Jesus Answers the Pharisees in the Grain FieldBible World
2:24Mark 2:24
And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
Mark 2:24 refers to what happened as Jesus and His disciples were returning from worship through a field of ripening grain, after His work had continued to a late hour, when the disciples, to satisfy hunger while passing through, plucked heads of grain, rubbed out the kernels in their hands, and ate them. The Pharisees charged this as Sabbath desecration, as doing on the Sabbath day that which was not lawful, although the same act was lawful on any other day. In rabbinical opinion it was a double offense, the gathering being treated as a kind of reaping and the rubbing as a kind of threshing.
The disciples' act was permitted by God's law, which allows a hungry person entering a neighbor's field, orchard, or vineyard to take grain or fruit to satisfy hunger, so that gathering grain to eat while passing through a field was lawful even on the Sabbath. The charge came not from the law of God but from burdensome human requirements that had perverted the Sabbath after departing from God and failing to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith. That human perversion had made Sabbath observance reflect the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the loving Heavenly Father. It virtually represented God as a tyrant giving laws impossible to obey and as requiring an observance that made men hard-hearted and cruel, though the Sabbath is the sign of Christ's power.
Jesus denied and repelled the charge and showed the disciples to be guiltless, establishing their innocence as fully in harmony with the Sabbath commandment. He covered them with the shield of His own prerogatives with a dignity He alone possesses as God in the flesh in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ did not conform to those human requirements but kept the Sabbath according to the law of God in order to clear away these misconceptions.
The accusers acted from impatience to accuse Christ, waiting and critically spying upon all His actions and words, and when they found nothing else they seized upon His disciples' act. Their accusation was foolish and blind, as if they had put out their eyes, and showed the weakness of human judgment. For in charging Jesus with transgressing the Sabbath they condemned the One who made the Sabbath and is its Lord.
Mark 2:24 refers to what happened as Jesus and His disciples were returning from worship through a field of ripening grain, after His work had continued to a late hour, when the disciples, to satisfy hunger while passing through, plucked heads of grain, rubbed out the kernels in their hands, and ate them. The Pharisees charged this as Sabbath desecration, as doing on the Sabbath day that which was not lawful, although the same act was lawful on any other day. In rabbinical opinion it was a double offense, the gathering being treated as a kind of reaping and the rubbing as a kind of threshing.
The disciples' act was permitted by God's law, which allows a hungry person entering a neighbor's field, orchard, or vineyard to take grain or fruit to satisfy hunger, so that gathering grain to eat while passing through a field was lawful even on the Sabbath. The charge came not from the law of God but from burdensome human requirements that had perverted the Sabbath after departing from God and failing to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith. That human perversion had made Sabbath observance reflect the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the loving Heavenly Father. It virtually represented God as a tyrant giving laws impossible to obey and as requiring an observance that made men hard-hearted and cruel, though the Sabbath is the sign of Christ's power.
Jesus denied and repelled the charge and showed the disciples to be guiltless, establishing their innocence as fully in harmony with the Sabbath commandment. He covered them with the shield of His own prerogatives with a dignity He alone possesses as God in the flesh in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ did not conform to those human requirements but kept the Sabbath according to the law of God in order to clear away these misconceptions.
The accusers acted from impatience to accuse Christ, waiting and critically spying upon all His actions and words, and when they found nothing else they seized upon His disciples' act. Their accusation was foolish and blind, as if they had put out their eyes, and showed the weakness of human judgment. For in charging Jesus with transgressing the Sabbath they condemned the One who made the Sabbath and is its Lord.