All societies and cultures have certain rituals or customs which they observe. However, it is very possible for people to comply with the customs or rituals without thinking about or even knowing the reason for them.
The same is true regarding spiritual things. We practice certain rituals and comply with certain customs without giving any thought to God’s intent or purpose for establishing them.
One of the reasons the religious authorities opposed Jesus was because He did not conform to their teaching about God’s Law. Instead, Jesus acted according to God’s intent and, in the process, exposed the inconsistency and hypocrisy of the religious leaders. In his inspired Gospel, Mark tells us of one of these incidents. In chapter two, verses 23 through 28 he writes, “He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” He said to them, “Did you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?” He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.””
To understand this passage we must first understand what the Sabbath is. The word “sabbath” literally means to “cease or interrupt”. The Sabbath day was a day of the week on which people were not supposed to go about their normal activities. One of the Ten Commandments in the Law of Moses instructed the Israelites to set apart the seventh day of the week, that is Saturday, as a day of rest. In part, this was a reminder of how God created the world. He made everything in six days, and on the seventh, He rested from His creative work. The Sabbath was also a reminder to the Israelites that God gave them rest from slavery when He brought them out of Egypt. In summary, the Sabbath day was supposed to be a day of ease and rest from the normal cares, work and problems of life.
In view of this, it is understandable that the religious leaders became upset when they saw Jesus’ disciples plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath. The problem was not that the disciples were picking heads of grain from someone else’s fields. The Law of Moses explicitly allowed people to do so in order to satisfy their own hunger as long as they did not use a sickle to cut the grain. The problem was that the disciples were doing this on the Sabbath. In the view of the religious leaders they were breaking the Sabbath by working.
Jesus might have replied that plucking a few heads of grain by hand was not work. However, instead of arguing over definitions Jesus drew their attention to a deeper principle: God’s intent in proclaiming the Sabbath was to be a help and blessing to people and not to increase their burdens. To make His point, Jesus reminded them of an incident in the life of King David. The Law of Moses required the priests to place twelve loaves of bread in the Tabernacle before the Lord each week. Only priests were permitted to eat this bread afterwards. Yet, when David and his followers were in need and hungry, Abiathar the priest, gave this bread to them to eat. God did not give the Law to harm, but help. Therefore, God allowed the letter of the Law to be broken so that the needs of the man God had appointed as king could be met. In Matthew’s account of this incident, Jesus quoted from the Prophet Hosea to illustrate the lesson, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6 NIV) Jesus’ teaching is plain: God desires us to show mercy even more than He desires us to keep the religious rituals He asks us to perform.
There was something else the religious authorities failed to take into account. Earlier in this Gospel, Mark records how Jesus had the authority to forgive sins. Since God alone is able to forgive sins, this means that Jesus shared God’s nature. As other Scripture says, “…in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” (Colossians 2:9 NIV) Since God instructed the people to keep the Sabbath, He also has the authority to make exceptions. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. If He gave His disciples permission to break the letter of the Law in order to fulfill the intent of the Law, it is His right to do so.
There was another incident which illustrates how Jesus fulfilled the intent of the Law while breaking the leaders’ understanding of it. We read about it in Mark, chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. “He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered.
They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.
He said to the man who had his hand withered, “Stand up.” He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do harm? To save a life or to kill?” But they were silent. When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other. The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.”
God intended the Sabbath as a day of rest. It was a day to worship and to remember God’s blessings and goodness. Yet in this incident the authorities were using the Sabbath, not to worship, but to ensnare Jesus. They cared nothing for the man with the withered hand. They were merely using him as a tool. Their motives were not pure. Jesus caught them in their own trap by asking them whether it was lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath. They could not answer without exposing themselves. Instead of acknowledging their own wrong motives and repenting, they kept silent.
This angered and distressed Jesus. How could people be so hardened as to use the gift of God for evil purposes? Unlike the religious leaders, Jesus wold use the Sabbath to do good. He gave the man with the shriveled hand rest from his affliction – thus fulfilling the intent of the Sabbath.
The leaders proved their hypocrisy by plotting to kill Jesus. They falsely accused Him of breaking the Law while fully intending to violate the commandment not to kill. What about us? Do we put a higher value on keeping the form of our religious practices than we do on the intent?