NOTES for Mar 2:23-28

Once again the Lord, in answering the Pharisees, also addresses all of us. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" - these words are comforting, sometimes, it seems, excessively so. The Sabbath day, Shabbat, is the legally prescribed, obligatory day of rest for every Jew. It is a day on which no work may be done; for example, food for that day must be prepared in advance. Jesus answers the Pharisees' legitimate reproach: how can one pluck heads of grain on the day that the Lord Himself appointed as a day of rest? The immediate meaning of His words is quite simple: mercy and the need to sustain life stand above any law. And often, when breaking one rule or another, we want to comfort ourselves with these words: after all, nothing terrible has happened, and Christ Himself said... Yet it seems that these words have an even deeper meaning.

The Sabbath was not given merely for "doing nothing," for lying on the sofa. To remember the Sabbath day means to try to enter into the peace and repose of God's perfect design for the world. It means becoming like Him and rejoicing in how beautifully and wisely He arranged the nature around us, the birds, beasts, and animals, and in how delicate and fragile is the balance that the Lord placed in the world. "The Sabbath was made for man" - that is, each of us was created to keep in our heart not only contrition for sins, but also the remembrance of the depth of God's mercy toward the world He created. And if we are able to heed this call, our life will be guided not by the fear of violating one prohibition or another, but by the mercy and peace of the seventh day of creation.