Is Jesus a Law Breaker?

What a question to ask! I guess it would depend on whose perspective you were looking from. Remember that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

Let us start by looking at a portion of scripture in Luke 6:1-11. Here we find Jesus and His disciples walking through a grain field on the Sabbath and His disciples plucked some heads of grain, rolled it in their hands and ate the grain. Some of the Pharisees confronted Jesus and asked, “Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

To start with, we need to look at both sides of the coin. What was the perspective of the Pharisees and why, and what was the perspective of Jesus and why?

Let us begin with the Pharisees. A Pharisee is an administrator of the Law of Moses, they worked with the application of the law and their duty was to make sure that the law is followed to the letter, unlike the Sadducees who were the theologians or interpreters of the law. The Pharisees were not interested in any deeper understanding of scripture but had a greater concern to what was literally written down and for that to be walked out in accordance. To a Pharisee this Jesus was a law breaker and not only that, he was enticing others to be law breakers which could unleash chaos in their society and cause many in society to turn their backs on God’s law which would inevitably bring God’s judgement upon the land.

Just a note here, the penalty for breaking the Sabbath was death. This can be found in Numbers 15:32-36 where the Lord told Moses to put the man to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath. So, we can obviously see that the Pharisees were doing their job in accordance with the Word of God and therefore in accordance with the Word of God they were justified in their actions. When Jesus tried to defend Himself by stating that David broke the law when he and his men went into the House of God and ate the consecrated bread, the Pharisees probably saw a man trying to justify his actions because someone else got away with it.

Let us continue, on another Sabbath Jesus was in the synagogue teaching and there was a man with a withered right hand. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were watching Him closely to see if He would heal the man on the Sabbath, thus again breaking the Law of God. Jesus knowing what they were thinking, offered a question that would give them the opportunity to think differently about the situation. He paused a moment and then went ahead and healed the man’s withered hand. The Pharisees were not interested in this man trying to justify why He was breaking God’s Law, why He was trying to justify His sin. The fact of the matter was simply that this man Jesus was willfully breaking God’s Law, breaking the Word of God which He gave to Moses face to face and the law was clear that such actions, especially willfully repeated actions were worthy of death. Thus, this event caused rage within the Pharisees and they now discussed together as to what they must do to deal with this law breaker.

Proverbs 18:17 The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.

Remember that there are always two sides to a coin, and I believe that it is important that we can see from both viewpoints before we pass our judgement.

Jesus was accused of breaking the law, which He did not deny but instead endeavored to unfold a greater understanding as to God’s purpose for such law. His first reference was to David, who had made many mistakes (broken laws) on his journey yet was still considered righteous and a man after God’s own heart. The Pharisees in their protective state would not allow themselves to see what Jesus was referring to. He then spoke to them from a Kabbalistic viewpoint when He stated that “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”. “Son of Man” in the Greek is Uihos of Anthropos. Son or Uihos can be defined as son but it has a greater cultural implication. In eastern culture of that day and still in some African cultures today a man is not a son until he reaches the age of 30. At such a time there would be a coming out ceremony and that man would be declared a son. A son was someone who reached the level of maturity that allowed him to marry, allowed him to buy and sell land, he could speak with the Elders at the city gates and most importantly, he now represented his father for the sake of the family. Another English word that could be used here is ambassador. Just a sidenote, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River at the age of 30 and a voice from heaven spoke “This is my Son (uihos) in whom I am well pleased”. This was Jesus becoming the Ambassador of the Father to humanity. Man (anthropos) simply means humanity or human.

The term “Lord of the Sabbath” is broken down this way. Lord can be defined as Master, Ruler, Teacher, Rabbi, and gives the idea of one who has been promoted through qualification, one who has mastered a particular subject. In early English, a schoolteacher was referred to as a School Master, an apprentice mechanic after 5 years of service and schooling would become a Master Mechanic. Jesus, because of His teaching and what He imparted to others was referred to as Rabbi, Teacher, Master and Lord. So, the phrase “Lord of the Sabbath” was a man that had mastered the teaching of the Sabbath and possessed the mystical understanding to impart to others. This would be a slap in the face to the Pharisees as they believed they possessed such knowledge and how could a simple carpenter who did not have their training, have such insight.

As we continue to another Sabbath, we find Jesus teaching in the synagogue, where we find the man with the withered right hand. The question then posted by Jesus had far greater implications than what we westerners would see. Luke 6:9 “I ask you, which is the right thing to do on the Sabbath day: to do good or to do evil? Is it right to save a life or to destroy one?” If we are not careful, we would think that Jesus is asking the same question in a different way. This is not so, Jesus was referring to the Torah, specifically the Book of Genesis chapter 2. He was asking them which tree should He draw from? The Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil (which brings death) or the Tree of Life (which brings life). Should I look at this through the eyes of “Right and Wrong” or through the eyes of “Life and Death”. God did not call us to be right, He called us to be life and light in the earth. Remember that you can be “right” and still bring death to a situation. The Pharisees knew what He was talking about but again because of seeing the situation through the eyes of right and wrong, they were blinded to the truth of life.

Now again I pose the question “Is Jesus a law breaker?” Well, I guess that would depend upon which lens you are looking through. Are you looking through the lens of “Right and Wrong”? Which by the way is the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” the “Tree of Ego” or are you looking through the lens of “That which brings Life” which is “The Tree of Life” or “The Tree of Christ”? That decision is entirely up to you but this one thing I would suggest, and that is that you would be consistent in your judgement. In other words, you should judge Jesus in the same way you would judge others and even yourself. So pick your tree!

Matthew 7:2 For the way you judge others is how you will be judged — the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you.