Breaking the Word

  While he was going through a field of grain on a Sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those (who were) with him were hungry? (How) he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions." Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath." (Lk 6:1-5)

Pharisees took it upon themselves the duty of observing the laws and made sure that the others also observed. They had their own opinion about how the law should be kept and they always insisted that the society should keep the law. Since God has blessed the Sabbath, the Pharisees believed that it was a double responsibility laid on them.

Jesus and his men were in the same position as David and his men had been. David and his men were an exception to the normal rule and also were Jesus and his men. David had the right to take the bread of the presence because he was going to be the king. At the moment of the incident he was on the run from Saul. Jesus was also on the move (not on the run) with his followers and he would be the king and he was going about bringing in his kingdom.

Jesus would be the rightful king in the line of David. He would be an exception like David and so also his followers. Jesus was much more than David because he was the son of God. In Jesus God’s new world was breaking in and the kingdom of God was at hand and hence the old rules were not applicable to his situations. At least the old rules had to be rethought. 

And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink." Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days." And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. (And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'" (Lk5:33-39)

Religious practices or pious activities are often compared. Comparing is always to prove which one or who is better than the other. Jesus did not enter into this game. He did not compare to find out whose disciples were better than the rest. He entered into the discussion as to why or when should one fast. Wedding celebration was not the time to fast or to discuss about fasting.  Presence of the bridegroom is a sign of celebration and not the time to fast.

Not only comparing but also patching up the old and the new would not also produce the desired effect. Patching up old with the new will only make the situation worse. It would destroy one or the other. Similarly the new wine poured in the old wine skins would destroy the wine skins and the wine would be wasted.

Jesus has come into the world with new. His preaching and working should not be compared or patched up with the past. Jesus in no way spokes ill of the old (old is good) but he would want the new to be accepted given its merit it deserves. The kingdom that he speaks of is not for comparison or to be patched up with the old. It has its own strength.