Sunday, June 12, 2005

 

LUKE 6:1-5

The Jewish Law allowed people, while walking through a cornfield not their own, to pluck a few ears if corn to eat. It forbade using a sickle in this situation. I suppose the idea was that it's legitimate to take enough grain to satisfy a passing hunger but you're not supposed to fill up your bodega with the grain you gather from a neighbor's field.

So on these grounds, the disciples' behavior was acceptable to the Pharisees. What got the Pharisees riled was that the disciples were doing this on the Sabbath. Pulling grain from the stalk, in the Pharisees' mind was like reaping, and so was a type of work forbidden on the Sabbath.

Jesus makes two observations. When David and his soldiers needed food, he recalls, they took the holy bread in the Temple and ate it, even though only the priests are allowed to eat this bread. By citing this happening from Holy Scripture, Jesus was clearly saying that certain basic needs, like hunger, take precedence over certain ritual laws.

The second observation Jesus made was explosive. He stated his authority over the Sabbath and over the law of the Sabbath! "The son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath," he said. This was startling, revolutionary, and to a traditionalist, frightening, even blasphemous.

In making this statement, Jesus put himself above the Sabbath law, which had been given to the Jews through Moses by God Himself. Jesus was dangerously close to putting himself on the same level as God. This would be blasphemy.

Jesus was taking a serious risk here. Using the issue of blasphemy, the Pharisees could isolate and alienate him totally from the people. Apparently Jesus thought it a legitimate risk, if by taking the risk he could make the people see that the Sabbath law was not absolute, that it was meant for our benefit, to give us the freedom to celebrate and intensify our relationship with God our Father. It was meant not to burden us but to liberate us . . . to free us to spend time with the Lord our God.

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