Lord of the Sabbath: Mark 2:25-28

Doing God’s work is never wrong.  Don’t confuse this with thinking that God’s work is easy.  Doing what God asks may be difficult.  It might involve sacrifice.  It might put us at odds with other people.  It might give other people cause to raise their eyebrows and think we are odd, strange, or peculiar.  Having people judge you doesn’t mean you are wrong.

Jesus responds to the accusations of the Pharisees by reminding them of Samuel 21:1-6, in which David comes to a priest and asks for provision.  Unfortunately, the priest only has consecrated bread, which is designated for the priests.  It was unlawful for common people to eat this bread.  The priests asks if David and his men are ritually pure, and David assures them that since they are on a mission for the king that they are exceptionally pure.  In an act of grace, David is given the bread.

Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around.  The tenets of the Law are there to improve our life; we were not created to complete the Law.  The Law was created because we need it.  Since the Sabbath is a part of the Law, Jesus claims the Sabbath is there to improve our life rather than claiming that our lives should make the Law feel complete.

Based on this, Jesus asserts that His disciples have done nothing wrong.  They were walking through the grain fields as He taught, discipled, and mentored.  These are clearly tasks that fall under the category of the Lord’s work; therefore, there is nothing wrong with doing them on the Sabbath.  Since they are doing the Lord’s work, there is no trouble in considering Jesus and His disciples acting righteously.  Since they were acting righteously, there is no harm in getting provision as they work as David did.  Jesus and His disciples have no reason to fear. Doing the work of the Lord should be celebrated on the Sabbath, not condemned.

Jesus says He is Lord over the Sabbath because the Sabbath supports the work He and His disciples are doing.  Like Jesus, we can also know that the Sabbath is there to support us when we are doing the Lord’s work, too.  Extrapolating this generically, we don’t need to worry about facing condemnation from God when we are doing His work.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there won’t be people hanging around trying to judge us.  Since God calls us to do many new and interesting things to meet the constant changes in human culture, there will always be people who look at what we are doing and think we are wrong because we are different.  That is why it is important to ground ourselves in our God.  In spite of how people judge us, doing God’s work is never wrong.