The Heart of Obedience

Open your Bible with me to Mark 2.

As you find your place, let me ask you a question:

Why do you do the things that you do?

Most of us would like to believe that there is meaning and purpose behind what we do.

But far too often, if we’re honest, we do things the way that we do them because that is how we’ve always done them.

Fill in the blank for me: The shortest distance between two points is (a straight line).

This is conventional wisdom.

All of us were taught this in basic geometry.

Many of us live by this principle in things we do day in and day out.

BUT IT ISN’T ALWAYS TRUE

In 1954, a pilot named Arthur Murray was the first person to fly to a plane to an altitude of 90,000 feet.

Seeing, with his own eyes, the curvature of the earth, he flew in an arc, not in a straight line.

In this, he applied a geometric law that says on a sphere, the shortest distance between two points is actually a curve.

You see, it turns out that the parameters that govern a rule are as important as the rule itself!

Let’s turn to our passage together. This morning, we’re going to be reading from Mark 2, beginning in verse 23.

As is our custom, I invite you to stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word as we read together.

Mark 2:23–3:6 CSB

On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 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. So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand. In order to accuse him, they were watching him closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath. He told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.” 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. 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. Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.

Pray, invite people to sit.

In this passage we see two different occurrences.

We don’t know when they happened, but it could well have been on the same day.

In both cases, the pharisees are struggling with what Jesus is doing because of the Sabbath.

The pharisees were hung up on the law.

But their obedience of the law had more to do with making themselves appear righteous than it did with their actual holiness and relationship with God.

Jesus told the Pharisees that true obedience was about God’s intention, not the letter of the law.

As we seek to follow Jesus, these things are still true.

True obedience seeks God’s heart, not religious obligation.

So, how do we seek God’s heart over just going through the motions of religious obligations?

Our passage gives 3 clear priorities:

Look at verse 23:

Mark 2:23–27 CSB

On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 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.

What is happening in these verses?

At this time, there were two concepts that were the single most emphatic contrasts between Jews and the rest of the world:

Circumcision

The observation of the Sabbath.

The pharisees had made extensive rules defining what was and was not considered work on the Sabbath.

There were 39 prohibitions related to general categories of daily life.

One of those prohibitions was harvesting.

I grew up in an agricultural community. And can I just say that what these guys were doing was not harvesting! Nor were they stealing anything.

Deuteronomy 23:24–25 CSB

“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want until you are full, but do not put any in your container. 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.

The pharisees here were equating some hungry guys snagging a snack to “working” on the Sabbath or “harvesting.”

Jesus could have quoted Deuteronomy to them, just as I have done to you, but instead He takes them to another Old Testament occurrence.

When Abiathar was High priest, Before David was King David, he was on the run from Saul who was king and wanted to kill David.

As he was on the run, David came to the city of Nod, where the tent of meeting was set up (the temple wasn’t built yet)

David went into the tent and the priest Ahimelech gave David consecrated food to eat, which the law only allowed the priests to eat.

And the point here was not to excuse David’s actions, but to expose the hearts of the Pharisees.

Their zeal was not for God or righteousness-it was to puff up themselves and their great understanding.

But, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

In David’s case, the law was broken and yet it was an act of mercy for the good of God’s anointed.

In our passage, the law was not even broken, and yet somehow they were missing God’s mercy, which was the whole point of the Sabbath!

What does Jesus mean that the Sabbath was for man?

The Sabbath was a blessing given to the people by God.

The Sabbath was a chance for mercy, rest, and redemption.

The Sabbath was never meant to be a burden of ritual obligation, but a great gift.

It was an opportunity to lean into the provision of God, which the disciples are doing as they eat what they have not grown or cared for.

The great irony here is that as the Pharisees judged and took up matters of the Law, they were more guilty of breaking Sabbath than the disciples were.

In this, we come to the first of our three priorities in seeking God’s heart, to:

Seek ways to show mercy, not religious obligations.

We are commanded to live as holy and set apart people.

But when we elevate our understanding of the rules over people, we miss the point.

Our God is merciful, not mechanical.

This doesn’t mean that we are to ignore sin or excuse it as permissible.

It does mean that we need to see the person and be slow to cast stones.

We are called to be those that show grace and mercy to those no one treats with grace and mercy.

Love is at the root of mercy, and love is the heart of God.

Religious obligation is a heavy weight that leads to heavy handed, bitter hearts that live for self-elevation.

Love and mercy are gifts that lead to gratitude, humility, and restoration.

Let’s continue. Verse 28:

Mark 2:28 CSB

So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

The second priority in seeking God’s heart is this:

Submit to the Authority of Jesus, not your own understanding.

What Jesus is saying to the Pharisees in verse 28 is that He is KING OF EVERYTHING!

And everything included the Sabbath.

Jesus isn’t just “re-interpreting the Law- HE OWNS IT!”

Jesus is literally every word that has ever come from the mouth of God, wrapped in Human flesh. There is no part of the Law that Jesus misunderstands or misapplies.

But even more than that, He is the boss!

And what Jesus was saying to them must not get lost in our daily lives.

We live under the KINGSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST!

We do our very best to understand and apply God’s Word to our lives.

We want to live free of sin and wrong doing.

We want to obey what we understand to Him to command.

BUT WHEN WE ENCOUNTER IN HIM THROUGH THE WORD SOMETHING THAT CONFLICTS WITH OUR UNDERSTANDING, OUR UNDERSTANDING IS WHAT CHANGES BECAUSE THE AUTHORITY IS HIS, NOT OURS.

This is also another reason for us to continue to extend grace upon grace to others, always acknowledging that our own understanding could be wrong.

My grandfather use to tell me to alway assume you aren’t the smartest person in the room until the others remove all doubt.

What he meant by that is to remain humble and teachable, walking into every situation assuming you could be wrong in your position or understanding.

When I was in school, I wasn’t so quick to raise my hand when I wasn’t sure of the answer. Many times, I was right.

other times, when I was certain of the answer, it would have been better if I’d kept my mouth shut and hand down.

Jesus is the King of the Universe, and if we want to seek His heart, we need to live in humility, constantly extending mercy to others and allowing Him to be the One that directs our steps and corrects our understanding.

Our routines, our understandings, our actions and inactions should be drawing us closer to Jesus. If they aren’t, we likely need to ask Him to reevaluate them or we may need to surrender them entirely.

Look at 3:1 with me:

Mark 3:1–6 CSB

Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand. In order to accuse him, they were watching him closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath. He told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.” 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. 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. Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.

The events of our passage aren’t necessarily sequential. They might have been different Sabbath days.

I imagine them being on the same day.

I see these same Pharisees who were just complaining about the disciples eating are now standing around in the synagogue.

I can picture them, standing there, seeing the man with the withered hand, knowing full well what was about to happen.

Have you ever asked yourself how they knew what He would do?

It is because they knew that Jesus did good works.

And they knew that healing that man would be good.

And they knew that ignoring him would be evil.

And Jesus challenges their thinking on this exact point.

I’m reminded of a verse from James

James 4:17 CSB

So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

The Pharisees are so consumed with their interpretation and understanding of what the Sabbath is and what it demands that they are willing to stand in judgment of Jesus for doing Good, Even though He is God Himself!

It is not lost on me that Jesus made sure that everyone present saw what was happening, by calling the man to the front.

If the Pharisees really thought that Jesus was in the wrong, they would have seized Him then and there.

Instead, they sneak off to talk with others who were in power about how they might work together to get rid of Him.

Their hearts were not seeking what was right and good; they were seeking what fit their agenda and supported their positions.

And in this, we have our final priority this morning, to

Surrender to doing the good that pleases God, not what pleases men.

Until the day that Jesus returns, there will always be Pharisees among us.

There will always be those that value their place, power, and honor over doing what is right.

There will always be people who are so caught up in whatever they think they know that they forget what it means to love people.

You will never please these people in doing the good that God has called us to, yet doing good is exactly what God has called you to.

Ephesians 2:8–10 CSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

You were saved to do good works for God, which He has planned for you since before there was time.

It is always right to do good. It isn’t always easy.

Often it will cost you in how others think of you

It will take money you can’t afford, time you don’t have, and will be inconvenient.

Doing good might mean you suffer personal loss.

Doing good might make you an outcast.

But doing good is what you were created for.

Doing good is pleasing to our Father.

Philippians 2:3–8 CSB

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

Jesus sought your good to the point of His death on the cross in the ultimate act of humility.

The God of the universe, wrapped in human flesh, suffering insufferable anguish all the way to death so that you and I could have life.

What is your heart seeking today?

Are you seeking to be a vessel of mercy, or self-righteous justification?

Are you willing to submit in humility to Jesus’ authority, or are you so bent on what you’ve decided is right you are blocking your own growth and usefulness?

Are you ready to surrender your life to the good you were created to do, or are you unwilling to hurt for what you know is right?

As the worship team comes to lead us in a time of reflection, I invite you to join me in taking these questions to the Lord.

In an act of surrender and submission this morning, let’s seek Jesus’ opinion on where we are.

Let’s allow Him to answer these questions for us.

And if His answers are not what you would like them to be, let today be the day you confess it to Him and start living in His purposes.

Then, make a note on your connections card, and you and I can find some time to talk and pray together.

There is never a bad time to do good for God, so let His good work begin in you right now.

PRAY.