Mark 2:23-28 — In Need and Hungry

Mark 2:23-28

Photo: Bald Peak Oregon, by Greg K. Dueker

In this passage, Jesus' disciples were criticized for picking heads of grain to eat as they went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. The Pharisees still didn't get the "new garment" concept of the Kingdom of God. They were still trying to force Jesus and his disciples through the Play-Doh press of the Mosaic law. In response, Jesus defended his followers by quoting from the account of David and his men eating the showbread in a time of need.

v. 25-26 But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: "how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"

It is interesting to me that the showbread was a sign of man's continual dependence upon God for everything. In that sense, it was like an OT sign of the NT prayer "give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3). I process this passage through three questions...

1. Why shouldn't God provide bread to the righteous when they are hungry and in need?
2. Why should the priest eat what they probably don't need when others are hungry and in need? Does entitlement trump compassion?
3. Why should this historic fact pass un-condemned in Scripture? It was because the law of need outweighed the law of the ceremonial. Does this open the door to situational ethics? I don't think so.

Then, after citing the history of David's and his men,  who had been fleeing the unjust persecution of Saul, Jesus made an astonishing declaration,

And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath." (v.27-28)

Photo by Sheri Hooley
on Unsplash

Jesus reminded the Pharisees that the Sabbath was given to man out of God's mercy and grace, to provide rest and refreshing. The Pharisees were making the Sabbath a burden, a hardship, the opposite of God's intent. God didn't make man to somehow conform to a myriad of arbitrary ceremonial customs. God made the ceremonial requirements to minister to people, to protect humanity from exhaustion, overwork, disease, harmful (sinful) practices and attitudes, etc. Jesus also claimed to have the right to over-rule Sabbath ceremonial requirements because he is God and it is his day anyway!

Do I get caught up in the ceremonial enforcement over against the real issues? Do I value religion (man's efforts to please God) more than a relationship that responds to his love? I hope not, yet I pray that the Lord Jesus would not let me not dispense with righteous/just requirements for my personal comfort or gain. However, let me help others to walk in the liberty of your gracious provision. You are the gracious God who gives! May our souls find just what we need in your word, and may we be transformed!

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

    and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

    it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

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A few years ago, when our church was studying through the Gospel of Luke, I posted the following SOAP journal entitled, “Sabbath Trail-mix” from Mark 2's parallel passage in Luke 6. It expands on the brief account in Mark.

If you are not familiar with the term, we used the SOAP acronym as a devotional guide... which stands for:

• Scripture—what verse or short section caught my attention today? 
• Observation—what can I briefly notice that the passage specifically says?
• Application—what will I do differently as a result of having read this today?
• Prayer—what will I ask the Triune God to do for, in, and through me today?

S = Luke 6:1-2, 5 “On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” … And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

·         Mark 2:27-28 “And 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.”

O = Jesus and his disciples were walking through grain fields and the disciples became hungry. The Pharisees accused them of breaking the law. (So we must observe that they were also there… hmmm…so why were the Pharisees walking through grain fields on the Sabbath?) The issue here was not the actual eating of the gain, it was that the rubbing of the grain in their hands was considered “threshing” and thus working on the Sabbath. Jesus defended the actions of his disciples (though I note he did not appear to be eating) with a story from the life of David and a “sin” they would have considered worse…that of eating the bread from “the house of God.” In Matthew 12:6 Jesus says, “…something greater than the temple is here!” It just seems to be an object lesson to reinforce the “new wine/new wineskins” pericope just stated in Luke 5. Jesus was telling them to get a new bag, to put on a new garment—the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath! 

The Pharisees persistently tried to make Jesus disciples fit into their own ideas of what was the right way to do things. In the process, any new wine they may have received from Jesus' teaching was spilled on the ground of their hard hearts, like so much blood, as it soon literally would be.

A = Do I put my rules, my sense of the way things should be, above the real physical, emotional, and spiritual, needs of people? Do I oppress others by my rash vows like Saul did to his army by imposing a fast in the midst of a battle (1 Sam. 14:24-46)? Since Jesus declares that the Sabbath was for humanity—what does this teach me about the heart of God? He wants what is best for us, but do I want what is best for others?

P = O Lord, let me clearly see your heart for people… let me not heap legalistic burdens on those whose heart is simply to be with you and learn from you. May I be one of those disciples in relationship with you, rather than one of those Pharisees always finding fault and looking to bring the hammer of the law down on your followers. May we follow you wholeheartedly, innocently, lovingly, thankfully…doing good, giving life…Amen.