I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?

The Hospitality of Abraham (also known as The Trinity), Andrei Rublev, 15th cent.

 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields.  And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.  And some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"  But Jesus answering them said, "Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?"  And He said to them, "The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."

Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught.  And a man was there whose right hand was withered.  So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.  But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, "Arise and stand here."  And he arose and stood.  Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing:  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?"  And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

- Luke 6:1-11

Yesterday we read that Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office.  And he said to him, "Follow Me."  So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.  Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house.  And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.  And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"  And he said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."  Then He spoke a parable to them:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.  And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"

 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields.  And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.  And some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"  But Jesus answering them said, "Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:  how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?"  And He said to them, "The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  The second Sabbath after the first indicates that a Jewish feast immediately followed the normal Sabbath.  A feast was also known as a Sabbath.  My study bible cites St. Ambrose of Milan, who says that the term "second Sabbath" serves as an image of the new covenant and the eternal resurrection.  The first Sabbath indicates the Law, while the second Sabbath indicates the gospel that follows it.  Under the new covenant, then, the food which was formerly not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat is now freely given to all by the Lord of the Sabbath.  This was prefigured by David when he gave the showbread . . . to those with him.

Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught.  And a man was there whose right hand was withered.  So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.  But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, "Arise and stand here."  And he arose and stood.  Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing:  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?"  And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.  There were certain traditions that had been built up around the Law by the scribes and Pharisees which they refer to here.  That is, they were not part of the Law itself, but opinions built up around the Law.  In this case, according to one of those traditions, healing was considered work, and therefore wasn't permissible on the Sabbath.  These men believed that they served God by zealously keeping these peripheral traditions, but their legalism makes them insensitive to God's mercy.  Jesus' healing is seen as a direct rebuke; they're already looking for an accusation against Him.

In yesterday's reading (see above), we read about a feast, a banquet, in which Jesus sat with tax collectors and sinners after Matthew (or Levi) the tax collector became a disciple.  In today's reading, we can extend the notion of feasting to the Sabbath and this display of healing.  We are accustomed to thinking about the Eucharist as the cup at the table of the Lord, and so we can think of this Sabbath as the day in which we sit at the table of the Lord.  Hospitality is an essential tradition to the whole of the Middle East, built up through religious and social custom since ancient times.  In the Old Testament, we see this exemplified by the ancestor Abraham, when the Lord came to Him with two others later named as angels  (Genesis 18).  Hospitality runs like a thread through all of the Old Testament and the New.  For the earliest Christian monastics, hospitality was even more important than prayer -- to fail to answer to a knock at the door even if it came during prayer was a failing.  In today's reading, we can consider this man with a withered hand to be one who comes to the Lord's table.  Will he be received or not?  Christ tells us that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and therefore it is He who establishes the rules for this gathering, this feast.  His rule is one of graciousness and hospitality.  Should His disciples have been refused food and nourishment on the Sabbath?  Should the man with the withered hand be refused healing on the Sabbath?  Jesus makes the basic case when He asks, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?"   There is a basic and fundamental question being asked here, and it goes to how we treat or receive others.  Do we do good, or do we do evil?  Do we save life or destroy?  What would the Lord have us do?  Why is this such an important principle for us to understand?  Because our faith really comes down to this; how do we treat one another?  What is the meaning of mercy?  What did Christ mean when He told us that when we receive even the least of these My brethren we receive Him?  (See Matthew 25:40.)  In Mark 9:37 Jesus tells His disciples, "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."  So important is this concept of hospitality that it extends to all things and forms the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), which Jesus says is the summing up of all the Law and the Prophets.  Let us also consider what our own Sabbaths are for.  What do we learn?  How do we treat one another?  Are we capable of receiving those we meet in the ways that Jesus asks us to?  So important is this understanding that Jesus sums up the entire basis of the Last Judgment in these terms (Matthew 25:32-46).   We should remember that we come to Christ's table for His word; which also includes life-saving correction, all aspects of healing -- including medicine, which is the wisdom of God.   Let us consider the basic importance of kindness and graciousness, and how necessary it is to the world in which we live.  It is the one thing truly necessary -- but what is life like without it?