XV_Mighty

XV

Mighty

‘I have come to call not those who think they are righteous but those

who know they are sinners and need to repent’ – Luke 5 v32

So Jesus and the disciples are walking in the fields. It’s a Sabbath day and as they go along they start pulling off some of the heads of grain, rubbing them together, and munching on them as they walk and talk. Suddenly out of nowhere the Pharisees jump out (perhaps from behind a bush...?) and accuse them of breaking God’s law by ‘harvesting’ on the Sabbath. You can see what’s happening here. Jesus’ response is classic.
First he asks them ‘have you never read the scriptures?’. These are the heavyweights of the Torah - the top authority on the scriptures. These are people who would have had the torah, the histories, psalms and prophets memorized by the age of 14. And Jesus asks them ‘have you never read in the scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves...’. Now if you’re the disciples, the moment the Pharisees appear your thinking ‘oh man...we’re busted!’. Yet here Jesus is standing up to the Pharisees narrow interpretation of the law, their yoke.
But there’s something else going on as well. Turning to Chronicles 11 v11 we see what Jesus is referring to. David, we know, as the disciples and Pharisees would have known, was the most famous and blessed of Israel’s kings – but what about his companions...?
In Chronicles we learn just who these guys are...’Joshobeam the Hacmonite’ (great name!) the leader of the three and mightiest warrior among David’s men...’Eleaza son of Dodai’ victorious with David at the battle of Pas-Dammim.....’Benaiah son of Jehoiada’ -> whom on a snowy day went down into a pit and killed a lion! ...‘Cos we all like to kill our lions on snowy days.
So as Jesus stands between the Pharisees and his disciples, who in the story is He representing?... ->David ....and so who is he comparing the disciples with?..........->the mighty men.

.If you’re one of the disciples you’ve just gone from ‘Man we’re busted!’ to ‘......yeah......I could take a lion if I wanted!’. Jesus thinks I can be like that? Jesus thinks I can be one of the mighty men?
Jesus is showing just how much faith he has in these simple, flawed and very human followers of His. People like us. Despite all their imperfections – their sin – Jesus sees more in them than others would.
In a world where we often find ourselves attacked, or see our self confidence rising and falling like a rollercoaster – these words are of genuine comfort. I know that I doubt myself; I know that I question why God should be interested in me, after all my failures and all my shortcomings. Yet Jesus stands in front of me, in front of us and says ‘he/she/you/they are kind of like the mighty men...I am the King...and they’re my crack troops...they’re my loyal followers....they’re my companions’. Maybe today, right now, you could pray that you would know that, and maybe if you do, pray for a friend who doesn’t know it.