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?..."
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful....
How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye....
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
...............
There is so much going on in this chapter that it is difficult to pick any one section to focus on. So, let's see how each of these fit together in an overall theme.
Much of this passage consists of Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke and Matthew may have shared a common source (the hypothetical Q source), Luke may have borrowed from Matthew directly (since the prologue admits he was familiar with other accounts), or more likely, these pithy sayings were frequent topics in Jesus' teaching, repeated on several occasions and recalled in various oral and written traditions.
In Luke's context, these teachings follow two encounters with the religious leaders in which Jesus is questioned about his apparent disregard for the Sabbath. Few traditions were cherished by the Jews more than their observance of rest on the seventh day - an ordinance commanded by Moses and rooted in God's rest after the six-day creation account recorded in Genesis. But, over time, there were many man-made traditions that evolved around Sabbath observance - extra requirements that turned this day of celebration into a religious straight-jacket. The idea that picking heads of grain or healing a man with a withered hand should be forbidden of the Sabbath speaks to the petty and trivial nature of these man-made traditions. They were missing the point entirely!
In this context, the subsequent sermon appears to address these hypocrites with some of the most penetrating words of Jesus' entire ministry. The call to humility, the acceptance of persecution, our willingness to bless enemies, warnings against hypocritical judgmentalism, a focus on heart motivations, and an emphasis on founding one's life on God's word - all of this directly contradicts the petty, trivial, externalized, and ultimately fraudulent version of spirituality being offered by the scribes and Pharisees. God demands a changed life, one that is fundamentally reoriented toward His purposes from the inside out. This demand is impossible to realize in our own strength, which is part of why men prefer to use their man-made traditions like a self righteous mask.
Note how verse 36 roots this call to mercy in the character of God himself:
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)
By missing the central command to show mercy, these teachers had missed the very nature of the God they claimed to follow. Failure to live out of a heart of mercy is practical heresy and gives the completely wrong impression of the God we serve. It's no wonder that Paul would further claim that this hypocrisy was actually driving Gentiles away from faith, rather than toward faith (Romans 2:23-24).
I pray that I will know this God of mercy, that I will understand his heart and let my life be shaped by His Spirit. I pray that I will lead a life of unexpected love and thus convey that there is a infinite personal God with the heart of a father, and whose character is mercy. Help me, even on a Sabbath, to never rest from showing mercy. Amen.
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