Who has the authority to interpret the law? That's an age old question. In our government, we have a judiciary entrusted with that task—to interpret and apply the received law in specific situations.
In 1st century Judaism, there was an established, authoritative interpretation of the Law God revealed to Moses. And that was the interpretation given by the scribal tradition, which by the 2nd century B.C. had become a highly developed and established rule of practice.
So that's the historical context in which this debate on Sabbath observance between Jesus and his antagonists in Luke 6 takes place.
There's also the narrative context of Luke's Gospel. Last week we looked at the account of Jesus and his disciples eating and drinking with people who were known to be sinners. And the conflict that brought with these Scribes and Pharisees. And we finished up by looking at those two parables about the garments and the wineskins.
In each of those parables, the point was that you can't force something new into old structures. Because if you do, you'll ruin both the old and the new. It's like trying to patch up and old garment with a piece torn off a new one, or putting new wine into old wineskins.
And here at the beginning of chapter 6, we see sort of an application of that principle. As the Pharisees and scribes had an established and very rigid understanding of the Sabbath commandment. Much like the old wineskins Jesus was talking about just before....
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