23 One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
On one Sabbath, the last day of the week which is Saturday for the Jews, Jesus is going through the grainfields. Up to this point we know that Jesus has been followed by large crowds so it is unlikely that Jesus is just alone with his disciples here. The Pharisees will make an appearance in this reading so they are likely watching over the crowds that are actually still with Jesus and his other inner circle followers. Kind of changes the context of the interaction when we realise that they are preoccupied with a large crowd.
Since they are busy doing their ministry work, neither Jesus nor his disciples have time to prepare meals for themselves so as they go through these fields they pick the ears of grain from the crops, crush them and eat the soft inner parts of it. This was a quick and easy food item for the time and place, closest you’re going to get to fast food. This practice of gleaning another persons fields is actually lawful and made obviously so in Deuteronomy, you could glean by hand but were not permitted to reap with a scythe.
24 And the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
In Exodus it is articulated that a Hebrew can not “work” on the Sabbath day, this was to ensure the balance of life amongst the people and also in imitation of God who rested on the Sabbath himself during the seven days of creation. The Pharisees, the teachers of the Law who sit on the Seat of Moses call out Jesus for working on the Sabbath. This is what they mean by saying “they are doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath”. This legalism that spites the person and undermines the point of the Law which in this case was to ensure rest, not stop people from eating when they need to.
The Pharisees routinely used this excessive legalism to keep unruly people inline, the heavy yokes they placed on the people but not on themselves were used by some Pharisees, not all, in order to pacify the community. Someone gets uppity, “well if I interpret this part of the Law here this way, we can punish you” and so on. They do not like Jesus, they are just trying to trap him, pitting him against Moses, or at least that is what they think they are doing.
25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:
26 how he entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”
Jesus does not respond by telling the Pharisees that they are wrong in how they apply the Law he does something that will actually convince them from their own point of view. Understanding the necessity of this comes from understanding the teaching authority amongst the Hebrew people, if the Pharisees sit in the Seat of Moses, which Jesus claims they do, then they are the rightful teaching authority.
But the teachings do not just come out of their own minds, they come from the scriptures they accept as authoritative. So when speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus makes his points by quoting from the scripture they accept in this case 1 Samuel 21:2-7, when speaking to the Sadducees he only uses the much more limited canon they accept. If Jesus is God why doesn’t he just use his own authority? One might ask. His mission is to convince people of their own free will to be in union with him, doing things by force only apply to that of non-human entities like demons in exorcisms.
He recalls one of the stories of David, how when he was hungry he ate the Bread of the Presence, this was a very holy bread within the Tabernacle that Jewish men were required to observe once a year during a festival of the Hebrews, it is a type of the Eucharist that will be fulfilled at the Last Supper. It’s not normal bread, not common food but when David was hungry, he and his men could eat it, despite it being “against the Law” to do so. This is because the Law is not there to hinder you, the same way the Sabbath, the day of rest, should not prevent you from helping a neighbour in need neither should the prevention of eating the Bread of the Presence cause you to starve to death.
There is also the underlying principle that David was not a “normal man”. He was anointed King and a type of priest, different to that of Aaron or the Levites. He actually has a special rank essentially that would qualify him to eat of this Bread that was limited to priests, his men had also remained clean before God because they were on a military expedition, the spiritual cleanliness requirements of which match that of the priesthood cleanliness, abstaining from women, unclean food and so on. On two levels David and Jesus qualify to eat, along with their men. Level 1: the Law is not their to torture you but to hold you up to God, refusing them food would not be love of neighbour, a greater Law than that of what Jesus is accused of. Level 2: Jesus, like David, is not a normal man, he is both Priest and King, the Pharisees do not know this though but Jesus definitely implies it but the previous level qualifies enough to circumnavigate any attribution of judgement by the Pharisees.
27 And he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath;
28 so the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Jesus then goes on to solidify the point of the Law, the Sabbath, the day of rest was made for man not that man was made for the Sabbath. This difference is key, one enables the love of God and Neighbour above all else, the other causes a rigid legalism that prevents you from helping your fellow man on the Sabbath like feeding the hungry.
Jesus them employs the Messianic title from the Book of Daniel, Son of Man. By the time of the first century this was a quasi-divine figure that was synonymous with the Messiah prophesied in Genesis 3:15 and the Prophet that Moses claimed would come after him and also the promised descendant of David who would reclaim Kingship of Israel. Only God is the Lord of the Sabbath yet Jesus says the Son of Man figure is too. This hints at the mystery of the trinity itself, how could both be Lord of the same thing? And how could he be that figure if God is beyond all material things? It comes to the sharing of a Divine nature with multiple person with in it.
All these layers of divinity, fulfilment of prophecy, priesthood and kingship are only actually thinly veiled in these few verses in the Gospel of Mark and there are many other examples of it throughout his narration. When people claim that divinity or kingship is exclusive to John’s Gospel and that they are non-existent in Mark it shows that they are ignorant of the scripture itself as well as Jesus.
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