I. Introduction The Lord of the Sabbath February 21, 2016 Mark 2:23 3:6 The Sabbath was prized by the Jews as a sacred institution. The word Sabbath is derived from the Hebrew word shabbat which means to rest, to cease, or to desist. In honor of the day when God rested from His creation, the Lord declared the 7 th day of the week to be a special time of rest and remembrance for the children of Israel turn to Exodus 31:12-17. The Sabbath was a special sign between God and Israel; it was a special time of rest and remembrance for His people. It was a day intended for the benefit of people a time for rest from daily labors, allowing time for spiritual, mental, and physical restoration. Since there is no record in Scripture of God giving the Sabbath to any other nation, the keeping of the Sabbath made Israel distinct as a nation. In the Torah, working on the Sabbath was prohibited, but there weren t many specifics. In Exodus 35:3, lighting a fire was declared wrong and in Numbers 15:32, gathering wood was wrong. Later, Nehemiah 10:31 implied it was wrong to transact business and Jeremiah 17:21 says it is wrong to carry a load on the Sabbath. But, during the 1500 years since Moses, rabbis had added regulation upon regulation. Almost no area of life was spared from their attention. Anything that might be contrived as work was forbidden; e.g. on the Sabbath, scribes could not carry their pens, tailors their needles, or students their books as this might tempt them to work on the Sabbath. One couldn t carry anything heavier than a dried fig. Sick people were only allowed enough treatment to keep them alive. Any medical treatment that improved their condition was considered work and therefore was prohibited. Jewish tradition went into great detail and even informed the people that they could walk up to 3000 outside their houses. It got to the point of being ridiculous: no bathing was allowed, since water might spill onto the floor and accidentally wash it. No furniture could be moved inside a house, since it might create ruts in the dirt floor and thereby represent plowing. All these man-made traditions, which were monitored by the Pharisees and scribes, became a crushing weight on the people. In Luke 11:46, Jesus said, And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. Mark has already given several of Jesus titles including: the Christ, the Son of God, the coming One, the beloved Son of the Father and now Jesus Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath. As the contention between the Pharisees and Jesus Christ grows, we see two incidents in which Jesus, as the Lord of the Sabbath, challenged the Pharisees incorrect understanding of the Sabbath. 1
II. Incident #1 A. The Scene In the first scene Jesus and His disciples are walking through a grain field. And as they walked, the Pharisees were not far behind. Matthew 12:1 explains that His disciples were hungry and Luke 6:1 adds that His disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. It wasn t illegal for a hungry person to take some of his neighbor s fruit or grain provided that he didn t fill a vessel or use a harvesting implement Deuteronomy 23:24-25 says, If you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. If you enter your neighbor's grain field, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain. Jesus disciples were doing exactly what the Old Testament permitted them to do. When they snapped off the heads of grain, rubbed the heads in their hands to remove the husk and shell, and then ate the kernels, their actions were perfectly allowable within the purposes of God but not in the minds of the Pharisees. The Pharisees thought they had finally caught Jesus in unlawful activities. B. The Charge The Pharisees charged that Jesus and His disciples were working on the Sabbath. By rabbinic standards, Jesus and His disciples were guilty of several forbidden acts: by picking the grain they had reaped; by removing the husks and shells they had sifted; by throwing the chaff in the air they had winnowed; and by eating the grain after they had cleaned it they had prepared a meal. By allowing them to work, Jesus and His disciples had defied the rabbinic rules regarding the Sabbath. C. The Response After the Pharisees charge, we see Jesus response. He didn t argue with them, but, instead, He cited an incident in the life of David when David had definitely broken the Mosaic Law and was justified. The account to which Jesus referred is found in 1 Samuel David had fled empty-handed from Gibeah to escape King Saul. As he ran, he came to the tabernacle which was located at Nob, about a mile north of Jerusalem. Hungry, and without food, David asked Ahimelech, the priest, for food. Now turn to 1 Samuel 21:4-6 to see what happened next. Every Sabbath, 12 loves of consecrated bread were baked and set on the gold table in the Holy Place of the Temple. After the fresh loaves were put in place, the priests were allowed to eat the weekold bread, but, according to Leviticus 24:9, only priests were permitted to eat it. Recognizing their need, Ahimelech showed compassion to David and his men and made an exception to the ceremonial rule and gave them the consecrated bread. God did not punish either Ahimelech or David for their actions. He allowed a ceremonial law to be violated for the sake of meeting an urgent human need. If 2
we were to read further, we would see that the only person offended by this act of kindness was King Saul himself. Jesus point was that God is more concerned with showing compassion and meeting the needs of people than He is with strict adherence to ritual and ceremony. If it was permissible for Ahimelech, a human priest, to make an exception to God s ceremonial law in order to aid David and his men, it was surely appropriate for the Son of God to disregard unbiblical rabbinic traditions in order to meet the needs of His disciples. The Pharisees had their priorities confused. They were more concerned with preserving their own authority than with the needs of anyone else. God never intended ceremony, ritual, or tradition to stand in the way of mercy, kindness, and goodness towards others as Jesus said, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. God s purpose for the Sabbath was to give His people a weekly rest it was for their well-being, but the Pharisees had turned a blessing into a burden. Then, throwing more fuel on the fire, Jesus said, So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. If there had been any doubt from His earlier comments, Jesus the Christ, the Son of Man, clearly claimed to be God, the Creator, and the One who authorized the Sabbath in the first place. The Pharisees weren t just being corrected by another rabbi, they were being corrected by the Lord of the Sabbath by God Himself. John summarized their thoughts in John 5:18, For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. III. Incident #2 A. The Scene Mark immediately moved to a 2 nd incident: as Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus was determined to demonstrate proper Sabbath activity compared to man-made rules, so another time he went into the synagogue and, according to Luke 6:6 He was teaching as He always did. In the midst of the congregation gathered in the synagogue that day, there was a man with a shriveled hand. Luke 6:6 records that it was the man s right hand. Also, in the congregation were Pharisees and teachers of the law who were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. They didn t question Jesus power to heal, they wanted to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. According to their rules, the most a physician or relative was permitted to do on the Sabbath was to keep the sick person alive, or maintain the status quo of their condition, until the following day anything more than that was regarded as work and therefore a Sabbath violation. And a Sabbath violation, just like blasphemy, was worthy of death. 3
Jesus could have waited one more day, but once again He wanted to challenge the pharisaical legalistic traditions. According to Luke 6:8, Jesus knew what they were thinking. He recognized that this was a trap, but rather than avoiding it, He purposely walked right into it. B. The Confrontation The confrontation erupted when Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, Stand up in front of everyone. According to Matthew s account, it was the Pharisees who began asking Jesus what He was going to do turn to Matthew 12:9-12. 4 Jesus was saying that if it is permissible to help a sheep on the Sabbath, how could it be wrong to help a human being, who is worth more than any animal? But, in reality, the Pharisees treated their animals with more compassion than they treated other people. So Jesus asked them, Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? Since evil is at work every day, including the Sabbath, shouldn t good be at work as well? Jesus was saying, Here is a man in need. If I fail to heal him, even though it is the Sabbath, am I not doing evil? Mercy had to take precedence over their Sabbath Law. The trapped Pharisees couldn t answer. If they agreed that it was lawful to do good and save a life, they wouldn t be able to accuse Jesus of any wrongdoing. Admitting the obvious would also contradict their rabbinic traditions as well as affirming that what Jesus was about to do was acceptable. If they claimed it was lawful to do evil and to kill, they obviously would be going against the Old Testament so they remained silent. C. The Conclusion The conclusion came quickly. Jesus never got angry at the tax collectors and sinners, but He did get angry with the self-righteous Pharisees. They would rather protect their traditions than see a man healed. Jesus was also distressed and grieved at their stubborn hearts because of the judgment He knew would come upon them. He was filled with pity knowing the eternal destruction that awaited them. With these feelings inside, Jesus said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. The man was healed instantaneously and completely. The Pharisees stormed out from the synagogue embarrassed and outraged. I suspect they would have killed Jesus on the spot if it weren t for His popularity with the people. Instead they united with the Herodians and started making plans to arrest Jesus and to ultimately destroy Him. The Herodians weren t a religious party; they were a political group of Jews who supported the dynasty of Herod the Great and, therefore, the Roman Empire. They were as different from the Pharisees as night is from day but in Jesus they found a common enemy. Together they would seek to end this Jesus of Nazareth.
IV. Application In themselves, as long as they don t contradict the Bible, rules and regulations and traditions are fine. Often they are beneficial and helpful. But we need to be careful that they don t become more important than they should be. When the first rabbis worked at defining what was and was not work, they were trying to be helpful to their flocks. But, eventually, the rules and regulations and traditions became an end in themselves. They became the things one did to please God. They were the works one needed for eternal security. And, eventually, they led to a dismal day of drudgery. As God in human flesh, Jesus condemned the Pharisees self-righteous attempts to please God. Jesus was characterized by grace; they prided themselves on their works. Jesus demonstrated mercy and compassion to people; they cared only about protecting their petty customs. They twisted a divine blessing into an impossible burden to carry. As individual Christians and as a church, we have rules and regulations and traditions for our lives. They help to add structure and organization. But the question isn t whether something is or is not allowed, but whether or not what we do helps or hinders those who are in need. To do evil is always prohibited, regardless of the day of the week. To do good is always required, regardless of the day of the week. The observance of days and seasons Sundays and seasons like Lent are not to be the only thing that distinguishes Christians from others. Christians should be distinguished by doing good every day. Paul wrote in Romans 13:8, Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. Micah wrote about this attitude turn to Micah 6:6-8. How about you as an individual or us as a church do you/do we act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God? Are you known for your love your sacrificial love of others in all you say and do? 5