June 2, 2024
Pastor John Hering
Mark 2:23-3:6
Mark 2:23-3:6
23 Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”
25 He replied to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? 26 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 for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.”
27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 They were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day, so that they could accuse him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Step forward!” 4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 Then he looked around at them with anger, deeply grieved at the hardness of their hearts. He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees left and immediately began to conspire against Jesus with the Herodians, plotting how they might kill him.
I’m sure you remember those moments when someone broke the rules to have a little fun. I remember my mom was folding laundry and came to the pillow cases. She put the new pillowcase on the pillow and, then with a little smirk, lovingly hit me with it. Game on! Or how about the time Dad wanted to watch his TV show and Mom wanted to watch hers. Dad tuned the channel to his show and then took the batteries out of the remote! That was funny! I’ll never forget the time I came home from school and walked into the kid’s bathroom. Mom bent the rules and took an empty toilet paper roll and pinched it between the seat and cover. Then took two toilet paper rolls and placed them on the seat cover with a hat on top. It looked like the toilet seat was smoking a cigar! Hilarious! Sometimes people bend the rules a little bit but it ends up being a great time. Like Prof. Kreager, my German Professor, who decided to use his class time to talk to us about becoming pastors instead of the German quiz. I’ll never forget it! The risks involved in parents or teachers messing up routine and straying from what they’re supposed to do are real, but the rewards in helping children or students learn, have fun, and grow beyond a system of rigid requirements make it worth the risk. God also knew the risks of giving laws to his people and sure enough, they abused God’s law to justify themselves. For instance they were using the Sabbath law to try and make themselves holy before God and lost God’s important reason for giving his people the gift of rest. But
Praise God Jesus Messed Up The Sabbath
To Resurrect People
Your take home idea today is NOT that rules don’t serve a purpose in our lives. Of course they do. When it comes to training children we usually start with lots of rules and regulations to start them on the right path. When you are in charge of lots of people you also need rules to follow such as driving, or managing the military, or filling out government tax forms. God knew the necessity of rigid requirements when he gave some behavior modifying rules to the Israelites in the Old Testament. He was dealing with high volume people management. He was also training his special, chosen nation from whom the Savior would be born. Think about it! God put the Israelites on a 40-year training exercise by having them wonder in the wilderness. But, God had his goal in mind all the time. The Lord God planned to settle his people in the Promised Land where the Savior would be born. And who was in the Promised Land? Pagan nations! The Lord God knew how his people would be tempted by these nations, but he also promised to send the Savior from his Treasured People. So along with the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments and given to the Israelites for all people of all time, God pronounced local laws for the time and place of the Israelites. The third commandment included both a moral principle and a local code:
“8 Remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy. 9 Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work, 10 but the seventh day shall be a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. Do not do any regular work, neither you, nor your sons or daughters, nor your male or female servants, nor your cattle, nor the alien who is residing inside your gates, 11 for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In this way the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy”
Exodus 20:8-11
On The Day Jesus Messed Up the Sabbath he preserved the moral principle of the Sabbath Day!
23 Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”
25 He replied to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? 26 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 for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.”
27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus removed the distractions that kept people from connecting more closely with God. Jesus put the pillowcase on the pillow and hit the Pharisees with it! Jesus changed the game when it came behavior expectations. Jesus didn’t come to rearrange the outside of our lives so that they look pretty and conform to what the church rules say (the letter of the law). Jesus came to resurrect the inside of our lives, saving us from our sinful selves, raising us to new life every day as a new person in him, and strengthening our resolve to obey his commands. Sure, outward, rule-abiding behavior can help us—like folding your hands while praying can help keep them from fidgeting with your cell phone instead of focusing on talking to God. But the rule-abiding outward behavior isn’t the ultimate goal of God’s law, Jesus’ teaching, church membership, or worship life. The Pharisees, on the other hand, insisted that it was.
Like the man who went fishing all day, assuring his family that he’d bring home a big catch. To his embarrassment he caught nothing, and on his drive home faced his fears that his family would see him as a failure. He stopped at a local market, eyeing the fresh fish lying on the crushed ice under the glass counter. “Excuse me, could you throw me four of those salmon,” he asked the man behind the counter. “You want me to do what?” the confused man asked. “Just throw me four of those salmon; I need to tell my family that I caught these fish.”
That’s what it looks like when our goal is to follow the letter of the law. 1) Maybe you adhere rigidly to the rites of Lutheran worship. Great! Or is following the liturgy only the external behavior you’re brightly keeping, but inside the joy of faith is dim. 2) Maybe you’re following a daily Bible reading schedule. Great! Or has the daily reading schedule only become an external discipline more than an internal maturing in Christ that makes a daily difference? 3) Maybe membership on the church roster is the only thing important to you, rather than the internal identity and values of Christian discipleship that walks daily with Jesus and loves people.
Praise God Jesus Messed Up The Sabbath to Resurrect You and Me! “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath.” Yes, Jesus made it clear that the rest we receive from God’s Word and sacraments on the Sabbath is his gift to us, not earned, so our faith and Christian life might be resurrected to love God and
To Love Our Neighbor
Jesus worked externally on the Sabbath when such work was prohibited by the local code of the Pharisees because it meant internally loving people.
“Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 They were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day, so that they could accuse him. 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Step forward!” 4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 Then he looked around at them with anger, deeply grieved at the hardness of their hearts. He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out, and his hand was restored.”
Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. And in his greatest work of love, Jesus laid in the tomb one Sabbath at rest and at the same time working more to make us right with God than any of our works ever could. Jesus messed up the Sabbath of the Pharisees and in doing that, he fulfilled the ultimate Sabbath, becoming spiritual rest for us.
Breaking free from rigid rituals and rules can get messy, but that’s what Jesus did when those rituals and rules were getting in the way. In the very act of healing the man’s hand, the stubborn rules got in the way of God’s love and mercy. “6 The Pharisees left and immediately began to conspire against Jesus with the Herodians, plotting how they might kill him.” Sadly, life was about to get very messy for the enemies of Jesus. Their rejection of peace through Jesus, of true joy and rest through faith in Jesus would led to bitter hatred and eventually to God’s judgment on their rebellion and unbelief.
However, today we Praise God That Jesus Messed Up The Sabbath in order to love people like you and me. Sometimes you remove the usual rules in order to open up an opportunity to connect people to Jesus. I’ll give you an example. In about two weeks we are going to have Teen Camp at Shiloh. At the orientation we talk to the kids about their rules. There aren’t too many rules (no drinking, sex, drugs or weapons) that will get you sent home. Because there are more relaxed restrictions it can get messy, but that’s what the counselors are trying to do. True Christian growth requires freedom. Freedom to make Spirit-led choices. Freedom to perform creatively, fueled by one’s own gifts and passions. Freedom to stumble a little bit while on a journey of grace following Jesus, and doing so among trusted counselors and Christian friends is awesome.
The same is true for you. God has given us true rest in his Holy Word. While we don’t earn this rest, we enjoy this gift of rest for our souls. How about we challenged each other to mess up and take God’s Word into the messiness of our lives. Ask each other, “What passage do you turn to when you’re afraid?” we asked each other? “And when you need God’s guidance? And to inspire you for better health and fitness?” Let’s create a culture where we take God’s Word into the mess of our own problems and challenges and doubts and sins. That’s messing up the Sabbath rules in order to keep the Sabbath rest. It gets messy, but Jesus himself gets messy; the Bible is filled with stories where Jesus entered the mess that he allowed his followers to make so that they could heal and grow and live and love a little better. Love isn’t always sanitized, it’s often messy. People aren’t always neat and tidy, most of the time they’re messy. But for Jesus, and his followers, it’s worth it.
You don’t have to go home today and create a toilet seat that’s smoking a cigar. You don’t have to have a pillow fight or take the batteries out of the TV remote either. Life is messy enough. But, what I do pray you take home with you today is the rest that you have in Jesus. This is God’s gracious gift to you, not something to be earned. You have Christ who kept the Law perfectly in your place, died on the cross to wash away all your sins, and has set you free to love God and love your neighbors. Today, we Praise God That Jesus Messed Up the Sabbath for Us! Amen!
