The Lord of the Sabbath

Mark 2:23-3:6

If you brought your bibles turn with me over to the gospel of Mark chapter two. The gospel of Mark chapter two and in a moment we are going to read through chapter two down to chapter three verse six.

There is a crisis taking place in our country. A crisis of leadership.

We the people, have elected law-makers who are more concerned about themselves than the American people.

They have shut our government down because, they are more concerned about maintaining power and control, and serving their party than the people. In fact, we have leaders who believe the American people are here to serve them.

Well,  In today’s text we’re going to see a group of law makers, called the Pharisees, and they created some of the most ridiculous laws about how a person was to observe the Sabbath. All because they wanted to maintain power and control over the people.

They took a spiritual principle that God intended for our good, and they became overzealous, overreaching and oppressive to the people they were meant to serve.

And we will see that Jesus challenges them and reestablishes God’s principle of the Sabbath. And that is what we are going to talk about today; Jesus demonstrates His authority over the law-makers and their legalism.

Mark 2:23–3:6 KJV 1900

And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

(Pray)

Father, I thank you for your Word. I pray that your Word would speak to the hearts and the minds of your people. I pray that You would give us understanding of your Word and give me the ability to teach it clearly.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen!!

When we read this passage this morning, we might begin to think to ourselves, how is any of this relevant? And what does any of this have to do with us today?

I have to admit that if I came to church this morning and the man stood up and read about people picking heads of grain in a corn field or men with withered hands in a synagogue, I might think that I came to church on the wrong day.

But then when we read verse 6 we see that there is something bigger going on in this story than we think. Because verse 6 seems like an incredible over reaction by the Pharisees.

You mean to tell me they want to kill a man for eating when He is hungry and healing a man in need of healing? Then we realize the problem wasn’t heads of grain and withered hands, but the problem was hardness of heart.

You see Their laws were more important to them than people who were hungry and their laws were more important to them than people who were unhealthy, and Jesus wasn’t following the rules. So, He needed to die.

Why? because He challenged their authority. That is what this passage is about; people and their legalism trying to prevent the plan of God and they don’t even know it.

The Bible defines legalism as self-righteousness that believes that what we do, is what makes you right with God.

Legalism is repulsive to God because it says, what you did for me Lord isn’t good enough. What you did by sending your only begotten Son to die on a cross so that I could be saved, that is not good enough. In fact, I’ve got a better way, and I want everyone to do it my way.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus + faith = our salvation. That is it,  and legalism says, “no, I want more.” That is not good enough.

You need to be baptized a certain way. You need to pray a certain way. You need to believe just like I believe, or else you are not good enough for God. How ridiculous is that?

That is the deepest, ugliest form of pride there is, and it is repulsive to God. Because it repels God’s people and prevents people from being saved.

It comes straight out of the pits of hell and is a tool of the enemy. I call it the Pharisee mentality. Let me tell you how ridiculously legalistic these people were.

They followed around the sinless Jesus looking for a way they could catch Him in sin, and when they couldn’t find anything, they decided He needed to die.

And that is what we see in our passage this morning. Jesus reclaims the Sabbath for God and demonstrates His authority over legalism.

He Proclaims His Authority, 2:23-28

  Vs. 28 “Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

The tittle “Son of Man” is something that Jesus called Himself throughout the gospels. It refers to His humanity but is also refers to a Messianic tittle that refers to His authority.

It comes from Daniel 7:13, and the authority given to Him by the ancient of days.

Then this phrase Lord of the Sabbath goes even deeper. That puts the exclamation point on the problem. Because Jesus is claiming to be the God.

In Genesis 2:3 God established the Sabbath on the seventh day of creation. He rested from all of His work and He blessed the day and sanctified it and now Jesus is claiming He is the Lord of that day. That means He is proclaiming His authority as God in the world.

And that is a problem because the Sabbath was the very focal point of the Jewish religion. And it shows that Jesus was claiming to be the author of the Sabbath. The very one who created it.

The Pharisees were fanatical about the Sabbath. They would go way beyond anything the scripture taught.

The scripture gives no restrictions for the Sabbath other than you are not supposed to work, and that is for our own benefit. God gave us a day of rest because we need it!

But the Pharisees, took their legalism to a whole new level and made rules that were as restrictive as possible.

They wrote a book called the Talmud, and in it there are 24 chapters of Sabbath rules alone.

They believed the more you deprived yourself the more Holy you become. And then they wanted everyone else to do the same.. They wanted to make everyone comply with their rules. But, Jesus rejected that.

He stood up to the core of their false religion and forced them to make a choice and He does the same thing to us today.

You have to choose the gospel or your works. You have to choose faith in Jesus or faith in yourself to be made right with God. And as simple as that choice sounds there are so many people that choose faith in themselves, rather than faith in God.

But, this confrontation did not begin with Jesus proclaiming His authority over the Sabbath. It began with a question.

Notice Vs. 23-24 “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. And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

The Pharisees had taken to following Jesus and His disciples around, hiding behind stalks of corn, spying on them, waiting for them to break the law.

And of course, they do break the law because everyone did, no one could keep it. In fact, the Pharisees were breaking their own law. They said you could not walk more than 1999 steps on the Sabbath.

So, by following Jesus around through the corn fields their breaking their own man made laws.

How pathetic is this, that people will watch other people in the hopes that they will do something wrong so they can accuse them. I can’t help but read this and say, ‘get a life.’

We see the same thing in our society today with the cancel culture. You got to be careful what words you use so you don’t offend anyone. There are more words being deleted from the dictionary than are being added to it.

And we see it in the church. You don’t read from the right bible. You don’t baptize in the right way. You don’t pray like I pray. So, your not holy enough for God. It is really pretty pathetic.

 The fact is in our story the disciples were not breaking the law. At least not the law of God. Duet. 23:25, “When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.

You see God’s law was an act of charity that allowed for liberty and freedom. While man’s law was an act of oppression. And legalism will always do that, it seeks power and authority while God offers us grace.

 That is what Jesus is talking about in verse 27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

It is for our benefit not for God’s benefit. God doesn’t need the rest. He gave it as a rest for us. Jesus said, “come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

 Also, I love the correction we see in verse 26, He says, “Have you not read what David did?”  In other words, don’t you know your Bible?

The reason I love that is because of course they had. These were Old Testament scholars. They had not only read their Bible but were required to memorize large portions of it and even entire books. And Jesus uses this to point out the flaw in their thinking.

The lesson in this for us is that we can never live up to God’s standards ourselves. We can never work hard enough to get to heaven. 

We have to put our trust in Christ and do it His way. And really that is what is best for us because God’s grace has done the work for us.

But there will always be people full of pride that will say, your not doing it right. You have to do it my way.

John Henry is an American folk hero, and one of the stories that is written about John Henry is that He once raced a steam drill tunneling it’s way through a mountain. John Henry used a shovel, and he beat the machine but he fell dead in the end from his superhuman effort.

 There is a syndrome named after John Henry. People with this syndrome believe, if they work hard enough, and long enough at anything they can make it happen.

We have those people in the church today and Jesus had them to they were called Pharisees. Eph. 2:8-9

 So, Jesus demonstrated His authority over legalism by proclaiming it. He said, “Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

He Proves His Authority 3:1-6

With the healing of the man with the withered hand Jesus proves His Authority. First I want you to look at the command in verse 1-3.

 The second scene of our story shifts from the corn fields to the synagogue.

We don’t know if this is the same day or if it is another Sabbath but were told that “He entered into the synagogue again.”

So, this was a regular custom for Jesus. This was His method of evangelism. He would go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and teach.

 But, on this particular Sabbath things were different. There was a man there with a withered hand, and they (Pharisees) were watching Him (Jesus) to see if He would heal him.

This gives me the impression that this man with the withered hand was a plant. The Pharisees brought him there on purpose.

Not that he didn’t really have a withered hand just that he was a pawn in the Pharisees game. They found him and brought him to the synagogue to see what Jesus would do. Because you were not allowed to heal someone or pray for them on the Sabbath.

  But then I want you to see how Jesus reacts to the man. He calls the man out. He commands him to come forward in front of everyone. Why?

Because He doesn’t have anything to hide. He is going to heal the man and He is going to do it right in the plain view of everyone.

They are watching Him in secret, but He is going to heal him in the open. Jesus is saying if you want to accuse me of having compassion on someone then so be it.

 The lesson in this for us is that a person in need always trumps our tradition. In other words, do not get so caught up in doing church that you miss out on people.

God’s business is the people. The task of the church is not as important as the task of the people.

 Then I want you to see the question in verses 4-5. Jesus says, “is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”

And it is a rhetorical question because of course you are to do good.

James says that it is a sin to know what the right thing is to do and not to do it. It is a sin of omission.

The Pharisees know this and that’s why they stay silent. Staying silent is probably the best thing for them to do because we are told that Jesus became angry.

  BTW, this is the only time in the New Testament where the word anger is used to describe Jesus.

There are times we see Him get angry and act in anger. He was full of holy indignation when he chased the money changers out of the temple and said, “You have made my Father’s house a den of thieves, but it will be called a house of prayer.

We see Him get angry with the Pharisees in Matthew 23 and call them a bunch of white- washed tombs.

 But here Mark uses the word anger to describe Jesus, and why was He angry? Because of their hypocrisy. They would rather keep their rules then see a man be healed and grieved the heart of Jesus.

  Jesus says to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” It is important to understand, Jesus could of healed this man with his hands in his pockets. Jesus didn’t need this man to stretch out his hand. He could have healed this man with a word while he was walking home.

But, He did this on purpose. He did this to show them His authority and the power of God. He did this to show them He is the incarnate Son of God who has authority over the world!

  Finally, I want you to see the connection. Verse 6. Verse 6 shows us an unholy allegiance between the Pharisees and the Herodians.

There could not be two more polar -opposite groups of people. The Herodians were a political group who were followers of King Herod. They were friends of the Romans and the Pharisees hated the Romans because they were enemies of the Jewish religion.

But, these two groups form a bond because they have a common enemy in Jesus. And, they begin to plot and plan how they will eventually take Him and put Him on a cross.

  I want you to notice this phrase in vs. 6 “the Pharisees went out.”

You see instead of celebrating what they had just seen take place in the synagogue. Instead of rejoicing over the power of God that had just healed a man with a withered hand, they went out.

They left there the same way they came in. unchanged and hard hearted. The question is what will we do? Will we celebrate with Jesus and what He does in the church and in people’s lives, or will we go out and leave the same way we came in with a hard heart?

Conclusion

The one thing I want you to realize in all the stories we read in the gospels. Jesus never got angry with a sinner. He never got angry with a tax collector. He did not become angry with people who were sick. He didn’t become angry with the woman caught in adultery, or the woman by the well in Samaria who had five husbands.

  Jesus became angry with the legalistic people who were playing church. He got angry with the hypocrisy of people who should have known God and what the right thing to do was, but they didn’t.

The Pharisees in this story, are a negative example for us never to follow.

We are all sinners in need of a Savior. We need to repent and ask God for forgiveness and to help us to never become so legalistic that we lose our compassion for people.

(pray)

Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your love and compassion for people. We recognize your authority in our lives. Help us to never become so legalistic that we forget about your grace.

In Jesus name, Amen