TRANSLATION MATTHEW 12:1

At that time Jesus was going through the grain fields during the Day of Rest. His pupils were hungry and began to pick ears of grain and to eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your pupils are doing something which is not lawful on the Day of Rest!”

He said to them,”Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the House of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests in the Temple on the Day of Rest desecrate the Day, but are free from blame? I tell you, something greater than the Temple is here. If you understood what this means, “I, the Lord, desire kindness rather than Sacrifice,” you would not have passed judgement on the innocent. For the Son of Man is Master of the Day of Rest.

This story comes from Mark’s Gospel chapter 2, although Matthew has altered sime details. it is a curious event. Here are Jesus and his pupils walking through grain fields and are spied on by Pharisees! I’ve walked through grain fields, and reckon I would be unseen by even the keenest-eyed Pharisee. In its present form therefore we have to reckon that the tale is unrealistic. Also notable is the care taken not to depict Jesus actually breaking the law himself.

It’s doubtful if all pharisees would have judged what is done by hungry men here as ‘reaping’ and therefore work and therefore a breach of the Day of Rest law. One can imagine it being a topic of argument amongst rabbis. Matthew, who adds the detail of the pupils’ hunger, wants to show the pharisees as putting their interpretation of the law before human need. Jesus’ defense focuses on the hunger of David and his men. This use of scripture to contradict the interpretation of another bit of scripture is absolutely pharisaical, as is the use of “Have you not read”.

In Mark, this legalistic response is followed by the astonishing assertion that the Day of Rest was made for human beings, not human beings for the Day of Rest! This is a truly liberating utterance, which Matthew replaces by Jesus’ assertion that something greater than the temple is here, plus a quotation from Hosea 6:6. “I desire kindness and not sacrifice.” Taken together we may interpret the ‘something greater’ as kindness that puts hunger above the Day of Rest law. Of course, it’s also possible to see it as a self -reference by Jesus or as referring to the Rule of God. The defense about the work of priests on the Day of Rest is interesting as it may be comparing the task of Jesus and his pupils with the priestly task of honouring God.

All in all, if we’re on the side of Jesus in this controversy we can say to any supporter of the Pharisees, “Your boys took a hell of a beating.” We may regret Matthew’s picture of the Pharisees as always wrong, but we should appreciate his determination to get rid of any legalism in the tradition of Jesus. For him, the Law is part of the gospel and must be interpreted as such. That’s the meaning of the phrase about the Son of Man, who is the corporate instantiation of God’s Rule. He the bringer of joyful news is also master of the Day of Rest.

If we compare Matthew’s anti-legalistic focus with the appalling record of the Christian cburch over the centuries, we can only wonder at how completely the foundational teachings of the faith were forgotten.