Through the Cornfields on the Sabbath

by Garry D. Pifer

During a recent conversation I was told that Jesus Christ profaned the Sabbath.  To make his point this individual cited the Biblical account of Jesus and His disciples going through the grain fields on the Sabbath day.  As you will recall, the disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to remove the grains from the husks and ate the grain.  In his statement that Jesus profaned the Sabbath this individual appeared to agree with the Pharisees that accused Jesus and His disciples of doing what was “not lawful to do upon the Sabbath.”

Was this accusation true?  Was Jesus and His disciples truly doing what was “unlawful?”  Were they profaning the Sabbath?  Were they breaking the laws regarding the Sabbath as contained in the Torah?  Let us examine this account and understand what was happening and what Jesus was teaching.

But, before we look at this event I believe we must consider what should be the obvious.  The Scriptures clearly show us that Jesus lived a sinless life.  The Apostle Paul plainly states in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that “He knew no sin.”  If He had sinned He could not have been our savior.  Breaking God’s commandments, profaning them in any way, constitutes sin.  (1 John 3:4) We know that Jesus did not break any of God’s commandments, including the Sabbath commandment.

With that said let us study the Biblical accounts detailing what Jesus and His disciples did and said regarding the plucking of grain on the Sabbath day.  We find the event recounted for us in Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28 and Luke 6:1-5.  The gospel writers recorded what happened and what was said with some slightly different details.  Luke tells us this event occurred or came to pass “on the second Sabbath after the first.”  Commentators feel this sets the timing as to the springtime.  According to the Law a sheaf, or an omer, of barley was “waved” or elevated on the “morrow after the Sabbath” during the Days of Unleavened Bread.  (Lev. 23:11) Following this event the barley harvest was to begin.  The timing of Jesus and the disciples going through the “corn fields” was the Sabbath following the “wave sheaf offering,” the time of ripe barley, the time of the barley harvest.

Matthew tells us the disciples were “an hungered.”  This appears to indicate more than just a mere urge for something to nibble on.  Apparently they had not eaten a meal for some time and were feeling true hunger.  All three writers state that Jesus was going “through the corn fields.”  Although the word translated “through” can be rendered “by” almost all the translations show it to be “through.”  This indicates to me that the fields they were walking through had already been cut, the farmer having already “put the sickle to the corn.”  Walking through standing grain fields would have been somewhat difficult but more importantly it would have caused much damage to the crop with a group of men trampling it down.  Jesus, showing love for His neighbor, would not have caused this kind of destruction and damage.

As they went, we are told, the disciples began plucking the “ears of corn,” or more accurately in our understanding, the heads of barley.  Luke tells us that they then rubbed the heads in their hands to separate the grains from the husks.  What they were doing was specifically addressed and permitted by the Torah.  Deuteronomy 23:25 states that when one comes “into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with the hand.”  And, more appropriate to the situation here at hand, was the law regarding not reaping the corners of the fields, but to leave some for the poor and the stranger.  (Lev. 19:9-10; Lev. 23:22)

After seeing the disciples pluck the grain, rub it out in their hands and eat it, we are told that the Pharisees accused them of doing what was “not lawful to do upon the Sabbath.”  I believe Luke’s statement is revealing.  He says, “and certain of the Pharisees....”   Smith’s Bible Dictionary says, “In the time of Christ they were divided doctrinally into several schools, among which Hillel and Shammai were most noted.” (Taken from McClintock and Strong.)  According to the Talmud there were seven classes of Pharisees.  Although the Pharisees were all part of the same religious and political party they still had their differences.  They were not all of the same opinion and interpretation of what was and was not lawful to do upon the Sabbath.  What they were stating here as being unlawful for the disciples to be doing in nowhere addressed in the Torah.  The Sabbath command simply states “thou shalt not do any work.”  These particular Pharisees were judging the actions of Jesus and His disciples by the interpretation of the Sabbatical law given to them by “their” rabbis.  Smith’s Bible Dictionary has this to say.  “...the Pharisees, upon pretense of maintaining it (the law of God) intact, multiplied minute precepts and distinctions to such an extent that the whole life of the Israelite was hemmed in and burdened on every side by instructions so numerous and trifling that the law was almost if not wholly lost sight of.  These ‘traditions,’ as they were called, had long been gradually accumulating.  Of the trifling character of these regulations innumerable instances are to be found in the Mishna...”  “...and such, finally, were the minute and vexatious extensions of the law of the Sabbath, which must have converted God’s gracious ordinance of the Sabbath’s rest into a burden and a pain.”

We now come to Jesus’ response.  Most of us, myself included, would probably have been right in “the face” of these Pharisees letting them know in no uncertain terms that their interpretation of the Sabbatical law was in error.  But, Jesus approached the situation in a different way.  He brought to their attention an account of David being in a situation where he was quite hungry.  It is interesting to note how Jesus introduced this.  He asks the Pharisees “have you not read...?”  Of course they had and He knew they had.  They were well versed in the Scriptures.  He begins to remind them of the situation.  David was quite hungered as well as they that were with him.  Quoting from Luke 6:4 Jesus says, “How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?”  If one is not familiar with this account it would seem that David just walked into the temple and snatched up the loaves of shewbread and began eating.  The Pharisees knew the story (recorded for us in 1 Sam. 21) of how David asked the priest for bread for himself and his hungry men.  The priest made the decision to give of the shewbread to David since there was no “common” bread available.

Jesus doesn’t at this point make any comments regarding this event but moves on to another situation, recorded only by Matthew.  He asks again, “have you not read in the law?”  He presents to them the well known practice of the priest “working” in the temple on the Sabbath.  He says that they “profane the Sabbath, and are blameless.”  The Pharisees were very knowledgeable of what all the priests were required by the Torah to do on the Sabbath; baking 12 loaves of shewbread, sacrificing numerous animals, etc.  Yet, they accepted this and understood this.  They did not regard the priests as truly “breaking the Sabbath” but were in obedience to a “higher” or greater law of service in the temple.

Jesus then makes a statement that the Pharisees probably didn’t agree with.  I’m confident they got the gist of what He was saying.  He said, “That in this place is one greater than the temple.”  He was letting them know that He was the Messiah and that His ministry was greater than that of the priests in the temple.  He didn’t say or concede that what His disciples were doing was sinful at all.  He continues with a quotation from Hosea.  He told them IF they had known what this means, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,” a direct quotation from Hosea 6:6 and referenced in Micah 6:6-8, they wouldn’t have brought the accusation.  What was it that He meant and that they didn’t grasp?  I believe Jesus made it very plain in another discussion He had with some Pharisees.  Notice this in Matthew 23:23 where He called them hypocrites because of being overly zealous of the Torah command regarding tithing but had omitted “the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done,...”  It was the same in this account.  These Pharisees were requiring more stringent requirements than was included in the Torah without proper judgement and mercy.  The priest in the temple showed mercy to David and his men.  To alleviate their hunger was a merciful thing to do, a weightier aspect of the law.

Jesus makes a statement that is recorded by all three of the Gospel writers.  He states that “the Son of man,” a term He often used to indicate His Messiahship, “is Lord of the Sabbath day.”  The word “lord” is kurios in the Greek, #2962 in Strong’s.  It indicates ownership.  The lexicon says, “He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding.”  It indicates “one who has control of” the person or thing.  Jesus owns the Sabbath.  He was its creator.  He was the one who gave it and the laws regarding it to mankind.  Mark, in his account in chapter 2 and verse 27, quotes Jesus as stating that “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.”  It was His creation and gift to man.  It was meant to be a blessing, not a burden, as the Pharisees were making it.  As the Torah tells us, it was a day in which everyone and their animals and servants might rest and be refreshed.  Jesus is showing that to show mercy, to heal, to do good, on the Sabbath was within the “weightier matter” of the law, the Torah.

Before we leave this discussion I believe it is quite necessary to let Jesus answer our question.  Were He and His disciples “breaking” the Sabbath?  Notice Matthew 12:6 where He is speaking of the priests in the temple.  He says they are “blameless.”  This is the Greek word anaitos, #338 in Strong’s.  It means “guiltless, innocent.”  Now, drop down a couple of verses.  Verse 7, last part, He says that if the Pharisees had known what all of the preceding had meant they “would not have condemned the guiltless.”  The word translated “guiltless” is also #338, anaitos.  Jesus tells us very plainly and in unveiled terms that His disciples were NOT breaking the Sabbath.  They were “blameless,” “guiltless,” “innocent.”