Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciple walked alongside (paraporeuomai; G3899) and through the grain fields on the Sabbath day (Mark 2:23). In other words they walked on the path alongside the grain field, and through its edges. The first thing that becomes clear to us is that this had to be the time of harvest, or, in other words, it was about the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, and Jesus’ public ministry began around this time. We need to keep the first few chapters of Mark’s narrative within the context of Jesus’ baptism and his subsequent trials in the wilderness of people (cp. Ezekiel 20:35). In other words the events of Mark 2:23-28 fall within that forty day period of temptation (cp. Mark 1:12-13), when Jesus was with the wild beasts and the angels (or messengers – aggelos, G32, i.e. his disciples) ministered to him.[1]
As Jesus and those with him walked through the grain fields, his disciples began plucking grain, rubbed the heads with their hands (Luke 6:1), blew away the chaff and ate the kernels of wheat, because the text says they were hungry (Matthew 12:1). Obviously, one eats when he is hungry, so why even mention this fact, unless it is intended to tell us something that isn’t so obvious to the reader? This event is recorded in all three Synoptics, and each one records these things sometime after Jesus was questioned about why Jesus and his disciples don’t fast (cp. Matthew 9:14-17), with Luke agreeing with Mark that these events occurred immediately afterwards (cp. Luke 5:33-39). The interesting point concerning fasting is that Luke tells us this Sabbath was “the second Sabbath after the first” (Luke 6:1), but what does that mean?
In the context of these events occurring in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar, when more annual holy days occur than any other month of the year, and each one called a Sabbath, perhaps we need to consider the idea that two Sabbaths had occurred that week, and this was the second (viz. Luke’s “second Sabbath after the first”). Additionally and according to Mark, these events occurred immediately following the question about fasting, which was done on the third day of the seventh month (Mark 2:18-22).[2] Keeping in mind that Matthew tells us the disciples were hungry (cp. Matthew 12:1), then, obviously, the first of the two Sabbaths that week was the Day of Atonement, and it occurs on the tenth day of the seventh month every year. If Jesus disciples were walking through the wheat fields, while they were hungry and plucked some of the kernels to satisfy that hunger, then these had to have been back to back Sabbaths, i.e. with the annual Feast Day occurring on Friday, and the weekly Sabbath occurring on Saturday (both Sabbaths being sundown to sundown), with no time between them to prepare meals. So, we see why the disciples were hungry (Mark 2:22-23). They had just fasted for a whole day, eating nothing, and the Pharisees objected to their harvesting grain on the Sabbath day to satisfy their hunger.
The problem with the Pharisees objection is that it contradicted the very meaning of the weekly Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath was a feast day (Leviticus 23:1-3), which celebrated the Lord as Creator of all there is (Exodus 20:10-11). The Day of Atonement was a national day of mourning and repentance, a day in which one afflicted his soul by fasting (Leviticus 23:26-32). The days are for different purposes, the one celebrating the Lord as Creator, while the other mourned over the sins men have committed against him. How could anyone celebrate the Lord as Creator of all there is by mourning? Thus, the Pharisees, in their apparent desire to celebrate their own righteousness (cp. Luke 18:12) by fasting two days back to back or 48 hours straight, they missed the purpose of the Sabbath to celebrate the Lord as their Creator, which, not only couldn’t be done by mourning, they couldn’t even mourn over their sins, if they were celebrating their own righteousness by fasting an additional day.
Rather than argue with the Pharisees by speaking to their folly (cp. Proverbs 26:4), Jesus replied to their folly by using a different argument (cp. Proverbs 26:5), mentioning what David had done when he and those with him were hungry (Mark 2:25). When David was fleeing from Saul, he asked the high priest for food, but the only available food was the old Shewbread, which had been presented to the Lord, and no one was permitted to eat it according to the Law, except the priests (Mark 2:26). It lay before the Lord for a week, from Sabbath to Sabbath, and was replaced by new bread baked the day before the Sabbath. As the new bread was placed before the Lord the priests who served that week and the priests who were replacing them ate the old bread. What was leftover was what the high priest gave to David and his men.
Jesus’ argument was that David, being the Anointed of God, by eating the Shewbread, which he was forbidden to eat under normal circumstances, showed himself to be lord over the Temple and its practices. If David was lord over the Temple, then the one greater than David must also be Lord over the Temple and all things done therein, including what was done on the Sabbath day. The Law governed the Sabbath, and David interpreted the Law to permit his men to satisfy their hunger with that which, under normal circumstances, was forbidden for them to eat. Thus, Jesus interpreted the Law to say: he was Lord over the Sabbath, which couldn’t be celebrated properly by mourning (Mark 2:27-28). Rather, true celebration of the Lord as Creator included partaking of the blessings of the Lord’s labor and enjoying his creation.
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[1] See my earlier study: Jesus’ Temptation in the Wilderness
[2] See my previous study: Jesus Is Greater than Gedaliah!
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