David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”
David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”
But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.”
David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away. 1 Samuel 21:1-6 [Emphasis added.]
This week, we have been exploring a passage that references the text above. In Mark 2, Jesus explains that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He then goes on to use the story above as evidence that the Sabbath is a gift from God. The question is, how does this story from 1 Samuel illustrate the point Jesus is making?
In Jesus’ day, David was a sort of hero. David was seen as one of the most important figures to Judaism because his dynasty was arguably the most healthy. In this 1 Samuel passage, we find David breaking the law. Leviticus 24:5-9 teaches that the bread that David and his men take from the temple is meant to be eaten by the priests.
So what is going on here? Jesus tells the religious leaders a story about one of their own heroes breaking the law out of necessity. His point is to highlight the fact that the Law is a gift to humanity, not a list of responsibilities that God needs us to fulfill. The conclusion that Jesus draws from this is shocking to the religious leaders. It must have seemed like he was undermining the word of God. It’s statements like this that ultimately got Jesus killed.
Why is this important for us? It can be easy to look at Christianity as a list of rules to follow. When we do things right, God is okay with us, and when we don’t, he is angry. That isn’t how the scriptures speak of the law. The commands of scripture are a gift from God to humanity. They are a guide to human thriving. That doesn’t mean we can just pick and choose what we like and don’t like, but it does reframe the commands in the Bible about things like the Sabbath. Honoring a day of rest is a gift for your soul. It isn’t an obligation to be fulfilled. It isn’t a burden that God needs from you. It is a gift. Jesus wants to reframe the law for us from a joy-killing idea to a life-giving one.
This week, as you practice the sabbath, receive it as a gift from a good God who knows what is best for your soul. Enjoy that gift!
by Aaron Bjorklund
