Friday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 16, 2021

Matthew 12:1-8

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to the them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”

“Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath.”  The many regulations pertaining to travel on roads and highways that exist today reflect concern for public safety and efficiency of travel for all in view of the large numbers of heavy, fast moving automobiles.  In ancient times, few, if any laws — such as traveling on the right or the left side of the road — were to be found.  Even the practice of walking through another man’s grain fields and snacking from whatever grain was within reach, was permitted.  At times, the ancient traveler had little choice than to traverse farmland due to poor or non-existent roads.  Jesus, here, is leading his disciples through a field of grain as he makes his way to another town.  His disciples are hungry, naturally enough, for their meals came irregularly due to their relentlessly itinerant lifestyle.  And so they do what is permitted: they pick and eat the heads of the grain as they follow the Lord.

“See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath.”  This comes from the Pharisees, who have abrogated to themselves the interpretation of Jewish Law.  In fact, though they represent that the legal prohibition they claim is from the Mosaic Law, it is, in fact, not.  The only possible reference to a limitation on walking during the Sabbath is found in Exodus 16, 29, in which the Lord God tells the Hebrews not to go outside the camp to collect manna on that day.  Only in the hundred years or so before the Birth of the Lord was this interpreted in the way the Pharisees held as tradition.  All the same, it was not written down in any code of laws at the time nor did it gain any official approbation from the Sanhedrin.  Thus, this is a case when the Pharisees bound “heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23, 4).  

“Have you not read what David did?”  The Lord Jesus has before challenged them on the legitimacy of their interpretations of the Law and on their authority for insisting that these are normative.  Here, he as much as says, “For the sake of argument, let us grant that you are correct about the law.  But let us see how this works in the case of David.”  The example the Lord offers is enough to quash their position entirely: “He went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering.”  That is, this should have been seen as a terrible profanation beside which what the Pharisees accused his disciples of simply paled.  The Lord then referred to the Law which they professed to know so well: “On the Sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent.”  

Now, in the first case, Jesus effectively compares himself and his Apostles to David and his companions who were in flight from King Saul; and in the second case, with the priests who served in the Temple.  We can understand the first case in terms of the Lord and his Apostles indeed making great haste; however, they were not fleeing from someone, but rather to someone — to the next town, to preach the Gospel, and in that case, “the workman is worthy of his wage” (Matthew 10, 10).  And in the second case, we see the Apostles compared to the priests who go about their work in the Temple, offering sacrifices, which is certainly fitting.  The Lord declares them to be “innocent men” in that they have broken no precept but are, in fact, doing holy work.

We also strive to be declared “innocent” by the Lord on the last day when “the accuser of our brothers . . . who accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12, 10) accuse us falsely of breaking God’s laws.  Let it be him, and not us, who is “cast forth”, overcome by “the Blood of the Lamb”.