Bread Of Offering

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?" 

Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?" Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath." (Luke 6:1-5)

If I was the Pharisee described in this discussion, I would have said, “He’s got me.”  Using the account of David and the bread offering, according to Luke, Jesus made his compelling argument that would have been a winning argument in any debate about work on the Sabbath.  David was bold, and so was Jesus.

According to Ronald Rolheiser, David understood what is meant by that.  He had discerned that God is not so much a law to be obeyed as a gracious presence under which we are asked to creatively live.  He feared God, but as one fears someone in love, with a "holy fear," not a blind legalistic one.   I like Rolheiser's perspective.

When we go into our house of God, we take the “bread of offering” (eucharist), which everyone can eat, and we share it with our companions in our communal setting. We know what Jesus did when he and those who were with him were hungry.  They ate.  

At Mass we hear: While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” (Mark 14:22-25)

We are hungry, and we eat.

Deacon David Pierce