5 September 2026 - Lord of the sabbath

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Some Pharisees said,
“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”

The Pharisees probably convinced themselves that they meant well. They desired to call the nation to a high standard of holiness so that God would hear their prayers and vindicate them against their oppressors. But in pursuit of their plan they lost sight of the personhood of others, seeing them more like cogs that were either functioning properly in their scheme, or else not doing so. From there it wasn't too much of a stretch to see someone like Jesus as a saboteur, throwing a wrench in all of those gears leading to a systemic breakdown of the system they were attempting to build. Thus, without ever meaning to do so in a fully conscious way, they became opposed to the kingdom of Jesus in a way similar to how Saul opposed David. 

Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?

David and his men were hungry because they were fleeing from King Saul. Since David was the one anointed by the Lord to be the next king the mission he and his men were on had a divine origin. Thus they were permitted to share in the priestly privilege of eating the bread of offering. This may  hint at the unique way that the role of priest and the role of king were united in David, who was "a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (see Psalm 110:4). At the least it demonstrated that the demands of fulfilling the divine plan superseded the liturgical norms that protected the sanctity of the bread of offering. That sanctity would have been tarnished if some random people from the road casually ate it to satiate their own hunger. But when David and his men, who had been maintaining their own purity for the sake of the mission, which itself was given by God, ate the bread, its purity was respected and maintained.

Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

The Pharisees fastidious focus on details was problematic because it made them lose sight of the big picture. In the way they taught, criticized, and argued, they trampled over others as collateral damage necessary for their agenda. And when God himself appeared before them with a different plan they not only did not consent to it, but even persecuted the one who revealed it. They were not merely rejecting a different plan, but the anointed of the Lord who made it known. They thus became like Saul who, in his pride, desired to cling to his own authority when God decreed it would pass to another.

Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

While pretending to respect the sabbath the Pharisees acted in some ways as though they believed themselves to be its lord. But their use of the sabbath regulations were not aligned to the true purpose of rest and relationship with God. After all, they were doing all they could to make it harder for the disciples of Jesus to rest and for the crowds to enjoy their relationship with he who was God in the flesh. They thus became creatures convinced that they knew better how the job of governing the universe should be performed than God himself. It only sounds absurd until we realize that we often do the like ourselves, rejecting what God has revealed in favor of what we think ought to be the case. 

Let us learn to trust God more than ourselves and to welcome the kingdom he came to reveal.

The Lord is near to all who call upon him.

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