Word to the Wise
Friday, July 16, 2010 - Friday in the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
[Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 and Matthew 12:1-8]I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.
The words that Jesus quotes to the Pharisees are taken from the book of the prophet Hosea 6:6. If they sound familiar, it may be because this is the second time he quotes these words in the Gospel of Matthew. You may recall earlier (July 2, Friday in the 13th week in ordinary time) that Jesus responds with these words when criticized for eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. In today's gospel scripture, the disciples of Jesus are criticized for picking grain on a sabbath, which was prohibited by the Mosaic Law (Deut. 23:25-26). Jesus responds on three different levels to this criticism. The first level is historical precedent. King David violated the law when he and his soldiers were hungry (1 Sam. 21:4-7). The second level is legal. Even the priests violate the law by working on the sabbath, but are held not responsible. (Num. 28:9-10. The last and most important level, however, is that Jesus is Lord of the sabbath and responds with mercy to human need! Mercy and compassion are to be the hallmarks of his kingdom. These are more important even than sabbath observance! The tension between a religious law that has a valid purpose (e.g. protection of a day sacred to the Lord) and a human need (even the need of domestic animals)such as hunger is very old, as the scriptures tell us! Common sense and compassion should lead one to a solution in cases of conflict that recognizes the validity of the observance at the same time as recognizing that there may well be a higher or more important value - mercy and compassion in the face of human need. Jesus consistently healed on the sabbath and this caused tremendous resentment on the part of the Pharisees. In every case, the human need was proportionate to the law of the sabbath. This was not a casual ignoring of the value of sabbath observance, which we in our own time seem to have forgotten except for the hour or less we spend at church! Jesus has a point to make about his authority and his teaching. He is Lord of the sabbath, and not we! Perhaps we could examine our own casual non-observance of the sabbath and do more to acknowledge his lordship. AMEN
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