Bible Reading: Mark 2:23-28 and commentary

Here is the passage from the scripture that I alluded to in the previous blog post that is the Qur'an reading, with some more commentary that I think is helpful.


Mark 2:23-28

And it came to pass again as he was going through the standing grain on the Sabbath that his disciples began, as they went along, to pluck the ears of grain. But the Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and those who were with him were in need, and hungry? How he entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the loaves of proposition, which he could not lawfully eat, but only the priests? And how he gave them to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

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By the way, not every observance of the Sabbath was as strict and unreasonable, but this is why Jesus clashed so much with the Pharisees. They were extremists who interpreted “the day of rest,” the Sabbath, to meaning “the poor can’t even pick food to feed themselves on the Sabbath.” This is why Jesus chides them that the Sabbath was made “for man.” It is supposed to honor God but also be a protection that people cannot be forced to work on the Sabbath. Obviously God does not intend that the poor should go hungry because they cannot glean on the Sabbath. That is why Jesus says man is not made “for the Sabbath.”

Jesus, of course, was very astute about how to handle them and before even interpreting God’s intention in the Sabbath, which Jesus had every right to do, he first starts with scripture reference. He quotes the above incident with King David and his men being in great need to do even more than glean on the Sabbath, which is to eat the actual temple bread. Notice this is one of many examples where Jesus quotes the scriptures throughout the Gospel. When people think that the Gospels are just “made up” fiction about Jesus, I wonder why they never notice that much of what Jesus says is not about him or proclaiming the new faith that conspiracy theory people think the Apostles were “making up,” but of scriptural arguments with extremist believers. No one can read this without having an open mind that this is not what someone just making up some religion (or borrowing from pagans) would say. Jesus immediately quotes a powerful passage from what we call the Old Testament recounting an actual event, in order to debate the Pharisees on their own ground. This just isn’t the type of thing that people trying to write a fictional inspirational literature for a new religion would devote such precious space about. But it is precisely because Jesus was having these public encounters and going toe to toe with them on scripture and THEN his authority that anyone who is honest and without an agenda has to see the consistency of encounter that Jesus had during his public ministry.

By the way, this is illustration of another philosophy that Islam and Christianity have in common. Muslims are taught that Islam was given to them not to be a burden, but that God made it as easy to follow as possible. When Muslims have to interpret the correctness of a ritual or observation, they factor in recognition that God would not want them to select the more onerous and difficult, burdensome option. Here you see Jesus say the same thing. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that God created the Sabbath not to put additional burden on humans, but so that they have a guaranteed day of rest in honor of God, but also for their own well being. Therefore it is obvious that correct interpretation of gleaning on the Sabbath (not harvesting activities, but plucking left over food as needed to stave off hunger) is the one that benefits humans, not create additional hardship. So this is another example of a shared value system that is very fundamental but not always obvious cross culturally.