Jesus' Ministry in Galilee

Plucking Grain on the Sabbath

Overview

David Ate The Showbread

When Saul sought his life, David fled. His first stop is in the city of the priests, Nob, and David was greeted by the high priest, Ahimelech. It was at this time the priest gave David and his men the holy bread and sped them on their journey.

The bread of the Presence is clearly restricted to the priests inside the tent.

Leviticus 24:5-9
You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the LORD. And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the LORD. Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the LORD regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the LORD's food offerings, a perpetual due.

Nonetheless, Ahimelech decided to forego his meal to give it to David and his men.

1 Samuel 21:3-6
"Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here." And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread--if the young men have kept themselves from women." And David answered the priest, "Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?" So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

What David and Ahimelech did was wrong even though they viewed it as support for God's chosen king. Jesus is not excusing this behavior.

Jesus mentions David here to draw attention to the larger picture: God's king is among the people, but someone else is ruling and seeking his life.

Ahimelech knew David was God's chosen king, and he clearly supported him. Where is the clear support due to Jesus?

"Guiltless"

The disciples of Jesus are doing nothing wrong by plucking and eating grain on a Sabbath. Jesus said they were "guiltless" (Matthew 12:7).

The Law supports this assertion.

Deuteronomy 23:24-25

If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.


Leviticus 19:9-10

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.

Are the poor not allowed to eat on the Sabbath? And why are Jesus and His disciples poor?

"If David did it, so can we!"

People sometimes think Jesus is claiming the right to break the rules like David did.

However, the disciples are not in fact breaking the Law by plucking grain to eat. (See "Guiltless" above.) So, we know the Lord is not excusing wrongdoing.

There is a serious problem with thinking Jesus is using David's behavior to excuse His disciples: This interpretation leads to situational ethics.

If the circumstances call for it, this reasoning goes, you can bend the rules a little to fit the situation--especially when you are an authority figure. This mistaken thinking is all too common in human institutions.

On the contrary, the Bible consistently reminds us to take our dedication to God with the utmost sincerity and all seriousness.

Deuteronomy 23:21-23

If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God what you have promised with your mouth.

Matthew 12:1-8

Matthew 12:1

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

Jesus went through the grainfields

Allowing them to walk through grainfields is how God fed the poor among the people. Jesus and his disciples should not have to do this, but should have support from the people and the priests.

Leviticus 19:10
You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.

Matthew 12:2

But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

the Pharisees saw it

On seeing this, the Pharisees should have been provoked in their hearts and provided for the disciples' needs.

Instead, they are fulfilling the pattern set by Doeg the Edomite.

1 Samuel 22:9-10, 18
Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the LORD for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine...."
Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and strike the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.

Matthew 12:3

He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him:

Matthew 12:4

how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

Matthew 12:5

Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?

the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless

In Leviticus 23 the Lord lays out all the holy convocations of the year in addition to the Sabbaths. It is clear that the people are forbidden from "ordinary" work, but that the priests are working all day.

Leviticus 23:1-3
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
Leviticus 23:7-8
...On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work."

Matthew 12:6

I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

something greater than the temple is here

If we compare similar statements later in this chapter, the meaning here becomes clear: the Pharisees are missing Jesus's authority as God's King.

Matthew 12:41-42
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 12:7

And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

I desire mercy, and not sacrifice

Jesus quoted the same passage (Hosea 6:6) earlier in Matthew 9, where He taught the Pharisees they should be about the business of salvation and restoration. Here the Pharisees strain the gnat and swallow the camel by condemning the hungry without cause.

Matthew 12:8

For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."

Mark 2:23-28

Mark 2:23

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

Mark 2:24

And the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"

Mark 2:25

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:

Mark 2:26

how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?"

Mark 2:27

And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

When God fed the people in the wilderness with manna, he gave a double portion on Friday so that they could rest on Saturday (the Sabbath).

Exodus 16:29
See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.

The Sabbath is also symbolic of our heavenly rest when life is done.

Hebrews 4:4-11
He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest." Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Mark 2:28

So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

Luke 6:1-5

Luke 6:1

On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

rubbing them in their hands

Luke's precision gives us insight into the reasoning of the Pharisees. They apparently thought plucking the grain was not work, but freeing it from the hull was.

Luke 6:2

But some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"

Luke 6:3

And Jesus answered them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:

Luke 6:4

how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?"

Luke 6:5

And he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."