We’re always taught that these stories are the “Word Of God” and that we must obey them…
The great thing about stories like this is that they remind us this isn’t true.
“Mark” was an unknown person who started to gather and select stories he’d heard from people who knew Jesus, or maybe people who knew people who’d known him, and he wove the stories together in a way that reflected his own preoccupations and concerns.
“Matthew” “Luke” and “John” were doing the same thing. And they had different preoccupations and concerns… which is why their accounts differ.
And then these writers were translated by translators with a whole new set of preoccupations and concerns…
And here’s Jesus and his friends pronouncing on an issue that still concerns orthodox Jews but is of no importance to the rest of us…
But an issue that does concern us is what laws are made by humans (and that we maybe can break in case of need?) and what laws reflect a deeper reality.
And that we therefor cannot break…
