The Gospel of Mark Part 7
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I. FASTING or FEASTING?
I. FASTING or FEASTING?
I. Fasting or Feasting?
A. Fasting?
18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
So picture Jesus at the table in Levi’s home. He is feasting, eating, drinking, and enjoying the conversation around the table - He is fellowshipping with F-O-O-D!
These disciples (not Jesus’) were all fasting on a regular basis, but Jesus’ disciples were feasting! Which was the correct thing to do? - BOTH!
The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement which was once a year:
Leviticus 16:29 (NKJV)
29 “This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you.
But the Pharisees had added to that by fasting twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) as a display of piety
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
So, once again, the traditions of men are held as being equal to the word of God.
This was one of the main things that Jesus had to combat against during His earthly ministry.
It wasn’t that Jesus was opposed to fasting. In fact, He commends it in other places in the gospels:
16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
The Pharisees were too busy virtue-signaling to see that they were actually hypocrites.
29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
But this was not the time for Jesus’ disciples to fast - it was time to celebrate!
I. Fasting or Feasting?
A. Fasting?
B. Feasting?
The New Wedding
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
Jesus used another metaphoric expression to help the disciples of John and the Pharisees understand how people should have been responding to Jesus’ presence. (previously He used the proverb of the healthy not needing a doctor)
A wedding is a time to live it up, not for mourning and somber reflection.
Wedding celebrations back then would last for up to seven days, in which the guests had no other concern but to enjoy food and drink and to celebrate!
For Jesus, this was about what was appropriate for the disciples to do.
When the groom is present, it is inappropriate and disrespectful for the wedding party to refuse to eat as if they are mourning a loss.
That would cast a shadow on the wedding celebration.
Weddings were a time for feasting and celebration, not sadness and mourning - which are what fasting represents.
Jesus was also using this as an opportunity to reference His identity with God and as God:
5 For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. 6 For the Lord has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God.
Also, the main theme of the book of Hosea is God’s love for Israel as her Husband, faithful and loving even though she is not faithful.
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the Lord.”
John the Baptizer also referred to Jesus this way:
29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.
John was, in effect, Jesus’ “best man”!
Just like at the healing of the paralytic, when Jesus forgave sin to show that He was God, now He is claiming to be the Bridegroom of Israel, which is also God.
20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.
This is Jesus’ first prediction of His death in Mark. (although a veiled prediction)
For the hearers, the imagery of a bridegroom being forcibly removed from a wedding feast was foreign and even unthinkable! (as it is with us!!)
For a first century wedding, it was the guests that left the couple after the feast, not the bridegroom leaving by himself. Even in today’s wedding receptions, the bride and groom leave together!
I. Fasting or Feasting?
A. Fasting?
B. Feasting?
The New Wedding
The New Cloth
The New Wine
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”
Jesus now continues to explain His presence and His mission with two more parables:
The Parable of the Cloth
The Parable of the Wineskins
Both the New Cloth and the New Wine represent Jesus Himself, and His incompatibility with the existing system of corrupted Judaism.
The Jewish leaders had corrupted Judaism by adding the traditions of the elders and equating man’s ideas with God’s laws.
They had also misinterpreted may of the prophetic texts that described the Suffering Servant, which meant that they were looking for the Conquering King before His time.
Jesus’ ministry could never be assimilated into this broken system.
Fasting (and the pride that the Pharisees associated it with) had no place in the presence of the King of the Kingdom.
New cloth has not been washed or wetted, and then sewn on an existing piece of clothing will shrink when it does get wet and pull away from the seam, making the original hole even worse.
EX: a pre-shrunk t-shirt
New wine that has not fermented yet and is poured into old wineskins (dried and brittle) will expand as it ferments, building up gases, and eventually bursting the brittle skins, destroying both the wine and the wineskins.
These parables also looked forward to the Age of Grace - where the Mosaic Law was made obsolete as a means for justification because of Jesus’ sacrifice - the final propitiation - where the justice of God was completely and once for all satisfied.
A Wedding, A New Garment, and New Wine all point to the fact that God was doing something NEW by the presence of Jesus.
Jesus’ teachings and His miracles all point to this fact.
The disciples of the Pharisees and of John should have listened closer to the crowd’s responses to Jesus:
Mark 1:27 (NKJV)
27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
Mark 2:12 (NKJV)
12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
God was doing something new!
Jesus is the New Bridegroom!
Jesus is the New Cloth!
Jesus is the New Wine!
Application: What new thing is God doing in your life? Are you aware of His working? Are there old garments or old wineskins in your mind or in your heart that need to be discarded?
Let’s not miss what God is doing right in front of us!
II. Harvesting & Healing: Sabbath Controversy
II. Harvesting & Healing: Sabbath Controversy
I. Fasting or Feasting?
II. Harvesting & Healing: Sabbath Controversy
A. Harvesting on the Sabbath
23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Once again, the Pharisees are asking questions.
They have been doing this all along, asking questions as a way of condemning Jesus and His followers.
Remember, these leaders are “well”, not “sick”…they are “righteous”, not “sinners” - at least in their eyes.
Their self-righteousness has blinded them to the truth.
Was Jesus disobeying the Law of God by allowing His disciples to pick some heads of grain on the Sabbath?
The Pharisees might have been thinking of this passage:
15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
But did that include picking some grain by hand for personal eating?
25 When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain.
Using a sickle would be classified as “reaping”, would be considered work.
But Jesus’ disciples were not using a sickle, they were using their hands.
They were not reaping - they were simply having a snack.
The Pharisees’ response is also very hypocritical.
They had, no doubt, raised a piece of food from a table or plate to their mouth that day, unless they were fasting.
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: 26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ accusation with a reminder from the Old Testament.
The point Jesus is making is that there were exceptions to Torah - there were extenuating circumstances that allowed for exceptions to the letter of the Law in exchange for honoring the spirit of the Law and /or the gracious character of God.
Let’s look at two examples from the OT:
Aaron and Moses
David and Abiathar (Ahimelech)
And then we will compare to Jesus and His disciples and their “illegal snacking practices”!
18 See! Its blood was not brought inside the holy place; indeed you should have eaten it in a holy place, as I commanded.” 19 And Aaron said to Moses, “Look, this day they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and such things have befallen me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?” 20 So when Moses heard that, he was content.
Aaron had just lost two of his four sons due to their disobedience with the fire for the altar.
He had been told not to mourn, but to continue with his priestly duties.
The sacrifice was supposed to have been eaten by Aaron and his two remaining sons, but they let it burn up on the altar instead.
When Moses confronts Aaron - Aaron points out that to eat the sacrifice (which was required by Law) would have actually been dishonoring to God as the feast was a celebration - an inappropriate action in light of God’s judgement on the disobedient sons.
Moses was content because he recognized that Aaron was actually correct in making this exception to the rule.
Now let’s jump to the passage that Jesus was referring to out of 1st Samuel:
1 sam. 21.4-6
4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.” 5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.
By law, the shewbread was to be eaten only by priests, and David and his men were not Levitical priests.
Yet David requests an exception to the rule because he and his men were suffering from hunger and needed sustenance.
Ahimelech was a vested priest and therefore had the authority to interpret the Law. In this case, he found an exception because the lives of people were at stake.
In both of these OT cases, the actual Torah (God’s Law) was broken to make exceptions under extreme, specific circumstances.
But in the case of Jesus’ disciples picking some heads of grain to have a snack was NOT an exception to the Law - they weren’t even breaking the Law!
23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Did Jesus’ disciples actually break the Law? - NO!
Was Jesus asking for an exception to the Law, like Aaron and David? - NO!
The Pharisees’ stubborn focus on the traditions of the elders made them spiritually blinded to the Law itself.
They had, in fact, seared their conscience to know right from wrong.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
The Pharisees should have intuitively known that it was ok for the disciples to eat a few grains from a standing field because they needed sustenance.
But they could not do so because they had determined to make a law for every situation in life - even if it wasn’t part of God’s Law.
Jesus’ point is: “If the Law of God has exceptions, why doesn’t your tradition also have exceptions?” - It should have been a logical conclusion.
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was given as a day of rest from their ordinary work.
God gave them the Sabbath as a gift! They had spent their entire lives working as slaves every single day. And now they got to have a break from that once a week.
The Jewish people were not to live in bondage to the Sabbath, they were to enjoy it!
12 Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.
The Sabbath was about REST AND REFRESHMENT, not dogmatically abstaining FROM REFRESHMENT!
Mark 2:27–28 (NKJV)
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Here again is Mark’s recurring theme of AUTHORITY.
Jesus is making a bold claim here - He is claiming sovereign authority over the use of the Sabbath Day.
This is proven in the next recorded controversy in Mark:
I. Fasting or Feasting?
II. Harvesting & Healing: Sabbath Controversy
A. Harvesting on the Sabbath
B. Healing on the Sabbath
1 And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
So here is the set-up: The Pharisees were looking for ways to take Jesus down.
They didn’t like Him, they didn’t like His message, and they didn’t like His refusal to conform to the traditions of the elders.
They couldn’t control Him or intimidate Him, so they wanted to eliminate Him.
Think about these Pharisees’ evil thoughts and what day they are having those evil thoughts…the Sabbath Day! - Hypocrites!!
They are meeting in the synagogue on the Sabbath for worship, but instead they are lying in wait for Jesus so they can accuse Him.
Revelation 12:10 (NKJV)
10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
This word for “accuse” is the same Greek word used in Mark 3:2!
The Pharisees were indeed the sons of the devil:
John 8:44 (NKJV)
44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.
Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone in the synagogue could see the condition of this man’s hand, so he asks him to stand in the middle of the room so that all can see.
So with the man standing before Jesus, Jesus turns to the Pharisees with a question of His own.
His question gets to the heart of the essence of the Sabbath controversy: What is LAWFUL to do on the Sabbath?
In this case the good thing to do would be to heal the man’s hand.
But the Pharisees refuse to answer Jesus - WHY? Because no matter what answer they give, it would undermine their position on the Sabbath!
To “do good” and to “save life” are actions of God - God is the ultimate GOOD in the universe, and God is the ultimate SAVIOR of the universe, so doing good and saving life are exactly what must be done at all times, regardless of what day it is.
Evil does not rest on the Sabbath, so neither should anyone avoid an opportunity to do good and to save life.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Mark 3:5 (NKJV)
5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
Notice Jesus’ inner responses to the Pharisees’ silence:
Anger - This was righteous anger, not sinful. It was indignation at the state of the hearts of these men, who were suppose to be the spiritual leaders of the nation faltering and failing in their roles and having the opposite effect.
Why wasn’t this anger sinful? - It was directed at sin and it was under control. Anger is something that God gave us so that we might have the energy to go and do whatever needs to be done.
Grief - This was the emotion that offset Jesus’ anger - He was grieved over the condition of the Pharisees’ hearts - a genuine sorrow over their hardened hearts.
So Jesus does the GOOD THING - He SAVES LIFE by healing this man’s hand, but without any physical contact - He simply SPOKE it to be healed!
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
These men were standing right in front of their Creator God!
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
Jesus, who spoke the universe into existence now spoke this man’s hand healed…and what is the response of the Pharisees?
6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.
Once again, exposing their own hypocrisy by plotting a murder on the Sabbath day.
Jesus’ question still ringing in their ears - “Is it lawful to save life, or to kill?”
This narrative should give us pause to reflect and consider our own hearts - Do we also remain blind to our sin?…hardened in our hearts?