20 January 2026 - in grained beliefs

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed him in the midst of his brothers;
and from that day on, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David. 

Although Solomon was, in a way, the son promised to David, it was true that he was only a partial fulfillment of that promise, and ultimately died in a disgrace. Jesus was the true son of David, the one on whom the Spirit descended at the baptism and remained throughout his life, the one who would truly fulfill God's promises to Israel, and through Israel, to the world.

Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?

Just as David was destined to be king by the edict of the Lord through Samuel, but was opposed by Saul and his men, so too was Jesus destined to reign as the King of kings and Lord of lords, but was opposed by the Pharisees. This is like what was described in the second Psalm:

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us (see Psalm 2:1-3).

Jesus, even more than David, was on a mission of divine origin. Just as David and his men were permitted to eat the bread of offering for the sake of their mission, the disciples of Jesus eating grain on the sabbath was permitted for the sake of his. The spirit indeed rushed on David from the time of his anointing, as we read in the first reading, but Jesus was the one to whom the Father gave the Spirit without measure (see John 3:33). What David and Solomon both represented in limited and fragmentary ways Jesus perfectly fulfilled. He was, as he said elsewhere, one greater than Solomon. As he himself said he was even greater than the temple, the service of which was itself a valid reason to set aside the usual demands of the sabbath.

Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Jesus, unlike the Pharisees, understood the reason that God had established the sabbath, since he was, as it were, in on the decision. The Pharisees looked at the sabbath and only saw the negatives, every possible 'Thou shalt not' that could be imagined in its regard. They saw the rules as arbitrary, useful for virtue signaling for themselves and damaging the reputation of their opponents. This was actually something that began as a good impulse but that had gone horrible awry. They correctly perceived that God cared deeply about seeing the sabbath honored. But he did not wish to see it honored in the way these Pharisees attempted to do so. He longed to see its true meaning fulfilled. Thus the rest required for the sabbath was meant to create the space for the flourishing of relationship between God and man. And since the mission of Jesus was, in a fundamental way, about restoring that relationship, the sabbath could only become what it was meant to be if he first did what he was meant to do.

The sabbath was not made for man in the sense that the Pharisees could take the idea and use it to criticize the ministry of Jesus. It was made for man fully alive in the sense meant by Irenaeus. It was made for man as measured by Jesus, the perfect man, who alone could unlock its true meaning, and who alone can give the true rest that was its promise.

Phil Wickham - House Of The Lord