January 17, 2017

Gospel: Mk 2:23-28
One Sabbath he was walking through grain fields. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of grain and crush them in their hands. Then the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look! They are doing what is forbidden on the Sabbath!“
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did in his time of need; when he and his men were very hungry? He went into the House of God, when Abiathar was High Priest, and ate; the bread of offering, which only the priests are allowed to eat, and he also gave some to the men who were with him.“ Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is master even of the Sabbath.“

REFLECTION:
“Lord of the Sabbath“
Once again, the ever scanda­lized Pharisees, attack Jesus in ­todays’ Gospel episode for the “sin“ of breaking the “Sabbath Law on mandatory rest. The Sabbath obligation of rest was so strictly observed by the pious Jews. They were probably asking “How could this Rabbi be so tolerating of the violation of the Sabbath Rest by his disciples?“
But Jesus confronts them with the example of no less than King David who ordered his men to eat the bread of offering that was normally reserved only for the priests. In this incident Jesus was in the first place pointing out the higher law of charity over mere ritual rulings. Even today at times we can fall on the too legalistic interpretation of laws that we forget that “higit sa lahat, ay ang makabubuti sa tao!“
In the second place, Jesus was already indicating that as the son of David he was inaugurating a “new order of things“ (refer to the image of the “new wine skins for new wine“ in yesterday’s Gospel.) Jesus then makes a pronouncement that must have further disturbed the Pharisees when he said that he was “Master of the Sabbath!“ In other words, that Jesus had the authority to promulgate “new“ laws! That He was equal to God!