Love is the Answer. Scripture Lesson Mark 2:23 Mark 3:6

Transcription

1 Love is the Answer A sermon prepared by Mr. Dale Kitchin for the Exams and Transfers Committee, Presbytery of New Hope, 2022 McDonald Lane, Raleigh, N.C to be presented on September 11, Prayer of Illumination Guide us, O God, by your word and Holy Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth, freedom, and in your will, discover peace. Through Christ our Lord, Amen. Scripture Lesson Mark 2:23 Mark 3:6 One sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath? And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions. Then he said to them, The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath: so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath. Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, Come forward. Then he said to them, Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill? But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

2 Love is the Answer Dale Kitchin In my studies over the past two years, I have come to realize that most scripture has a much deeper meaning than what appears on the surface. Perhaps many of you remember Paul Harvey s long-running radio program, The rest of the story. For the unfamiliar, these were wonderful stories with depth and meaning that left you feeling good. A typical story might be of a kid in a high school football game who had never been particularly good but suddenly almost single-handedly helps the team win the championship. Paul would then take a break and return with the rest of the story. In this story, the young man s father was blind but had passed away earlier in the day. The kid played his heart out because he believed that his father could finally see him play. Our scripture lesson today has a rest of the story. Without understanding Jewish law and culture, we might well miss it. First and foremost, there was not a single American in the Middle East during Bible times. None of our culture, values or philosophy applies to Middle Eastern Jewish culture. I would like to explore our scripture passage from the viewpoint of a Jew in the first century. Starting with verse 23 of today s lesson, Jesus and his disciples are walking through grain fields on the Sabbath when the disciples began to pluck and eat the heads of the grain. The Pharisees immediately point out that what they were doing was unlawful on the Sabbath. They interpreted the law to mean that the disciples were harvesting the grain. Living in farming country, we know the difference between eating a few grains and a harvest. Jesus corrected them and pointed out that when David and his men Page 1

3 were hungry they actually went to the temple and ate the show bread (which could only be eaten by priests). Jesus concluded this story by stating that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. At the time of Jesus, the vast majority of Jews were poor and uneducated. With the Roman government taking up to 40% of their income in taxes, life was truly a struggle with little hope of improvement. If one had a disease or physical infirmity, things were even worse. Jesus offered both hope and healing. The poor embraced Him and his message and became followers. The upper class Jews were made up of the Sanhedrin or ruling class, the priests and rabbis headed religion and the Pharisees interpreted Jewish law. The upper class was educated and despite being Roman subjects had managed to become quite comfortable financially. They emphatically did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah for two reasons: 1. They envisioned a military-type leader who would end their centuries of bondage and paying high taxes to a foreign government Jesus preached love and forgiving your enemies. 2. Besides, Jesus was the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary of Nazareth and there had always been a question of whether they were married before Mary became pregnant. Hardly Messiah material.. Jesus was also a threat to the economic and political security of the upper-class Jews. They had negotiated a very tenuous agreement with the Roman government that allowed them to keep the Torah and their synagogues as long as taxes were paid and any zealots or trouble- Page 2

4 makers were turned over to the Romans. They felt it was better to give up one Jew than to jeopardize all Jews. Good philosophy unless you were the Jew being turned over. The upperclass Jews were also afraid that the ability of Jesus to draw large crowds might be interpreted by the Romans as the beginning of an insurrection and bring swift retaliation. Later when Jesus drove the money-changers out of the temple and overturned the seats of those who sold doves, he threatened the economic livelihood of the synagogue. Another critical piece of the puzzle in understanding these passages was the Jewish intense and fanatical observance of the Sabbath. The best way in which we can see the strict orthodox view of the Sabbath is to remember that a strict Jew would not even defend his life on the Sabbath. Other nuances regarding the Sabbath: Medical attention could only be given if a life was in danger If a wall fell on someone, enough rubble might be cleared away to see whether the person was alive or dead If they were alive, they might be helped within certain parameters; If dead they were left until the next day At most, an injury could be kept from getting worse; it must not be made better. To characterize the Pharisees as villains really isn t fair. They weren t so much bad guys as they were folks who believed the only way to remain holy was to place oneself in literal submission to the rules of the Old Testament. They were so keenly aware of our human proponsity to botch things up that they thought the only way to survive was to color inside the lines of the law. We must also remember that there are some pretty noble Pharisees in the Page 3

5 New Testament Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and the Apostle Paul to name just a few. Many Pharisees wanted to please God as much or more than did the followers of Jesus. It s just that they put the rules ahead of the Ruler. And there are many Christians today who have fallen into the same trap; they place so much emphasis on external obligations that they miss the call for internal transformation. God bless em, the Pharisees just didn t get it. And god bless us, some of us don t either. In the second part of the scripture, Jesus enters the synagogue and heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. Whether the man was born that way or had suffered serious injuries is a moot point. There was no workmen s compensation, social security disability payments or welfare programs in Bible times. Being unable to work to support himself, begging or living off relatives was about his only options. If Jesus were to heal him, he would be given his life back. Jesus knows that this action will enrage the Pharisees because it is obvious that the healing could wait until the next day. Jesus tries to reason with the Pharisees by asking is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or evil, to save life or to kill? The Pharisees remain silent but leave immediately after the healing to plot with King Herod s men to destroy Jesus. From this point until he was crucified, Jesus was constantly under the threat of death. Unless Jesus wished to be involved in a head-on collision with the authorities, He had to leave the synagogues. It was not that he withdrew by fear; it was simply that His hour had not yet come. So he left the synagogues and went out to the lakeside and open skies. Even there the crowds flocked to Him. Page 4

6 Now that we have read the scriptures from the perspective of a first century Jew and heard the rest of the story, we may well still be struggling as to how this applies to us today. But there is a rest of the story for us too. Instead of condemning someone for eating a few grains on the Sabbath, we would be impressed if that was all they had done. Although it would be different, I don t think many would object to a miracle being performed in church on Sunday. Now you would have the fellow seated near the back who would state I hope he don t take long. I want to get to the café before that Baptist crowd piles in. And then you have the person who would ask if the miracle could be performed again since they were reading their text messages and missed it. No, the message for us is the nature of the Pharisees. To the Pharisee religion was ritual; it meant obeying certain rules, laws and regulations. Jesus broke these regulations and they were genuinely convinced that he was a bad man. They were like the man who believes that religion consists of going to church, reading the Bible occasionally, saying grace at meals, perhaps even having family worship but has never put himself out to do anything for anyone in his life. He has no sense of sympathy nor desire to sacrifice, is happy with his rigid orthodoxy, and is deaf to the tears of the world. To Jesus religion was service. It was the love of God and the love of man. Ritual was irrelevant compared with love in action. To Jesus the most important thing in the world was not the correct performance of a ritual, but the spontaneous answer to the cry of human need. On two separate occasions in today s scripture lesson, Jesus tried to get the Pharisees to realize that serving and worshipping God was more than the adherence to laws (most of which were man-made) and religious tradition. The problem with the Pharisees is one we encounter in 2018 lack of love. I Corinthians 13:1-2 says that though I speak with the tongues of men and Page 5

7 of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith but have not love, I am nothing. We are also told in the scriptures that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind and our neighbor as our self. What is so beautiful about this passage is that by the time we love God with everything we have and our neighbor as our self, there s no room to be self-centered. Loving God and loving neighbor cannot exist in the abstract; they need to be enacted. We need to take count not only of our blessings, but also of those in our families and in our communities. And once we count, we need to act. Finding the lost takes work. It also requires our efforts, and from those efforts there is the potential for wholeness and joy. And in I John 4:12 we read No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. Without love we worry about how we appear, not what we are; we are concerned with details instead of the big picture; we see minor flaws in others (and usually point them out) but cannot see major character defects in ourselves; we take issue with anything that does not go our way. Without love, we are nothing. But with love we can experience God s love more fully; with love we can recognize the needs of others and help them to find healing and sustenance; with love you and I can address the social ills of our world; with love the church can grow and flourish. As usual, God s word expresses things much better than I can. In I Corinthians 13:4-8 we read: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends. Just as Jesus tried to get the Pharisees to see that love and Page 6

8 compassion were more important than laws, God wants us to know that loving Him and our neighbor as our self is the way to inherit eternal life. Love is the answer. Mother Teresa, who I greatly admire, expresses the following thoughts on love and I will quote: What we need is to love without getting tired. How does a lamp burn? Through the continuous input of small drops of oil. What are these drops of oil in our lamps? They are the small things of daily life: faithfulness, small words of kindness, a thought of others, our way of being silent, of looking, of speaking and acting. Do not look for Jesus away from yourselves. He is not out there; He is in you. Keep your lamp burning, and you will recognize Him. Love is the answer! Let us pray: Gracious God, the expanse of your love is incomprehensible. We don t understand it; yet you call us to proclaim to the world through our thoughts, words and actions that you are love. May we accept your call with joy. Forgive us for the times we have neither heard the cries of the needy, nor loved our neighbors. Take away our self-absorption and give us ears to hear, hands to help, and hearts that love. In Christ s name we pray. Amen. Page 7