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172
Humble Hero
through a field, an orchard, or a vineyard was free to gather what he
wanted to eat. See
Deuteronomy 23:24, 25
. But many believed that
to do this on the Sabbath would profane the holy day. Gathering the
grain was a kind of reaping, and rubbing it in the hands a kind of
threshing.
The spies immediately complained to Jesus, “Look, why do they
do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Mark 2:24
.
When accused of Sabbath breaking at Bethesda, Jesus defended
Himself by affirming His Sonship to God, declaring that He worked
in harmony with the Father. Now that the disciples were attacked,
He mentioned Old Testament examples of things people did on the
Sabbath when they were in the service of God.
The Savior’s answer to His accusers contained an implied rebuke
for their ignorance of the Sacred Writings: “Have you not even read
this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were
with him: how he went into the house of God, took and ate the
showbread, ... which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?”
“And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the Sabbath.’” “Or have you not read in the law that on
the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are
blameless? But I say to you that in this place there is One greater
[127]
than the temple.” “The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Luke 6:3, 4
;
Mark 2:27
;
Matthew 12:5, 6, 8
.
If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating the bread
set apart for a holy use, then it was right for the disciples to pluck
grain on the Sabbath. Again, the priests in the temple had more work
to do on the Sabbath than on other days. The same labor in secular
business would be sinful, but they were performing rites that pointed
to the redeeming power of Christ, and their labor was in harmony
with the Sabbath.
The purpose of God’s work in this world is to redeem mankind.
So whatever is necessary to do on the Sabbath to accomplish this
work is in harmony with the Sabbath law. Jesus then finished His
argument by declaring Himself the “Lord of the Sabbath”—One
above all questions and all law. This infinite Judge acquitted the
disciples of blame, appealing to the very laws they were accused of
violating.