The Pharisees confront Jesus because his disciples break Sabbath law. Jesus turns the story around to show how few of them are really keeping the Sabbath. We could easily say the same about us.
In Breaking the Sabbath, Jesus seeks to keep it.
Proper 4B | Mark 2:23-3:6
“One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.”
In this one verse, Mark sets the stage for one of the most important confrontations in the whole gospel. Let’s not miss it.
“One sabbath” it begins. And here it brings up all that we should know about the Sabbath. All that God has done and impressed upon humanity can be found in one so small a word as Sabbath. It’s a mighty word, and a humble one.
We recall the opening verses of the second chapter of Genesis:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation.”
On the seventh day, God rested, yes, from all the work. But God did not stop at the resting. God hallowed it: blessed, celebrated, rejoiced in it!
The Sabbath is the day for hallowing creation: for experiencing and celebrating, rejoicing in the beauty and majesty of God’s holy work! What a glorious opportunity to celebrate all that God has done on the Sabbath!
This is what the Sabbath is.
Sabbath Living
“One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields;”
What a perfect place to be on the Sabbath! Really, how else could one bless God’s creation? Surrounded by stone? In a human-made temple with no natural light?
“and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.”
They experienced creation! With their feet and hands, mouths and noses, ears and eyes! Surrounded by what God has made, tasted what God has offered them!
Jesus is showing his disciples the purpose of the Sabbath. They walk through a field they haven’t planted and taste the grain of a plant they didn’t sow. This is living the Sabbath.
Until this living comes to an end.
Breaking the Law
“The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
The Pharisees confront Jesus about the actions of his disciples because they’ve broken the law. Never mind that they haven’t.
This is, of course, the true nature of the conflict.
What does God want us to do?
Don’t work on the Sabbath.
That’s what they did! They argue.
Never mind that God made the creation and hallowed it. God didn’t say abandon it or pollute it, either.
Most of us know what’s happening here, even if we don’t know the particulars. How 1st Century Jews weren’t allowed to walk in a working field on the Sabbath or pluck grain. Both were considered work because it’s farming. Can’t bring in the crops or make dinner, either.
Sabbath’s for hammocks, not working fields. The Pharisees are trying to police the rules.
Of course, these rules come from tradition, not God. The commandment was to honor the Sabbath and its holiness—to mark it as the day God rested, so give your people and your animals a rest. Revel in the beauty of God’s holiness.
But some of us don’t have hammocks or a place to lay our heads or a premade dinner to eat from the fridge (remember, you’re not allowed to operate the stove—that’s work!). What of those disciples whose home is the land and the roof is the sky?
To the Pharisees, the answer is “Tough! Them’s the rules!”
It’s hard being the gatekeeper.
It’s not like they made the rules. They’re entrusted with them, though. And the Pharisees take that work seriously. And Jesus isn’t easy on them.
He lets his disciples break the rules and justifies it with a story of the great king David breaking this same rule! He spouts some backward gibberish about the nature of the Sabbath, and then, to drive the point home, goes and heals some dude’s withered hand in front of everybody. Like he’s daring them to call the cops.
Never mind the purpose of the Sabbath. Never mind what God really wants. These are the rules. No working. No messing around. And absolutely no healing people in synagogues with withered hands. That’s got to be in the criminal code somewhere, I just need to find it. Give me a minute.
Wait, I don’t see it. It doesn’t matter. It’s work. We’ll count it as working. All this working you guys have been doing on the Sabbath!
Right. All this “work”. Being out in the middle of creation, receiving God’s blessing in food and festivities. Singing songs of praise and giving ourselves over to the work God has given us, saying “Here I Am!” Healing the dying on the Sabbath. The day God has hallowed.
Breaking Sabbath to keep the Sabbath
This is why this is one of my absolute favorite stories in the Bible. Jesus is breaking Sabbath to keep the Sabbath. To save the Sabbath.
And the conflict is so recognizable to us because we love enforcing rules. Even those of us who are rebels, we have our own rules we need to enforce and we’re not gonna let anybody tell us what to do—because that’s our rule.
And here are the poor Pharisees, caught flat-footed by Jesus because he’s not wrong. They know somewhere in there, he’s not wrong. Even though he’s wrong, he’s not wrong. And they don’t know how to deal with it. So what do they do?
“The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.”
Because Jesus is appealing to the Law below the law.
He’s saying they don’t actually understand the Law, Torah, because if they did, they would see that this isn’t work. Plucking grain? That’s not work for the disciples—they aren’t farmers.
And really, let’s be honest, some of these laws are pretty lame. Nobody gets to cook today even those of us who love to cook? Are you trying to tell me that Kim can’t bake bread or Chris can’t make cookies? What does that have to do with celebrating life with God? What does that have to do with celebrating God’s creation?
But this is the allure of rules and order: we don’t have to worry about what God actually wants. We can police the boundaries and call that doing God’s work. We don’t have to think and we don’t have to worry about the punishment. Breaking rules is breaking rules. There you go, we get to kick them out.
Just like God punished the first humans by kicking them out of Eden and throwing away the key, forgetting about them forever.
—Wait. That’s not how that went, is it?
Our Sabbath Violations
We take it for granted that we don’t worry about Sabbath restrictions because Jesus freed us from that. Only many of us descend from puritans and live here in Indiana, which still has a blue law banning alcohol sales on Sundays.
We’re part of a church still dealing with fights over rules around ordination and marriage.
And we still worry about who notices us on Sunday and how we love each other.
In other words, we who are good Christians, still have trouble hearing what Jesus was trying to tell us about rules and laws and the very authority of God. And we keep making those same mistakes, conspiring with each other to destroy.
While God conspires with people to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.
Revealing God in the Sabbath
What Jesus showed his followers as they walked through the fields…what he showed the crowds in the synagogue when he healed that withered hand…and yes, what Jesus tried to show those Pharisees was the very nature of God.
Showing them that God is here, blessing us with all of this beauty in creation, healing the sick, saving lives, helping the people rejoice in the very zest of life!
God doesn’t want us keeping hands withered! The sojourners hungry! The dying to their deathbeds! God doesn’t want the Pharisees blind—God’s given them Jesus so that they can see.
And God doesn’t want us to remain blinded by rules, tethered to death, mummified in this mortality.
God gives us Jesus to breathe Sabbath life into our hearts, pry open those eyes so we can see, really see all the beauty of creation; so we can know, really know God’s love; and so we can share, really share Christ’s mercy.
So we can be remade with new life: reborn in the Spirit of love that is all around us and in us.
God offers us the opportunity, an invitation to discover this transforming power of love. Over. And over. And over again.