Friday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 16, 2020

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.”

The observance of the Sabbath carried out the law given to Moses, and also marked a person as a Jew, as circumcision did.  The breaking of the Sabbath could result in death (cf. Exodus 32, 14).  However, various schools of thought in the years after the Babylonian exile and through the Lord’s lifetime held their own views on what work could and could not be done on the Sabbath.  In fact, this involved the interpretation of the Mosaic Law.  When the Pharisees accuse the Apostles to the Lord of breaking the Sabbath, all they are really doing is accusing them of breaking their own Interpretation of the Law (which became nominal over time).  Perhaps they do this because they consider that Jesus thinks of himself to be a Pharisee, or because they do not recognize the possibility of other interpretations of the Law.  Even today, we see people who are so wrapped up in their own righteousness that they label as evil anyone who dares to question them.  

Jesus challenges them by reminding them of an incident occurring in the life of David.  Since David’s action did not violate the law regarding the Sabbath, Jesus is proposing to the Pharisees that they did not understand the purpose of law in general.  Then, to address their specific concern, he points to an exception regarding the Sabbath.  The exception he brings up must have startled them, for it involves the temple priests: “On the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent.”  That is, their service in the temple does not violate the Sabbath.  On its face, Jesus is equating the service of the Apostles to him to the service of the temple priests.  But then he goes much farther: “I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.”  He is speaking of himself.  For the Jews of the time, there was nothing greater than the temple.  Not only did the temple take away the breath due to its colossal size and beauty, but it served as the very center of Jewish religious life and identity.  It was the house in which God dwelt.  The claim that Jesus makes here that he is greater than the temple would have seemed so absurd in the ears of the Pharisees as to be almost meaningless.  

The Lord is not done with them, though: “If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’, you would not have condemned these innocent men.”  Here, he clearly claims his divinity.  He quotes Hosea 6, 6.  With this verse, Jesus is saying that he desires mercy, not sacrifice.  He puts himself in the place of God, whom Hosea is speaking for, and proclaims that his disciples here are without guilt.  He, Jesus is the Lawgiver and the Interpreter par excellence.  He caps this revelation with, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”  

The simple accusation made by the Pharisees at the beginning of this reading is brought about primarily by their desire to know who Jesus thinks himself to be.  Questions about the Sabbath, marriage and divorce, resurrection, Herod’s legitimacy as king, and about the messiah divided the Jews into various schools, the most influential being that of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees, seeing the Lord’s works and his ability to draw large crowds needed to know how he identified himself.  Was he their friend or foe?  The Lord gave them an answer which silenced them.  Immediately after Jesus tells them that he is “Lord of the Sabbath”, Matthew informs us, “And when he had passed from thence, he came into their synagogues.”  They could think of nothing with which to answer him.