First Sunday after Trinity Mark 2:23-3:6 Deuteronomy 5:12-15

What was the Sabbath made for? We are reminded in Deuteronomy that the Sabbath was instituted as a day of rest, as a holy day to the Lord our God, but the rationale given in Deuteronomy is a bit different from the way it is mentioned in Exodus 20. Here, in Deuteronomy, the people are reminded that they ‘were slaves in Egypt, and that the Lord their God brought them out from there with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; therefore, the Lord God commanded them to keep the Sabbath day.’

In the passage from Mark’s Gospel, it is the Pharisees who object to Jesus’ disciples plucking heads of grain as they were going through the grainfields on a Sabbath. In their eyes, the disciples might have been doubly at fault: travel and work (walking further than necessary according to Sabbath principles, and harvesting) being against the Sabbath rule. The very fact that they were there to observe, may of course raise the question why they had ‘travelled’ the distance on the Sabbath themselves…. They might have thought that what with all the different astonishing things that Jesus had been doing, he and his disciples needed watching. Mainly, I suppose, to see if this Jesus, who was such a different teacher, was a proper, loyal Jew. In his reply, however, Jesus doesn’t respond to that implication, but he simply summarizes the story of David who commandeered food for his soldiers (1 Samuel 21:1-6) when they were hungry, which is a detail that the story doesn’t say but is implied: ‘David entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ Keeping the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments, and through centuries of Jewish teaching, as well as the prophets, this had been reinforced down the generations. It was even one of the things that set the Jewish people apart: it reminded them that they were God’s people. Jesus, more than anybody else, would know this. In fact, in his reply to the Pharisees’ criticism, he doesn’t deny that they are not observing the Sabbath. Instead, though, he pleads that there are special circumstances and a scriptural precedent in David’s story. Jesus’ words are also saying something else: by referring to David and the incident mentioned, he puts himself in the same league as King David, and more: assuming the title ‘Son of Man’. His words, ‘The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.’, refer to the new Kingdom now breaking in. In other words, Jesus is assuming his authority as God-given, for the purpose of the redemption and the renewal of humankind. He, as the Messiah, as the true representative of humanity, reshapes the rules, in the light of the work of salvation that he was about to perform. This work is to be God’s mighty act in the world on behalf of its people, as a new Exodus, as a new rest for a new creation.

What is the Sabbath for? It is a gift of God to his people, to remind them of who he is; so that we may know how much he loves us and honour him. Amen.