Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath
1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the corn fields and his disciples began to pick heads of grain crushing them in their hands for food.
2 Some of the Pha risees asked them, “Why do you do what is forbidden on the Sabbath?”
3 Then Jesus spoke, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry?”
4 He entered the house of God, took and ate the bread of the offering and even gave some to his men, though only priests are allowed to eat that bread.”
5 And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord and rules over the sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and began teaching. There was a man with a paralyzed right hand
7 and the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees watched him: Would Jesus heal the man on the Sabbath? If he did, they could accuse him.
8 But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to the man, “Get up and stand in the middle.”
9 Then he spoke to them, “I want to ask you: what is allowed by the Law on the Sabbath, to do good or to do harm, to save life or destroy it?” 10 And Jesus looked around at them all.
10 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored, becoming as whole as the other.
11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another how they could deal with Jesus.
The Twelve
12 At this time Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God.
13 When day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he called apostles:
14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John; Philip and Bartho lo mew;
15 Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot;
16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor.
Blessings and woes
17 Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood on a level place. Many of his disciples were there and a large crowd of people who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Si don.
18 They gathered to hear him and be healed of their diseases; likewise people troubled by evil spirits were healed.
19 The entire crowd tried to touch him because of the power that went out from him and healed them all.
20 Then looking at his disciples, Jesus said,
“Fortunate are you who are poor, the kingdom of God is yours.”
21 Fortunate are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Fortunate are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 Fortunate are you when peo ple hate you, when they reject you and insult you and number you among criminals, because of the Son of Man.
23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. Re member that is how the ancestors of this people treated the prophets.
24 But alas for you who have wealth, for you have been comforted now.
25 Alas for you who are full, for you will go hungry.
Alas for you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 Alas for you when peo ple speak well of you, for that is how the ancestors of these people treated the false prophets.
Love of enemies
27 But I say to you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.
28 Bless those who curse you and pray for those who treat you badly.
29 To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek; from the one who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt.
30 Give to the one who asks and if anyone has taken something from you, do not demand it back.
31 Do to others as you would have others do to you.
32 If you love only those who love you, what kind of graciousness is yours? Even sinners love those who love them.
33 If you do favors to those who are good to you, what kind of graciousness is yours? Even sinners do the same.
34 If you lend only when you expect to receive, what kind of graciousness is yours? For sinners also lend to sinners, expecting to receive something in return.
35 But love your enemies and do good to them, and lend when there is nothing to expect in return. Then will your reward be great and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High. For he is kind towards the ungrateful and the wicked.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven;
38 give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over. For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.”
39 And Jesus offered this example, “Can a blind person lead another blind person? Surely both will fall into a ditch.
40 A disciple is not above the master; but when fully trained, he will be like the master.
41 So why do you pay attention to the speck in your brother’s eye while you have a log in your eye and are not conscious of it?
42 How can you say to your neighbor: ‘Friend, let me take this speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t remove the log in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye.
43 No healthy tree bears bad fruit, no poor tree bears good fruit.
44 And each tree is known by the fruit it bears: you don’t gather figs from thorns, or grapes from brambles.
45 Similarly the good person draws good things from the good stored in the heart, and an evil person draws evil things from the evil stored in the heart. For the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart.
46 Why do you call me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and not do what I say?
47 I will show you what the one who comes to me and listens to my words and acts according ly, is like.
48 That one is like the builder who dug deep and laid the foundations of his house on rock. The river overflowed and the stream dashed against the house, but could not carry it off because the house had been well built.
49 But the one who listens and does not act, is like a man who built his house on the ground without a foundation. The flood burst against it, and the house fell at once: and what a terrible disaster that was!”
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Comments Luke, Chapter 6
? 6.1 Here we have two conflicts between Jesus and the religious people of his time concerning the Sabbath.
See commentary on Mark 3:1.
Let us not forget that the word Sabbath means rest. God requested that one day be made holy each week, not primarily for reli gious assemblies, but to allow everyone to rest (Ex 20:10). God is glorified when people are not enslaved in order to gain their daily sustenance because of their work.
In the first episode, Jesus does not argue with the Pharisees who consider work the mere act of plucking a few ears of corn and shelling them. First he recalls that great believers, like David, at times overlooked the law. He then adds: The Son of Man rules over the Sabbath. Among the Jews, however, no one, not even the High Priest, could dispense from the Sab bath observance. So Jesus leaves them perplexed and wondering: Who does he pretend to be?
In the second case, Jesus could have said to the man: “Why do you ask me to do something forbidden on the Sabbath? Come back tomorrow to be healed.” Jesus does not avoid the confrontation because Gospel means liberation and we become free when we admit that there is nothing sacred in a society that attempts to impose its own standards. The law of rest (Sabbath) is one of the fundamental laws of the Bible but that does not prevent the possibility of this law causing oppression and for that reason it must at times be dispensed with.
It is the same for the most sacred laws of the Church: at a given moment they might be an obstacle to the Gospel and, if that be the case, Christian conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, must find a solution for the time being. As long as people are subject to an order, to laws and authorities which are considered sacred and which no one thinks of criticizing, those people are neither free nor true sons and daughters of God. (See 1 Cor 3:21-23; 8:4-5; Col 2:20-23.)
A respect for God that would destroy our critical sense would not be in keeping with the Gospel; a religion preventing us from seeking the truth and from questioning every area of human restlessness would not be the true one. To study the Bible without daring to know and take into account the contributions of modern science for fear that our very naive vision of sacred history would fall apart would be to sin against the Spirit.
? 12. Jesus keeps those whom he loves the most in his prayer. The success of his mission will depend upon them; other people’s faith will rest on them. Jesus does not want their call to be his own will: before calling them, he wants to be certain that he is doing the Father’s will (Heb 5:8). For the simple reason that Christ chose them and entrusted his Church to them, they will be tested in a thousand ways (Lk 22:31). Therefore Jesus wants to safeguard them through the power of his prayer (Jn 17:9). The day before his death he will have the consolation that not one of those the Father gave him has been lost (Jn 17:12).
? 17. See the commentary on the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1. Matthew adapts them for the members of the church of his time. Luke, on the other hand, puts the beatitudes here just as Jesus proclaimed them to the people of Galilee. In the words of Jesus, the beatitudes were a call and a hope addressed to the forgotten of the world, beginning with the poor among his people, heirs of God’s promise to the prophets.
The Gospel, as in Mary’s Canticle (1:51-53), reverses the present situation. Since then, God shows his mercy especially by his generosity towards the poor and the despised. He also entrusts his Gospel to them and makes them the first to participate in his work in the world. The poor are those whose contribution is most necessary to the building of the Kingdom; when the Church forgets this, she does not delay in returning to what Jesus criticized in God’s people of his time.
There are a thousand ways to present Jesus and his work. However, in order for such teaching to deserve the name evangelization (or: communication of the Good News) it must be received as Good News first by the poor. If other social groups feel more identified with the teaching, or they are invited first, it means that something is lacking either in content or in the way of proclaiming the message. Most probably it is not given in such a way that it does justice to the disinherited.
In contrast with these beatitudes, Luke presents lamentations recalling those of Isaiah (65:13-14). They are lamentations as used for the dead, not maledictions. For the rich forget God and become impermeable to grace (12, 13, 16, 19). These lamentations are a sign of the love of God for the rich, as are the beatitudes for the poor, for he loves them all, but in a different way. To the first he affirms that he will destroy the structures of injustice, and to the others he gives a warning: richness brings death.
The beatitudes do not speak of the conversion of the rich, nor do they say that the poor are better, but they promise a reversal. The Kingdom signifies a new society: God blesses the poor but not poverty.
When people speak well of you (v. 26) (see 1 Cor 4:8). The contrast between groups of people who are persecuted and those who are well thought of can exist within the Church itself. Many problems can remain unsolved and even mission itself be blocked because of influential groups and persons who want for nothing and know how to obtain official benedictions. Jesus recalls the example of the prophets.
In Jesus’ time the religious authorities of the Jews had a very limited esteem for the writings of the prophets, giving all importance to the books of the Law centered on the cult of the Temple. Jesus would tell his disciples that they are the heirs of the prophets (Mt 13:17; Acts 3:25; James 5:10), and will give importance to the unassuming messengers who, within the people of God (and often in contradiction with dominant ideas) proclaim the word of God. A Christian should never be surprised by weakness or any other defect that he meets in the Church; let him be happy to be faithful even when persecuted.
? 27. Here Luke presents only a few of Jesus’ sayings which Matthew combines in chapters 5 to 7 of his Gospel, and which we have explained.
Some people feel cheated when they see that Jesus speaks about changing our life rather than about reforming society. Let us not reproach Jesus for not mentioning social reform at a time when few understood what it was. The reason is elsewhere: Jesus deals with the essential. The root of evil is within people. It is obvious that evil structures prevent people from living and growing. It is equally obvious that not a single revolution, however many benefits it may bring, can establish a less oppressive society, as long as people themselves are not transformed according to the Gospel. Jesus teaches us the way towards growth and freedom.
All need conversion to Jesus’ word. Jesus’ obvious predilection for the poor and oppressed does not mean they are better. It means God is compassionate, sharing a deeper mercy where misery is deeper, offering hope and total liberation where hope is dimmest. The oppressed person is not innocent; if he were not paralyzed by fear, divisiveness, and greed for the advantages offered to him by his oppressor, he would attain a moral power capable of renewing the world. Thus, the oppressed will not be freed unless they grow in confidence in God, which will enable them to understand each other and risking a way of reconciliation.
The following sayings of Jesus point out the indispensable changes of heart and approach.
Give to the one who asks (v. 30). Jesus does not give a rule which is automatically applicable in all situations: we know there are times when we should not give because it would encourage bad habits. Jesus wants to challenge our conscience: Why do you refuse to give? Are you afraid you will not be paid back? What if this was the opportunity to trust your Father and to let go of something which is “your treasure” (12:34)? You who wish to be perfect, why do you ignore so many opportunities to give up your own wisdom in order to let God take care of you?
? 31. Here, as in Matthew 5:43, Jesus does not refer mainly to personal resentment and friendships, but to opposition in the social, political or religious order: treating differently the people of one’s group or party and those of the opposite side. We love and respect those of our own group and are only moderately concerned about the rights of others: they are probably sinners and even in the best of circumstances of small interest…
Jesus invites us to overcome such differences: what counts is the individual and when my neighbor needs me, I must forget his color or whatever label has been given him.
If you lend when you expect to receive. Once again, we are dealing with a social attitude: people who look for friends among those who can promote their social climbing and who avoid all who might be a burden because they are people without influence: Lk 14:12.
? 35. See commentary on Mt 7:1. Per-fection for us consists in imitating the Father. He is God by being compassionate; his compassion is his ability to be touched by the poverty and the anguish of his creatures, and to lavish upon them what he can give. The attitude of the person who judges his brothers and sisters is the very opposite of mercy.
Jesus speaks of the way in which God already leads us in the present life. A rationalist culture has often convinced us that God lets the laws of nature and humankind go their own way while he remains a passive spectator, but the kingdom of God is the presence of God himself who even today has liberty to reverse all situations, even if for that purpose he has his own time.
? 43. No healthy tree… (v. 43). These sayings were already mentioned in Matthew 7:15. Here, however, Luke gives them a different meaning by referring to a pure conscience. We must purify our mind and our spirit to become the tree that produces good fruits.