(Gospel of Mark 2:23 - 3:13)
On the Sabbath Jesus happened to be passing through a field of grain. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick some of the heads of grain.
The Pharisees challenged him. “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
Jesus replied to them, "Haven't you ever read what King David did when he and his companions were hungry and needy? In the days of Abiathar, high priest, he entered the Tabernacle and ate the sacred showbread, which was lawful only for the priests to eat. He even gave some to the companions who were with him.”
He also said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is master of the Sabbath as well.”
On another occasion Jesus entered the synagogue and noticed a man there with a withered hand. Those who were looking for a pretext to bring a charge against him watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath.
Jesus told the man with the withered hand, "Come and stand up in front of us all.” He asked the people, "What is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good, or to do evil, to save a life, or to take one?" But the congregation was silent.
Jesus glared at them in anger, appalled by the hardness of their hearts. Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." He held out his hand, and, lo, it was restored!
As soon as the Pharisees left the synagogue, they conferred with those supporters of Herod Antipas who were opposed to Jesus and conspired with them how they might destroy Jesus.
Jesus retreated with his disciples to the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, people not only from Galilee, but from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the trans-Jordan, and the area around Tyre and Sidon. Having heard of the great things he was doing, vast numbers of people were coming to see him. Concerned that the crowds might crush him, Jesus ordered his disciples to make ready a boat. He had healed so many on that day that those who were diseased surged forward through the crowd that they might touch him. Whenever those possessed by unholy spirits recognized him, they would prostrate themselves before him and exclaim, "You are the Son of God!" But Jesus sternly commanded them not to reveal his identity.
Notes
1. By picking heads of grain as they passed through the fields, the disciples were engaged in a forbidden activity, harvesting on the Sabbath, so judged the knit-picking Pharisees. Presumably the disciples were picking the heads of grain to eat the kernels. Gee, most folks wait until the kernels are made into flour or bread! We are referring to wheat here, not to what we call corn, which is maize, a strictly New World cereal that would have been unknown to those living in the ancient Middle East. (The word corn was traditionally used to refer to any grain or cereal crop.) Was Jesus so poor at providing for his disciples that they must scavenge for food? This behavior, though, was sanctioned by Deuteronomy. We must ask, though, how the Pharisees knew of this. Were the Pharisees, who seem to dog Jesus' footsteps, really trailing the disciples through the grain field, spying on them and scrutinizing their every move? The Pharisees do give the impression that they will go to any length to try to catch Jesus in a blasphemy or in some violation of religious law, however minor or harmless in order to find an excuse for getting rid of him, a troublemaker and a threat to their authority. Yet, this seems excessively petty -- which is perhaps the very reason this trivial incident was included by the author, to discredit the good sense of the Pharisees who opposed Jesus.
2. Jesus' response to the Pharisees' charge concerning the disciples' questionable conduct, plucking heads of grain on a Sabbath, is somewhat evasive. He compares it to an act of David and his hungry companions when they ate food meant for the priests. The circumstances are not really comparable at all. David was a future king in flight, not a follower of an evangelist. David secured the approval of the priests for what he did. And David and his companions were in distress and genuinely hungry. Were the disciples really that hungry? Did that compel their indiscreet plucking? And if David had acted improperly, how does that excuse the actions of Jesus' disciples? One instance of wrong behavior is not justified by citing another instance of wrong behavior, especially when the latter act is motivated by extenuating circumstances and the former is not. Jesus is very much like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He excuses himself by claiming his older brother filched an extra brownie the week before. He never directly addresses the morality of his own conduct, or rather that of his disciples, he only diverts attention from it by pointing to the conduct of another. This behavior, this response to an accusation, this debating tactic, is as puerile as it common. One would think it beneath someone who claims to be the Son of God.
3. The incident concerning David is mentioned in Samuel. David, feeing from Saul, was alone when he asked the Jehovan priests to feed him with the sacred showbread. But he did bring back 5 loaves for his companions. The high priest at that time was actually Ahimelech, the father of Abiathar, who later succeeded his father when he was murdered by Saul. The presumed mistake is explained away variously by biblical commentators -- Abimelech was also called Abiathar or the phrase is not “in the days when Abiathar was high priest,” but “in the days of Abiathar, the high priest,” not referring to the time when he held the office, but merely when he was active. Reasoning that neither Jesus nor the author of Mark would make so egregious an error, I have accepted the latter rendering and assumed meaning.
4. Jesus, though, presents another alibi for his disciples' conduct. But in saying that the Sabbath was made for man and not vice versa, Jesus is arguably throwing out the whole concept of strict Sabbath observance. One might interpret his remarks as sanctioning any Sabbath violation that serves not only necessity, but practicality and convenience. Moreover, he, as the Son of Man, claims the right to make of the Sabbath whatever he wishes. By advocating that the Sabbath serves the purposes of man (and not God?), Jesus seems to say that he is free to make any rules about it he deems fit and not be bound by the laws concerning it set down in the Mosaic texts. This is surely a repudiation of Judaism, at least traditional Judaism. Indeed the Pharisees thought so and were so outraged by it that they resolved to kill Jesus. (Forgetting, of course, the commandment against murder.)
5. That Jesus chooses to heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath in the synagogue is intentionally provocative. The man was not suffering and in need of immediate succor. Jesus could have seen the man the next day and healed him in the privacy of his home. He didn't need to do it on the Sabbath. He didn't need to do it in front of a congregation that might be offended by healing on the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus chose to make the man the object of a spectacle and a means of showing up the congregation -- who were probably less hard-hearted than sheep-like, believing what they were told by the Pharisees.
6. The Pharisees conferred with supporters of Herod Antipas who were opposed to Jesus: in other words, they were seeking the approval of the political establishment and plotting with it to destroy Jesus. Jesus, although he hasn't done or said a great deal at this point in the narrative, has already acquired national, if not international notoriety. A preacher, a healer of populist appeal, he is a threat to the powers that be. The political and religious establishments, no doubt oft at odds, thus form an alliance against Jesus.
7. Jesus is constantly running into people possessed by unholy, or impure spirits. There seems to have been an epidemic at that time of what we would term demonic possession. While there is certainly compelling, contemporary evidence that demonic possession does exist, it must be regarded as rare. Here, it is common. The spirits or demons immediately recognize Jesus and, for whatever reason, wish to expose him as the Son of God. Jesus, at this point, doesn't wish to reveal his true identity. He wants to stay in the closet, so he silences the spirits, who apparently obey his commands and acknowledge his mastery over them. He does not on this occasion exorcise the spirits. Jesus, after healing so many, is now more intent upon getting away from the crowd that want a piece of him.
8. Sidon and Tyre were major cities of Phoenicia, to the north of Galilee. Idumea was the Roman name for Edom or the Negev, south of Judea.
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