Is Sunday Different From Other Days?

 N.T.#511 "Is Sunday Different From Other Days?"

March 20, 2025

Luke 6

LET IT GLOW

Is Sunday just another day of the week or is it set aside for worshiping and honoring the Lord Jesus? We have some things to consider here.

What did Jesus wrong now, according to the Pharisees? He and His disciples plucked ears of corn and ate them on the Jewish Sabbath. Really? The guys were hungry. Jewish Law provided for poor people. It permitted the Israelites to pick some of their neighbor's grain for a bite to eat when they were hungry. (Deut. 23:25) The Pharisees weren't questioning this practice, but that they were doing it on the Sabbath. 

God had commanded Israel to remember the Sabbath as a time of rest, spiritual refreshment, and no labor. (Exodus 20:8-11) The Pharisees were extra-scrupulous. They added laws to God's Law about activities constituted as "labor." As far as they were concerned, Jesus and His disciples were "harvesting" and breaking the law. (Tony Evans)

The Pharisees accused Jesus of doing what was "unlawful", contrary to God's Law. But there was no scriptural law against what He and His disciples did. (Swindoll)

It was their tradition so they controlled the Sabbath. (No working on the Sabbath-no cooking, washing dishes, and certainly no harvesting. You get the point.) The Sabbath was to be under God's control. Jesus wasn't going to sin and break God's Law. He made the Law, so Jesus knew it (being God). Although, the Pharisees never admitted that was so.  What Jesus and His disciples did was actually lawful.

So Jesus did the unthinkable. He defied the Pharisees' authority by challenging their interpretation and application of God's Law. They saw Jesus as defiant but could not accept Him as Messiah with a different way of life. 

I wonder how the Pharisees found out about this happening. Did they have spies following Jesus wherever He went-walking through a corn field?

Human need is more important than human regulations and rules. (Life Application Study Bible)

Not only are we to love God, but we are also commanded to love our neighbor. The Pharisees had their priorities mixed up, wouldn't you say?

LET IT GROW

Jesus used David as an example concerning this issue. You might say David and his men did worse than Jesus and His men. Both groups of me were hungry. David entered into the house of God, took, and ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat. So the Pharisees should have compared these events and contrasted them as David doing worse than Jesus. But they didn't. God wasn't offended by David's act, done to satisfy a legitimate need when his men were weak with hunger. (1 Sam. 21:4-6) Neither was He with what Jesus did.

Then Jesus made a profound statement: That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (verse 5)

I bet that got their goat. :)

When Jesus said that He was Lord of the Sabbath, He meant that He had the authority to overrule the Pharisees' traditions and regulations because He had created the Sabbath. The Creator is always greater than the creation. (Life Application Study Bible)

AMEN!

Jesus has prerogative to rule over not only man-made rules of the Sabbath, but also over the sabbath itself, which was designed for worshipping God. Jesus again claims deity, and His claim prompts the Pharisees' violent outrage. (MacArthur)

Are we observing Sunday, the Lord's Day as a day of rest? Are we meeting people's needs on Sunday, as well as on other days of the week? Is our faith expressing itself through love?

Let's be careful not to become like the Pharisees. 

LET IT GO

I realize that our society has become one that does not prioritize the Day of Worship as being important. The thing is, are we worshiping God and honoring Him on our day of rest? Can we do shopping on Saturday instead of on Sunday? I know things happen, and needs come up, but are our plans to honor the Lord of the Sabbath, the Resurrected Lord? Are we lord of Sunday or is Jesus? Things to think about.

Thank You Jesus that it is by faith we please You.

Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me. Such love!