Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 5, 2009 - Saturday in the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
[Colossians 1:21-23 and Luke 6:1-5]While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?".....
In order to tell a good story, one must have vivid characters and circumstances. It helps if there is some conflict or adversarial situation! I can recall with amusement the famous Roadrunner/Coyote cartoons where the Wily Coyote tries and fails to capture the Roadrunner. No matter what Coyote does, the Roadrunner manages to turn the situation around against him. One almost gets that impression in the gospels in the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees. They are rarely named. (Nicodemus, in the Gospel of John, is a rare exception.) Thus, they represent a "collective" mindset. The same is true of "scribes" and "Sadducees." No matter how they try to trap Jesus in an argument, he emerges victorious. Of course, that is the whole point of the gospel account! The tragic side to the story, however, is that Jesus' adversaries do not realize why they can't win simply because they cannot accept the possibility that he is more than a remarkably clever rabbi from Nazareth. The facts in today's gospel incident are pretty clear. What the disciples are doing would be considered "work." They are picking grain and rubbing it in their hands to get rid of the chaff. That would be a no-no on the Sabbath! Jesus responds on two different levels. The first level is the level of rabbinic argument in which he cites the example of King David and his companions. (This is a very clever argument since King David represents all the meaning of the Jewish kingdom.) Fundamental human need, such as hunger, can trump sabbath observance. The second level is represented in the statement, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath!" This is the level that the Pharisees cannot understand. Jesus is the origin of the original commandment, so he can interpret it authoritatively! Time and time again in the gospels, Jesus points out that basic human needs are not contradictory to the sabbath observance. Insisting on the observance at the expense of those needs can lead to unnecessary hardship. There is a lesson in this for all of us who may be tempted to see important issues in adversarial ways, insisting on absolute obedience no matter what, and condemning those who do not or cannot obey! Injustice masquerading as justice is a tragic irony. Jesus points this out time and again but, like the Pharisees, the message seems to be unacceptable. AMEN
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