33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “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. 37 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. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”
1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” 5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Luke presents us with three scenes where Jesus defied and rebuked the Pharisees’ interpretation of the Mosaic law.
I’ve used this analogy before. If I tell my daughter to practice the piano, and she sees it as a means to obtaining another prize/possession, such as playing outside, then she’s missing the point. Practicing the piano is a means to playing the piano (and enjoying it). The reward and prize is the playing in itself!
In the same way, Jesus is saying here to the Pharisees that their interpretation of the Mosaic law (fasting, keeping Sabbath) is really twisted and for a self-serving prize— namely themselves. And Jesus is re-orienting them and us to show that God’s original intent for the law was to glorify and enjoy God. He is our possession and our prize!
The greatest commandment (law) is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Our tendency is to see that as a burdensome heavy punitive law that doesn’t allow us to do what we really want— which is to enjoy other things, not God. “Man I gotta pray so much!” But in actuality God is inviting us to engage and encounter and love and know Him— THE God of all the universe, holy, righteous, perfect, glorious, loving, full of mercy and grace!
One of my greatest ambitions as a parent is to teach (and show) my children how to enjoy and be happy in God. His commandments aren’t burdensome, they are for our greatest good in knowing and loving Him.