Corn on the Hop
Luke 6:1–11
Once upon a New Testament time, Jesus ate a takeaway with his disciples.
One Sabbath day, Jesus and his disciples were strolling through some corn fields. It was a beautiful, peaceful day. The only sounds were the gentle rustle of the corn in the breeze, the steady drum of sandal-clad feet on the ground and… the low rumble of the disciples empty tummies. They were hungry!
One by one, the disciples reached out and plucked an ear of corn, rubbing it between their hands to release the delicious kernels. They started nibbling, then munching, then gobbling! This was the freshest takeaway they’d ever had!
Some Pharisees saw the disciples picking and eating the grain. Pharisees always seemed to see everything! And as usual, they weren’t happy.
“What do you think you’re doing? Why are you picking grain on the Sabbath? That’s not allowed!” they grumbled to the disciples.
But Jesus stepped in and stood up for his friends, saying, “You Pharisees know the scriptures so well, I’m sure you remember the story of David and his followers being so hungry that David went into the house of God and took the sacred bread that only the priest’s were allowed to eat. David took the special bread out of the house of God, shared it with his followers and they all ate together.”
Then Jesus looked right at the Pharisees and said in a full-stop sort of voice, “The Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.”
On another Sabbath day, Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue. A man was there whose right hand was paralysed. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, who always seemed to see everything, were keeping an even closer eye on Jesus than usual, hoping to catch him healing someone and breaking a Sabbath law.
But Jesus knew what they were thinking, and instead of hiding away he told the man to come and stand up where everyone could see him. So the man stood up, and Jesus asked, “What sort of thing should we do on the Sabbath? Good things or bad things? Life-saving things or life-stealing things?”
Then Jesus looked around at each person in the crowd and told the man to stretch out his hand. And as the man raised his right hand in front of him, it was completely and totally healed!
The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees saw, and they… were… furious! They started mumbling and grumbling to each other, “What can we do about Jesus?”
