Jesus' and the Sabbath
Mark 2:23-3:6

Introduction

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Well unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years … you’ll know that Western civilisation has become quite polarised in recent years.  It wasn’t always this bad … at least not when I was growing up.  And this political polarisation hit an all-time low when Donald Trump got shot.  Now it wasn’t the assassination attempt that brought the West to a new low.  We’re ALWAYS going to have mentally unstable people … who will do mentally unstable things.

What was concerning … was how certain people responded.  One such example was a progressive social commentator … who goes by the name of Destiny.  And Piers Morgan asked Destiny whether he condemned the assassin or not.  And Destiny said ‘I cannot condemn this assassin’.  Now THAT progressive would almost certainly have condemned a wood-be assassin if he’d tried to take out HIS candidate.  OK … progressives will back their progressive leaders … even if they do or say some crazy stuff.  And conservatives will back their conservative leaders … even if THEY do or say some crazy stuff.  But they HATE their opponents.  That’s how politics works these days.

Yet in our passage today … the far-right religious conservatives team up with the far-left social progressives … to plot about how they can assassinate Jesus.  So the Pharisees were a very strict religious sect within Judaism … who prided themselves on being moral exemplars.  The Herodians on the other hand … were political supporters of the Herods.  So ‘Herod the Great’ was the guy who tried to have Jesus killed as a baby … in Matthew chapter 2.  When he died in 4BC Judea was divided up among his children … creating the Herodian dynasty.  The Herodians in v. 6 were the sycophants … OK … the political ‘suck-ups’ … who told the Herods what they wanted to hear … so THEY could get appointed to positions of political power.  And these guys were the polar opposites of the religious conservatives.  They were corrupt … conniving … abusive and debauched.

Yet Jesus does something in our passage today … that leads these 2 enemies to team up … and try to assassinate Jesus.  And the reason they do that … is because they understand Jesus’ message.  You see no one in the gospels ever walked away from Jesus thinking ‘oh … what a nice man’ … or ‘what a lovely sermon’.  Whenever someone met the REAL Jesus … they either (i) ran from him in terror … ‘please leave this place Jesus’, (ii) they hated him to the point of wanting to kill him … Mark 3:6, or (iii) they gave Him their full allegiance.  And so if people today ever describe Jesus as a good bloke … or a good teacher … they haven’t met the real Jesus yet.  Because WHEN you meet the REAL Jesus … he creates divisions in our heart … and divisions in society.

And THAT’S what we’re looking at today; the divisions Jesus creates.  And I’ve got 4 points to help unpack this amazing passage for us.  So we’re going to begin by looking at a question the Pharisees ask Jesus … which has an agenda behind it.  So I’ve titled point 1 (i) A loaded question … v. 23-24.  We’ll then look at Jesus response … which brings the Pharisees down a few notches.  So I’ve titled that (ii) A provocative answer.  We’ll then look at what REALLY upsets the Pharisees and Herodians … which I’ve titled (iii) An outrageous claim … v. 28 … before wrapping up with our application … which I’ve tiled (iv) A reluctant response.  So please come with me … as we look at the divisions Jesus causes.

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A loaded question (v. 23-24)

And our passage begins with these words:

Mark 2:23-24 (NIV) 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?”

Now modern readers might look at this and think ‘of COURSE they’re doing what is unlawful.  They’re stealing’.  Not so.  Let me read to you:

Deuteronomy 23:24-25 (NIV) If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.

So this is the difference between Capitalism and Socialism.

• Capitalism says a country’s industry is to be controlled by private owners.  And those owners are entitled to the profits from their hard work.

• Socialism on the other hand says industry and resources are to be owned and regulated by the community as a whole.  And ANY profit goes to the community.

Now which one does God prefer?  Well according to Deut 23 … the answer is ‘yes’.  What I mean is … God’s law allows for a bit of both.  So the OT Law was based on private ownership … with the owner being entitled to profits from their hard work.  You can’t just go and harvest someone else’s field.  Yet the Law ALSO said private owners don’t get ALL the profits.  OK … the farmer may OWN the field … and sowed the field.  But God watered it and caused it to grow.  And He wants some of HIS produce to go to the poor.  So the disciples aren’t stealing here.  They’re following Deut 23:24-25.

What the disciples are doing wrong … according to the Pharisees … is they’re doing work on the Sabbath.  You see in their zeal to be moral exemplars … the Pharisees came up with 39 different forms of ‘work’ … that they said were forbidden on the Sabbath.  And one of those forms was preparing food.  So in picking stalks of wheat … then rubbing it between their hands to separate the grain … was considered ‘preparing food’.  So according to the Pharisees … Jesus’ disciples were breaking Commandment number … anyone … 4.  Do no work on the Sabbath.  And so what the Pharisees are SAYING with this question is … you guys are law breakers.

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A provocative response (v. 25-27; 3:1-6)

Well Jesus then RESPONDS to their loaded question with a very provocative charge.  And that charge is … ‘you teachers of the law … are reading the Law wrong’.  One of the most basic principles of common law in Australia … is we are NEVER to interpret a law in a wooden or legalistic way.  Instead … we are to interpret laws based on the INTENTION that they were written.  Now where do we get this principal from?  That’s right … the Bible.  Jesus uses that principal here.

He recounts an episode from 1 Samuel 21 … where David is fleeing from Saul … who was trying to kill him.  And David stops in to see a priest named Ahimelech.  Abiathar was the HIGH Priest.  And David asks Ahimelech for some food.  Ahimelech says ‘the only food I have here is the ‘Bread of the Presence’ … which was holy bread set out for the Lord.  And the OT Law strictly said ONLY priests were allowed to eat the Bread of the Presence.  So WHY did Ahimelech give it to David to eat?  It’s because the INTENTION of that law was to show that God is holy.  The intention was NEVER to let people starve.  And this is why the Bible doesn’t condemn Ahimelech for giving the holy bread to David and his men.  He was not breaking the intention of the Law.

Jesus’ point is … the Pharisees have got the Sabbath laws all wrong.  And they haven’t just got it a little wrong.  They’re interpreting the Sabbath laws in the complete opposite way to which they were intended.  Jesus says so in v. 27:

Mark 3:27 (NIV) “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

You see the intention of the Sabbath was to give people REST.  To help people recharge their batteries … right.  But the Pharisees saw the OT Law as the MEANS by which you get saved.  The Pharisees thought the way you get right with God … the way you made up for your sin … was by obeying the OT Law.  Now it doesn’t take a genius to realise how wrong that is.  The simple fact is … the Law was given AFTER the Exodus … AFTER the Israelites had already BEEN saved.  So the law COULDN’T be how the Israelites got saved.  Rather … the Law was how the Israelites RESPONDED to God’s salvation.

But the Pharisees’ interpretation of the law became even DUMBER when it came to Commandment number 4.  Because if you’re obeying Commandment number 4 in order to get right with God … then you’re doing the exact opposite of resting.  OK … you MAY be ceasing from your weekly job … but ONLY as a way to EARN your salvation.

The Pharisees had taken the GIFT of the Sabbath … a gift made FOR man … and had turned it into a slave master.  They’d turned it into something man HAS to fulfil … in order to be saved.  And we see the staggering burden of this in Mark 3:1-6.  If the Sabbath is about restoring people … then the Sabbath is the PERFECT time for this man with a shrivelled hand to be healed.  It’s precisely what the Sabbath was made for.  Yet in claiming you’re not allowed to ‘miraculously heal’ a person on the Sabbath … because it’s ‘work’ … shows the Pharisees are interpreting the Sabbath laws in the exact opposite way to which they were intended.

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An outrageous claim (v. 28)

However … NONE of this is what you would call grounds for assassination.  Sure … Jesus shows the Pharisees are stupid.  But that’s not ‘club and pitchfork’ material.  What really offends them is in:

Mark 2:28 (NIV) “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Now what does this mean?  Well FIRSTLY … it means Jesus is in charge.  The Son of Man is Lord … ruler.  And this is why the Herodians take enormous offense at Jesus.  The Herodians were the ruling class of 1st century Israel.  They answered to no one except Caesar.  And Caesar pretty much let them do whatever they wanted … because Rome was even MORE debauched than the Herods.  And the last thing progressives like that want … is for a powerful preacher to come along and tell them what they’re doing is wrong.  Take the LGBTQ+ community as an example.  Even though they generally want very little to do with the church anyway … they will get up in arms if the church ever says God doesn’t like that kind of behaviour.

Now Herod Antipas … one of the Herods … had already locked up ONE powerful preacher for saying things he didn’t want to hear.  OK … we’re told in Mark chapter 6 that Herod Antipas put John the Baptist in jail because John preached that Herod was committing adultery when he stole his brother Philip’s wife.  So Herod shut ONE powerful preacher down already.  But along comes a SECOND powerful preacher … travelling around ALL of Judea … telling people they must repent of their immoral behaviour.  So the Herodians start to plot to get rid of THIS powerful preacher too.

But Jesus is not just Lord.  He ‘is Lord … EVEN of the Sabbath’.  And what Jesus means by that is … ‘I have come to give you REAL rest’.  And that rest is taking the penalty for breaking the Law.  While the Law was given as a response TO the Exodus … a response TO salvation … the law still outlined who was boss … who was Lord.  And if you BROKE the Lord’s laws … there was a penalty.  The reason Jesus came to earth … was to take that penalty himself.  The cross is Jesus taking the penalty for OUR sin … upon himself.

1 Corinthians 15:3 (NIV) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

And this is why the Pharisees want Jesus dead.  Jesus is saying ‘your good works … your law keeping … CANNOT get you right with God.  Only I can’.  Now do you know WHY that’s so offensive?  Do you know WHY every single other religion on the planet says the way to heaven … the way to get right with God … is through doing good deeds?  It’s because if I get to heaven based on my good works … then I have a claim on God.  I’m a tax payer.  And if I’ve paid my taxes … paid my dues in my good deeds … then there’s only so much God can ask of me.

And this is why Jesus makes EVERYONE mad.  If he said ‘salvation is by works’ … then the Pharisees would be happy … because they’re already moral exemplars.  Yet if he said ‘do whatever you want … so long as you’re not hurting others … so long as you’re “loving”’ … then the Herodians would be happy.  They get to be in charge.

The problem with the Christian gospel … the thing that is so offensive about the Christian gospel … is on the one hand it says you’re sinful.  That’s what the Herodians were up in arms about.  Jesus is saying ‘you CAN’T just keep doing whatever I want.  You have to follow ME as Lord.’  But on the other hand … the gospel says the only way to be saved is for Jesus to do it ALL for you.  You also have to follow Jesus as saviour.  Yet if Jesus is saviour … then there’s NOTHING he cannot ask of us in response.

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A reluctant response

And this leads us to the final question; how DOES Jesus want us to respond?  Well step 1 is to understand the offence of the cross.  So there may be some here today … or listening on-line … who view Jesus as ‘a good bloke’ … or ‘a good teacher’.  What this passage tells us is … that’s not the real Jesus.  That’s a cheap caricature.  The REAL Jesus is offensive.  OK … the Pharisees were the ultimate in religious people.  The Herodians were the ultimate in secular people.  And they came together to try and assassinate Jesus … because Jesus offends them both.  And until we SEE how Jesus’ message offends both the religious and the irreligious … then we haven’t seen the real Jesus yet.  You cannot just ‘take or leave’ someone who claimed to be Lord.  The only way to respond to someone like that is to either stamp Christianity out … or to give your life to Him.

And can I say to these people … if you’ve never seen how offensive Jesus is … then you’ve probably never tasted his comfort and his beauty and his glory.  Because though Jesus claims to be Lord … meaning there is NOTHING he cannot ask of us … the only things he will ever ask of us are for our benefit … and the benefit of those around us.  So I pray that you keep looking for the real Jesus.  Come and be offended by him.  Because that’s the only path to become friends with him.

The SECOND thing I want to say by way of application is to those of us who ARE Jesus’ friends.  And that is that just as Jesus was crucified between 2 thieves … so too is the gospel of grace crucified between 2 thieves.  Now I don’t know who said this first … but the principle is there are 2 errors that can rob the gospel of its glory.  One is legalism … which the Pharisees represent … and the other is licentiousness … which the Herodians represent.  And we as Christians need to be careful we don’t stray into either camp.

So to begin with … may we never forget that Jesus is Lord.  That means we must do what he tells us.  And in the context of THIS passage … that means resting 1 day in 7.  Now as Christians … we don’t rest on the Sabbath anymore.  The reason being that the Sabbath is Saturday.  The Greek word for Saturday is Sabbato.  Yet in the book of Acts … the early church stopped meeting on Saturdays and started meeting on Sundays … to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection.  But just because we don’t honour the Sabbath anymore … doesn’t mean we don’t need rest.

The REASON the Sabbath was made for man … is because man was made to NEED rest.  And the cycle we’ve been made FOR … is 6 days of work … followed by 1 day of rest.  There have actually been several countries throughout history who TRIED a different cycle … such as France and Russia.  And guess what?  It didn’t work … so they changed back.  But if we are not resting from our usual weekly work one day a week … then we’re ignoring Jesus’ words in this passage.  The Sabbath was made for man.

And this is where Jesus is going to offend some of us here today.  Because some of us don’t have an entire day off each week.  Some of us … spend a few hours of a Sunday … getting a jump on the week ahead.  And when we do that friends … we’re not just dishonouring God … by treading on the gift of rest he’s given us … we’re showing a lack of trust in God as well.  We’re saying I don’t trust that God can help me get through my weekly work … without working on my day of rest.  So the FIRST thing this passage challenges Christians to do … is rest from our usual weekly work.  That could be office work, factory work, construction work, house work, study … you name it.  Whatever you do as your usual weekly occupation … Christians are called by our Lord Jesus Christ … to take 1 day off that occupation each week.

So that’s licentiousness … doing whatever WE want to do.  The other ‘thief’ we’re may inadvertently drift into is legalism.  The great reformer Martin Luther said ‘religion’ is the default mode of the human heart.  What he meant was … we’re ALWAYS being tempted into thinking ‘I obey … therefore I’m accepted’.  That’s actually WHY many of us work on our day off.  We think we don’t measure up … unless we succeed in our studies … or career.  It’s why some of us feel anxious about our week ahead.  It’s why some of us feel inferior at work or at school.  It’s why some of us get mad at God when things go wrong at work or at school.  We’re basing our acceptance on our performance.

The only way to combat that … is to keep clawing our way back to the gospel.

• Religion says ‘if I perform, I am accepted’.  Christianity says the exact opposite of this.  Christianity says ‘I am accepted, therefore I perform’.

• Religion says ‘I give God something … like my good works … and he owes me’.  Christianity says ‘God gave me everything in Jesus, therefore I owe him’.

OK … the human heart has a tendency to forget that … UNLESS we’re preaching the gospel to ourselves each and every day.

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Conclusion

And if we can do that … we blast straight past the divisions Jesus causes.  And given the political polarization in society today … don’t you WANT to avoid divisions?  The way we do it is to avoid drifting into licentiousness … like the Herodians … or legalism … like the Pharisees.  And we do that by remembering (i) our sin DESERVES punishment.  If Jesus is Lord … then we cannot just do what we want.  Yet (ii) Jesus has taken that punishment in full.  So we don’t HAVE to work for our salvation anymore.  Rather … we fix our eyes on Jesus … the Son of man.  For:

Mark 2:28 (NIV) “… the Son of Man is Lord … even of the Sabbath.”