Lord of the Sabbath or Lord Over the Sabbath
AM Psalm 37:1-18 • PM Psalm 37:19-42
1 Samuel 20:24-42 • Acts 13:1-12 • Mark 2:23-3:6
One Sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck ears of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” and he said to them “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how they entered the house of God…and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him...?”
The teaching of Mark is poised between the beliefs of the Pharisees and the light Jesus tells his disciples is the true way. Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath. Already that day he has eaten ears of corn on the Sabbath and, furthermore, healed a man with a withered hand. Jesus wants us to see that the Sabbath was made for man and not the other way around.
We are free to give food to the poor that heretofore was lawful only for a priest, we are as free as a tree in the yard – one of the colossal maples fastened to the sky, or a gray whale swimming half way across the world, setting a new record, or even Queen Elizabeth cutting her birthday cake with a sword.
Yet how we worry. When I administer the chalice, and serve at the altar in church (especially my first time after the pandemic), I have worried that I wouldn’t remember the protocol. There are long wearying times in our lives when we are not sure if we are acting correctly. Perhaps we have a tendency to see differently. “Oh, I thought you meant....” Yet God, pulling us out of the Dark Ages, want us only to love and serve.
The teaching of Mark warns us against the Pharisees. What a relief. There need be no wearying pages describing clothing we should wear or protocol or political and social background we must attain. In Mark 2 and 3, Jesus and his disciples find that the Sabbath was made for them.
Written by Rebecca Newth
...who is happy to sing in the choir and read the lessons.