On a Sabbath - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on Luke 6:1-11 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 09/19/2021 in Novato, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







Today, we get to think about Jesus and the Sabbath. In the Bible, a sabbath is a holy day of rest, most routinely one day in seven. As a holy day, it is a day not just for physical rest from our labors, but especially a day to set aside to spiritually rest in God, through worship, and especially in assembling together for worship as God’s people. This was an institution God established from the very beginning of creation as we find in Genesis 1-2. God made the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, therefore God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. So then, we see in the Bible that God’s people observed a weekly sabbath even before God delivered it as the 4th Commandment to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The prophets taught regularly about the value of the Sabbath and, when needed, corrected the people when they were not observing it properly. After Jesus rose from the dead on the day after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, we see the church begin to keep that day, Sunday, as their Christian weekly Sabbath. So then, Jesus here, joins in that revelation about how to properly observe the Sabbath, giving some needed corrections. But what Jesus contributed to this is not just as another prophet adding a further word about the Sabbath, but he speaks as the very Lord of the Sabbath.







That is where I’d like to begin in our first point. I’d like to speak for a moment about this statement in verse 5 where Jesus declares, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”. That assertion is the basis for what Jesus says and does in this passage. Let’s begin with the language of the “Son of Man”. Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” here. In fact, this is Jesus’ common way throughout his teaching ministry to refer to himself. So far, this is the second time he’s done that in Luke’s gospel account. The first time was last chapter, in 5:24. That’s when he spoke of himself as the Son of Man having authority to forgive sins. It’s interesting that statement was also a question of authority as we see here in today’s verse when he refers to himself as the Son of Man.







So, what is the significance and meaning of this title of “Son of Man”? Some have proposed that it is Jesus’ way of humbly emphasizing his humanity. While we know that Jesus is also the exalted Son of God, he doesn’t go around referring to himself as such, but in seemingly comparative humility, he refers to himself as the Son of Man. While I do think that is true to a degree, I think Jesus’ usage of it is more than that. Because in statements like right here and the one I just mentioned in last chapter, they speak of someone with great authority. Interestingly, if we look to the Old Testament usage of this term, we see a similar ambiguity. For example, in the book of Ezekiel, God repeatedly refers to the prophet Ezekiel as “son of man”, but it doesn’t seem to be used in any special way other than God speaking to a human prophet. Yet, in the Daniel 7, we see that the “son of man” language gets used in a quite an exalted way where it describes one like a son of man coming before God who is then given an everlasting and universal kingdom. So, even the Old Testament precedence on how this title is used is marked with some ambiguity.







Yet, I suspect that’s the whole point by Jesus using it. As we’ve seen and will see, at this point he’s rather guarded with how he reveals his identity as the Christ. So, he instead picks a more mysterious term that could be used for the Christ, but also could just be used for a prophet, and he lets his ministry and teaching reveal over time the significance of that title.

Further episodes of Reformed Sermons and Sunday Schools at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Petaluma, CA

Further podcasts by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

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