Lord of the Sabbath Part 2

I hope that you all had an awesome Spring break and I am happy to be back with you in the Gospel of Mark. Tonight we will be starting Mark 3 and we will just be looking at the first 6 verses. What we are going to read tonight is really meant to be read with what we read last week at the end of Mark 2. Two weeks ago we saw Jesus being questioned about the Sabbath day which was the day of rest and worship that the Lord gave to the world. In Mark 2:28 we see one of Christ’s clearest claims to be God up to this point in the Gospel of Mark when He not only refers to Himself as the Son of Man but as also the Lord of the Sabbath. By claiming to be Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus is identifying Himself as the One who created the Sabbath and as Creator of it, He has the authority, the Lordship to do whatever He wants with it. So what we see happen at the end of Mark 2 leads directly into Mark 3, even if it is not necessarily the next chronological event that happens. We know that our Bibles have chapters and verses in them right? What we need to remember is that chapters did not appear in the Bible until about the 13th century and verse divisions did not appear until the 15th or 16th century so the sections on the Sabbath in Mark 2 and 3 were not designed to be seen as two separate thoughts but as one thought inspired by the Holy Spirit as Mark wrote his Gospel. Like I mentioned earlier, the Gospel of Mark is not written as a biography of Jesus where Mark goes straight from one point of His life into the next but Mark instead will link moments of Christ’s life together to emphasize a certain divine truth that Mark wanted to teach. Why else do you think it is important for us to not focus so much on chapter and verse divisions in the Bible? God intended for His Word to be read as a whole and we can sometimes miss important truths that God wants us to see. All of that is to emphasize that Mark 3:1-6 really cannot be read properly without an understanding of Mark 2:23-28. The first question that I want to ask you guys is this: What do you think makes God angry? I think that all of us would probably say sin. Sin makes God angry. The presence of evil makes God angry but I think we can go just beyond the presence of evil and say that the absence of doing good makes God angry and that is what we are going to see today. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will read Mark 3:1-6

Mark 3:1–6 NASB95

He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

The Intentions of the Pharisees

As we get into Mark 3, we know that the pharisees, the scribes, the rabbi’s of Christ’s day have already been challenged on the Sabbath and what it is supposed to be about. Here we see the visual evidence, that we sort of mentioned last time when we look at John 5, of Jesus having the authority to be the Lord of the Sabbath through a visible sign of power and healing. We mentioned last time when we talked about the crippled man in John 5 that He who has the authority to heal a crippled man with just a word has the authority to define what the Sabbath is and what it isn’t. We see this again in as Jesus heals the man with the withered hand. Now we don’t know exactly what the problem with this man’s hand was but we do know that it was paralyzed and useless. So, it’s nowhere close to the seriousness of the completely lame man that we saw in John 5 but it is still something that has dramatically impacted this man’s life. Some traditions say that the man was a stonemason and the loss of his hand caused him to lose his job as a stonemason and become homeless but this isn’t 100% certain. The fact that it was just his hand is important and we will come back to it in a bit. The first thing that I want us to do as we come to this passage is become a detective. Words matter and that may be more true than anything when it comes to the words that are in the Bible. I want you to notice a key word or a series of key words. If you were to look at these 6 verses, one of the words that gets repeated is “They” or “them”. Why is that important? Because Mark wants us to see two important things, probably more, but at least 2 that are worth emphasizing for us. The first is that we would see the intentions of the pharisees and the second is that we would see who it is that the anger of our Lord is directed towards. Notice these key statements on the pharisees: “They were watching Him, that they might accuse Him, They kept silent, They might destroy Him.” We see exactly what the Pharisees were doing here. They were looking for any reason that they might put Jesus to death. They did not come with religious curiosity, they came with murderous intentions. They came hoping that Jesus would heal so that they could accuse Him of breaking the Law. Let’s get back to the man’s hand: Ironically by a show of hands, how many of you would say that this man’s paralyzed hand was a lethal injury? It wasn’t. There was no reason per say, where Jesus had to heal Him that very second based on a physical standpoint. The man was not going to die that day by having a crippled hand but Jesus intentionally heals Him on the Sabbath in front of these religious leaders. Remember a couple weeks ago I mentioned all the crazy rules that the rabbi’s and pharisees added to observing the Sabbath. These were things like they could only sew a single stitch in a day and that they could only write one letter a day or else it was considered breaking the Sabbath. Now one of the rules that they had was that you were allowed to seek medical attention if it was a matter of life or death. If you were dying, a doctor would be allowed to help you but if all you have is a withered hand, that would have to wait until the next day. What Jesus is doing here is He is making sure that those that have come to see Him and accuse Him see His intentional compassion towards this man. What do you guys think it means to show intentional compassion? Do you think that all compassion is intentional? Or do you think that in order for compassion to really be compassion that you have to intentionally go out of your way to do it? I think you can unintentionally appear compassionate. If you are walking behind a lady and her baby at the store and the baby loses a shoe, you may pick up the shoe and give it to her without even realizing it. To them that can be seen as a compassionate act but that doesn’t mean that you intentionally are being compassionate. Same thing with holding the door for someone. It is a nice thing to do that is hopefully ingrained in you as just something that you do for someone. Again, I wouldn’t say that you necessarily have to be intentional in doing this which may appear compassionate to someone else. What I want us to realize is that Jesus is flowing with compassion and He intentionally acts to show this compassion. Are you intentional in showing compassion to others? What could that look like in your life and in Mecklenburg County? Before Jesus heals the man, I want you to notice the question that He asks.

A Simple Question

Someone go ahead and read Mark 3:4 “And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.” Who is it that Jesus asks this question to? Is it the man with the withered hand or is it the pharisees and those that were there to accuse Him? It’s to His accusers. Let’s simplify what Jesus asks a little bit more. He asks His accusers, “What is against the law? Is it to do good and save a life? Or is it against the law to do harm and to kill?” Now to us, that’s a simple question isn’t it? Is it against the law to save someone or is it against the law to kill someone? Do you guys think that is a hard question? No it’s not! The answer is supposed to be plain as day that obviously it is more lawful to do good and save a life than it is to take one. Look at it in this way, if you saw a person having a heart attack on the side of the road is it better to call for help and try to help him or is it better for you to run him over with your car? No question right? What Jesus asks is not a hard question. One of the ten commandments says, You shall not kill. It doesn’t matter if it is the Sabbath or not, you are commanded not to kill. Jesus quite literally asks the easiest question that He could probably ask. But what happens? “They kept silent.” They didn’t have an answer. You can sometimes tell more about a person’s heart in their silence than in their words. In their silence, they told more about the darkness of their soul and the depths of their sins than if they had answered the question. Why then are these men silent when such a simple question is asked? First off, it is because they cannot answer half of a question. They can’t just say, “Yes Jesus it is against the Law to kill so saving life is better.” They have to acknowledge all that Jesus asked. To say that it is against the law to do harm and to kill, they have to admit that it is not against the law to do good and to save life. I love the way that John Piper frames this. He says that what Jesus is doing is forcing these leaders into the corner of compassion where they do not want to go and they could not go because of how hard their hearts were. The other reason that they stayed silent was because Jesus knew what their intentions were. Why were they there? They were there because they were watching Him to see if they could find something that they could accuse Him of so that they could destroy Him. They themselves were there to do harm and to kill on the Sabbath. Do you see the irony in all of this? Here we see the religious elites, those that claim to know the Law better than anyone else, coming with the intention of breaking the Law. Those that should be the most compassionate are totally void of compassion. Jesus is arguing to these men that God gave the Sabbath as a blessing and surely if there was ever a day to bless another, it should be on the day that God Himself gave as a gift. But here were these pharisees, these men who knew the Law inside and out, and they totally missed the point. John MacArthur said, “God took no pleasure in the sacrifices or Sabbaths of His people when they refused to do good or show kindness to others.” One of the main problems with the Pharisees and really for the Jews was that they placed so much of an emphasis on legalistic religion without understanding what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. They would much rather observe traditions than show compassion to others and worship God in the way that He desired. Isaiah 1:11-17 makes this painfully clear when Isaiah writes:

Isaiah 1:11–17 NASB95

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.

This is a stinging critique of legalism and works/tradition based worship. May God not be able to say this of what we do in the name of worship! If you were to stop and think about it, would you say that God is pleased with your worship? Is God pleased with your compassion? Look, God has created you to love your neighbor. God has not created you to run a routine in the name of Christian worship. What we also need to understand is the offer that God has before us. He does not end Isaiah 1 without offering repentance. Isaiah 1:18 says, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.’” May our hearts not be like the pharisees where we are totally cold to this invitation. God says in Isaiah 1, “I hate your worship, your sacrifices stink to me, I despise the bloodshed of your hands and heart but despite that, let’s reason together and all the sin of your life and tradition that has so far removed you from me, return to me and I will make those scarlet sins as white as snow.” The Gospel is not just in the New Testament. God’s free forgiveness and grace is seen all through the pages of Scripture. God is a God of great compassion, of perfect love, but where love exists, wrath is possible and we see this in verse 5 of Mark 3.

The Anger of Jesus

Notice what we see in Mark 3:5 “After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” Jesus looks around at them and He doesn’t look around with confusion, He doesn’t look around with disappointment, He looks at them with anger. This is one of the few times in the Gospels where we see that Jesus is explicitly angry. What’s important for us to know here is that Jesus is capable of righteous anger that is untouched by sin. Jesus is angry that these men that are to represent His Father and teach His Word could be so hateful and void of compassion towards those that are suffering. Jesus wasn’t just angry, He was grieved. The Greek word that is used for grieved is only use once in the entire Bible and it is here in Mark 3:5 and it means that Jesus was moved to grief through the sympathy and love that He had for the suffering man and the hardness of the Pharisees heart. Charles Spurgeon said, “He was angry that they should willingly blind their eyes to a truth so plain, an argument so convincing. He had put to them a question to which there could only be one answer, and they would not give it; he had thrown light on their eyes, and they would not see it; he had utterly destroyed their chosen pretext for opposition, and yet they would persist in opposing him. Evidently it is possible to be angry and to be right. Hard to many is the precept, “Be angry and do not sin”; and this fact renders the Savior's character all the more admirable, since he so easily accomplished what is so difficult to us. He could be angry with the sin, and yet never cease to compassionate the sinner. His was not anger which desired evil to its object; no touch of malevolence was in it; it was simply love on fire, love burning with indignation against that which is unlovely.” Intertwined with Jesus’ anger towards their lack of compassion is grief at the lostness and hardness of their heart. At the heart of His righteous anger and grief is perfect love. Yet that perfect love is never void of justice. Jesus can weep and also reprove. He can pour tears out and also have justice rain down upon those that have rejected Him. Look at what Jesus says in Luke 13:34–35 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! “Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” In verse 34 we see weeping but then in verse 35 we see judgement. May we not give Christ a reason to weep over our hard hearts. R.C. Sproul makes an excellent point when he says, “We must guard against reading a story like this, where we see our Lord angry and grief-stricken over human sin, and simply say to ourselves, ‘Oh, those bad Pharisees.’ When we do that, we are just like them. Rather, we should go to God in prayer and say: ‘O God, do not be angry with me. Do not let me give You cause to be furious with me. Do not let me grieve You because my heart is hardened. Instead, tell me what You want from me.” The Pharisees could have seen Jesus in this great moment of compassion for the hurt and suffering and recognized that they were wrong. They could have recognized that their hearts were darkened and their eyes were veiled to the truth but instead they went out all the more motivated to destroy Him. This is an important reminder for us that if you live for Christ, expect to be hated. Expect to be despised, expect to be destroyed. Jesus Himself warns us of this in John 15:20–21 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” Why did the pharisees and the Herodians plot to destroy Jesus? Because they did not truly know the God who had sent Him. Well I have to ask all of you, do you know the One that has sent Jesus? Do you really know the One who shows such great compassion for sinners that it led to the cross? If you do not know God through the Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t know Him at all. You may think that you do but you have no idea. We see in 1 John 2:23 “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.” You cannot have the Father without the Son and you cannot have the Son unless the Father chooses to reveal the Son to you. We’ll talk about this more next week. What can we do then? We pray that God would be merciful to us and we know that all who truly seek after the Lord will receive perfect compassion now and in the age to come. Let’s pray.