Master of the sabbath.

Mark 2.23-28, Matthew 12.1-8, Luke 6.1-5.

As I said in my article on the previous passage, don’t assume Pharisees questioned Jesus because they wished to challenge him. Sometimes they did. But sometimes they were merely trying to understand why Jesus ignored their traditions—and why he was teaching his students to do likewise.

Just like it came up one sabbath when Jesus and his kids were going past the fields, and some of ’em began to yank a few of the heads of grain off.

Mark 2.23-24 KWL

23Jesus himself happens to travel through the fields on sabbath.

His students begin plucking the grain along the road.

24Pharisees tell Jesus, “Look,

why are they doing what one shouldn’t on sabbath?”

Matthew 12.1-2 KWL

1At that time, Jesus goes through the fields on sabbath.

His students are hungry,

and begin to pluck the grain and eat.

2Seeing this, Pharisees tell Jesus, “Look,

your students are doing what one shouldn’t do on sabbath.”

Luke 6.1-2 KWL

1Jesus himself happens to go through the fields on sabbath.

His students are plucking and eating,

rubbing the grain in their hands.

2Some of the Pharisees say,

“Why are they doing what one shouldn’t on sabbath?”

Mark doesn’t mention they were eating the grain, so this sounds more like petty vandalism—as kids will do. But no, it wasn’t that; the other gospels point out they ate it. And no, that’s not theft. The Law stated people were permitted to do so.

Leviticus 19.9-10 NET

9“ ‘When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. 10You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the resident foreigner. I am the LORD your God.”

God capped certain commands with “I’m the LORD your God” when he particularly meant it; when this was meant to express something he uniquely identifies with.

This is part of God’s welfare plan for the poor: When they’re hungry, let them eat from the edges of your fields, or pick up whatever you left behind after harvest, and God would bless you and make up for it. The people were kinda on the honor system: They could glean what they needed… so long that they don’t grab a sickle and reap a swath of it. Dt 23.25 But for the most part it worked. Our culture, in comparison, considers any gleaning a form of theft, and farmers are far more likely to grab a rifle and take potshots at ’em to scare them off.

Regardless of feeding the poor: It was sabbath, and you might recall Pharisees had a whole list of stuff you mustn’t do on sabbath. In the Mishnah’s list of 39 forms of prohibited work, number 3 would be reaping, and number 5 would be threshing. That whole “rubbing it their hands” bit Luke mentioned—shucking the chaff from the seeds—counts as threshing. And if you really wanna get anal about it, by selecting which heads of grain to pluck, the students were sorting—which’d be number 7.

Three different kinds of work, and work is banned on sabbath. It’s in the Ten Commandments, remember? Ex 20.10 Back in Old Testament times, it’d even get you the death penalty. Ex 32.2 So this is no minor quibble. It’s a capital crime.

So why didn’t the Pharisees just grab the students and haul ’em before the town council? Because though teenagers were legal adults, they were still under the tutelage of their rabbi, who was supposed to teach ’em better. Bringing it to Jesus was the proper procedure for Pharisees: “Hey, your kids are breaking sabbath. Deal with it.” And if he didn’t deal with it, he actually had to answer for them.