Tuesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 16, 2023

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.”

This excerpt from the Gospel of St. Mark, used at today’s Mass, is part of a consecutive series of accounts that runs through chapters two and three showing opposition to the Lord Jesus stemming from his forgiveness of the paralytic man whom he healed.  The opposition, overcome by the Lord, is mounted by both the Pharisees and the demons.  It precedes a section in the Gospel in which the Lord tells the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, which is about faith.  All this to say that in reading the text used for today’s Gospel Reading, we ought to keep in mind that this exhibition of opposition by the Jewish authorities, who doubt the Lord’s divinity, prepares us for the his teachings on why some people believe in him and why some do not.

“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.”  St. Mark casually refers to a common practice among the peoples of the Ancient Near East that would be hard for others, especially of our time, to understand.  With the scarcity of roads, travelers often walked through grain fields and pastures to get to their destinations.  In many places paths already existed, but in others, they had to be made.  The Law actually allowed for this and also for the plucking of grain heads as one walked through — so long as the person picking them did not take more than he could eat at a time.  In this particular case, the Lord must have directed or led the Apostles through this field.  Spiritually, we can understand the grain stalks as the people of this world among whom the Lord has come abruptly.  He has both the right and the ability to do so, and no one can stop him.  When the Apostles eat the grain heads, this signifies that his followers are already practicing what the Lord will later command: “Eat and drink what is set before you” (Luke 10, 7).  

“Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”  Now, it is long understood that St. Mark wrote his Gospel for Gentiles, and as proof we have his various explanations of Jewish practices.  But he does not explain here that the Pharisees are mistaken that what the Apostles are doing (rolling the shells off the grain heads with their hands) violated the Law, and this is an important piece of information for the reader to know.  We must surmise that the Gentiles to whom St. Peter preached (and for whom Mark wrote) had already learned this from the Apostle.  They may also have learned about the reliance of the Pharisees on their peculiar customs and habits (which they styled “traditions”) from living around them in Rome, where a large Jewish community existed at that time. We might wonder why the Pharisees felt the need to bring up the supposed failings of the Apostles to the Lord and not to the Apostles.  The answer is that the Pharisees were attempting to blame Jesus for the behavior of his Apostles.  And if it were true that the Sabbath was being violated, this was very serious business.  The Lord answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?”  Instead of chastising his followers, the Lord defends them.  But he does not do this by attacking the false beliefs of the Pharisees about the Sabbath, for this would only further embitter them and the Lord desired to convert them.  “How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, etc.”  Here we ought to note how easily the Lord pulls words and stories — even relatively obscure one — from the Scriptures in order to make his point.  This should have shown the Pharisees the extraordinary breadth of his knowledge, especially for one who had not studied with them, and given them pause in their persecution of him.

“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”  This is an example of what the crowds marveled over when they said that the Lord spoke “with authority”.  He speaks definitively and with majesty.  His conclusions take the breath away with the rightness and their finality.  Here, the Lord turns the whole Pharisaical project on its head just as he would overthrow the tables of the money changers at a later time.  The Pharisees interpreted the Law as an end in itself: following it might have some benefit to it but this was incidental.  The Law must be obeyed (as they taught it) without thinking or understanding.  There is no place for faith or mercy in it.  Jesus shows that the Law has a purpose: it serves men and women by showing them how to please God and make them capable of racing his benefits.  When the Lord Jesus fulfills it, it becomes the means by which we receive grace.

“That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”  For Jesus to claim to be the Lord of the Sabbath was as shocking to the Pharisees as that he could forgive sins.  And yet the works he performed showed God’s validation of his claims.  We should note in addition that the Lord says “even of the Sabbath” as though he is claiming to be Lord beyond that.  His healings and exorcisms show him to have power over the natural and supernatural worlds.  His lordship of the Sabbath shows that he is the Lawgiver himself, no longer represented by Moses, but who has come down from heaven to live among us.