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Mark 2:23 - 3:6
He Was Upsetting

The Pharisees didn't like Jesus. He seemed to them like a threat to their comfortable order of things, an order in which they were esteemed by the people and by one another as holy and leaned. They felt like they needed to deal with this disrupter to get Him stopped, no matter how.

The first means they thought they'd use would be to try to convince Him of the foolishness of His actions. They would try to convince Him of the ludicrous fact that some people were actually thinking of Him as the Messiah! They wanted Him to voluntarily withdraw from the public scene so that such a preposterous idea might die out. And they wanted Him to do it before more "fools" were infected with such crazy notions. Later on, though, when they saw they were'nt going to convince Him, they decided to try to get Him discredited and, if necessary, killed.

In the incident before us we see them trying to discredit Him. No doubt, when they spoke about what His disciples were doing, they did so in a horrified tone of voice, though inwardly they were happy to have caught them doing something that might discredit Him.

They were saying that the disciples were breaching the Law given by Moses in Exodus - as interpreted by the "Tradition of the Fathers." Lenski, in his commentary says that the "Tradition states that, "He who reaps the very least on the Sabbath is chargeable; and to pluck ears is a species of reaping. And whoever breaks off anything from its stalk is chargeable under the specification of reaping. The works which make a man chargeable or liable for stoning or for an offering if he sins ignorantly are either generic or derivative. Thirty-nine kinds of generic are enumerated: to plow, to sow, to reap, to bind sheaves, to thresh, to winnow, to grind, to pound to powder, to shear sheep, to dye wool; and the derivatives are of the same class and likeness: furrowing, plowing, cutting up vegetables, grinding, plucking ears."

But the Pharisees weren't even as lenient as the tradition! They went far beyond it by competing with one another to be the most strict, and therefore, in their own eyes, the most righteous. Their social standing depended on it. They were esteemed by themselves and others just to the extent that they kept the traditions. Since this Rabbi Jesus didn't compete at all, they wondered how He could even be called a rabbi.

Jesus' answer is in sharp contrast to such Pharisaism. He asks, "Did you never read what David did . . .?" He refers directly to the Word of God, whereas their appeal was only to the traditions.

And not only were they at fault in being more acquainted with the rabbinical law than with the Divine Law, but when they did occasionally refer to the Covenant of Jehovah, it was usually only to one or two short passages without reference to a larger context.

Jesus reminds them that the Law has to be understood in context. They needed to understand the spirit of the Law as taken in the context of the whole Word of God. For instance, though they'd undoubtedly read the passage about David to which Jesus referred, yet they'd never asked themselves how David's actions were to be understood in the light of the entire book of Exodus. In our day it can be the same.  We too need to ask ourselves whether we see the whole picture.

So what was it that David did? He went into the House of God, received some of the showbread, gave some to those with him, and they ate! Of course he knew ahead of time what he would find there. There would be twelve loaves of bread set in two rows on a gold-covered table in the Holy Place every Sabbath. Once these loaves were removed, they were to be eaten only by the priests and only in the outer court. Yet, fully aware of all this, David asked for some of the bread. And the priest willingly gave it to him.

Jesus used the very words the Pharisees had used - he reminds them that what David (their hero) ate was "lawful only for the priests to eat." Not only that, but David "also gave some to those who were with him." What he did seemed to break God's Law. But if their highly esteemed King David didn't sin, how much less did Jesus and His disciples sin in plucking a few ears of corn!

It's important for us to see that Jesus was using this occasion to make it very, very plain that God's Law never was intended to enslave people. The spirit of the Law never enslaves. God cares much more for the spiritual condition of our hearts than for our outward observance of rigorously interpreted regulations.

I believe that Jesus' positive interpretation of the Sabbath helps makes clear for us how we should think of our sundays. Here He says, "The Sabbath was made for the sake of man, not man for the sake of the Sabbath. In other words, it doesn't please God that His people rigorously keep the Sabbath, but it pleases God that the Sabbath can do them good. What we're saying is that He gave it to bless them, not to enslave them.

We can see this by the way the Sabbath Law originated.  When God first gave the Law He reminded Moses of His own example  He said, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy."

God is making the point that His people couldn't do better than to imitate Him. Since for Him it was blessed to "rest" when He had finished creating the world, it would therefore be blessed for His people, also, to rest at the end of each week's work. By entering into such blessedness with their Lord they would be reminded each week of their special relationship to Him.

But what is the blessedness of such "rest?" The answer, again, is in the example. When He had finished His wonderful creation, God stepped back as it were to admire it. We read, "And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." (Gen. 1:31) In the same way, then, His people were to stand back at the end of each week's work to rejoice in what they had accomplished. They were, after all, His agents, working through the week in His creation, so they should set aside the day to join with Him in rejoicing over what they had accomplished in His Name.  They should give thanks for His grace and strength in doing it, and they should pray for His blessing on it.

Their rejoicing would be like that of the bridegroom's friends in our Lord's parable of the wedding feast. In that illustration the bridegroom's friends couldn't fast while He was with them or they'd be plainly indicating that they weren't happy in their friend's wedding! But so it is also with the Sabbath: if God's servants are happy with what He has enabled them to do during the week (even if it wasn't everything they wanted to do), then they need to rejoice and celebrate. They could do it by enjoying its results.

So it was to be for the entire Old Covenant era. The purpose of the Sabbath was to establish a relationship, a relationship in which God's people were to stand with their God at the end of each week and to rejoice with Him in what He had done in and through them. In that weekly "rest," then, they could also look forward in hope to the One Who would forever perfect all their works, the One in Whom and by Whom they would forever rejoice with their God!

But there has to be one radical change for us in our own day. In this era Christ has come, and HE is our true sabbath. Because of Him, we have continuous rest from condemnation for sin and from the effects of sin. It's only because of that rest that we can serve Him acceptably throughout every day of every week. Hebrews tells us about it. It says, "There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His (Christ's) rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." (Heb. 4:9, 10) We may always rest with Him and in Him!

The purpose of the Sabbath, then - which is celebration of what God has done in and through us - depends upon the resurrection that made it possible, the resurrection that resulted in the coming of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. So it's appropriate that it be celebrated on the day of His resurrection. That;s why Sunday is the Christian Sabbath - it celebrates the day upon which our true rest began! Surely that should be a day of joy and thanksgiving!

The next incident in Mark's gospel, the incident of the man with the withered hand, is another example of our Lord;s blessed use of the Sabbath. Among His listeners that day was a man who had a "withered" hand, a hand to which some physical accident had likely happened, leaving it in a useless condition.

The Scribes and Pharisees were once again critical observers, and Jesus knew what they were thinking. Matthew tells us that, in some way, Jesus got them to speak out and ask, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" They were thinking that healing was the work of a physician, and that physicians, like everyone else, were required to cease from their regular employment on the Sabbath. So these enemies of Jesus, seeing the unfortunate man with the withered hand in the crowd, and knowing His usual practice of joining healing and teaching, were hoping to "get something on" Him.

But our Lord says to them, "What man shall there be among you who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath!" He makes them look at their own lives. He makes them look at their own inconsistent interpretation of the Law. Hopefully they would see that their inconsistency was just because their interpretation of the Law itself was wrong - it's always "lawful to do good on the Sabbath."

He further points out that the blessing of the Sabbath wasn't meant to produce laziness or hard heartedness. And just in case there was any doubt, Jesus plainly explains the two possible responses of these men themselves to what He asked: if they're merciful, they're "saving a life," and if they stubbornly maintain their strict and hard-hearted view of the Law, then they are "destroying" a life! They'd have to answer which response was intended by the Giver of the Law!

The Pharisees and Scribes were unmoved, either by the pitiful condition of the man - who was totally deprived of the use of his hand - or by Jesus' words. But what Jesus did next vividly underlined His point.  He didn't get up from His place to go to the man. He remained seated where He was. Neither did He require the man to come to Him. Instead, He called out to him to "stand forth in the midst!" He didn't touch him - He did no visible "work." Instead, He demonstrated that God Himself was doing it. The question could no longer be, "Will the Rabbi do something unlawful on the Sabbath," but rather, "Will the Scribes and Pharisees accuse GOD of doing something unlawful on the Sabbath?!"

Jesus was grieved and angered. It's important for us to see that. Emotions like the ones we see here, concerned with the overwhelming estrangement of these Jews from His Father, finally broke His natural heart on the Cross. He grieved over it because it's rebellion against so GOOD a God as His Father. He's angry over sin, because His Father deserves our adoration not our sin. Unlike us, our Lord knows and adores the goodness and holiness of His Father.

May God give us a response that sees that the Law of God is not cold steel and thunder, but that it's a gracious gift. The Sabbath is for lively rejoicing, for doing good, for love, for good works of merciful caring. Let's relate, not only to the Law of God, but to the God of the Law!

So - what should you and I do on Sunday? Above all else, we should remember to celebrate! It would be good to begin each and every Sunday morning by saying to our Lord, "Thank You, Lord, for Monday and what you enabled me to do that day (name it). Thank You, Lord, for Tuesday . . ." In other words, take some time, early in the day, to remember - and perhaps even to list down - each thing He's enabled you to do in the previous week. It would also be good to find some way to specially enjoy the fruit of those accomplishments. It might even be well to feast (!) on that day, if you could, by so doing, be glad in worshipping Him Who made it all possible.

It's also a day of preparation for the week to come. You should listen to His Word with care that day to see how you might relate to Him in what you're going to do on Monday. As we're reminded in our Lord's wonderful healing of the man with the withered hand, though, the day is particularly a day to help others, to pray for others, to have more compassion on others, and to bless others who have assisted you.

Our Lord is the reason for celebration! I think He would be pleased if we were to use Sunday appropriately!