While walking in the countryside, Jesus’ disciples started plucking grain from the heads of wheat because they are hungry. But this particular day in todays reading was the sabbath, and as such the pharisees believed that this type of action (plucking grain) was considered work, and was thus considered a great offence against jewish law. Now think about how and where the pharisees must have been in order to witness this act, I believe that they must have been lying in wait, spying on Jesus and His disciples, in order to catch them doing something they were not supposed to be doing. Jesus recognizes this and He responds perfectly with a reference to David in the old testament…, where David took the show bread from the temple for his soldiers, because they were hungry.
Let me add a little background on this…, Jesus is making reference to a story that all of the pharisees would know: The story is of the time when Saul was unjustly pursuing David, trying to kill him because he was jealous of David and his popularity among his soldiers, and because Saul was afraid that David was going to use his popularity to take the kingdom away from Saul. But David was a righteous man, and this was not his intention, he simply wanted to serve the Lords anointed (Saul) as best he could. In this story David, on the run, takes his soldiers to the temple and he goes into the temple and takes the show-bread from the altar and gives it to his soldiers to eat. The show bread was a sacrificial offering to God, and even then, when David took it, it was considered total sacriledge by the temple priests to even touch it. But David had no other options, and God allowed it because of David’s love for God, and because of the unrighteousness of Saul’s persecution.
So Jesus here is reminding the pharisees of this scripture, to both show them that if David could take the show bread on the sabbath, how much less is a head of grain from a field nowhere near the temple. But He was also showing the Pharisees that they are like Saul, unjustly pursuing Jesus and His men, to destroy them because of their jealousy. This reference did not go unnoticed, it was a deep repudiation of their actions. But even more offensive to the pharisees, is that Jesus, in this reference is claiming the priestly perogative. Claiming to be the Lords annoited Heir, and the new King David. And to fully make this point, and so there is no misunderstanding, He drops the bomb on them. Jesus claims to be lord of the sabbath. This is not a small thing, the only person in the whole universe that can make that claim is God Himself.
For the Pharisees, there was no greater offence in the jewish law then to claim to be God, that is of course unless you are God. But they did not believe this about Jesus, and so they set out to kill Him after this statement. Jesus was not afraid of confrontation, He was a brave and strong fighter for truth, and He never backed down to His accusers. He always confronted them and showed them their hypocrisy and their faults. We should all strive to do the same in our own lives. If you are living an upright life, and choosing good over evil, then you have nothing to fear, and should not allow the evil temptors of this world to discourage you. The only thing they can do to you is kill your mortal body, but then your eternal soul goes straight to heaven. There is nothing in this world that is more important than your eternal soul, and as such there is nothing else that matters. So, never back down to evil, because Jesus will always have your back.
