1At that time Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry so they were picking heads of wheat and eating them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are breaking the Sabbath law.”
3 But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? 4 He went into God’s house and broke the law by eating the bread of the presence, which only the priests were allowed to eat. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple treat the Sabbath as any other day and are still innocent? 6 But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what this means, I want mercy and not sacrifice, you wouldn’t have condemned the innocent. 8 The Human One is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Reflection
So, have you ever gone apple picking on a Sunday afternoon? Have you ever gone to the grocery store on a Sunday? Have you ever gone out to eat or gone to a concert or sporting event on a Sunday afternoon? How about to a festival in the park?
I don’t know anything about picking wheat, but I certainly have picked berries and apples. It can be fun to do those things and also very rewarding because you get to eat that delicious fresh fruit! I had a friend who was a grocery store manager years ago, and he said Sunday was consistently the day that the store was the busiest and made the most revenue. We ordered subs on Sunday and watched the Eagles before we went to Kate’s installation service where she told her pastors that they needed a Sabbath day to do something fun and recharge!
The Pharisees were constantly trying to catch Jesus in some sort of trap – telling him here that the disciples were breaking the Sabbath law by picking the wheat to eat. Jesus is very practical. He knows that the disciples are hungry – he has been traveling with them. He knows they only eat when people are gracious enough to share food with them, so they took an opportunity to eat. In that time, farmers would leave some of the crops so that people could partake of what was left -seems like a really good idea, and it was actually a law – Leviticus 23:22.
Jesus also quotes a story from scripture for them from 1 Samuel when David was running from Saul and went to the Temple to ask for food and a weapon. The only food the priest had was the bread for the sacrifice and the sword that Goliath had carried when David killed him. Jesus basically says if David can eat the holy bread from the Temple, my disciples can get wheat from a field. He also argues that the priests worked on the Sabbath, so what does that mean for us? Does it mean we can and should ignore the Sabbath as a holy day?
Jesus says in verses 7 and 8 that he is the Lord of the Sabbath and to him, being merciful to others is more important than the sacrifice and to me that means Jesus wants us to pay more attention to other humans than to our rituals that we use. Again – we should have a sabbath day – a day set aside for worship, but also a day that we can use to reset ourselves so that we are ready to face whatever we need to do next.
Now for some people like pastors, servers, grocery workers, NFL players and staff, newspeople etc. Sunday is not the day of course, but it is good to take a day to recharge and in that recharging to give God thanks. Some people do not have that luxury, but it is not healthy for us not to have a day or two during the week to reset and recharge – maybe in that time just get ready for the week to come. We certainly can do both on whatever day is our Sabbath – we can worship God and take time to regroup or to get things done that will help us continue to do our jobs – whether that is going to a job, going to school, helping others in the community or whatever we do during the week – having a day to refocus our energies is important. We should be thankful for it and not judge others for how they use their day.
by Janet Waryck
For Pondering and Prayer
How do you use your Sabbath day? Do you specifically think about it? How can we be intentional about giving ourselves time to recharge and regroup for what lies ahead?
Prayer: Lord of the Sabbath, help us to value Sabbath time – time to worship you and time to recharge and reset our lives so that we may be better able to help others in our day to day. Help those who don’t have the ability to take time – help them that they may be able to carve out minutes every day to do something that makes them feel closer to you and may you give them some respite. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
