It was an old law. It dated way back. Its origins could have dated back to the time when the original group of Hebrews left Egypt. Since it comes to us from Deuteronomy, which means second law, the date could also be a little less ancient by about 400 years, but either way, the law was very, very old. It was found among several laws that told the people of Israel how to live as brothers and sisters with each other. It stated that if you were walking along the road and were hungry, you could pick the heads of grain in the field. There was the restriction not to bring a container to load up on grain. That would be theft. But, to satisfy one's hunger, by all means the field's owner would want to help a brother or sister in time of need. Deuteronomy 23.25 contains the exact law.
A sister law, also ancient, required bread to be baked for God and put on a table in the Holy Place. When the priests ate a loaf of this bread, they were to put incense in its place as a place holder offering until the bread could be replaced. Since the bread was presented to God, then eaten by those serving God directly for the people, it was considered to be sacred. Priests had kept the tradition alive for a few hundred years. Leviticus 24.9 contains the instructions for this tradition.
So, one day Jesus was walking down a road with his Twelve. They were hungry and partook of some heads of grain from a grain field. That was a perfectly legitimate thing to do. They must have partaken of the grain close to a village because the group had onlookers who saw them eating. The whole scene should have come under the category of No Harm Done, EXCEPT that the day Jesus and his Twelve were walking together was the Sabbath. Matthew 12.1-8 carries the story.
Sabbath rules had been around at least as long as the other two laws above, and Sabbath rules had had a huge oral tradition in the Talmud to accompany the Old Testament reminder to keep the Sabbath holy. Every Jew was well versed in what the Sabbath meant and how it was to be observed. Of all the laws, this law and all its accompanying comments by various popular and esteemed rabbis, appears to have been the one most strictly followed.
According to Matthew 12, several villagers from the Pharisaical group saw Jesus and his party picking the grain and eating it from the field, evidently near the village. They felt compelled to approach Jesus to contest his terrible example in front of his followers. Jesus had a really surprising answer for them using the episode from David's life in 1 Samuel 21.1-6.
Matthew 12
Verse 3
ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε τί ἐποίησεν Δαυὶδ ὅτε ἐπείνασεν καὶ οἱ μετ’ αὐτοῦ
(He asked them, "Haven't you read what David and those with him did when they were hungry?)
Verse 4
πῶς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοὺς ἄρτους τῆς προθέσεως ἔφαγον, ὃ οὐκ ἐξὸν ἦν αὐτῷ φαγεῖν οὐδὲ τοῖς μετ’ αὐτοῦ εἰ μὴ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν μόνοις
(That he went into God's house and ate the bread put out for God. It was permissible for the priests only to eat, not for David and those with him.)
And Jesus wasn't quite finished. Priests actually had to offer a meat sacrifice with grain and wine, thus breaking, technically, the prohibitions of working on the Sabbath. The sacrifice of lamb, grain, and wine can be read in Numbers 28.9-10.
Verse 5
ἢ οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ὅτι τοῖς σάββασιν οἱ ἱερεῖς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ τὸ σάββατον βεβηλοῦσιν καὶ ἀναίτιοί εἰσιν
(Or haven't you read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and are not considered at fault for doing so?)
I'm sure that the Pharisees felt like Jesus had just aligned a few of the sacred writings in really creative, but unwarranted ways. It sounded like rationalization to the max. A person can tell this by the number of times Pharisees approached Jesus about his Sabbath practices. His "malpractice" of the Sabbath became a real issue between Jesus' teachings and the Talmud traditions as taught by the Pharisees.
Ironically, the Jews' view of the Sabbath slid into the background given what Jesus said after he had gotten the Pharisees' attention with his application of Old Testament laws to his current activity. Jesus' next statement was beyond bold because it made a matter of supreme importance, the observance of Sabbath rules, invisible to this conversation.
Verse 6
λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι τοῦ ἱεροῦ μεῖζόν ἐστιν ὧδε.
(I tell you that someone greater than the temple is here.)A person can see the sequence of thought here for the Pharisees keeping up with Jesus' words as they were being spoken. They were thinking He just justified breaking the law in this modern society by quoting from our scriptures. Absurd! He took a really unorthodox view of the priests eating the bread presented to God to justify his own actions. Unthinkable! But putting his teachings higher than temple teachings is a level above arrogance! It had their heads reeling. However, Jesus had one more statement to make that the Pharisees could never acknowledge.
Verse 8
κύριος γάρ ἐστιν τοῦ σαββάτου ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου
(for the Lord of the Sabbath is the Son of Man!")
Jesus didn't have time to spare. He was on a mission. He had a message to deliver. He delivered it quickly, precisely, and succinctly. Jesus had three years. He had to get the word out that he was the Messiah. He did so through direct statement occasionally, but through innuendo a lot. And the innuendo part is the delicious morsel in this passage because it is through the innuendo that the Pharisees thought Jesus' teachings were heretical.
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| Messiah in the Outer Court Bill Stephens |
Verse 8 is many times translated "for the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath." In this way of thinking Jesus uses the name he has assigned himself, the Son of Man, to refer to himself as being Lord of the Sabbath, and above the rules that deal with the Sabbath. The words in Greek have a different order, however. They translate as "The Lord of the Sabbath is the Son of Man." At first glance this translation merely seems like a reverse version of the first translation used. Since the copula (is) is used, some say that there is no difference in meaning. The Lord is the son, the son is the Lord. One nominative phrase reidentifies the other, and the phrases are of equal importance. There is no difference in meaning.
A linguist would say that order does matter because the semantics are different. The subject of the sentence has primary emphasis and the predicate nominative has secondary significance. If this is true, the second way of translating the order of the Greek means that the Lord of the Sabbath is emphasized and the Son of Man is further identification. The phrase of primary importance in this case changes the meaning of Jesus' words. Jesus wasn't saying that he was the Lord of the Sabbath and, therefore, above the rules. There was only one Lord of the Sabbath, and that was God. Jesus was saying that God was the Son of Man. Jesus was claiming that he was God. The Jews didn't miss the implication. And that implication began causing a great rift between Jesus' teaching and their own.
Jesus was also the master of the pun. He made many a statement with double-intended meanings. This could easily be one of those statements. He was God. He was Lord of the Sabbath, above the man-made rules for any day of the week. He was the Son of Man, the Jews' term for the messiah. He was and is all of the above. And even though he created a chasm between him and the Pharisees, he confounded them at the same time. They didn't exactly know what their next move should be nor could they predict well what Jesus would say. His teachings were not rote. They were spontaneous, yet deeply rooted in scripture and history, and sometimes, first-hand sounding knowledge.
I strive harder at times to rid myself of useless traditions of religion than at other times. But, in the last decade, I have been better able to shake off the dust of the man-made rules of the image that Christians are expected to maintain. I need to do even more dusting off. I need to merely be able to see God clearly enough to act immediately and effectively without running the appropriate response through a filter of any expectations other than God's. I think this episode from Jesus' life is not so much about the relative nature of truth as it is about immediately reacting to situations that face us with what is good, right, and true to God's nature. Make me that way, please God.
[The beginning song is Yahweh by Elevation Worship, the ending song is Say the Word by Hillsong United]
[Artwork is Messiah in the Outer Court by Bill Stephens retrieved from
http://www.art.com/gallery/id--b12115/Christianity-posters.htm?RFID=054402&domain=com&KWID=892929202&VTP=Start&NetWorkType=g&PAdCopyId=7603601950&ClickPos=1t2&GeolociId=9027304&IntLocId=&AudId=kwd-17171282&Device=c&VTP=End&gclid=CPjYw8z0nM4CFcKGaQod5HYHkA&pe=true]
[The Greek text used is the Nestle 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]
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