At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, 4 how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? 6 I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned these innocent men. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
Jesus continued to challenge the Pharisees and tried to show them the true interpretation of the Law. He was not against the Torah (The Law) or the sabbath but the additional laws the Pharisees added for the Israelites to observe were not in keeping with God’s intent. For example, God said to keep the sabbath day holy (Ex. 20: 8-11) but the Rabbis added 39 different kinds of work that were forbidden on the sabbath including reaping and threshing (Ex. 34:21). The Rabbis considered plucking the ears of corn as reaping and rubbing the ear of corn between the hands as threshing.
The disciples were hungry, and Matthew gave reasons why the disciples were not in violation of the Law because of necessity. David ate the Showbread, holy bread (1 Sam 21:2-7) that only the priests were allowed to eat (Lev. 24:5-9); the Law allowed the disciples to pluck some of the grain (Deut. 23:26); the priests themselves broke the Law when they changed the showbread (Lev. 24:8) and offered Temple sacrifice (burnt offering) on the Sabbath (Num 28:9-10). The temple sacrifice was above all other duties and was not a violation of the Sabbath Rest so since there was something greater than the temple before them, the presence of Jesus turned the grain field into a sanctuary/temple (Jn. 2:19). Jesus superseded the old temple. The Pharisees allowed their scruples over the Law to blind them to charity and knowledge of God (Hos. 6:6). Based on the Law and the authority of Jesus the disciples were innocent.
Almighty God, help us not be discouraged by things of little consequence and grant us the grace to discern what is meaningful in your eyes and what will lead us to your kingdom. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
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