ates about the Sabbath

Today's Reflections

                                              

Debates about the Sabbath

Lk 6:1-5

¹While [Jesus] was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. ²Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” ³Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those [who were] with him were hungry? ⁴[How] he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions.” ⁵Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath. By their question, the Pharisees are alluding to the sanctity of the sabbath rest which they and other pious Jews strictly observe. Jesus replies with another question: Have they not heard what David did when he and his men were hungry? He is referring to the time that David and his men ate of the bread of offering which only priests were allowed to do. This is a clear example from scripture that satisfying a basic human need takes precedence over the law. After saying that, Jesus, the Son of Man, clinches the argument by asserting his authority over the law.

In contrast, the Pharisees are more concerned about enforcing the law than about responding to human needs. They do not even recognize that they should be helping people understand God’s law and live up to it.

“Virtue is its own reward,” says John Henry Newman, “and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure’s sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.”

Does your rigid interpretation of rules and

regulations prevent you from helping people in need?