Jesus was a rebel
 

I was reading Mark yesterday and came across chapter 2 verses 23 to 26:

23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

And I try to read the bible from a non-religious view point. And I was just sort of struck how Jesus in these verses condoned breaking the law basically. I was quite surprised - not what you'd expect from a morally 'good' character, but then maybe his underlying message was about the heart and its intentions, rather than outward behaviour.

But the bible can be used to justify all sorts of things, and I was thinking I could use this verse to justify breaking the law. "Well Jesus did it, so it's alright as a Christian right?"

Weird. Just some thoughts. I know this isn't really a deep analysis. But on the surface I thought it was pretty amusing.

What would Jesus do? Break the law. :D Lol

Yes. Recognizing higher eternal truths, that overrule transitory human truths and laws.

But... that doesn't mean breaking the law just because one doesn't agree with it. Unfortunately that's what rebelling and protesting means to most these days, and it's just as wrong as the laws they're protesting. There's a whole debate in there.

Estelwen,

Jesus could have answered differently and pointed out that no law was broken. We are entitled to our daily bread. In regards to your specific scripture we read in Deut. 23:25........."If you enter your neighbor's grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain". So, no, I cannot conclude that Jesus would approve of breaking the law. In this case, there was no law being broken. The Pharisees did not understand the law. Additionally, Jesus, elsewhere, makes a distinction between man-made laws and the laws of God....Matthew 15:8.

Jesus as rebel might just as well mean that rebellion is relative, whether it be an ear of corn picked or the healing of withered hand had happened on the Sabbath ... or to refute the word of scripture in order to make a point.

Who is the Greatest? and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me - John the Baptist is the Greatest!

Up until Chapter 9 Jesus had done some pretty amazing things, but still not yet as great as ...
Bible historians now believe that everyone had indeed gone down to the river that day, and that Jerusalem was left completely empty except for some cats, dogs, a few donkeys, and a pack of camels.

Jesus was a rebel to the structures and systems of humankind, the ones Man created which do not reflect God or the Light. But in the eyes of God, Jesus was the perfect obedient One. It's weird how the things of Christ and God do not reflect what politicians on NEITHER side. They tend to pull scripture to always defend their positions, but it's worse when Scripture is used to cause more harm which is what the current administration is doing.

I always thought 'him who sent me' was his 'Father', though I can see how you could read John the Baptist.

I think Jesus actually considered himself to be an observant Jew, but he did seem to break the Law, though like Molearner pointed out whether he broke the Law or not was disputable. But then Jesus was interpreting scripture in a new way perhaps, a way that suited the Law breaking he felt compelled to do from compassion.

Quite a few spiritual leaders went against the norm of the time. Jesus as you say was one for sure, the Buddha taught against the caste system and permitted women to ordain, quite outrageous 2500 years ago in India. Gandhi could probably also be put into this category as could Lao Tzu in China who incidentally was no fan of Confucius and wasn't particularly worried who knew about it which again would have taken a lot of courage 2500 years ago in China.
I suppose it's quite par for the course with spiritual leaders. I'm sure that if you went through a book of Catholic and Buddhist saints you'd probably find that it's a fairly familiar story.

Wow great insight. Dalai Lama today as well.