Is it okay to run a red light? Ignore a stop sign? Break the speed limit? Drive on the wrong side of the street? The answer to all these questions is “yes” if you are driving an emergency medical vehicle. Traffic rules are made to protect life; when they stand in the way of saving a life, we ignore them.
Isn’t it the same with God’s laws? They are meant to provide boundaries for us so we can live happy lives. Yet when this is taken to an extreme and the religious system becomes a substitute for God’s love, then we are out of balance.
This is seen in today’s gospel account (Mark 2:23-28).
“As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?’ He said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when his companions were hungry?”
Remember the story of creation when on the seventh day God rested, so he could enjoy the magnificent creation that he had just put together. Later, in establishing the Mosaic law, he commanded that they “keep holy the Sabbath.” They were to imitate God and at the end of the week set apart a day to enjoy the fruit of their work and give worship to God. Sabbath rest was a gift from God. Isn’t that what the disciples of Jesus were doing? They were taking a day off from their work and enjoying the gifts of God’s creation. It so happens the Pharisees were not keeping the Sabbath themselves. They were going about their “work” of enforcing the religious system about which they were the self-acclaimed experts. Instead of enjoying the gift of God and receiving his love they had their nose to the grindstone policing the streets.
Jesus corrected these men by reminding them of what King David did when he and his companions were hungry.
“…he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions.”
Normally the bread of offering was reserved for the priests. This was an exceptional situation when David and his companions had nothing to eat. They had returned from battle (I assume) and needed to enjoy a time of rest. It is hard to rest when you’re hungry. So David ordered them to take the bread that God had provided them and enjoy a “Sabbath rest” at God’s house. God was pleased with them.
Jesus concluded:
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Jesus was the “new David.” As God’s Son he was always having a “Sabbath rest,” and he wanted his disciples to experience God’s love the way he did. That’s why he came to earth, to free us from the grip of the Evil One so that we might be reconnected to God’s love. The gift of the Sabbath is a participation in God’s rest. Jesus knew that the Sabbath was dishonored when religious leaders reduced it to a set of rules and regulations.
When we are baptized, the Holy Spirit takes residence in us and opens us up to God’s love. When we let Jesus be Lord of our lives, he brings us into a “Sabbath rest.” There we experience the union with God that Adam and Eve forfeited. When God’s love inside us becomes cold, we tend to fall back on religious rules, regulations, and obligations and forget the goal for which these were intended.
When we pray, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into the holy of holies, the heart of God, where we can enjoy the true “Sabbath rest.” It is only when our love for God dries up that religion is reduced to a set of rules and regulations—a system that lost its true purpose.
