies in the era of the judges? God brought judgment against his people. What happened when the kings rebelled? The exile which still wasn't over, because Israel had no king! The reason why the Pharisees were upset with Jesus was not because they had a fundamental problem with his moral teaching. They might grumble at Jesus' eating with tax collectors and prostitutes, but if the result was that sinners were reformed, they might have objected to his methods but they never would have killed him! Look at our passage in Luke 5:17-6:11. What are the issues? The Pharisees object because Jesus claims to forgive sins (5:21), because he is eating with tax collectors and sinners (5:30), because his disciples are not fasting (5:33), because his disciples are breaking the Sabbath (6:2), and because Jesus is healing on the Sabbath (6:11). You might say, but pastor, with the exception of "forgiving sins" those sound like moral objections-- purity problems! It sounds like a conflict over interpretation of the law! Yes, but did you notice their response in 5:25? After Jesus says "that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins," and then heals the man, the response was "they glorified God." Who is the "they"? The Pharisees are the only "they" around. The Pharisees are the ones who have gathered to test Jesus (5:17). And while they were troubled by his claim to forgive sins, they were initially satisfied by his demonstration of power. If God has sent a prophet to forgive sins and heal the sick and bring about the restoration of Israel, the Pharisees were open-minded enough to glorify God! As long as Jesus was willing to preach an Israel-centered eschatology, the Pharisees would listen. But by 6:11 they are already talking about what to do to Jesus. So we should expect Luke 5:27-6:11 to hold the key for explaining why the Pharisees hated Jesus. Notice that the Pharisees start off by asking questions. They are troubled by Jesus's methods. But it is not his methods, or his actions, that especially bother them. It is his teaching. It is especially his eschatology. Eschatology has to do with the end. How are things going to end? The Pharisees said that the kingdom of God was about national liberation and the defeat of the pagans. The Pharisees' eschatology is orthodox Jewish eschatology. It is all about Israel finally becoming who Israel was supposed to be. At the end of history God will vindicate righteous Israel, and will destroy all their enemies (including apostate Israelites). But for Jesus, the kingdom of God begins with repenting of that attitude, (I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners!) because Israel is never going to become who Israel was supposed to be. The kingdom is not about national liberation, it is about Jesus, because Jesus is going to become who Israel was supposed to be! We saw last time the movement from Simon Peter seeing the holiness of Jesus, and falling before him saying "depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (5:8) to Jesus cleansing the leper revealing the power of his holiness to Jesus forgiving sins and finally saying that he has come to call the outcasts (not the Pharisees). The Pharisees were "the righteous." They were those who were "well," who had no need of a physician. Now in 5:33-6:11 Jesus will say things that will convince the Pharisees that he is dangerous! 1. The Old and the New (5:33-39) Jesus, why don't your disciples fast? This last Friday my presbytery had a day of prayer and fasting for the ordination of a new minister. We don't fast much anymore, so perhaps we don't understand why this was a big deal to the Pharisees. Why did the Pharisees fast? For that matter, why did the disciples of John fast? You fast for one of two reasons: either because you are about to do something, and you are asking God's blessing (Jesus' fasted in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry, Esther fasted before going in to Ahasuerus, and the elders of Antioch fasted before setting apart Barnabas and Saul), or you fast because something is wrong, and you are lamenting before God (Anna in the temple in 2:37, or Nehemiah and the people of Israel confessing their sin in Neh. 9:1). Why did the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast? Because they were lamenting-- and longing for a wedding. They were hoping and praying and fasting, awaiting the day when the kingdom of God would be reestablished. They were mourning lamenting the exile that still afflicted the people of God, as they suffered under pagan rule. And Jesus says, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? Jesus is saying, the kingdom has come in me. Zechariah 8:19 says that the fasting of Israel will turn into feasting when the kingdom is restored. This is the time of rejoicing, when the bridegroom of the kingdom is here. This, then, is the point of the parable: in Jesus the exile is coming to an end. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. If you had a lovely new dress, would you tear that up in order to patch an old faded blouse? Of course not! Not only would you destroy the new garment, but it wouldn't match and indeed, it would then shrink and cause more damage to the old as well! And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. These two parables clearly illustrate Jesus' point that he is doing something new. All that God has promised to Israel is coming true in Jesus. The third parable sounds strange to us: And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, "the old is good." We usually think of "old wine" as better but if you think about the climate in Israel, old wine is heading quickly towards "sour wine." New wine, on the other hand, is a sweet, bubbly, sparkly, almost champagne-like wine. New wine was one of the great blessings of the covenant. When God blessed his people, he would give them grain, oil, and new wine. So why does Jesus say that those who have tasted the old wine think that old wine is good? Because Jesus is confronting the Pharisees! He has just called them "those who are well" and "have no need of a physician"-- the "righteous" whom he says have no place in his kingdom. And now he says that they refuse even to taste the new wine, because they are befuddled-- their wits are clouded by the old wine. Brothers and sisters, don't be like the Pharisees, who failed to taste the new wine! Drink deeply of the new wine of the kingdom! Do not become befuddled by the old wine of the law, but be entranced by the new wine given by our Lord Jesus Christ! But in the new-wine kingdom, there is still a place for fasting. Jesus says that the time will come when his disciples will fast and that is when he is taken away. 1 Peter speaks of us as elect exiles. We live in a sort of exile We live in between the coming of the kingdom and the end of the age. Do you pray "thy kingdom come, thy will be done?" Then we should be fasting as well! We should be feasting and rejoicing because Jesus is all that Israel was supposed to be! But we should be fasting and praying, because we do not live up to who we are in Christ. 2. The Lord of the Sabbath (6:1-5) One Sabbath the Pharisees catch Jesus's disciples plucking grain and eating it. This is harvesting. And harvesting was forbidden on the Sabbath. So they ask, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? (6:2) If you read Jesus' answer simply as a piece of legal argument you will miss the point. The legal argument looks like this: Only the priests were supposed to eat the holy bread. David ate the holy bread and gave it to his servants. Therefore, the law should not be interpreted so strictly. You Pharisees are being too legalistic. But then the last line makes no sense: the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath. Do you see what Jesus is doing? It is not merely a legal argument. It is a kingdom argument. Why does he talk about David? What was David doing in 1 Samuel 21? (Incidentally, we'll be looking in detail at that passage tonight) David, the LORD's anointed, was fleeing from Saul who was trying to kill him. He came to the priests and asked for bread. They gave him the holy bread, which only the priests should eat. But to understand Jesus' point, you need to know the story better! Do you remember what else happened in David's day? There was an Edomite named Doeg who spied on this meeting, and reported it to Saul, and then Doeg, at Saul's command, slaughtered the priests. Not only do the Pharisees have no taste for the new wine of the kingdom of God, they are like the Edomite spy who sold out and then slaughtered the priests of God. Now we can understand what Jesus means by "the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." Daniel had spoken of the Son of Man as the one who would spearhead the coming of the great victory of God over his enemies. Jesus is claiming that he is the Son of Man. And as the Son of Man, he is lord of the Sabbath. If David had the authority to eat the priests' holy bread and give it to his servants, then surely the Son of Man, who is restoring David's kingdom, has authority to give common grain to his disciples on the Sabbath! When Jesus says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, he makes it clear that the Sabbath command is still valid. The key is that now the Sabbath must be oriented around him. And as Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus now gives rest to his people. He feeds us every Lord's Day with his Word and Sacraments. This is not the place to talk about why we worship on Sunday instead of Saturday, but it is appropriate to remember that Jesus is teaching us here that he is the one who feeds us with the holy bread from heaven. He is the Lord of the Sabbath: he has given us this day of rest and worship a day of rejoicing and gladness. We sometimes get caught up in debates about what is okay or not okay on Sunday. But the best way to deal with those issues is to focus on what the day is for. Perhaps an analogy might help: you need to build a fire-- you've got a pile of split logs and a grand piano. Both are made of wood. Which should you burn? "You can use a grand piano for firewood, but why would you want to?" (Dan McCartney) In the same way, you have seven days six of which were designed by God for work and labor, and one of which is designed for rest and worship. 3. Healing on the Sabbath (6:6-11) The final confrontation with the Pharisees in this section also focuses on the Sabbath. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on another Sabbath, and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath. And so Jesus called the man with the withered hand to stand before him, and he asked is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm? to save life or to destroy it? The answer was obvious to all! And so then Jesus told him Stretch out your hand and it was restored. Notice that when Jesus gives rest to others on the Sabbath, he does it himself. He doesn't make one person work in order to give rest to another. (Jesus doesn't say, "hey, Andrew, come heal this fellow!") It is one of the basic principles of the Fourth Commandment that those in authority are to give rest to those under their care. So for instance, if you want to give your wife rest on Sunday afternoon, make lunch yourself, or pick up the food on Saturday night and put it in the fridge (and make sure you have enough paper plates so there is no clean-up!). I'm not saying that it is always wrong to eat out on a Sunday. My point is simply that the principle of giving rest is a personal principle. You are to give rest to those under your care, just as Jesus gives rest to those who are under his care! If Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and a servant is not greater than his master, then should not we treat the Sabbath like our Lord? The Sabbath is not our master, rather, the Sabbath is the Lord's Day a day that is to be oriented around him. The Pharisees understand this quite well! And so they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. The funny things is that the Pharisees agreed with Jesus's argument! They agreed that it was lawful to save life on the Sabbath (elsewhere Jesus points out that the Pharisees taught that you could pull your donkey out of a ditch on the Sabbath). They are not upset with Jesus because a man was healed on the Sabbath. Everyone knew that the point of the Sabbath is to give rest to others. So then, why are the Pharisees upset with Jesus? They are upset with Jesus not so much because of what he does, but because of what he says. Jesus claims to be Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus claims to have God's power to forgive sins. Jesus claims that the new wine of the kingdom of God comes through him. And if this man keeps performing these marvelous signs, the people just might believe him! And if the people believe Jesus and follow him, then (according to the Pharisees) Israel will once again have failed to be what God called them to be. This is one place where the Pharisees are right. They think that to follow Jesus would be to turn aside from striving to be all that Israel was supposed to be. And that's exactly right! To follow Jesus means to renounce any claim to your own righteousness your own status. To follow Jesus means to acknowledge that you are unclean! To admit that you are sick. The Pharisees only hope is that Israel will one day be righteous! Jesus comes to say that your only hope is that he is righteous. Conclusion: The Twelve (6:12-16) Perhaps now we are better prepared to see that the calling of the Twelve brings together what Luke has been doing in this section: showing how Jesus calls disciples, cleanses the unclean, and confronts the Pharisees. Because not only is Jesus saying that the kingdom comes in him, but now he is saying that he is establishing a new community a new family that will bring his teaching to full expression. Just as God called the twelve tribes of Israel to inherit the promises to Abraham, so now Jesus calls the twelve apostles. But unlike the twelve tribes the apostles are not the "heirs" of the promises, but those messengers who are sent to declare the coming of the Heir, Jesus. They will proclaim the gospel of the kingdom . Just as the OT family was oriented around the word of Moses the Torah, so also the NT family will be oriented around the Word but this time, the word of Jesus the gospel of the kingdom. And just as Jesus' voice called Simon and called Levi, causing them to forsake all to follow him, so now Jesus' voice calls you to forsake all that is dearest to you to follow him. Because you are too like the Pharisees. Your eschatology is screwed up. No, I'm not talking about the rapture or the millennium. I'm talking about where your hope is! What future are you fixated on? When you think about the future, what is it that you think will bring you happiness? What will bring you peace? Some of you are looking for work right now (and we pray that you find it!). Is that your eschatology? Is that the future that you are fixated on? Or is your thought, "how can I be most useful in Jesus' kingdom?" Others of you are looking forward to marriage, others are focused on rearing your family. What is your eschatology? Will your husband, your wife, your children bring you peace? Is your hope set on your family? And when your family becomes all that God intended for it to be, then you will achieve... That was what the Pharisees said! When our family when Israel becomes all that God intended for it to be, then God's blessing will come upon us. Jesus says, "No, it is when I become all that God intended for you to be, then God's blessing comes upon you." And that is what he has done. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." All that is Christ's is yours! Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (in other words, seek Jesus), and all these things that you are worrying about will be taken care of.