Thursday 15 June 2023

Psalm 33

Background

No-one can deny that Jesus was controversial in his relationships with the Pharisees. In today's passage he comes head to head with them over how the people ought to behave on the sabbath.

The Pharisees had laid down very strict rules about what the faithful were allowed to do between sunset on Friday and sunset on Saturday. It was not just the activity described here (walking through a grain field and eating what they found) that was forbidden; it was forbidden to undertake any work at all. Jesus, seeing the sabbath not as a day of restriction but as a day of goodwill and rejoicing, had broken those rules.

In contrast to the way in which the Gospels of Mark and Luke dealt with this incident, Matthew's Gospel (which was focused particularly on the Jewish community) faces it head on. There is no apology for what the Pharisees regarded as sinful behaviour, instead Jesus points them straight to the law itself. There it was agreed that the necessities of the Temple service made it necessary for the priests to break a sabbath regulation –  for example, they had to reap a sheaf for the ritual on the second day of Passover, even if this happened to be a sabbath. Jesus is inferring here that such reaping is not just for the benefit of Temple rituals but can also be to feed the hungry. He finishes what he says with words which must have shocked his hearers, especially the temple authorities: "for the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath" (v. 8).

Clearly over the centuries the restrictions of the law took over from the words in Genesis that on the seventh day God rested, blessed it and hallowed it as God had completed the work done in creation (Genesis 2:1-3). Although the restrictions placed on activities by the Church were never quite as restrictive as those imposed by the Pharisees, there will be many reading this who can remember no shops or sports venues open on Sundays, children forbidden to play in the street, and family walks being the main form of outdoor activity. I suspect there were even people who frowned at hanging nappies on the washing line on Sundays, even thought it might have been necessary for the comfort of the baby. When Jesus says "the sabbath was made for humankind" (Mark 2:27), he is indicating that the sabbath is to be a blessing for people not a restriction, hence Jesus' challenge to the Pharisees in the words we read from Matthew today.

To Ponder:

• Sabbath restrictions have in recent years in this country been almost totally been forgotten. Has the secular takeover of Sundays gone too far? Where do you think the balance should be?
• How can the Church draw the people back to understanding Sunday as a day set aside for relaxation and for prayer?

Previously published in 2016.