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Gospel: Mark 2: 23-28
As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
He said to them,
“Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Someone once said, “There is no fight like a family fight – or as many families call it, Thanksgiving dinner.”
Living in tight quarters, and even sharing DNA, does not mean that we inherently agree with one another. Topics like politics and religion are often lightning rods, which families intentionally avoid, lest there be a blow up at the dinner table.
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In today’s Gospel, there’s a “family fight” between Jesus, his disciples, and the Pharisees over what is lawful to do on the Sabbath.
It’s easy for us distant listeners to imagine the Pharisees as being totally other; enemies of Jesus and his followers from the very start. But that is not the case. All of them present in this argument are Jewish, and presumably of good will.
All of them grew up reading the Torah. All of them understood what was – and wasn’t – considered lawful on the Sabbath.
The fact that Mark cites this argument as taking place in a field of grain suggests that the Pharisees were among Jesus initial followers; they weren’t hiding out in the field waiting to catch him by surprise. They were genuinely curious about who this rabbi was.
Only later in his Gospel does Mark acknowledge the separation between Jesus and the Pharisees as they begin plotting his death. But the argument today over the Sabbath may have been what caused the split.
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The fundamental difference between Jesus and the Pharisees is their starting point. The Pharisees viewed all of life through the lens of law. Jesus, however, starts with the heart.
What good is it, according to Christ’s logic, to follow a series of rules – washing one’s hands, avoiding work on the Sabbath, or abstaining from certain foods – if doing such things does not lead to a transformation of the heart?
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Thus, it’s not what we do that matters as much as why we do it. Follow the rules. Or don’t. It only makes a difference if we follow them out of love.
May the Lord renew and cleanse us all today so that we may better love and serve him – not just on the Sabbath – but every day of our lives.
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Image credits: (1) Calibre Control (2) Jesus and His Apostles, Wehle (3) Linda’s Bible Study, WordPress