The text for this sermon is Luke 6:1-17.

The first 100 days of a new president. We’ve been through it before. It’s the time we watch the decisions, executive orders, and actions the new president does that sets the tone of his new administration. It’s one thing to have heard all the rhetoric of the campaign trail. However, it is an entirely different thing to watch the first things he does. For it is in his first actions that he reveals what his true agenda is all about.

Such was the case during the early months of Jesus’ ministry. Many saw his miraculous healings and heard him teach with such deep insight, but did they realize that there was more to this Jesus than just meeting their immediate needs? Slowly but surely through his actions in the first part of his ministry, they began to see that he had come to challenge and confront the ways and manners that they lived as well as practiced their faith. For some, this was good news. For others, not so much!

One such “action” occurred when Jesus healed a man with a deformed hand on the Sabbath. Many welcomed such a wonderful gift to a crippled man as an example of God’s grace. Others took exception to the fact Jesus broke the Sabbath laws. The ensuing controversy gave Jesus a wonderful opportunity for him to lay out his agenda as he challenged them to rethink the whole reason why God first gave the Sabbath.

It was a difficult moment. It revealed that nothing was sacred to Jesus if it got in the way of a person’s relationship with God or another person. This was an exciting moment for many people who were looking for a deeper way of life. But for the religious leaders who wanted to play it safe and keep things just the way they, it  revealed to them that this Jesus might be more than they could handle!

Please join us this weekend as we consider the gift and challenge of The Lord of the Sabbath.