What is the appropriate and necessary work of the Kingdom? Luke has been showing at many levels how Jesus is bringing the Kingdom. But, the Kingdom Jesus brings is not the kingdom the religious leaders were looking for. In fact, they are increasingly opposed to Jesus and His ministry. In this passage Jesus demonstrates how the values and resulting ministry of His Kingdom are drastically different than the ministry and values of the religious leaders. Jesus came to set people free from the spiritual bondage that is crippling their lives, through the power of the Cross, with the result that they will truly glorify and worship God. A vivid contrast is seen between the Jesus and the Jewish leaders in the way they each go about doing “Church.” The Jews were all about keeping to a strict liturgy and form that valued prayer and the Word. This sounds good, but the Word and prayer have value only if they impact people’s lives and engage people in worshipping God! Jesus turns the worship service upside down, and steps beyond their view of holding to the rules of the Sabbath. Jesus is not simply trying to irritate the religious leaders! Instead He is demonstrating that the Kingdom of God, and therefore the Church of God, must be a place where broken and hurting people can come to find help and deliverance. Thus, our Sunday worship, and our ministry throughout the week, should be focused on bringing the whole Gospel to bear upon the whole person as every area of life will be impacted by the Gospel. There is no distinction between the secular and the sacred in God's Kingdom, everything in the Kingdom is made holy, set apart for God - all our life, all our work, all our activities, everything about us, will be affected and transformed by the outworking of the Gospel
