Have You Not Read
Ordinary Time
Today's reading · Matthew 12:1-8
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
The disciples are hungry, and they pick heads of grain as they walk through the fields. It's a small thing, almost nothing, a few stalks rubbed between the fingers on a long walk. But it's the sabbath, and the Pharisees pounce. Look, they say, your disciples are doing what is not lawful. Notice they don't go to the disciples. They go to Jesus, as if the hunger of his friends is something he has to answer for.
And he does answer, but watch how. He doesn't argue the fine print of what counts as work. He answers a rule with a story.
Today's intention
Today I'll ask whether a rule I am defending has stopped seeing the actual person in front of me.