Thursday, 15 July, 2004

We continue with another section of Walter Wink’s “The Human Being.” This is from the section on the Pre-Easter sayings of Jesus.



Comments again deal with the story about “plucking grain on the Sabbath” (Mark 2:23-28). Here it is to read:

One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said 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 and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Human Being (Son of Man) here exhibits a breathtaking authority, an authority fearlessly assumed by a common artisan and by his motley band of disciples. The scandal, says Jose Cardenas Pallares, is that Jesus places the whole of the law in the service of a few poor people, subordinating the law to the welfare of any human being who is hungry and in need. “For Jesus nothing, not even the most sacred law, may be allowed to obstruct the liberation of the human being.” After all, the law of Moses was originally intended for the benefit of an oppressed slave people.



The many things we do everyday are not isolated to themselves. We are tied to the lives of others and the well-being of more than me and my own kind. Therefore, we are always invited to consider those who may have no voice or no place within our lives or the life of the systems in which we live. Liberation of humanity so that no one is weighed down by the oppressions of our world is vital to our daily movement and how we see the world around us. The Law is a wonderful base because it gives us a vision of the way a liberated world will exist when all people come to its light. I like to take a look at how Martin Luther works with the 10 Commandments. There is in his writings a positive, and proactive vision that take us all beyond “thou shall not” into that creative domain of “thou shall” where the world really does begin to take on a visionary shape.



Connection: In the middle of looking down at what we are doing today, it is always good to look up and consider how we are taking place in the liberation of others.



Lord of the Exodus, it is by your power to make things new that you invite us to walk beyond the lines we draw and the structures we like to build for ourselves. Surprise us again today with you gracious vision and life. Amen.