That’s The Spirit!

On a crowded elevator in New York City, two women passengers were overheard discussing the elevator’s slow progress …

First Woman: “Why is this elevator stopping on every floor?”

Second Woman: “It’s a Sabbath elevator. It does this on the Jewish Sabbath and Jewish holidays.”

First Woman: “It’s not Sabbath today. It’s Monday, Columbus Day.”

Second Woman: “Maybe Columbus was Jewish.”

In today’s Gospel Lesson, we hear Jesus discussing the Sabbath with some people who definitely are Jewish: the Pharisees. The conversation begins as Jesus and some disciples are walking through the cornfields on the Sabbath. The disciples seek to satisfy their hunger by picking and eating some of the grain. In so doing, they arouse the ire of the legalistic Pharisees, who are quick to subordinate the human element to their own rigid interpretation of the law. “Look,” they protest, “why are they doing something on the Sabbath Day that is forbidden?” To which Jesus replies, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man…