The Sabbath was God’s gift, God’s blessing for His people.  The one thing you do not do, then, is fail to honor and respect the gift.  That would dishonor the giver.  The Jews in the days of Jesus were very much given to rules for the daily conduct of life.  That was how they knew they were safe, how they knew they were living the way God expected them to.  This meticulous observance of the law set them apart from other peoples.  This uplifting of the law—God’s law—was what made the Jews both so irritating and so attractive to pagan peoples.  These pagan peoples had their laws, too, written and unwritten, but from what we can gather, the mores of the ancient world—their moral standards—would shock us on the one hand and be quite familiar, on the other hand.

The opposite of rules is what—no rules?  Is no rules the same as freedom, or is freedom what rules make possible?  I mean, if there were no rules, would there still be freedom?  Gee, professor, when is the term paper due?  Let me put it this way: when we use our freedom to break the rules that give us our freedom, what is the result?  Answer: The world we live in.

It’s not as if the Jews didn’t know that following all the rules was a herculean task, and that none of them did or could keep the law perfectly; even Pharisees knew that much—and hated it.  This is why God gave the entire sacrificial system enshrined at the Temple in Jerusalem.  And that is part of why the Temple was so tremendously important to the Jews: that Temple was the visible, tangible, physical guarantee that there was forgiveness for their sins, their transgressions of the law: their crimes, if you will.  Their many, many crimes against God and life God’s way.  Without that temple, how could there be atonement, forgiveness, restoration?

“One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain” (2:23).  Okay.  Stop right there.  No, it isn’t theft to pick some heads of grain, although the farmer might ask them not to.  Still, in a field of a large size, would it really matter?  In Deuteronomy, we read that it was permissible, upon entering “your neighbor’s standing grain,” to “pluck the heads with your hand” (Dt 23:25): that was permitted—but not, presumably, on the Sabbath.  The Sabbath was a different matter.  The Sabbath was about rules, knowing the rules, keeping the rules, showing your supreme devotion to the rules.  It’s not as if we don’t understand the importance of playing by the rules.

On the Sabbath, it was lawful only to walk a certain distance: I think it was about a quarter of a mile, total.  You’re supposed to rest, like God!  What does it mean for God to rest?  Does God need rest?  Work, work, work!  What was the old saying: All work and no play?  As we may remember from Genesis, as God called creation into being, He pauses as it were, every now and again, to take in what He has made: He enjoys creation.  To put it in strictly human terms, it turned out better than He had imagined.  He makes time to marvel at it all and invites us to do the same.  A day especially devoted to connecting, reconnecting, with God.  Sabbath—which isn’t today and doesn’t have to be every Saturday—is God’s gift of time for us.  Always busy isn’t the life into which God invites us; neither is doing nothing.  Worshipful living, growing connected to God—that’s the way.

The question the Jews thought they had worked out very comprehensively was what does worshipful living look like?  Look like.  Look like.  Walking through the fields of grain, the disciples felt hungry.  Here was food.  Eat, and give thanks.  “The Pharisees said to [Jesus], ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’” (2:24).  They don’t tell those walking with Jesus to stop; they go right to the teacher—Hey, get those guys under control!  This is setting a bad example!  This looks bad!  What sort of way is that to be holy?  How can you be holy, if this is what you allow?  The Pharisees, remember, had completely devoted themselves to ever more perfect observance of the law, as the scribes explained and elaborated the law.  Those scribes had a lot of explaining to do!  They had filled libraries with volumes of manuals of regulations: the right way to do this, the right way to do that.  A full exposition of what worshipful living looked like.

It never seemed to occur to the Pharisees to wonder whose law they were actually following.  God’s law is simple, beloved, because God’s heart is simple—not simple in the sense of a simpleton, but in the sense of unmixed, untainted and direct.  Love for God revealed through Scripture is always a reliable guide.  Love of the rules, even love for others, as a more tangible substitute for loving God, will always misguide us.  We come to God woefully misguided as it is!

What disciples have got to agree upon, then, is just what, exactly, is worshipful living.  “[Jesus] answered, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?  In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat.  And he also gave some to his companions’” (2:25-26).  Well, they knew David wasn’t renowned for following the rules, yet he was legendary for his faith, his devotion to God.

I suppose, if the Pharisees walking there along with Jesus had been very sharp, they might have objected that the cases weren’t the same at all.  David was fleeing for his life from Saul who fully intended to kill David.  The bread meant for the priests alone wasn’t the same as the grain in the field through which they were all walking.  The Pharisees weren’t suggesting that Jesus was himself taking the grain and giving it to his companions.  The cases weren’t the same at all.

But we all come to God “hungry and in need,” and not just on the Sabbath.  Jesus is giving bread to his followers, the bread of life, the bread of the Word of God.  He gives them this bread by teaching them.  He gives this bread by being present with them, among them, for them.  He gives this bread by giving himself.  David and Abiathar the priest were called to give themselves for others—sacrificial service, but their self-offering, pleasing to God as it assuredly was—their self-offering could not give life to followers or the faithful.

In that field that day, something more than David, something more than Abiathar the priest, something more than grain was there, with them: God’s gift, God’s blessing for His people, the Incarnate Word—creation power, salvation power, abundance, healing, full satisfaction, and peace—Sabbath gifts.  Christ is God’s Sabbath: when we rest in Christ, we know the one who works for our salvation.  The Sabbath was given for blessing.  God means to bless us.  How strange, that we decline to be blessed, reject God’s offered help, and insist upon doing things for ourselves, our way.  Ah—our way—that’s not really so strange or surprising, after all.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (2:27-28).  Greater than the Sabbath.  We don’t exist for the sake of the gift; the gift comes for our sake.  That’s what makes it a gift.  I’ve noticed that many people don’t really like to receive gifts.  I suspect it’s not just because people these days are awfully picky (Oh, why couldn’t they just have given me a gift card, or cash?!) but that, at a deeper level, gifts make us feel someway obliged, under an obligation to reciprocate.  We now owe something to someone.  We don’t like feeling under obligation—it’s such a damper on our freedom!  I don’t want to owe anything to anyone!  Yes, God knows all about it.  Like freedom, like creation, like life—God gives the Sabbath as a gift.  We say, in response, um, thanks?  But you must know that “The fact has not created in me / A sense of obligation.”

What is the law of the Sabbath?  How shall we keep it, faithfully?  It isn’t by doing nothing.  The law of God?  It’s this: “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Ex 14:14).  “Quiet yourself, for this is a holy day.  Do not grieve.” (Neh 8:11).  “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Is 30:15).  “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (Ps 37:7).  “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10).  When we receive the gift in the simplicity of God’s own heart, the gift never becomes a burden.  We know the law said bear no burden, on the Sabbath.  Faith is no burden, nor faith in the one who bears the burden for us.  When we, hungry and in need, rest in Christ, we keep God’s Sabbath law, and that is most pleasing to our Father in heaven.