Love Over Legalism (Mark 2:23–3:6)
Notes
Transcript
CPT: Jesus challenged the Pharisees interpretation of the Law with the greater principle of doing good because he is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Purpose: The church should see the Gospel as freedom in Christ and not living within a subset of rules. This is a good opportunity to talk about our love for one another.
CPS: The Lord calls us to a life of love over legalism.
Introduction
The Lord calls us to a life of love over legalism. Love, among other things, is composed compassion, mercy, and grace. Often times, what happens in our culture, our society, and sometimes in our churches, is that compassion, mercy, and grace are pushed off to the sidelines. In place of compassion, mercy, and grace, comes legalism, which is composed of cruelty, punishment, and condemnation.
We want compassion, mercy, and grace for ourselves, but we don’t want it for other people. We want forgiveness for ourselves, but we to control the actions of other people. When love gives way to control, love gives way to legalism. Where love gives us compassion, mercy, and grace, legalism gives us cruelty, punishment, and condemnation.
Why do we have laws? We have laws to create some control, some boundaries, over the morality of a fallen people. Laws have designed within them cruelty, punishment, and condemnation to attempt to bring some control over a chaotic mess. When you are in the people business, people are messy. People need more than a legalistic answer. A legalistic answer doesn’t change the heart of a human being. People need a spiritual transformation. The Lord has saw fit to put governments in control of cruelty, punishment, and condemnation, but he calls his people to a life of love, a life of compassion, mercy, and grace. We are called to a life of love over legalism.
I was a Police Officer in the NYPD for seven years. Many know that here, but there may be some who don’t. When you join the Police Academy, you don’t become a Police Officer because you want to hurt people. People join for different reasons, but for the most part, people join because they want to help. But what happens is, after years of seeing some of the most terrible things over and over, day in and day out, you develop what psychologists call, “compassion fatigue.” Compassion fatigue is a sort of numbness, cynicism, a decreased ability to empathize with people.
I graduated from the NYPD Police Academy in January 2005 and entered the 46th precinct in the Bronx, NY, as part of something called Operation Impact. You may have heard about it in the news, they spoke about it during the 2020 election. What they would do is assign a lot of Police Officers to high crime neighborhoods in the city, and put them on foot posts. They wanted us to do something called Stop and Frisk. The motivation behind the law was good. What would happen is, if you saw a suspicious bulge, something that looked like a gun under someone’s clothing, you had the right to stop and frisk them. But in practice with a bunch of police rookies straight from the academy, a suspicious bulge soon became any and every reason to stop anyone and frisk them. In practice, it created a police state in the city.
As a police officer, you were not rewarded for showing compassion and mercy to people. You were rewarded for arresting people and bringing them in to the precinct. So they would send a van of us rookies out into the streets, and have us arrest people for any and every kind of infraction they could find on the books. In the NYPD, we had a language that we would use, and this language would end up dehumanizing people. The person under arrest that we were bringing in would go from a person in the street to a perp.
What I don’t want you to hear is a message against police officers, or government officials, or anything else. I love our law enforcement. Just this past week, I was at the San Diego PD Headquarters receiving gear to start serving our law enforcement here in Paradise Hills as a volunteer chaplain. They handed me a bullet proof vest and I said, “I can’t get away from this!” We are committed as a church, Catalyst Church SD is going to love our law enforcement and be a light to them.
What I do want you to know is how quickly compassion fatigue sets in, and we can move as a people from love to legalism. This can happen at the church, where we move from a people of love to legalism. It happens when we forget how far God has brought us. We we forget that we are all sinners saved only by God’s grace. A famous evangelist once said, “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
How can we be a people who guard our hearts against legalism and focus our minds and hearts on the love of Jesus Christ towards others? We will be looking at Mark 2:23-3:6.
23 On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain.
24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry—
26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests—and also gave some to his companions?”
27 Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
28 So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
1 Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand.
2 In order to accuse him, they were watching him closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath.
3 He told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.”
4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
5 After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
6 Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.
Pray
Jesus is being challenged by the Pharisees about the Sabbath. The Sabbath comes to us from the Law, it’s actually one of the ten commandments. It is in Exodus 20:8-11:
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:
9 You are to labor six days and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates.
11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.
There are several things in this commandment:
There should be a regular weekly rhythm of work and rest
People should remember to keep a day of rest
That day of rest is holy, set apart by God and blessed by God
A key thing to remember there is that a day of rest is a gift from God. In San Diego, we live in a place where people go to vacation and rest, and it feels like those of us who live here have a hard time finding rest. We are working so hard to afford to live here. But God has called us to set apart a weekly day of rest that is holy to him.
The Sabbath is an interesting development in Christian theology. Christianity is at its core Jewish. The early Christians were Jews who were used to keeping the Sabbath. The book of Acts speaks of Paul going into the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath to speak with those worshipping there about the Messiah. Yet, early on, the first Christians begin to worship on something called, “The Lord’s Day,” and begin to focus on the first day of the week, Sunday. In Acts 20:7, Christians are assembled on the first day of the week to break bread. In 1 Cor. 16:2, Paul urges them to set something aside for the collection on the first day of the week. In Rev. 1:10, John describes himself in being in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.
The move of the worship God collectively as a church from Saturday, which would be the normal day for a Jew to worship God, to Sunday is really another early evidence of the resurrection. Jesus resurrected on the first day of the week, on a Sunday. There are at least two resurrection appearances on a Sunday, and some scholars believe more of his resurrection appearances were on Sundays, which prompted early believers to call it the Lord’s Day. So for 2,000 years, Christians have gathered together on the Lord’s day, on Sunday, resting from their work to gather together as God’s people in worship to him.
In Mark 2:23-3:6, it is the concept of rest on the Sabbath that is the controversy.
Which leads us to our first point,
Legalism attempts to control people, but love blesses people.
Legalism attempts to control people, but love blesses people.
We read in Mark 2:23-24:
23 On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain.
24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
What is going on here? It’s a Sabbath day, a day of rest. Jesus is taking his disciples through grainfields. In first-century Israel, they would grow grain crops such as wheat, barley, and oats. They would use these grains to make bread and other food items. It was common for people to pass through on foot, and it was acceptable to pluck some heads of grain to eat, so long as it was done in moderation and didn’t harm the crop.
The book of Deuteronomy talks about this practice of plucking some heads of grain to eat. In Deuteronomy 23:25:
25 When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck heads of grain with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.
In other words, you can pluck some heads of grain, just don’t get a whole harvest for yourself! If you’re hungry, you can eat on the go. This process of eating on the go was called “gleaning.”
Leviticus 19:9-10 talks about leaving the edges of your field and the gleanings of your harvest for the poor and for the foreigner.
The book of Ruth describes the story of a young widow named Ruth who gleaned in the field of Boaz, a wealthy landowner, to provide for herself and her mother-in-law.
Gleaning was an act of doing good for the landowner. It was an act of charity and kindness.
Basically, what’s happened here is that Jesus is on a journey with his disciples, and they stopped at the 7-Eleven for a snack. Now, what is going on with the Pharisees? They stop Jesus and ask, “Why are your disciples doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
What the Pharisees had done is build their understanding of how to rest on the Sabbath on something they called the tradition of the elders. These were the oral traditions passed down by Jewish leaders that were in addition to the law of Moses. Scholars are not exactly sure when these traditions began. Some think they originated during the Babylonian exile, or during the intertestamental period.
But what is important is that these were not biblical commands. Rather, they were a system for the Jews to understand, “How exactly are we to have rest on the Sabbath?” They were a system to attempt to preserve the purity of the Jewish people through a system of laws.
Now the Pharisees prided themselves on their purity. They believed that observing the Sabbath in the strictest way was honoring to God and a demonstration of one’s devotion to the Law. They had all kinds of laws to preserve the Sabbath.
You could not do any physical labor or make any business transaction on the Sabbath, because that was work. You couldn’t exchange money or even carry objects.
You could not write something, erase, or cut something.
You could only travel a certain distance from your home. This was known as the “Sabbath limit.” The Talmud defines the limit as 2,000 cubits, or about 3/5 of a mile from your home.
You could not start a fire or extinguish a fire on the Sabbath. You couldn’t start a fire from scratch or rekindle an existing fire. This meant you couldn’t light a candle or cook food over an open flame.
You could not untie a knot. If you untied a knot, that was work. It would have to wait until the next day.
You could not heal a man on the Sabbath unless it was life-threatening. We’ll get to that later.
Why was plucking grain and eating it offensive to the Pharisees? To eat a head of grain, this is what you would do:
You would remove the grain from the head by squeezing the head between your hands or rubbing it against a surface.
You would then remove the chaff or other debris by blowing on the grain.
Once the grains are clean, you can eat them as they are.
The Pharisees considered two things wrong with plucking grain.
They saw it as a form of harvesting, which was prohibited on the Sabbath.
They saw the action of picking and rubbing it as a form of preparation, which was also prohibited on the Sabbath.
Think of what the Pharisees were doing. They were challenging Jesus’ abilities as a teacher. “You call yourself a teacher? You think you’re a rabbi? Look at your disciples, your followers! They are breaking the Sabbath. You don’t know what you’re doing, Jesus. Look at them.”
They were looking for one of two responses. Either:
Jesus would walk away ashamed of his disciples and their breaking the Sabbath.
Or he would reprimand them right there and then.
Either way, they would diminish his authority and elevate their own authority. They were trying to control the teachings of Jesus. Legalism always seeks to control people.
In both of these instances, the Pharisees are seeking to control Jesus. They want to control him to make him stop. Look at what they are doing in the synagogue. In Mark 3:1-2:
1 Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand.
2 In order to accuse him, they were watching him closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath.
Jesus is in the synagogue. It’s a Sabbath day. There in the synagogue is a man with a shriveled hand.
Now, the Pharisees had a rule for healing. Healing was only permitted if it was life threatening. The man with the shriveled hand - this is not life threatening. This can wait for tomorrow. Therefore, healing him would be work, and it was prohibited.
Notice that in both of these instances, this is coming down to control. Gleaning was a kind and charitable thing for the landowner. Feeding hungry disciples was a good thing. Healing a man with a shriveled hand was a good thing. These were good things done on a holy day.
Jesus points out the goodness of what is happening. First, he points to David. Now, the use of David was no accident. The Pharisees held David in high regard and saw him as an example of someone who observed the Law of Moses. Jesus gave this example in Mark 2:25-26:
25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry—
26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests—and also gave some to his companions?”
Jesus is referring to a story in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. You can go back and read it later, but I’ll summarize. David was running away with his men from King Saul, who was pursuing him to kill him. He ends up in a town called Nob, where he goes to the Jewish priest to request bread for him and his men. They were hungry. The only bread available was the consecrated bread. This is a bread that put out on the Sabbath. Lev. 24:5-9 describes this bread, and it was only allowable for priests to eat this bread.
This priest gave the bread to David and his companions, and this was good. It was good because it fulfilled God’s greater command of love your neighbor as yourself. God doesn’t care about what day you decide to love people. God wants you to obey him every day by loving him and loving others.
Sometimes atheists will attempt to stump Christians by asking questions they think are unanswerable. One famous question goes something like this.
Suppose you are living during World War II in Nazi Germany. You are a Christian, and you have heard about the concentration camps. You know that the government is killing Jews. So you are doing what you can to protect Jews. You have a home in Nazi Germany, with a rather large basement. So you are hiding Jews in your home, doing what you can to protect them.
One day, a Nazi soldier comes knocking on your door. You open the door, and he asks you, “Are you hiding Jews in your home?” What do you do? If you say, “No,” you are lying and not telling the truth to the authorities. You are not honoring the government. If you say, “Yes,” you are failing to protect people and handing them over to death.
This question is actually an easier question to answer than the one that Jesus answers about the man with the shriveled hand. But the same response could go for both. How did Jesus respond in Mark 3:4:
4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
Why were the Pharisees silent? They were stumped! Is doing good work? There is a greater principle in our life of doing good in Jesus name. If anyone is stumped about the Nazi question, you protect life. There is a greater principle of loving others. We are always to seek to love others. We love because he first loved us.
Apply
Legalism attempts to control people, but love blesses people.
Second,
Legalism leads to bondage, but Christ's love leads his people to freedom.
Legalism leads to bondage, but Christ's love leads his people to freedom.
Take a look Mark 3:3-6:
3 He told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.”
4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
5 After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
6 Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.
Now I think of this man with the shriveled hand. Does he want to be caught up in the middle of this controversy? I don’t know. Does he know that the Pharisees were looking to accuse Jesus? Possibly. I see this man, he’s caught up in the middle and, you know, it’s tough when you have to make a stand.
But the master has called him to “Stand before us.” Does he want to be an object lesson? Whatever is going on,
What Jesus is offering is better than legalism.
What Jesus is offering is better than feeling stuck.
What Jesus is offering is better than feeling hopeless.
What Jesus is offering is better than feeling afraid.
So he stands up before them, despite the consequences, because there is something in Jesus that he needs.
Notice the response of Jesus to the hard hearts of the Pharisees. It angers him. That word there translated as anger means wrath - a feeling of intense anger that does not subside. Jesus responds emotionally to the hard hears of people. It grieves him. The Bible says not to grieve the Spirit of God.
Legalism leads to a hard heart because it fails to have compassion and empathy for people. It fails to have compassion and empathy on your own soul, to realize the need for God in your own soul. Legalism leads to pride, it puffs the person up because its all about elevating the self, and its never about elevating God.
Legalism is bondage.
I think of cults like the Jehovah Witness and Mormons who will constantly seek to control the lives of their people - they’re stuck in bondage.
I think of Muslims around the world who attempt to follow the five pillars of Islam and do good deeds, but without every knowing if they will attain salvation - they’re stuck in bondage.
I think of churches who care more about dress codes, drum beats, and the color of the carpet over the salvation of souls . I think of Christians who look at people with judgment and forget where God saved them from. Christians can become stuck in bondage.
But Christianity is not about bondage. Christianity is about freedom. I love Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Mark 2:27-28:
27 Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
28 So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
What Jesus is saying is, “This Law that you are fixating on, wrapping yourself in, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a gift from God. The Sabbath is a blessing from God. God blesses you. There is nothing you can do to earn the favor of God.”
“So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The Messiah is in your midst, God in the flesh. God is not under his rules, he wrote his rules. His Law is a reflection of his perfection, of his holiness, of his glory.
The Sabbath ultimately points us to the eternal rest that we will have in Christ. It says in Hebrews 4:9-10:
9 Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.
10 For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.
There is a freedom in the eternal rest that we have in Jesus.
It is a freedom that was paid for by the blood of Christ on the cross.
It is a freedom that says my past doesn’t define who I am. Jesus has taken on my sins, and I am free in him.
I don’t have to be stuck in bondage. I am free in Jesus.
Do you know the freedom that you can have in Jesus Christ? Is Jesus the Savior of your soul? Or are you someone who is stuck in bondage? Jesus paid the price for you on the cross. The Lord calls us to a life of love over legalism. It is a love paid for on the cross, so that you and I can be free in Jesus.
Conclusion
Legalism attempts to control people, but love blesses people.
Legalism leads to bondage, but Christ's love leads his people to freedom.
Conclude
Prayer
Last Song
Doxology
24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’
24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
You are dismissed. Have a great week in the Lord!
