Saturday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 4, 2021

Luke 6:1-5

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a Sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

It is useful, when reading the Gospel according to St. Luke, to keep in mind that the author is writing for a Gentile Christian audience, likely living in Syria.  They were lacking in their knowledge of the Jews, their history, customs, and religion.  Perhaps much of what they knew about the Jews came by way of what they learned about Jesus.  This makes Luke’s inclusion of the account which forms the Gospel reading for today’s Mass rather curious.  It is all about Jewish concerns, such as the matter of the Sabbath.  Such an inclusion was bound to cause Luke’s readers wonder who he thought he was writing for.  And yet, the inclusion of this story shows Luke’s eagerness to tell all he knew about the life of the Lord — and the eagerness of his audience for hearing every detail about it.

The question in the story really revolves around who is the true Jew here.  The Apostles are hungry and eating the heads of the grain.  The Pharisees respond by demanding, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”  Now, the Apostles, in point of fact, are not breaking any of the Mosaic laws regarding the Sabbath.  There is no more a prohibition against their rubbing the heads of the grain in their hands and eating them than of their walking through a field of grain.  The Pharisees were seeking to enforce a rule of their own invention under the pretense that Moses had commanded it.  They might get away with this with the common folks who listened to piecemeal readings from the Law in their synagogues, but not with one who knew the Law, and certainly not with the One who had given the Law through Moses in the first place.

The Lord answers their accusation by giving an example from the life of David.  He references the time when David was fleeing from King Saul, and he and his men had not eaten in days.  They came to the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and sought for bread: “He went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions.”  The account is found in 1 Samuel 21, 1-9.  The Lord does not at this time expose the fraud of the Pharisees.  He will do this later, in a public place.  He is in a hurry now to preach in the next town.  He dismisses the Pharisees by making a great claim: “The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”  It is the Son of Man who is Lord of the Sabbath, not the Pharisees, and he himself is the Son of Man.  This title originated in the Scriptures in Daniel 7, 13-14: “One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of days: and they [the angels] presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed.”  This passage, which the Pharisees knew, reminded them of the Lord’s miracles, which they themselves had witnessed, and which validated his claim to be both the Son of Man and the Lord of the Sabbath.  And he was the same Lord who had permitted David to eat the loaves as the one who permitted the Apostles to rub the grain heads and eat them.

What were the Gentile Christians supposed to do with this story?  Although the questions in it may have remained obscure for them, they could see clearly enough that the true Jew here was Jesus, not his opponents, who claimed to be the authentic interpreters of the Law.  And this helped them understand one reason why the Jews ultimately rejected him — they preferred their falsehood to the truth about God and his commandments.  The story helps us to better understand the Lord’s personality: loyal to his disciples; disdainful of the opinions of others; powerful, concise, and incisive in his speech; zealous to preach; unswerving in his mission; mindful of his dignity.