The “fleshly Body of Christ”; “God is my help”; “the Lord sustains my life”; “the way, the truth and the
life” – words that can guide reflection on today’s gospel.
It is the Sabbath, a day to “keep holy” for rest from labor. “The Lord sustains my life.”
Jesus and his disciples walk a grain field. Though owned and farmed by someone, it is the Land, God’s
gift to the people Israel. “The Lord sustains my life.”
Grain, fruit of the land and source of daily bread … “The Lord sustains my life.”
Hungry, the traveling band freely picks grain. With eyes for the gift, they eat. “The Lord sustains my life.”
Witnesses to the doings, the Pharisees see differently. Torah commandments, after all, are God’s covenant gift. Sabbath observance, sacred sign of covenant relationality, nourishes the people’s identity. “The Lord sustains my life.”
Troubled by what they see, the guardians of Torah charge the disciples with unlawful action.
Troubled by what he sees, Jesus intervenes in their defense. “God is my help.”
Jesus shows them – and us - the way to the deeper truth that sustains life in accord with the Creator-
God’s desire. Making his way through the sacred story told in Scripture Jesus takes them to the lived
experience of the ancestors (1 Sam 21:1-6). “Have you not read what David did when he and those with
him were hungry?” Hunger. The hunger of David and companions, the hunger of Jesus and companions,
our hunger, the hunger of our companions on this earth, the hunger of the earth, our home. “God is
my help.”
Entering the sacred house of God, David and companions took, ate, and shared the bread of offering,
bread reserved for the priests to eat. Took the bread, ate the bread, shared the bread … a suppering
that Jesus and the disciples will share at the Last. “The Lord sustains my life.”
For the Pharisees, in their devotion to God’s gift of Torah, to pick grain to eat on the Sabbath violates the
divine command to rest … a troubling disobedience that threatens identity and covenant relationality.
But is this violation of the Sabbath command truly a lack of obedience in Jesus and his disciples?
Obedience, meaning “to listen to” or “pay attention,” requires, in this case, listening to the depths for
the One behind the command on sacred page.
Jesus, apparently, sees into and through the law to the intentions of the Creator God, for whom Sabbath
rest was the culmination of the work of creation, with its many blessings, among them the gift of “every
seed-bearing plant on all the earth … to be your food” (Gen 1:29). Prior to God’s Sabbath rest was the
work of providing food. Addressing creatures’ need, then, remains Divine Priority, and to eat when
hungry, blessed creaturely prerogative.
Here the “Lord of the Sabbath” points the Way to the Truth about the Covenant Law-Giver and the Life
that the Creator-God intends for us. To rest from labor, as God does – surely a good and sacred thing; for
Sabbath, too, is gracious reminder of our creaturely need for rest. “The Lord sustains my life.” But
gracious provision of food is prior, and so, Divine - and human - priority. “The Lord sustains my life.”
Called to an obedience in the Jesus “way” – a listening to our God - with ear and eye for the human need
that is the Ever-Gracious God’s priority, may that “Jesus obedience,” the deep listening “way,” be the
mark of our identity as “the fleshly Body of Christ” in and for a world, hungry for food and for rest.
Sue Calef
A New Testament scholar in the Department of Theology, Susan taught Scriptural Foundations of Spirituality in Creighton’s Christian Spirituality Program for 22 years. Her current undergraduate courses on suffering, sickness and healing, and American public life all include attention to biblical spirituality, which remains her teaching passion and the focus of her scholarship. sue
