Gospel: Mark 2:23-28
As Jesus was passing through a field of
grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the
heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him “Look, why are they doing what
is unlawful on the sabbath? He said to them, “Have you never read what David
did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into
the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and
shared it with his companions? Then he said to them “The sabbath was made for
man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the
sabbath.”
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Reflection:
Why was Jesus so popular with the common
people of His time? Because He violates some religious norms for the greater
good of the people that He loves so dearly. For example the picking of grain during Sabbath
day, doing this was prohibited based on the Jewish religion. But Jesus dared to
violate this law for the good of His disciples.
Laws or religious norms are good for the
reason that it will teach us obedience and discipline. But there are times that
we have to violate it so that it could serve a higher and nobler purpose. In
the gospel the nobler or higher purpose why Jesus violated the Sabbath law was
to feed the hungry stomachs of His disciples.
Jesus violated the Sabbath law for the
reason that humans are more important that laws. We can amend a law or extinguish the life of a
law but are we willing to extinguish the life of a human being to serve the
law?
In a deeper sense Jesus is teaching us that
the important need of a person (In this case the need for food) is far more
important than any law. For Jesus it’s always the good of His followers than
the observance of any kind of religious law/s.
This norm of Jesus stands until today we
are His priority more than any other rule/law in this world. How about us, is
Jesus our priority more than any other undertaking in this world? – Marino J.
Dasmarinas