The Grain Is for Man, and the Sabbath Is for Man Text: Mark 2:23-28
Introduction: Two Ways to Read a Rulebook
We live in a world drowning in regulations. We have rulebooks for everything, from how to assemble a toy to how to file your taxes. But there are two fundamentally different ways to approach a set of rules. One way is to see the rules as an end in themselves. This is the way of the bureaucrat, the petty tyrant, and the Pharisee. For them, the rule is king, and people are to be bent, broken, or sacrificed on the altar of the regulation. The other way is to understand the purpose behind the rules, to see them as a gift designed for human flourishing. This is the way of wisdom, the way of grace, and the way of Jesus Christ.
In our text today, we are not watching a minor disagreement over religious etiquette. We are witnessing a clash of two kingdoms, two worldviews, two religions. On one side, you have the Pharisees. Their religion was a suffocating web of man-made traditions, a self-salvation project built on the rickety foundation of meticulous rule-keeping. They had taken God's good gift of the Sabbath, a day of rest and delight, and turned it into a miserable burden. They had chained up the swings on the playground, so to speak, lest anyone have any un-legislated fun. On the other side, you have Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, the one who gave the gift in the first place. He comes to rescue His day from the clutches of these religious martinets.
This is not a story about Jesus relaxing the law or introducing a new, lax form of antinomian piety. Not at all. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. This is a story about the true meaning of the law. It is about the difference between a righteousness that comes from God as a gift and a counterfeit righteousness that a man tries to build for himself, one miserable rule at a time. The Pharisees thought the Sabbath was a test to see how well they could tie themselves in knots for God. Jesus teaches that the Sabbath is a gift from God, a day to enjoy His restorative rest. The conflict here is not about whether to obey God, but about what true obedience actually looks like. Is it the scrupulous, anxious slavery of the Pharisees, or the joyful, restful freedom of the Son?
The Text
And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God around the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?" And Jesus was saying to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Consequently the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
(Mark 2:23-28 LSB)
An Illicit Snack (v. 23-24)
The scene is set with a simple action that triggers a theological firestorm.
"And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to Him, 'Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'" (Mark 2:23-24)
First, we need to be clear about what is happening. The disciples are not stealing. The law of Moses explicitly permitted this kind of gleaning. Deuteronomy 23:25 says, "When you enter your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor's standing grain." So the charge is not theft. The charge is Sabbath-breaking. The Pharisees, with their intricate system of rabbinic legislation, had defined "work" in excruciating detail. They had determined that plucking grain was a form of reaping, and rubbing it in their hands was a form of threshing. Therefore, in their eyes, the disciples were guilty of harvesting on the Sabbath.
Notice their approach. They go straight to the Master: "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful?" This is a challenge to His authority as a teacher. If His disciples are breaking the law, it is His fault. They are trying to trap Him. They are the self-appointed Sabbath police, and they have caught Jesus's men in the act. Their question drips with accusation. This is not an honest inquiry; it is a prosecution.
This is the dead end of all legalism. Legalism is not a heightened zeal for God's law; it is a replacement of God's law with man's traditions. And the purpose of these traditions is always to create a system of righteousness that a man can manage, control, and use to justify himself. The Pharisees had created a fence around the law, a series of extra rules designed to prevent anyone from even getting close to breaking the actual law. But in the process, their fence became the law, and they ended up obscuring the very thing they claimed to protect. They were worshiping their own rulebook.
The Davidic Precedent (v. 25-26)
Jesus's response is brilliant. He does not get bogged down in a debate about their rabbinic definitions of reaping. He sidesteps their entire framework and takes them to Scripture, to a story they should have known well.
"And He said to them, 'Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God around the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?'" (Mark 2:25-26 LSB)
His opening shot is a polite but sharp rebuke: "Have you never read?" For men who prided themselves on their knowledge of the Scriptures, this was a stinging question. He is telling them that they read the words, but they have completely missed the point. He takes them back to 1 Samuel 21. David, fleeing from Saul, comes to the tabernacle at Nob. He and his men are hungry, and Ahimelech the priest gives them the holy bread of the Presence, which was reserved for priests alone.
Now, notice the logic here. Jesus does not say that what David did was lawful. In fact, He highlights that it was "not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests." He is not arguing that the disciples' actions were technically permissible according to some loophole. His argument is much more profound. He is arguing from the greater to the lesser. If David, God's anointed king, could set aside a ceremonial regulation in a time of urgent human need without condemnation, how much more could the disciples of one far greater than David do so?
The principle is this: ceremonial laws and regulations are intended to serve life, not to crush it. The needs of David, the Lord's anointed, took precedence over the ceremonial rule about the showbread. The Pharisees had it backwards. They would let a man starve to protect a rule. God's law is not like that. It is gracious. A quick note on the name Abiathar. The priest in 1 Samuel is Ahimelech, Abiathar's father. Critics like to call this a contradiction, but it is nothing of the sort. Jesus says this happened "around the time of Abiathar," who was a major figure from that entire era of David's life and who shortly after became the high priest who fled to David. It is like saying something happened "in the days of King David," even if David wasn't personally present at that specific event. It simply anchors the story in a well-known historical period.
The Sabbath Principle (v. 27)
Having established the precedent, Jesus now states the underlying principle that governs the entire situation. This is one of the most liberating verses in all of Scripture.
"And Jesus was saying to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.'" (Genesis 1:3 LSB)
This is a declaration of divine purpose. The Sabbath is a gift. God created the world and everything in it, and on the seventh day He rested. He then gave that day of rest to mankind as a blessing. It is a day for restoration, for worship, for delight, for fellowship with God and with one another. It is a gracious provision for our good. The Pharisees had inverted this entirely. In their system, man was made for the Sabbath. Man was a slave to the day, a cog in a machine of religious observance. The day itself became a tyrant that had to be served with an anxious, scrupulous, and exhausting precision.
Jesus cuts right through this. He says the Sabbath is our servant, not our master. It is here to bless us. Think of it this way. A hammer is made for the carpenter, not the carpenter for the hammer. A bridge is made for people to cross, people are not made to serve the bridge. The Pharisees had begun to worship the tool. They had forgotten who the tool was for. This principle applies to all of God's law. The law was given for our good. It is not an arbitrary set of hoops for God to watch us jump through. It is the manufacturer's instructions for human flourishing.
The Lord of the Day (v. 28)
Finally, Jesus brings the argument to its stunning conclusion. He has shown from Scripture that human need can take precedence over ceremonial law. He has stated the principle that the Sabbath is a gift for man. Now He reveals who has the authority to make these judgments.
"Consequently the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Mark 2:28 LSB)
This is an astonishing claim of deity. The Sabbath was instituted by God at creation. It was commanded by God at Sinai. It belongs to God. For someone to claim to be "Lord of the Sabbath" is to claim the authority of the one who made it. Jesus is saying, "This is My day. I designed it. I instituted it. I know what it is for." He is not just a better interpreter of the Sabbath rules; He is the sovereign legislator. He has the right to say how His day is to be kept.
The title "Son of Man" is Jesus's favorite self-designation, drawn from Daniel 7. It speaks of His humanity, but it is also a title of divine authority and cosmic judgment. The Son of Man is the one who receives an everlasting dominion from the Ancient of Days. So when Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man, and then immediately calls Himself the Son of Man, He is identifying Himself as the true Man, the ideal Man, the head of the new humanity. The Sabbath was made for man, and He is the ultimate Man for whom it was made. All authority over this day, and every day, belongs to Him.
The Pharisees thought they were defending God's honor. But they were accosting God Himself for how He chose to manage His own day. They were like tenants yelling at the landlord for walking on the grass. Jesus is the Lord. He has making rights, naming rights, and governing rights. And that includes the Sabbath.
Conclusion: Rest in the Lord of Rest
So what does this mean for us? The temptation of the Pharisees is perennial. It is the default religion of fallen man. We are all tempted to turn the Christian faith into a set of manageable rules, a checklist of dos and don'ts that allows us to feel righteous and to judge others. We can do this with the Sabbath, turning the Lord's Day into either a day of grim restriction or abandoning it altogether because we associate it with such legalism.
Jesus shows us the true path. The Sabbath rest finds its ultimate fulfillment in Him. He is our rest from the wearying work of trying to save ourselves. As we now gather for worship on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, we celebrate the new creation that dawned when the Lord of the Sabbath rose from the dead. He entered His rest after completing the work of redemption, just as the Father rested after the work of creation. Our Sabbath-keeping is not a means of earning God's favor. It is a joyful entering into the rest that Christ has already earned for us.
Therefore, the Lord's Day is a gift. It is a day to be set free from our work, our striving, and our anxieties. It is a day for the feasting and gladness of the new creation. It is a day to remember that the Sabbath was made for us, because we were made for Him. And because the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, we find our true rest, our true freedom, and our true delight only when we joyfully submit to His lordship over this day, and every day.