Lord of the Sabbath

The Christian Community Comes Alive
Giving Bold Testimony

Peter Takes a Risk

Matthew 12:1-8  The Message

12 ^1-2 One Sabbath, Jesus was strolling with his disciples through a field of ripe grain. Hungry, the disciples were pulling off the heads of grain and munching on them. Some Pharisees reported them to Jesus: “Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath rules!”

^3-5 Jesus said, “Really? Didn’t you ever read what David and his companions did when they were hungry, how they entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? And didn’t you ever read in God’s Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and it’s not held against them?

^6-8 “There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—‘I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual’—you wouldn’t be nitpicking like this. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”

For Reflection 

Rules, rules rules! Why are we so insistent that our spiritual lives are bound by inflexible rules?  In 1940, my mother could not attend my baptism because she was not Catholic as was my father.  In the '40s, women were not permitted to serve as ordained lay persons in most Presbyterian churches, let alone serve as ordained ministers.

Jesus employed situational ethics.  Yes, I said situational ethics.  In this example, Christ violated the Sabbath rules, preferring, "...a flexible heart to and inflexible rule."

Pray

prayers of praise and thanksgiving for the Son of God who showed the world how to interpret God's love.  Pray for the wisdom to bend conventions when they inhibit you from expressing the love of God.