17th JULY. FRIDAY IN WEEK 15

1.Exodus 11:10-12: 14

2.Matthew 12:1-8

REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS

Life has to be celebrated in freedom

In our daily lives we find that there are various ways of responding to God’s law. From the book of Exodus we hear set of rules for the celebration of Passover, while Matthew the evangelist gives examples of adapting the law to meet the circumstances ( needs). In real sense, Exodus 12 contains two sets of regulations for Passover. Those in day’s liturgy are later amplification of the earlier. Trying to go into origins and details of liturgy, we will appreciate better Jesus’ reasons for not following the traditional understanding of “work” on the Sabbath.

The Passover celebration was a feast to keep alive the memory of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and the protection of its first-born. After they settled in Canaan, the feast took on a new shape that is it took on agriculture details to include deliverance from drought and famine and the bestowal of new life through an abundant barley harvest. Thus in nutshell, the feast of Passover was to celebrate both Israelites from oppression and the Lord’s gift from fertile earth. We find out from the scriptures that in the Passover ritual, blood had an important role; it was splashed on the doors of each Israelite home and rubbed on the forehead of each worshiper. This blood symbolized the bond of life uniting the people as well as between them and God. In fact this symbolism of blood is clearly stated in the book of Leviticus (Lev 17:11).

Jesus himself did not refute the traditions, in fact he was very careful to keep and observing the customs of his people which is a good thing as well. However, Jesus met objections from his counterparts, the Pharisees on their own grounds by citing biblical passages about David and referring to the work of priests on temple duty. The scriptures he says, do not endorse the strict interpretations made by the Pharisees to meet their demands. For is God “wants mercy, not sacrifice,” then the Sabbath is better celebrated by affirming life than by ritual; indeed life gives ritual its meaning. Life is above the ritual, ritual should be there to serve man’s needs than man to serve rituals. In other words, law should be there for man’s welfare. Man should not exist to serve the law. The people in the temple, like David or the priests, are more important than the temple itself, so the disciples should act as they did for the sake of life. Since Jesus interpreted the Sabbath regulations so freely, then the later church concluded by calling him that he was “Lord of the Sabbath.” Similarly, the early church changed the day of the weekly divine service from Saturday to Sunday.

From the gospel we hear the disciples of Jesus being surprised when Jesus told them, “Here I tell you is something greater than the Temple.” In those days it would have been difficult to conceive of anything greater than the magnificent Temple build by Herod in Jerusalem, considered to one of the wonders of the World. It was revered as focal point of God’s presence. Yet Jesus claims to be the focal point than the temple because he is the focal point of God’s presence. God was no longer to be sought in the temple, but rather through a person, through Jesus whose other name is Emmanuel, God with us. It is under this background Jesus speaks of himself in our gospel reading as the Lord of the Sabbath. He is not just Lord of Sabbath, but Lord of all, Lord of the Church and Lord of our lives. Because he is Lord of our lives we submit to his word so that his priorities become our priorities. The gospel says Jesus declares that feeding the hungry takes precedence over a certain narrow understanding of the Sabbath Law. His hungry disciples are entitled to pick ears of corn to satisfy their hunger, even on the Sabbath. Jesus’ word, and his whole life helps us to sort out what is really important from what is not so important.