Scripture Reference: Mark 2:1-3:6
Why Is He Breaking the Rules? – Continued
Please read Mark 2:23-3:6 for the background to this section.
The last two stories in this group are about Jesus and the Sabbath, and again we find people accusing Him; “Why is he breaking the rules?” The hearts of these accusers are fossilized; they will not see or recognize Who Jesus is. This passage contains a strong warning for people like that.
Both stories take place on the Sabbath, that is, Saturday, which was the Jewish day of rest. Look at the verses. Now this incident seems innocent enough, so what’s the problem? The law decreed that on the Sabbath no work should be done. That rule made sure that no one could force you to work on the day, and everyone, even including the animals, had a complete day off every week. But the tradition has added to that a whole superstructure of additional regulations. The religious experts have “helped” by dividing “work” into thirty-nine major categories, just so that everyone can be sure what they are not allowed to do. Category number three involves “reaping.” In fact, to a really sharp legal mind, the disciples are breaking three Sabbath regulations in this section. By picking off heads of corn, or wheat, rolling them in their fingers and then chewing them, they are (a) reaping, (b) threshing and (c) preparing food on the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees spot them!
What, we might ask, are the Pharisees doing out for a walk on the Sabbath? Almost certainly, they are there to spy on what Jesus and His company are up to. By the way, in case you are wondering what kind of high-powered binoculars the Pharisees are using, remember that these fields would be very small, unlike the huge prairies we know today, so it would be easy to stand at the edge of the field and see what is going on. For the Pharisees, the most legally-minded of all the Jews, this presents another great opportunity to attack Jesus, because obviously if His disciples are cheerfully breaking all these rules, that does not reflect very well on their leader. That is why they address Jesus, not the disciples.
Jesus responds with a question of His own, which may sound strange to us, because, how does it relate to the issue of Jesus and the Sabbath? The story comes from 1 Samuel 21:1-6. David is on the run; he goes to the priests and he persuades one of them to give him and his companions the special bread from the altar of God, which only the priests are supposed to eat. With that story in mind, Jesus in essence says, “Look, one of your biggest heroes, David, who became the great king, did something much worse than this, and no one condemned him.” In fact, even though what David did was a very minor breach of the law, the priest freely gave him the bread, after all. The point is that meeting human need is more important than keeping every letter of the law, and, once again, the Pharisees can’t seem to see or grasp that. They are blind, they are hardened.
Behind all of that there is an even bigger point. These religious experts have made the Sabbath an intolerable burden on ordinary people. The Sabbath was a gift from God. It was important, yes, keeping it special is one of the Ten Commandments. It was the world’s first law on workers’ rights and it has protected untold millions of people from exploitation down through three and a half thousand years. God gave us the Sabbath because He knows how easily people exploit one another and He knows we need guaranteed rest.
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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