Mark 2:23-28 "Lord of the Sabbath"

Introduction:

The Pharisees were one of the groups of religious leaders who had an issue with Jesus from the early days of His ministry.

They were always looking for some way to accuse Jesus of some kind of law violation.

They were trying to discredit Him and His messianic ministry. So they used the legality of the Mosaic Law as a tool to undermine His messianic ministry.

And in our text this morning we see an example of this. Where the Pharisees had a problem with the behavior of the disciples of Jesus.

Look back at your text to the Problem being described in verse 23-24:

I. The Problem (23-24).

The problem was due to the disciples of Jesus walking through the fields of grain and they began plucking off heads of grain on the Sabbath.

This plucking off of grain was permitted in the law. No one was permitted to put a sickle to a farmers grain except the farmer. But grain plucking was permitted under the law according to Deuteronomy 23:25.

The problem for the Pharisees was not the plucking of grain but the fact that Jesus’ disciples were doing it on the Sabbath.

Under the oral tradition of rabbinical teaching recorded in the Mishnah the action of harvesting grain was forbidden on the Sabbath. So the Pharisees point this out to Jesus and they want to know why His disciples are doing this on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees had laws that they issued for the purpose of keeping people from breaking the laws of God. They even had laws about how many steps one could take before it was considered to be work. So the idea was that if you obeyed rabbinical teaching then you would be kept far from breaking God’s laws.

They saw law observance of being the legal duty of everyone in order to have the favor and blessing of God. The had no understanding of how someone could violate their view of the law and actually be of God.

This is when our Lord reminds them of an Old Testament precedent from the life of King David. Look at the Precedent from 25-26 in our text.

II. The Precedent (25-26).

Jesus goes back into the Old Testament to I Samuel 21:1-6 where David, as he was fleeing from King Saul, ate the consecrated bread of the priest.

It was only lawful for the priest to eat this bread in the Holy Place but David and his men ate it because they were hungry and needed some food. Yet they were not condemned for their action even though it technically broke the law of God. It would appear that the precedent that Jesus appeals to is that human need is a greater priority than religious ritual.

This sets the stage for our Lord to issue a governing principle regarding the Sabbath that help us even in our day to understand how observing the Sabbath is not built on a principle of the legality of the law but upon the Spirit of the law. And from this we are informed in our understanding of the priority of Christ.

Look at the the principle in verses 27-28:

III. The Principle (27-28).

The Principle is seen in verse 27: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This would indicate that when God instituted the seventh day as a day of rest that it wasn’t for legalistic purposes but God instituted the Sabbath for the benefit and well-being of man.

Understand that the Pharisees had made Sabbath observance so restrictive that the had laws in place over and above the Mosaic law code just to keep you from getting close to law violation.

Kind of like some of the guard rails at the Grand Canyon. In some places there are double guard rails and sometimes there are signs on the other side of the guard rails saying, “please do not climb on rocks” or “falling hazard” or “please keep your child behind the railing”.

The Pharisees were big on legal prohibitions on many things but they failed to understand the Spirit of the law when it came to things like the Sabbath.

But the Sabbath wasn’t put in place to restrict us but to direct man’s focus away from the work of our hands back to our relationship to God for our own restoration.

Look at Exodus 31:14–17 from the Lords own mouth: “14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ””

Notice Christian that the Lord labored in creation for six days and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. Do you think that the infinite God who is omnipotent in power who just had to speak words to cause creation to break forth out of nothing needed to be refreshed on the seventh day?

Who would the eternal, infinite and omnipotent God look to to have His batteries recharged?

You see the Sabbath rest was not because He ran down and needed a day off but the Sabbath rest was His model and provision for us because He knew that we would run down and need a rest. But it was also a way for us to remember the place and person in which we find our provision and identity. The Sabbath points us away from delighting in the self and our labors and back to our Creator and covenant provider.

So where is the priority of Christ seen then in the Sabbath? Glad you asked.

So, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Now here there is a difficulty in verse 28. Theologians differ on whether “Son of Man” is a title for Christ from Daniel 7 or is it a generic term due to the principle from verse 27.

I believe it is best understood in Mark’s use of the term to understand it as being a title in fulfillment of Daniel 7:13-14. We have already seen Mark use it in the context of the Messianic Kingdom previously and we will see it about 10 more times in Mark’s gospel.

I don’t know why the ESV capitalizes “Son of Man” as a title but then doesn’t capitalize “Lord” in asserting His dominion. In this case the NIV and the NKJV get it right by capitalizing both.

So if Christ is the Son of Man then He would be the man that is primarily being spoken of in the principle of verse 27. That fits with Colossians 1:16–17: “16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

But if God instituted the Sabbath as a way for us to remember the place and person in which we find our provision and identity. And if the Sabbath points us away from delighting in the self and our labors and back to our Creator and covenant provider.

Then how appropriate for us to know and understand that the Sabbath was instituted in the creation order to reflect in principle of what Christ one day embody in the Incarnation as the Son of Man.

Because in Christ we have our identity and in Christ we have the manifestation of the provision of God and in Christ we have God’s call to rest from our works of labor as a means to earn God’s favor while finding rest in God’s provision to us by His sovereign grace to us in Christ.

The Sabbath was created to reflect in principle God’s provision of the gospel in Christ.

Conclusion:

Next Sunday I will attempt, Lord willing to address whether or not if there still remains the practice of a Sabbath rest and if it does exist then what does it entail.

But Christian whenever I appeal to you to rest in Christ or to rest in God’s provision of grace to you, I am using Sabbath language for a reason. Because we can see in the Sabbath principle that it is God’s provision for your benefit and this takes priority over the legality of the law for you. Because Christ has already kept the priority of the law for you and for your benefit and He calls you to rest in Him.

This is why we confess our sin of self reliance and performance upon good works to merit our own standing instead of resting in Christ. The gospel of Christ is in the place of the legality of the Sabbath to point us back to our Creator as the defining authority of our identity and the provision of His grace for our benefit.

Christian confess your sin and find your rest in Him.

Unbeliever to live out self determined identity and purpose cut off from Christ is live floating on an Ocean of waves without a sail or a rudder. You are being driven and tossed by the waves of the culture. You are at the mercy of what Bunyan referred to as Vanity Fair. It has been described by one author, as a bustling marketplace where worldly goods and pleasures are sold, and it represents the temptations and distractions that can lead pilgrims away from their spiritual journey.

Unbeliever you were made for God and His glory. You were not made to live out your life for the glory of your own vanity.

Come to Christ for in Him is the only place of refuge from the wrath to come and the only hope of eternal life in the presence of God. Let’s pray!