A Dispute About the Sabbath. Mark 2:23-28.
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him; “How he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Dear Family,
Mark is painting a picture of a Jesus who is non-conformist. First, he touched a leper (1:41), then he forgave a man his sins (2:5), after which he sat at a table to eat with sinners (2:15), permitted his disciples to ignore fasting (2:18, 20), and as if that was not bad enough, he let them violate the Sabbath (2:23). It seems Jesus is throwing the old conventions out the window.
Problem (vv. 23-24). The Pharisees challenged Jesus for permitting his disciples to pluck grain on the Sabbath. Plucking grain in someone else’s field was permitted, as long as it was to stem the hunger and not harvesting (Deuteronomy 23:25). But the Pharisees considered it work, so it could not be done on the Sabbath.
Precedent (vv. 25-26). Jesus’ response is that what the disciples were doing had been permitted before. David had gone to the tabernacle and found no food, except the bread of the Presence, which he was not permitted to eat, since he was not a priest. But David and his companions were famished, Ahimelech the priest who served under Abiathar the high priest, gave them the holy bread. The reasoning here is that in times of need, certain rules may be overriden.
Purpose (v. 27). Jesus further argues that the Sabbath is utilitarian. It was made for the benefit of man and not the other way around. Keeping the Sabbath simply to tick a box is meaningless. There ought to be a benefit that comes with it. Three benefits come to mind: One is rest. It is not healthy for a person to keep working without a break. Such modern problems as “burnout” and stress are the result of ignoring the Sabbath as a day of rest. The second is worship. We were made for communion with God. And while we should commune with God even while we work, a day to worship with the rest of God’s community is healthy and necessary (Hebrews 10:24-25).The third is time with family. Some jobs keep people in the family away from each other all day, for days on end. A day when families can be together uninterrupted is a must, if they are not to fall apart and the family members drift away from each other emotionally.
Preeminence (v. 28). Jesus goes even further and declares that he is Lord of the Sabbath. After the one of authority to forgive sins (v. 10). It was God who “blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Genesis 2:3), so a claim to authority over the Sabbath is a claim to Godhood. Jesus is saying, “I can do what I want on the Sabbath and permit others to vary its observance. It is my day.”Whatever one’s view of the Sabbath, Jesus must be central to it. If he is not, the one has missed the point.
Your Loving Pastor Chris.