What a Way to Sabbath: Mark 2:23-24

Experience is the best teacher of all things.  Anyone who has made it into adulthood and wrestled with random life events can attest to this fact.  Much of what I can do today are things I’ve learned along the way because it needed to get done, and frequently having someone to bounce ideas off before going and learning has been invaluable!

Jesus’ disciples are modeling this behavior in today’s reading.  They know the best way to learn from Jesus is to walk through a field and listen while he teaches.  They know the importance of actively engaging with Jesus and asking Him questions.  They understand the invaluable gain that comes when He pours into their soul.  We aren’t told what Jesus taught as He walked, but I can imagine the lessons He shared about wheat, growth, God’s provision, dough, bread, and other grain-related topics.

I tell my students that the day I stop learning is likely the day I die.  There is always something out there I can learn, get better at, change my opinion about, or grow deeper in.  It is so important to have someone in your life to whom you can go when you need the wisdom of experience.  I need people to whom I can go when I am excited to have learned or done something new.  I need people in my life who can take what I’ve done or learned and push me to go deeper with it or head in a new direction.  I need people like Jesus who care about me and know me well enough to celebrate with me or push me ahead when needed.

There are other people in this story, too.  The Pharisees stood by, watching and judging.  Once more they come to Jesus and challenge Him.  They ask Jesus why He and His disciples are doing work, which is prohibited on the Sabbath, by plucking grain from the fields.

Here’s the problem with learning and improving yourself.  You will have that mentor – or even a core group of friends – who are there for you.  There will also be outsiders looking on.  The outsiders will judge you.  They might judge you out of jealousy, or envy, or rivalry, or even mean-spiritedness.  But they will judge you.  They will find ways to push you down and make you doubt.  They will find ways to take the good and beautiful thing you’ve done and spin it or taint it and maybe even make it feel wrong.  They will judge you.

Jesus doesn’t let the outsiders get to Him.  Neither does He let the judgment of the outsiders prevent Him from doing what He knows His disciples need.  Jesus knows how much His disciples will benefit from spending the day listening to Him teach.  He also knows how much they will learn as they experience the naysayers and their critiques.  Experience is the best teacher of all things.