Have you read the Bible?

Mark 2:23-28

23 One Sabbath Jesus was going along beside the fields of standing grain, and as they made their way, His disciples began to pick off the grains. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, Look! Why are they doing what is not permitted or lawful on the Sabbath? 25 And He said to them, Have you never [even] read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were accompanying him? — 26 How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was the high priest, and ate the sacred loaves set forth [before God], which it is not permitted or lawful for any but the priests to eat, and [how he] also gave [them] to those who were with him? 27 And Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made on account and for the sake of man, not man for the Sabbath; 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

Food for thought!

Are you counting Jesus' "religious scandals"? Jesus is in the business of stirring up trouble! From the time He appeared and began His earthly ministry, to the moment He ascended back into Heaven, Jesus was busy upsetting tradition and tipping sacred cows. Where the Jews were concerned, Jesus was involved in one religious scandal after another.

Jesus' first scandal was when He publically forgave a man’s sins, in Mark 2:5. The second scandal was when He attended a feast with sinners at Matthew’s house, in Mark 2:16. The third scandal was when Jesus and his disciples refused to fast as everybody did, in Mark 2: 18. The fourth scandal is of course today's gospel reading.

The verses we have read today open up another scandal between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. This time it involves their traditions. Jesus dared to ignore their rituals and they are offended once again. However, this is no ordinary scandal. For this scandal would create such anger and hatred toward Jesus that the Jews would actually seek to kill the Lord because of it, Mark 3:6.

There are people whose primary job is to criticize others; people whose primary goal in life is to set themselves up as judge and jury on the lives of others; people who are critical of every body except of themselves; people who claim to know all the rules but no knowledge of Jesus. These are the Pharisees; they have lived ever since Jesus to today.

These people are upset by everything and by nothing! They cannot believe what they see the disciples of Jesus doing. Many people are critical of you, of me, of our Catholic church. Consider what Jesus did to his critics; this is what we should do when people want to argue religion with us, or when they criticize you. He pointed them to the Word of God. He pointed them to the truth. Jesus did not argue with these men; He merely pointed them back to the Word of God. He says, “Have ye not read…?” Jesus used the Word of God as the lamp for his feet; he asks us to use the Word of God as of final, argument-ending authority.

Many times our problem is the same problem the Pharisees had, we haven’t taken the time to read and understand the Bible, and we criticize others based on nothing. Shame on us!

A LESSON FOR THEM AND FOR US

Jesus proceeds to remind them of an incident that occurred during the life of David. When he was fleeing from Saul, he and his men needed food. In 1 Sam. 21:1-6, David and his men came to the priest and asked for food. The priest told David there was no bread there but the “shewbread.”

The shewbread was twelve loaves of bread that were baked fresh every Sabbath Day. These twelve loaves were placed on a table in the holy place in the Tabernacle (our Blessed Sacrament and tabernacle come from them). The twelve loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel. They reminded Israel of the Lord’s presence among his people of their dependence upon Him for their physical needs. It was also called the “Bread of the Presence”. The shewbread was changed every Sabbath Day and the old bread was eaten by the priests in the holy place.

This bread was not to be eaten by non-priests, according to the Law, but because they were hungry, it was given to David and His men to eat. The clear teaching here is that human needs are more important than liturgical laws; that persons are far more important than rituals; that the best way to worship God is to help man; that the best way to use sacred things is to use them to help men. That, in fact, is the only way to give them to God; the sacred things are only truly sacred when they are used for man. The shewbread was never so sacred as when it was used to feed a starving man. The Sabbath was never so sacred as when it was used to help those who needed help. The final arbiter in the use of all things is love and not law.