Merciful Me

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is gnot lawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

Have you heard the term “situational ethics”? No, it’s not another principle I have come up with. It simply means that one chooses how to act based on the needs of a situation rather than judging it according to absolute moral standards. You have may heard the saying, “The end justifies the means”. Or, the phrase, “Choosing the lesser of two evils”. Or, “the greatest good for the greatest number.” These are all examples of situation ethics. So, why are we talking about this here? Because it “seems” that Jesus may be doing this in today’s story. 

The Jews were not allowed to work on the Sabbath. Many things were prohibited to ensure this rule was not broken. One of the things forbidden was harvesting, and because the Jews were nit-picky about all these rules, they believed plucking the heads of grain constituted harvesting. So, when the disciples did this — plucked the heads of grain — because they were hungry, the Pharisees said they were breaking the laws of the Sabbath. And then, as if to justify their actions, Jesus spoke about how when David broke the law nobody said anything. Situational ethics? Not at all. Let us try to understand what happened in a few words.

One, the Pharisees were always accusing Jesus of doing what was wrong, but that was because THEIR understanding and interpretation of Scripture was wrong. Two, the disciples weren’t breaking any laws because they weren’t really harvesting; they were simply eating. Three, David did break the law — to a certain degree — but Jesus was not justifying David’s actions. Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were having double standards. They were ok what David did, but not with what the apostles did — and the apostles really weren’t doing anything wrong. 

What did David do, anyway? Well, David and his men arrive at the city of Nob and meet the high priest there, a man named Ahimelech. David asks for bread for himself and his hungry men. The priest tells him that the only bread he has is the Holy Bread that was kept in the tabernacle. This bread was only for priests and it was unlawful for anybody else to eat it. But the priest let David have it. Was this right? We get an answer in Mark’s version of this passage where Jesus declares: “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” 

This means that the Sabbath was made to bless man, and not the other way around. For instance, a starving man working for food on the Sabbath does not displease God even though he breaks the law. Similarly, a priest giving bread to hungry men would not displease God. If the Pharisees could only understand this, they would become better people. We need to understand this too. There are things that are important and we would do well to follow them. One of these things is sacrifice, or things we feel obligated to give up to be seen as religious. However, there are things of GREATER importance. One of these is mercy, where people and their needs matter.

So, let us find opportunities to be merciful today. And every day.

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/VXQ8B89vHu8