Jesus regarded the law as a gift of God for the benefit of human beings – which meant he interpreted it from that point of view.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the end of the second chapter and the beginning of the third chapter of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 2:23-3:6). The stories that Mark told here described the beginning of Jesus’ conflict with some of the religious authorities of his day.
In the first story, Mark told about Jesus’ disciples gathering grain while passing near fields on the Sabbath. Plucking grain was considered doing work; work was, of course, forbidden on the Sabbath. In the second story, while in a synagogue Jesus healed a man with a withered hand. That time, those who disapproved looked on silently and condemningly. Jesus asked them if it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, and they said nothing.
In response to that first criticism about plucking grain, Jesus said something quite fascinating. He said that the Sabbath was made for human beings, not human beings for the Sabbath. That is, the Sabbath is a gift for people.
The gift of a day off in the ancient world was not a universally held value. Not every culture said that people deserved some “down time,” but the ancient Hebrews, under the commandment of God, they did believe it. It was one of the things that distinguished them in the first century from the Greeks and Romans who surrounded them.
To violate the Sabbath was not just to commit some arcane religious kind of offense, it was also to deny one’s kinship with an occupied people. It was also to set at risk the people’s commitment to God. “Why do you do what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
But if the Sabbath was made for the benefit of humankind, said Jesus, then we need to look at what benefits humankind as we evaluate whether an action is appropriate to the Sabbath or not. And it was fairly well established in rabbinic schools of thought at the time that there were things that were work that you could do on the Sabbath. You could bring an animal to water. You could pull an animal out of a ditch. Midwives were allowed to do their work on the Sabbath because that delivery of a new child into the world — labor — that contributed to the life and well-being of the individual and of the community.
So yes, said Jesus, they need this food to sustain them, and because the Sabbath was made for them, there is no question that they can eat. There is no question that a man in pain can be healed. There is no question but that one can do good, one can preserve life, one can heal, one can love on the Sabbath.
As we evaluate our own legal structures, our own customs that are not enshrined in law, let us ask that question at every venture: Are we making these laws, are we keeping these customs, for the benefit of human beings? Or have we set them up in ways that cause people pain, hardship, even oppression, even death.
The Sabbath was made for humankind so that people could have rest and renewal. All our laws should be addressed towards human needs, so that we can have rest and renewal and a community of love.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.
