One sabbath he was going through the grain-fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?" And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" And he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; so the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath."
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. And they watched him, to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come here. " And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out, and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Mark 2:23--3:6 (RSV)
Like a devouring machine, our society is fed by laws and regulations. We make laws out of laws and choke on them. We love to put them on the books but are slower in removing them. Here are some ancient regulations which are still in force. In Rumford, Maine, it's illegal to bite your landlord. In Portland, Oregon, it's against the law to wear roller skates in public rest rooms. In Devon, Connecticut, you have broken a city ordinance when you walk backwards after sunset.
We fabricate such laws in order to make our lives less confusing. Perhaps, in the process, we have become so overwhelmed by our statutes that we assume a burned-out attitude. Hasn't that given us a greater excuse to become more permissive in our moral behavior? In that pantheon of "do's" and "don'ts," haven't we come across as morally self-righteous? Have we turned up our noses to those with lower moral standards? Conceivably, the question for our day is not whether we can live without any moral laws. Instead, how may we retain any meaning at all out of the mountain of regulations we already have?
Okay, if those laws seem to take away a moral clout, then which fewer ones will make a difference? His Word for this day points to a definite alternative. It proposes several truths which can address our moral confusion. It focuses on one who faced an identical problem. Jesus ran head-on into the pretzel-styled laws of Judaism. In an effort to regulate every minute kind of moral behavior, the Jewish mind was programmed. The law did the thinking for you. Simply match "X" with "Y" and you have your answer ... neat ... packaged ... simple. PROBLEM: What if a situation arose that wasn't covered in the books? Basically, that's what Jesus was arguing.
He pulled the example of the commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He contended that it was more than a special day to salute God. The drama unfolded when he was called on the carpet for harvesting grain on the Sabbath. "If so," he contended, "then what do you say about King David using bread from God's house to feed his starving men? The experts, the men of the law, were mute. Like the prairie dog trying to trap the road runner, the Pharisees again took a third strike. He took the starch out of the collar of their legalisms. Jesus' conclusion: "The Sabbath was made to benefit man and woman, not vice versa."
Until recently, our nations's approach to the Sabbath bordered on the Pharisaic. "Sunday is the day to go to church; no work, no play, even the stores must be closed." Those were the blue laws of the fifties. Now, the green laws - the monetary law of the greenback - has taken its place. Today, following church service we go out to eat and pay the cashier before leaving. And if mom needs a quart of milk from the Seven-Eleven, we pick that up, too.
Many of us are required by our employers to work on Sundays. Changing shifts and out-of-town trips have become common features for today's work force. Even this minister must deliver a sermon on this Lord's day. If not, then "How will the people hear without a preacher?"
As Jesus raised the point about David's heist in the temple, so we raise questions about the fair observance of God's day. How long should the Sabbath be? Can you take half a day on Sunday and a few hours on Wednesday evening? Or should the Sabbath be confined to twelve or fifteen hours once weekly?
Let us open another can of worms. If you chip away or compromise one of God's commandments, then what about the others such as adultery? Obviously, God's truth cannot be negotiated from our end. They are high principles which he has given for our own good. The renowned psychologist, Carl Jung, warns that, "Only Christianity is keeping them in check and if Christianity is relegated, the old horrors will come back upon us again."
With the Sabbath it is not so much that God wants us to honor him any less, as it is that he wants us to get our act together. The greatest construction project ever undertaken was supervised by the Creator himself. After he had given it a proper christening, even he took a breather. God designed the Sabbath as a safety valve for our mind, body, and spirit. He cares about our brains when the circuitry is overloaded or when our bodies are abused by overwork.
In response to the Pharisees, Jesus was making another pitch for his efficient love. It really works in solving life's $64,000 questions. His love serves as the ultimate lubricant for morality. It gets us over the most difficult humps and around the sharpest of corners. James Russell Lowell adds, "I take great comfort in God, I think he is considerably amused at us many times, but he loves us, and he would not let us get at the matchbox ... unless he knew the framework of the universe is fireproof."
God did not create us to be bionic or we would come with a blinking circuit box on our foreheads. We can't be recycled - at least not yet. Our minds and bodies are so constructed as to take only an "X" amount of wear. We can only work five to six days a week. More than that and we're going to pay. We're going to pay the doctors. We're going to pay the psychiatrist. We're going to pay for our neglected children in trouble. We're going to make a trip to a memorial park sooner than we expected. Overworked, we will simply destruct. We need our rest, our relaxation, our fellowship.
To make our recovery complete - mind, body, spirit - we need to process ourselves through him. For the Christian his Spirit takes up residence within. Paul writes, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) The Spirit's housing must keep a tight ship.
Here is the bottom line. It's not how much prime worship time we spend with him on Sunday, but how much quality time we allow for him the remainder of the week. We can't get away with Sunday-only worship anymore. Although grace before meals is commendable, he relishes more in-depth encounters. Although personal prayer before bedtime and upon awakening helps us to stay in touch, what he is after in our lives is arm-in-arm fellowship, those two-on-two encounters. Some of our more intimate moments with him come through sharing time with our families. Does that seem far-fetched? Do we really want to pay that price, to give an honest full pound measure? Isn't it true that most of today's church families just won't make the time for informal sharing? Can't we give thanks to our VCR's and cable TV for deflating our family potentials? Isn't it true, also, that as we short-change God it is we who come out on the short end?
Consider the alternatives. Mom and dad can grow old before fifty and the children can be transformed into VCR zombies. Or, by taking the time to reacquaint ourselves with our intimate Friend, we become not the people we are. Isn't it a risk worth taking?