Mark 2:27 — Community Reflections

MARK 2:27 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:”

Then he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath — the principle Jesus articulates reorients the entire frame of the Sabbath controversy. The Sabbath was given by God as a gift to human beings for rest, restoration, and the regular acknowledgment of God's creative sovereignty. It was not given as a cage or a burden. Man was not created to serve the Sabbath's requirements; the Sabbath was created to serve the human being's need. This does not eliminate the Sabbath or make it optional; it clarifies its purpose. Every Sabbath regulation must be interpreted in light of what the Sabbath is for — and the Sabbath is for human flourishing, not human restriction.

Church Fathers on Mark 2:27

We read also in the following part, that they who came and went away were many, and that they had not time enough to take their food, wherefore, according to man’s nature, they were hungry.
Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 1, 13

For it was a precept in Israel, delivered by a written law, that no one should detain a thief found in his fields, unless he tried to take something away with him. For the man who had touched nothing else but what he had eaten they were commanded to allow to go away free and unpunished. Wherefore the Jews accused our Lord’s disciples, who were plucking the ears of corn, of breaking the sabbath, rather than of theft.
Augustine · 4th century · de Op. Monach., 23

For David, when flying from the face of Saul [1 Sam 21] went to the Chief Priest, and ate the shew-bread, and took away the sword of Goliath, which things had been offered to the Lord. But a question has been raised how the Evangelist called Abiathar at this time High Priest, when the Book of Kings calls him Abimelech.
Theophylact · 11th century

Read all 7 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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