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JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH
JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH Mark 2:23-3:6 Key Verse: 2:28 “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In today’s passage we see Jesus confronting the Pharisees twice on the Sabbath. At the end of the second confrontation, we see the that the Pharisees and the Herodians (Jews who were aligned with the Roman ruling authorities) already plotting ways to have Jesus put to death. There were very good reasons these two groups would get to together to do this, but before I talk about those reasons, I want to review what Jesus has done so far in this gospel. First, Jesus went out to John the Baptist and was baptized by him. In this way Jesus fully identified with sinful human beings and “fulfilled all righteousness.” Then Jesus began his own ministry by teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. The Bible says “The people were amazed by His teaching because He taught as one who had authority, not as one of the teachers of the law.” His teaching was followed by a demonstration of His authority when He healed a man with an evil spirit. At this point I think the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were beginning to take a serious look at who Jesus really was. Maybe they weren’t too concerned at this point because He only had a handful of followers, however he quickly gained many more followers through His healing ministry. Then, in the passage we studied two weeks ago, Jesus did and said some remarkable things. First, He forgave a paralyzed man’s sin. The Pharisees thought that Jesus was blaspheming, but Jesus proved them wrong, first by reading their thoughts and then completely healing the paralyzed man. It is easy to overlook Jesus’ words which explain why He healed the man. Jesus said, “But I want to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” To us this phrase, “Son of Man,” might just seem like a very familiar title for Jesus, but to those teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, that phrase meant much more. Ezekiel used this phrase 93 times in his book, every time referring to the man that God had chosen to send to His people with His message. Daniel also used the phrase twice. Once to refer to himself, but one time to refer to God’s chosen king. “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,[a] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” I am sure that Jesus using this phrase to refer to himself right before performing such a great miracle got the attention of those religious leaders. JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH Now let’s look at today’s passage. Look at 23 and 24. “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’” The religious leaders had interpreted the rubbing of heads of grain in one’s hands as a form of threshing and therefore was work which could not be done on the Sabbath (Exodus 34:21). Their interpretation was based upon the traditions of men and not on God’s absolute word. Clearly, this was not the spirit of the Law that God had given to His people. God did not intend that His servants should suffer on the day that He gave them to worship Him. He had no intention of forcing His servants to fast on His Sabbath day. Jesus answered them by referring them back to the scriptures that they claimed to know so well. When David was running away from Saul, he came to Ahimelek the priest at Nob. David asked for some bread for himself and his companions (although the Bible says David was alone). The only bread Ahimelek had available was the consecrated show bread that was to always be present before the Lord and when it was replaced with a new batch was only lawful for the priests to eat. Never-the-less, Ahimelek gave David the bread, and nowhere in the Bible is David condemned for eating it nor is Ahimelek condemned for giving it to David. Surely this part of David’s answered irritated the Pharisees, but it is what Jesus said next that really upset them. Look at verses 27-28. “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’” There is that phrase again. So, what is Jesus saying here? To the Pharisees it must have been very clear. The Sabbath was given to man by God, so if Jesus is claiming to be Lord of it, Jesus must be saying that He is God. Now the Pharisees had a choice to make and so do we – is Jesus really the Lord of the Sabbath and therefore God or is He n?t. What is your answer? We shall see soon enough what the Pharisees answer was. JESUS HEALS ON THE SABBATH As chapter 3 begins Jesus enters a synagogue on a Sabbath day. Some of the people who were there had already decided that Jesus was not who He claimed He was, so they were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus and discredit Him before the other people who were beginning to believe Jesus was indeed who He claimed to be . Jesus knew this, so he asked a man with a shriveled hand who happened to be there to stand up in front of everyone. Jesus then asked them a very simple question that any elementary school aged child could have answered. “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” No one said a word in response, and Jesus just looked at them in anger and deep distress at their stubborn hearts. He couldn’t believe that the religious leaders couldn’t or wouldn’t answer such a simple question. This showed just how crooked their hearts really were. It showed that they had already made their mind up about Jesus and nothing He did or said was going to change their minds. Jesus, having compassion for the man, completely restored hand giving him a new opportunity to live a fully normal life. Jesus knew what this would do to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who refused to believe that He really was who He claimed to be, but He did not care. Jesus came to do the will of God – to do good to people and save them – and the fear of the Pharisees was not going to stop Him. Look at verse 6. “Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” The Pharisees and the Herodians really disliked each other – one was a group of Jews fiercely loyal to Israel and the other a group of Jews loyal to Rome, but in Jesus they found a common enemy. To the Pharisees Jesus was questioning their authority to rule the people, especially in the religious realm. For the Herodians, Jesus was a rebel who might cause Rome to react harshly against all the Jewish people. Neither of these groups could admit that Jesus really was God’s promised Messiah, so they had to find a way to get rid of him. The reaction of the Pharisees and the Herodians show us what happens when we harden our hearts. We have a very simple choice to make – we either choose to believe that Jesus is who He says He is, or we choose not to believe. The longer we put the decision off the harder our hearts will become, and no matter how God reveals Jesus to us we simply won’t believe just like these Pharisees and Herodians. The work of God was going on right in front of their face and they simply could not see it because they did not want to see it. However, if we chose to believe, God opens up our spiritual eyes and we can see the work of God clearly going on all around us. May God open our spiritual eyes and ears so that we can see His work through Jesus, believe in Him and have life in His name. |
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