Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (6: 1-5) in which the Pharisees ask Jesus why his disciples were picking corn on the Sabbath.

Fr Paul says we now come to two stories of Jesus and the Sabbath, one about threshing corn on the Sabbath, and the second about healing on the Sabbath.

In Luke’s account of this event the ‘offence’ committed by the Disciples is a greater one, because the disciples are also rubbing the corn in their hands to get rid of the husks, which could be classed as illicit work on the Sabbath. Then Jesus is decidedly casual about the precedent, leaving out all the details, and he goes straight on to the claim that the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.

Fr Paul notes, today’s Gospel is a story about the authority of Jesus: David had authority to take the loaves, and the son of man has greater authority over the Sabbath itself.