Tuesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 18, 2022

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.”

Curiously, neither Matthew nor Mark tell exactly why the Pharisees were able to accuse the disciples here.  It is the Gentile Luke who tells us that they were rubbing the heads of the grain in their hands (cf. Luke 6, 1).  The Mosaic Law declared that food should be gathered and cooked on the day before the Sabbath because this could not be done on the Sabbath itself.  The rubbing of the grain heads constituted a preparation of food for eating.  The basis of this law is found in Exodus 16, 23-24: “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay by to be kept till the morning.’ So they laid it by till the morning, as Moses bade them; and it did not become foul.”  The keeping of the Sabbath became one of the chief identifying marks of the Jew and consequently the breaking of the Sabbath in any way amounted to a very serious offense.  The Pharisees would seem to have a good reason to report the actions of his disciples to the Lord.

Jesus does not excuse his disciples or tell the Pharisees that they must have seen wrongly.  Instead, he uses the occasion to announce a new order in the world.  Just as he has shown that he has the power to forgive sin, so he has power over the Sabbath.  That is, he, the Son of Man written of in the Prophets, is not a mere mortal but comes from the Father and is endowed with the power of the Father.  He himself is not bound by the laws he makes, and can alter them at will.  No Pharisee would dare claim such power for himself, but no Pharisee was casting out demons, curing the sick, and forgiving sins.  

“Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?”  While his miracles backed up his claim to be the Forgiver of sins and the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord does refer back to the Scriptures for the benefit of the Pharisees.  In 1 Samuel 21, 1-6, King David is fleeing from his son Absalom, who has rebelled against him.  David and his followers come to Abimelech the Priest and ask for bread.  He has none but the loaves that are placed on the altar of God.  Since David and his men are ritually pure, Abimelech allows them to eat these loaves, as there are no others.  The priest alters the Law on his own account for David’s sake.  If Abimelech, who made no claims of divine authority and performed no miracles, could do this, then certainly Jesus could.  The Pharisees listen to him but do not reply.  Certainly they murmured among themselves, but they had no answer to offer, nothing with which to contest his words.  

Jesus declares, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  He teaches us that the purpose of the Law is the salvation of the human race.  Previously, kings had made laws in order to show their power.  As he would later remind his disciples, “You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and that they that are the greater, exercise power upon them” (Matthew 20, 25).  But God makes his Law to safeguard his people.  He makes a “narrow way” (cf. Matthew 7, 13) for us so that we might have the consolation of two walls or rails to feel as we go along to him.