Sabbath observance is an important part of the
life of Jews. This practice finds its foundation in Genesis, where God rested on
the seventh day after His creation. Knowing
that mankind needed the Sabbath rest, God commanded it and had Moses recorded it
in the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:9-10 put it this way, “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.” Over
time the Jewish leaders expanded on this law. While seeking to clarify what
this law entails, they added exotic legalistic practices that complicated a simple practice.
On one Sabbath, Jesus and His disciples were
crossing a grain field. The disciples picked some grain, rubbed it with their
hand and ate it. This was done because they were hungry. What they did was
provided for in Deuteronomy 23:24-25 that say “If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you
want, but do not put any in your basket. If you enter your neighbor’s grain field,
you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his
standing grain.”
However, the issue was not so much in the act but the
day in which all these took place. It was on a Sabbath and they were supposed
to do no work. They had broken the fourth commandment concerning Sabbath keeping.
The Pharisees saw the picking of grains by the disciples as reaping on a
Sabbath. They interpreted their rubbing of the grains as threshing and
winnowing the grains. And when they ate the kernels, they were deemed to have
prepared food on the Sabbath. So some of the Pharisees asked Jesus defiantly, “Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
They thought Jesus and His disciples were caught red-handed in breaking the
Sabbath. They were quite sure they had Jesus trapped.
Oblivious of
what was coming from the Master, they had unwisely engaged Jesus on a
one-on-one confrontation. So in verses 3-4, Jesus quoted them an Old Testament precedent:
“Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, he
and those who were with him, how he entered the house of
God, and took and ate the consecrated
bread which is
not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his
companions?” The consecrated bread were the twelve loaves of unleavened
bread on the Golden Table of showbread in the Tabernacle. They were placed in
the presence of God, symbolizing that God was Israel’s source of strength, nourishment
and sustenance. It was intended to remind them of the need to rely on God for everything.
The bread was only to be eaten by the Aaronic priests at the end of its display
for seven days.
Jesus’ quotation was an account taken from 1 Samuel 21:1-6. It was
about David running away from Saul who was seeking to take his life. He and his
men were desperate and famished refugees fighting for their lives. In that
incident, David begged Ahimelech, the priest at Nob, for bread. Since there was
no bread around, but only the consecrated bread from the Table of showbread, the
priest gave it to them. Of course he gave them only after ensuring that David and
his men were ceremonially clean, meaning they had not slept with any woman. The
eventual king and his men then took the twelve loaves of bread and ate them on
the way.
Essentially, we see two principles from Jesus’
response to the Pharisees. Firstly, He showed that human needs must precede
legalism. For God is merciful and to Him being merciful is more than just offering
a sacrifice. Compassionate action is preferred over strict, mindless and ritualistic
observation of the Law. Secondly, Jesus made a great theological assertion, that
“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” He made an incredible
claim. Remember that this Sabbath observation was instituted by God Himself at
Mount Sinai. To claim to be the Lord of it would mean that He is greater than
the Sabbath. If David could override the Sabbath Law, certainly He, the
Messiah, who is greater than David, has even greater right to do so. Sabbath
was instituted as a day of rest. It is a day of peace, restoration, renewal and
communion. Aren’t all these found in Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath? Consider
this: Jesus is our Sabbath rest. In Him we find true peace, regeneration, restoration,
communion and perfect rest for our weary soul. He meets the needs of our soul
at a level nothing can ever do. It would
be foolish to come to Him only on a Sunday. Wisely, let us make it a habit to
come to Him every day and every moment of life, and find perfect rest to our
soul!
No comments:
Post a Comment