Wednesday, 14 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.”

Jesus does not call on his disciples to let conscience be their guide, because their consciences had long since taken on the conventional values of society. In most cases, conscience is nothing else than the cultural superego… The Human Being is not the offspring of the Domination System.



Jesus calls us into a vision of the wholeness of humanity. It is not biased. It is not (as a commentator said recently) like Fox News. Therefore we do not simply do what seems to be generally approved or approved by the majority. We are called to be people who walk within a possibility for life that does not discount the welfare of others. Instead, Jesus invites us to consider life that moves in concert with others – especially those not like us – those who may pull us from wanting everything our way and help us consider a much greater reason for all the many things we do each day.



Connection: Do not be afraid to question why the decision you make today feel comfortable to you. It may be that sometimes we make decisions that help to put us closer in line with the “way of the world” and all of its powers.



Lord, be our guide and lift us up to see the beauty of life you offer to the human community. Amen.