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I am using the YouVersion 49 Week Bible Challenge for these devotions. Today’s readings are Mark 2; Deuteronomy 23; 1 Samuel 21; 22.
Mark 2:16-28
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 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: 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?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Each day of the 49 week Bible Challenge we are asked: In today’s readings, do you notice a promise to trust, a command to obey, a truth to embrace, a warning to heed, or an encouragement to rest in? What do you learn about God, about yourself, or about the world? Is there one verse or thought that stands out to you today? Talk to God about it.
It’s clear to me that for Jesus, some of the Sabbath restrictions were not just superfluous, but even obstructive to the Commandments of God. Sabbath restrictions came to bare when Jesus healed the paralytic. He did it on a Sabbath and the Jewish leaders were offended by that. Now Jesus’ disciples were plucking grain as they walked through the fields, rubbing away the chaff and eating the grain. The Pharisees took note and called them out. “Look,” they said, “why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus will explain that they are doing something much less offensive than David had done 1000 years ago
The account of this is found in 1 Samuel 21-22, and the full story records the brutality of an envious and insecure Saul. When he discovers Ahimelech had given the sacred bread to David and his men, he orders the death of all the priests. When his own guards refuse to kill the priests, Doeg kills all the priests except for Abiathar. Insecure people resort to brutal tactics. I wonder whether Jesus had that in mind as he recognized how insecure the Pharisees and Jewish leaders were in regard to his mission and ministry. He is, afterall, bringing new teachings which will require new attitudes (new wine in new wineskins).
Jesus has already set them straight about fasting, telling the people that the disciples were not fasting because the bridegroom was present. He is the bridegroom. His presence was not cause for fasting. It was cause for faith. But the Sabbath rules seem to get Jesus’ greatest attention and the greatest reaction of the Pharisees.
This is what I am reminded about God: He is lord of the Sabbath, and as such will point people away from a ritualistic view of faith, toward a true love for God and sincere love for neighbor. For that I am deeply thankful.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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