A New Kind of Rabbi

When the Jews came back from exile, they had high hopes for God to return to them and set everything right.

Zechariah 7:2–3 CSB

Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for the Lord’s favor by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Armies as well as the prophets, “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?”

They had fasted to mourn God’s absence. The question is, can I stop fasting? Is God coming back?

But he didn’t. So Ezra the teacher of the law comes to help them sort things out. He tries to figure out what God hasn’t returned, and the only thing he can find to blame it on is the fact that they have been intermarrying with foreign women. Now, God never told them not to marry foreign women--he told them not to marry into the Canaanites. But apparently foreign women “like” the Canaanites is close enough. And he FREAKS OUT.

Ezra 9:3–7 CSB

When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and robe, pulled out some of the hair from my head and beard, and sat down devastated. Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me, because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat devastated until the evening offering. At the evening offering, I got up from my time of humiliation, with my tunic and robe torn. Then I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said: My God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face toward you, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt is as high as the heavens. Our guilt has been terrible from the days of our ancestors until the present. Because of our iniquities we have been handed over, along with our kings and priests, to the surrounding kings, and to the sword, captivity, plundering, and open shame, as it is today.

Ezra 9:14 CSB

should we break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit these detestable practices? Wouldn’t you become so angry with us that you would destroy us, leaving neither remnant nor survivor?

Ezra is anxious--he misinterprets the law AND God’s character.

He has to guess what’s going on in God’s mind.

Nehemiah does the same thing:

Nehemiah 13:17–18 CSB

I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil you are doing—profaning the Sabbath day? Didn’t your ancestors do the same, so that our God brought all this disaster on us and on this city? And now you are rekindling his anger against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”

Nehemiah 13:25 CSB

I rebuked them, cursed them, beat some of their men, and pulled out their hair. I forced them to take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or yourselves!

So Ezra and Nehemiah set themselves up as teachers of the law. They needed to teach everyone how to keep the law properly so God wouldn’t crush them. That’s where the Rabbis came from.

Now let’s look at the kind of Rabbi Jesus was.

Read Mark 2:13-17

Mark 2:17 CSB

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The disciples weren’t anxious about AVOIDING sinners because their rabbi could HEAL SIN. (Mark 2:17)

Read Mark 2:23-27

Mark 2:25–27 CSB

He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry—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?” Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

The disciples weren’t anxious about ACCIDENTALLY breaking the law because their Rabbi was the JUDGE of the law. (Mark 2:25-27)

Read Mark 2:18-22

Mark 2:19–22 CSB

Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”

The disciples weren’t anxious about God’s PRESENCE because their Rabbi was RESTORING God’s PRESENCE himself. (Mark 2:18-22)

Following Jesus

Bring with Jesus FREES us from ANXIETY.