Mark 1:23-28 (NIV): One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
It is very easy for people to get so caught up in the rules, and by their own supplements to God’s rules, that they completely miss the point. In this case, the Sabbath rules are the focus. God’s rule for the Sabbath was very straightforward and simple: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11 NIV)
The Sabbath law is unique among the commandments because it is not merely about a moral or religious requirement. As God pointed out right in the commandment itself, it was a rhythm that was embedded into the very fabric of creation from the beginning. God created mankind with that same rhythm of six days of work and one of rest embedded right into our souls. The Sabbath was designed to be a blessing; a time for us to set aside the tools of our trades and our concerns over our livelihood for one day, and rest, and put our whole focus clearly on our God and Savior for 24 hours each week.
But people complicated the whole thing, adding requirements, “clarifying” this simple rule that God gave us, until the Sabbath had become an incredible burden to the very people it was designed to bless. They were now told how many steps they could walk before the walking became “work,” what items they could carry on the Sabbath, and a thousand and one other things that were not part of the commandment, or in God’s mind when He gave it.
On this particular Sabbath, the concern of the Pharisees was not the supposed stealing of grain as some believe. Picking enough grain to munch on while passing along or through a field is expressly allowed in the law (cf. Deuteronomy 23:25). Instead, they saw Jesus’ disciples sinning in three different ways: picking the ripe heads of grain they saw as harvesting, rubbing off and blowing away the chaff they saw as winnowing, and chewing the grain they saw as grinding the grain into flour, all of which was forbidden under their additions to the law. But what the hungry disciples were really doing was eating to satisfy their hunger, which is NOT forbidden by God’s rules.
Jesus’ illustration from Jewish history (1 Samuel 21:1-6) was not to show the Pharisees that God’s commandments were unimportant, but that there is more flexibility in the application of them in times of true need than the Pharisees were willing to see. In this case Ahimelech, the priest (and father of Abiathar), understood that the loaves of the presence were sacred, set apart for the use of the priests. But he also saw that David and his men were really in need of food and, with no other source of food anywhere around, was willing to give it to them, provided that they were at least ceremonially clean.
Jesus’ final statement does not get rid of the Sabbath as some claim, but it refocuses it back to its original intentions. The Sabbath was made for people as a blessing, for our benefit in being able to rest for one full day out of seven. Mankind was not made for the Sabbath, to be bound by it in iron bands of thousands of additional rules made by people, so that its coming was anticipated with dread. The actual rule is simple: take the one day in seven off from our work and from the concerns of providing for ourselves and our families. Leave those concerns in God’s hands for the day as we rest ourselves and focus on Him and His blessings.
Father, thank You for Your Sabbath rest – a real true blessing. And thank You for every other blessing that comes to us when we live our lives in ways that are pleasing to You. Amen.