Introduction There are 7 major controversies between Jesus and the religious leaders recorded in the Gospels over the issue of the Sabbath. In Mark 2:23-28 Jesus once again has a run in with the Pharisees. 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? (Mark 2:23-24, NIV) The Pharisees were upset because they objected to the disciples behavior. They saw it as an outright violation of the Sabbath law! Reaping on the Sabbath was specifically forbidden by Moses.
2 21 Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest. (Ex 34:21, NIV) According to the Pharisees, what they were doing was not lawful Remember, they were commanded to keep the Sabbath. But the question was, what does keeping the Sabbath mean? On one level, that s what this text is about. I. The Old Testament and the Sabbath. A. The 4 th commandment says, 8 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (Ex 20:8, NIV) 1. Work was the one thing forbidden on the Sabbath. 2. Breaking the Sabbath was an offense punishable by death (Ex 31:14; 35:2). 3. It was more than a religious observance. 4. It was a sign of God s covenant with the Jewish people.
3 5. Other religions prohibited murder, theft, and adultery, but only the Sabbath was uniquely Jewish. 6. Numbers 15:32-36, tell us that a man was stoned for gathering wood on the Sabbath. 7. Ezekiel says God almost destroyed Israel while in the desert in part because they didn t observe the Sabbath. 8. Nehemiah blamed the Babylonian captivity on the Jews failure to keep the Sabbath. B. Somewhere along the way the Traditions and the 4 th commandment were intermingled to such an extent that they were practically the same thing. 1. By the time of Jesus, the Jews had hundreds of regulations about keeping the Sabbath. 2. And they legislated Sabbath behavior to the minutest detail.
4 3. The Pharisees had written a rule book that spelled out the exceptions to the rules. a. When life was endangered a doctor could work. b. A priest could sacrifice on the Sabbath. c. A child could be circumcised on the Sabbath. 4. But other than that, no one could do anything. II. Jesus, the Pharisees and the Sabbath. A. Jesus was in hot water. 1. Remember, Ex 20:8 says you must keep the Sabbath holy. 2. To them holiness was obeying to the letter of the law. 3. But Jesus obviously didn t care about those things. B. That s why they ask him, 24 Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? (Mark 2:24, NIV) C. Jesus answers,
5 25 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. 1. Let me tell you what Jesus is doing here. 2. In 1 Samuel 12, David was on the run from Saul. 3. He went to the tabernacle because he was hungry. 4. 12 loaves of bread were baked each day, symbolizing God s provision of Israel. 5. This is the reason when Jesus fed the 5,000 he had 12 baskets of food left over symbolizing Jesus as the bread of life for Israel and the world. D.Jesus says, according to the book of Numbers, the priests alone eat the consecrated bread. 1. In Matthew 12:5 Jesus tells us,
6 5 Or haven t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? (Matt 12:5, NIV) 1. According to Jesus, the priests eat the consecrated bread and are innocent. 2. They were innocent because they were in service to God. 3. David came to the priests of his day and said the Sabbath was never intended to take precedence over legitimate needs. 4. Jesus said, we can eat the bread because ceremonial law is subservient to being on a mission from God. 5. The analogy is quite clear: David the king fed his men; Christ the king feeds his. 6. Jesus is making a claim of being the messianic ancestor of David.
7 a. They knew exactly what he was saying! b. It enraged them! 7. They can t stand it that men s needs take precedence over ceremonialism. 8. That s why Jesus in Matt 12:6 quotes Hosea 6:6, 7 I desire mercy, not sacrifice, (Matt 12:7, NIV) a. Sacrifice is what you offer to God to mend your broken relationship. b. Mercy is what you offer to others because of your relationship with God. c. The Pharisees had completely misinterpreted the meaning of the Sabbath and thus the 10 Commandments. 9. So right here Jesus lays down an interpretative guideline:
8 Legitimate needs should be met, even at the risk of not keeping the letter of the law. a. Such a statement to them was not only unacceptable, but something that demanded Jesus death. b. Jesus way of thinking was so alien to them c. Legitimate needs should be met, even at the risk of not keeping the letter of the law. III. Here s Jesus Rationale. 27 Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27, NIV) A. In other words, love takes precedence over tradition. B. Now that s a novel idea! 1. If you genuinely love people, you ll find a way to not serve tradition. 2. This is what Ex 20:8 means. 8 Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
9 3. The Sabbath is holy when the heart of the Sabbath is lived out in the lives of the people. 4. That s why Jesus say in v. 27, 27 The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27, NIV) 5. In other words, man isn t to serve the Sabbath but Sabbath man. C. Here s how Jesus explains it: 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28, NIV) 1. Jesus says, I am the Creator and as Creator I can do whatever I want to with my creation. 2. Do you realize the enormity of this text? 3. Jesus challenges the sacred vow of the Sabbath and He does so not by quoting tradition but by quoting 1 Samuel, Numbers, and Hosea. 4. Now that s authority!
10 IV. The Question of Authority. A. That s what this passage is all about: AUTHORITY. B. It s about who or what we serve. C. First, it s about whether or not needs take precedence over tradition. 1. Do they? 2. Is this the way you see your religion? 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James (1:27, NIV) 3. James teaches that pure & faultless religion looks after orphans and widows in distress and doesn t get all tangled up in the world. 4. I know someone who was turned off to church because of this very issue.
11 5. He was a social worker and saw that the poor children living in the church s neighborhood were not been met. So he invited them into the building to feed them, and help them with their homework. But when some influential church members learned that those dirty kids were in the building, they had a cow and had them thrown out. 6. Now tell me. 7. Who was doing the will of God? 8. Where those people right when they obeyed the building use guidelines? 9. Or should they have ignored them? 10.Does Human Need take precedent over men s rules? 11.You bet it does!
12 D.Second, it s about whether or not love takes precedence over tradition. Perhaps the best example of this is a parable that Jesus told. The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37). Conclusion The priest and a Levite, the very people who should have laid all of their religious activities aside to minister to a needy person, were too involved in other stuff to meet his needs. Now do you see what Jesus is doing? Jesus is reorienting our focus. It is just so easy to worship God while forgetting the real meaning of worship and holiness Let me offer this to you
13 Without minimizing the importance of our assembly, let me remind you that how we live our lives out there is the real test of faithfulness. Let s not tithe mint, cumin an deal, and neglect the weightier things of the law, love and justice. Let s be as concerned about loving the lost as we are about what we do in this assembly. Invitation Our own righteousness is indeed as filthy rags, and no apron of leaves can clothe our nakedness in the presence of God s searching holiness. The question is then, how can any man be saved? The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of every man 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. (Rom 1:17, NIV)