GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 2:23-28
Lord of the Sabbath
23 Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”
Mark does not present all of his accounts in chronological order. The Twelve Apostles were involved in this account, but Mark doesn’t relate the appointing of the Twelve until chapter 3 (3:14-19). But the subject relates to what was just presented about fasting, or rather, about the relationship of Jesus and the law of Moses. We turn now to the subject of working on the Sabbath.
While Jesus was out ahead of them, the apostles were gleaning from a field as they passed through (or between two fields). Gleaning was the act of taking the produce of a field, orchard, or vineyard (Judges 8:2; Sirach 33:16) that belonged to someone else. This was how poor people were able to feed themselves, and we learn quite a bit about gleaning in passages like Ruth 2:3-9, 2:15-18, and 2:23. Lenski underscores a crucial point with his usual concise clarity: “Jesus…himself plucked no ears [of grain]. In the other charges about the Sabbath it was always the same: Jesus did nothing with his own hands on which the Jews could pounce. This gave Jesus the tactical advantage of defending others, not himself, and of compelling the Pharisees to raise the question about the real principle at issue: ‘Is it, or is it not, lawful?’” (Interpretation of Mark p. 126).
Sometimes gleaning was necessary because a widow had no one to look after her (Ruth 2:2), or because war or wicked man had taken away the property of the poor who are left “scavenging in the wasteland” (Job 24:5). But it could also be done by travelers as they walked, which is what the disciples were doing. The Israelites were commanded to leave the edges of their fields and orchards without harvesting there for this very purpose (Leviticus 19:9; 23:22). What the Pharisees were bringing up was that the disciples were doing this ‘work’ on the Sabbath day. There was no Law in the Scriptures against this, but the Pharisees laid another set of laws around the Law of Moses. It is about these man-made laws that Jesus protests in the verses that follow.
25 He replied to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? 26 He entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat, except for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.”
This event happened when David was running from Saul. Nob, a village not far from Jerusalem, was for a short while the place where some of the articles of the Tabernacle were being kept. In those days, the Tabernacle was something of a mess, because the Ark was in one place, the tent itself in another, and some other items may well have been elsewhere. That’s a study all in itself for another time. But at this moment, 1 Samuel 21:1-6, the tent of the Tabernacle, the table of the showbread and probably the lampstand were there at Nob, and Ahimelech was serving as high priest (Ahimelech was Abiathar’s father). He allowed David to eat the only bread that was there, the consecrated bread that was for the priests, because David and his men needed it. David’s action seemed appeared to violate the law about the bread, which was not for just anyone to eat, but was to be set out before the Lord for seven days, and after that belonged to the priests who served at the holy place (Leviticus 24:5-9). And yet the high priest agreed with David’s request, and since David and his men were ceremonially clean (1 Samuel 21:5), Ahimelech did what David asked. If the high priest of Israel and a man anointed to be king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:13) did this with clear consciences, why then did the Pharisees trouble themselves with what the disciples were doing?
27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus also pointed out that it is always better to save or preserve life if it a question between strictly obeying the law and preserving a person’s life: “Which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil? To save life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9). The law was not made for legalistic and mindless obedience, but for the benefit of God’s holy people. Acts of compassion are always within the spirit of the law.
In addition to understanding the Sabbath laws in a way the Pharisees could not, Jesus also proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath, that is, Lord over all, even the holy Sabbath. He is truly God, and therefore his interpretation of any and every law is always to be preferred. But in the same way, when Jesus maintains that the commandments remain the will of God and are binding (Mark 12:29-31), that too is always to be remembered by us. “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14; Leviticus 19:18). Obeying this command is motivated by our love and faith in God and shows itself in the way we treat each other; our compassion and concern for one another. “The miser is an evil person; he turns away and disregards people” (Ecclus. 14:8), and even “the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel, but the righteous man cares even for the needs of his animal” (Proverbs 12:10). This is God’s command: To believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another (1 John 3:23). This sums up the law, and may it also be the summary of our lives.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 2:23-28 Lord of the Sabbath