Luke 6 & 7
David was fleeing for his life. No time to pack a lunch, grab a snack, or even strap on his sword. Saul, maddened with jealously, was coming to kill him. Saul was the king. He was on the throne, had the title, had the kingdom. The people had chosen him. But David was the Anointed. God had chosen him. And now he was running for his life. Desperate, he goes to the house of God and asks for help. He and his men need supplies so they don’t die in the wilderness. The only food available is the showbread, a dozen giant loaves, each weighing 6 or 7 pounds, baked with fine flour and oil by the priests and set on a golden table within the tabernacle. The only problem: showbread was holy, set apart, consecrated. Only the priests and their families could eat it. But David was desperate. God’s chosen one was fleeing hate and injustice. He was saddened and scared and persecuted. David was desperate. And when desperate people ask God’s people for help they should get it. The priest took what was set apart for God and His servants and gave it to David. He broke a rule to love a person.
Jesus’ disciples were walking to Synagogue on the Sabbath and they were hungry too. They were also allowed to pick a few ripened grains to munch on from their neighbor’s field as they walked through (Deut. 23:35). But the Pharisees noticed. See, they had added laws on top of The Law. Sure, Deuteronomy allowed that, but surely that can’t mean on the Sabbath. Jesus asks them a question, “Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry?” How dare He! He asks them if they had read? They were experts in the Law. So expert that they knew the letter by heart. But Jesus wrote the letter.
The text says, “on another Sabbath”, but I bet it was the next week. Same Synagogue. A Sabbath Showdown. The Pharisees thought Jesus was breaking the rules by letting His disciples eat a snack on the way to church. Jesus turned up the dial by healing a man with a withered right hand. On the Sabbath. Right in front of them. He performed a literal miracle before their eyes. They heard Jesus speak words and then watched a person’s brokenness healed. They saw that. Their response? They were filled with rage. That word translated rage or folly in 6:11 (anoia) has a negative participle “a” (like our English word “anti”) in front of a word meaning the part of our mind used to perceive and understand spiritual truth, to recognize good and evil, used for reasoning and considering and judging soberly and calmly. The Pharisees saw Jesus perform a miracle but break a rule, and as my Momma would say, they lost their ever-loving minds.
Jesus then taught the Sermon on the Plain, where He teaches the real rules of the kingdom. Love your enemy. Pray for those who revile you. Be merciful. Give money without expecting a return. Are you poor? Hungry? Sad? Hated? Ostracized?
You are blessed.
Are you rich? Well fed? Laughing? Lauded by people?
Woe to you.
Then Jesus clicks the dial up again. He heals someone’s servant. But not just anyone – He heals the servant of desperate centurion – a Roman, gentile occupier of Jewish land. Heals him without even being there. Then he clicks up the dial again. He encounters a funeral procession, a widow burying her only son. Desperate. Weeping. Poor. Blessed. Jesus takes her utter desperation and turns it into resurrection and joy.
Then Jesus turns the dial to 11 and brings things full circle back with the Pharisees. Jesus was invited to dinner. This time in Simon’s home. But an uninvited guest shows up. A woman, maybe a prostitute, definitely a sinner, who brings precious perfume and anoints the feet of Jesus with the tears of the redeemed. Simon is shocked. If this man were a prophet, he thinks to himself, he would know what kind of woman this is. She’s a sinner. A rule breaker. Unworthy. Unholy. Broken. A desperate person coming to Jesus and asking for help. And Jesus does the unthinkably worldview shattering impossible thing: He forgives her sin.
Because Jesus is the King of the Upside-Down Kingdom.
And we get to be members of that kingdom: For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son (Col. 1:13). When things in this world seem right side up to us, be careful. Take heed. Maybe tilt your head and make sure you’re seeing things rightly. Are you seeing things through the eyes of the Pharisees or the eyes of Jesus? When a desperate person comes to you, a passport holder of the Kingdom of Heaven and asks for help, what will you do? Will you make sure they follow the rules? Or will you open the doors to the house of God and break a rule to love a person?
That’s Christ’s kingdom.
His kingdom come.
His will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. So that we can give it away in love.
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