Year B is the Mark year, but, during Eastertide, our gospel readings have been from John. Another lectionary complication is that Easter moves each year--so then does Ordinary Time. Ordinary--my understanding of the term is that it originally was intended as a reference to "ordinal," denoting how many Sundays after Pentecost a Sunday was. But, Ordinary also means ordinary. We aren't in one of the two Festival times, Christmas and Easter.
This year, because of the date of Easter, two week's Ordinary Time readings are omitted. Remember, we have to finish Ordinary Time before Advent. So, today's reading is a kind of bonus. It would have been the reading for the Sunday between May 29 and June 4 if that Sunday had been after Trinity Sunday. It was Pentecost Sunday this year, 2009.
In the reading from Mark, Jesus and his disciples, on a sabbath, pluck some grain to eat because they are hungry. Some really religious folks chastise them for breaking the sabbath.
Jesus responds first by quoting Scripture to them, "Aren't you familiar with the Bible? Don't you remember that David and his companions did pretty much what we just did?"
Then he interprets Scripture for them. "God gave us the Sabbath as a gift, a protection. God did not intend it to be an occasion for some kind of 'gotcha.'"
Still on the Sabbath, still being watched by the pious, this time inside the temple, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand. He is angry that his enemies cannot see how God intends for us to be.
"Don't use the Scripture to prevent good being done. Don't use the Scripture for harm."
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