1 One Sabbath day, as Jesus happened to be passing through the cornfields, his disciples began picking the ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 Some of the Pharisees remarked, "Why are you doing what the Law forbids men to do on the Sabbath day?" 3 Jesus answered them and said, "Have you never read what David and his men did when they were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God, took the presentation loaves, ate some bread himself and gave some to those with him, even though the Law does not permit anyone except the priests to eat it." 5 Then he added, "The Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath. Luke 6:1-5
Verse 1: Here we go again, "One Sabbath day..." Those words alert us: there's trouble up ahead. We know Jesus is going to do something that's going to irk someone with regard to Sabbath law. Here they are, Jesus and his friends, minding their own business, having a nice Sabbath walk, and they're hungry. They pick some corn along the roadside (interesting no one will charge them with stealing), which they rub between their hands to loosen up the kernels, which they then pop into their mouths.
Now we might stop for a moment and get hold of ourselves. Not a few Catholics, including priests, like to poke fun of the Jews for having so many rules (613) governing just about every aspect of religious living. But let's be honest: the Catholic Code of Canon Law has 1,752 laws! The 1917 Code of Canon Law contained 2,414 laws! So let's stop making fun of the Jews - we've got them beat by miles.
Verse 2: Here, the self-appointed or sent-from-Jerusalem religion-police appear. We can imagine them watching Jesus from a distance along the walk or hiding in the cornfield observing. Suddenly they spring out and accuse Jesus with, get ready, harvesting, which is a Sabbath-forbidden work. All religions can be reduced to extroverted observances. It takes real self-awareness to detect how we may have drifted off into that spiritually empty place.
Verses 3,4: But Jesus is brilliant. He knows their game and answers their question with a question. That's a tool any good teacher uses to bring students to deeper insight. He's talking to serious religious observers, so of course they're going to know the David story. In the Book of Exodus, God laid out in fine detail how all the furniture, vestments, curtains and coverings for the Jerusalem temple were to be made. We might think God had more important things to do, but there it is. And in the most holy, interior place of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, where only the priests were allowed to enter, there was a golden table where loaves of bread were left as an offering to God. I expect the bread was kept fresh and changed everyday. David and his friends were apparently hungry one day and ate that God-bread.
Verse 5: Jesus wraps up the short conversation with this mysterious saying, referring to himself as Son of Man. This isn't a claim of divinity, but sounds more like a claim to being one with humanity. Either way, Jesus does claim to be master over the Sabbath. Some translations say, LORD, of the Sabbath. Lord is an Easter title for Jesus. We might then understand this verse to mean something like, "I am over the Sabbath." And if Jesus is over the Sabbath, then he's the one who can determine what matters most about the Sabbath. And that can easily be overlooked. The rule was "broken" because people were hungry. Some people don't make the connection. But doesn't Jesus establish feeding the hungry as an essential and even pre-eminent act of religion? Matthew 25.
Verse 2: Here, the self-appointed or sent-from-Jerusalem religion-police appear. We can imagine them watching Jesus from a distance along the walk or hiding in the cornfield observing. Suddenly they spring out and accuse Jesus with, get ready, harvesting, which is a Sabbath-forbidden work. All religions can be reduced to extroverted observances. It takes real self-awareness to detect how we may have drifted off into that spiritually empty place.
Verses 3,4: But Jesus is brilliant. He knows their game and answers their question with a question. That's a tool any good teacher uses to bring students to deeper insight. He's talking to serious religious observers, so of course they're going to know the David story. In the Book of Exodus, God laid out in fine detail how all the furniture, vestments, curtains and coverings for the Jerusalem temple were to be made. We might think God had more important things to do, but there it is. And in the most holy, interior place of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, where only the priests were allowed to enter, there was a golden table where loaves of bread were left as an offering to God. I expect the bread was kept fresh and changed everyday. David and his friends were apparently hungry one day and ate that God-bread.
Verse 5: Jesus wraps up the short conversation with this mysterious saying, referring to himself as Son of Man. This isn't a claim of divinity, but sounds more like a claim to being one with humanity. Either way, Jesus does claim to be master over the Sabbath. Some translations say, LORD, of the Sabbath. Lord is an Easter title for Jesus. We might then understand this verse to mean something like, "I am over the Sabbath." And if Jesus is over the Sabbath, then he's the one who can determine what matters most about the Sabbath. And that can easily be overlooked. The rule was "broken" because people were hungry. Some people don't make the connection. But doesn't Jesus establish feeding the hungry as an essential and even pre-eminent act of religion? Matthew 25.
