mark 2:23-3:6

ex 31:12-17

12 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
13 "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
14 'Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
15 'For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
16 'So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.'
17 "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed."

numbers 15:32-36

32 Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath.
33 He was taken to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community,
34 and was put under guard, because it was not clear what should be done with him.
35 Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must be put to death; the whole community is to stone him to death outside the camp."
36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded.

don't freak out, god killed people for sin in the new testement as well.

aninias and saphira.
honestly, god seems to judge people more openly in periods of supernatural revelation.
and hell is worse anyway.

- the jews knew these rules...and wanted to make them nice and specific.

moses gave a rather broad prohibition; the jews wanted to work out exactly what was and wasn't going to be allowed.

they broke the prohibition down into roughly 39 actions (carrying, sowing, reaping, cleaning, etc).
some are arbitrary, but the idea is that at least you won't be violating the law.

misnah 200 AD...oral formation at time of christ.

this was developed into a highly codified set of rules that became pretty stinking strict, ultimately written down about 200 AD as part of a book called the mishnah.
at this point, the rules were oral, were being pushed/furthered. much of what you read about with the pharisees is them pushing these rules they had formulated and jesus not agreeing.

a note on organization in this lecture:

small, medium, large.
small - we're going to start with minor notes. intellectual curiosity things.
medium - we'll be looking at some principles that the passage shows indirectly.
large - the things the passage directly teaches.

mark 2:23 - 3:6

23. And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.
24. The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"
25. And He *said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry;
26. how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?"
27. Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
28. "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
1. He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.
2. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
3. He *said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward!"
4. And He *said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent.
5. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
6. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

I. Small: Minor stuff to note

A. regarding abiathar...

the story jesus references is in 1 sam 21.
jesus references abiathar as the high priest; abiathar at this point is actually the high priest's son, but becomes the high priest as saul kills all the rest for helping david.
it's not entirely clear why jesus says abiathar instead of ahimelech.
some people argue about whether the jesus got the story wrong; i think it's more likely he is referencing abiathar as this is the start of his role as high priest (he stays on through david's reign).

B. and how about mark's narrative style

two stories...

definitely linked by theme.
linked by time?

maybe not actually back to back, maybe. mark doesn't bother to say.
it's in the same time period though, as they're galilee.

just note as you read the mark's gospel that he is organizing by things other than time at points.

in our overall structure, these sabbath stories help us see the growing confict between jesus the messiah and the religious authorities.

II. Medium: Principles shown by the passage (ethics and scripture)

A. hierarchy of ethics

jesus here points out that david exercised the principle of hierarchy of ethics.

it was more important for david's men to eat and live than for them to not eat the show bread.

25. And He *said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry;
26. how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?"

this happens in the old testament somewhat frequently:

egyptian doulas, rahab

it's important for modern people too...

hiding jews in your attic?
what about following all the laws in a country...but then your country outlaws christianity?

don't have any immediate applications for you, but put this away in your mind for another time.

B. interpretation of historical scripture

christ references david's story as though it happened.

he presents the story as though it is true.

it's possible that he's just doing so to make a point...
but the way he tells it seems to imply that it is a historical event.

further, he is using the story to settle a theological debate; that's harder to deal with if he's not saying it's true.

it's an interesting data point on how jesus interprets old testament history (as true).

C. jesus' emotional reaction

look at jesus' emotions.

1. He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.
2. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
3. He *said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and come forward!"
4. And He *said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent.
5. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He *said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

- compassion

the text doesn't say this directly, but we've seen mark tell us jesus' reaction to physical and spiritual infirmity - compassion.
here, he is presented with another person with a physical need, and he heals the person.

be sure that your mental picture of god includes his compassion.

- grief

he is grieved at their hard hearts.

- anger

III. Large: Mistakes condemned directly in the text.

A. christ asserts his authority

actually, in both of these sabbath vignettes , he asserts himself.

do you catch the structural similarity to the healing of the paralytic here?

in that story (2:1-12), he asserts divinity by forgiving the guys sin (calling himself the son of man), then backs it up with a healing miracle.
in this case, he calls himself the son of man and declares himself to be over the sabbath, then heals someone.

first conflict (eating grain):

in the first conflict regarding his disciples eating grain, he says (v28):

"So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

jesus is asserting that he is lord of the sabbath...

- "son of man." we looked at son of man two weeks ago; jesus seems to use it like daniel, as reference to this ultimate messiah.
- "lord of the sabbath." that's a new title...

what's going on here?

- continued assertion of authority
- assertion of authority over the rules given to israel and men.

jesus, being god, doesn't violate rules; he makes rules.

second conflict (healing on the sabbath):

they're upset that he might heal on the sabbath (since he hasn't followed their sabbath rules yet).
he does so; and somehow that he has authority over physical ailment doesn't matter.

his authority is big because it is tied to his divinity.

it is part of the revelation of who jesus is.

B. the pharisees opposed christ here;... how do we avoid doing the same?

1. know scripture

jesus expects this of them.
"25. And He *said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry"

the first way we can avoid being like the pharisees here is by learning the bible.

- god expects his people to know the words that he's given us.
this is obvious...but not fun.

i'd bet that most of us know more detail about sitcom characters, sports, or food than we do about the bible.

the pharisees actually had this part down pretty well.

2. have a heart like god's

in this story, the pharisees appear to be after righteousness.

they are so concerned about following the sabbath; how bad can they be?

their sin was internal, not external.

1. righteousness is not just actions; it is god-likeness.

2. they did not have sin that you would see and condemn.

but they were arrogant... and rejected the teaching and correction of christ.

how crazy is that? in response to christ's correction and healing, they start plotting to destroy him.

they did not have compassion on others.

3. we're going to call this "evil zealotry".

scary stuff...it's a lack of the fruit of the spirit.
in modern times, these are people who know the bible well, listen to sermons, go to church, condemn sin, and take christianity seriously.
but they don't have humility; they don't have compassion.
they don't show intimate care for other humans. they don't have relationships characterized by kindness. they have few friends, except those that they can share external rightousness with.

christ's reaction to "evil zealotry" was to be angry and grieved.

1. god has emotional responses to sin.

we are not buddhists. emotion is not evil. god has emotion.
god has correct emotions though (the bible has morals regarding emotions, such as what should anger you and what shouldn't.)

2. god is opposed to evil zealotry

you don't want to be against god.
reread hebrews, or read revelation if you aren't terrified of having god angry with you.

we should be opposed to "evil zealotry"

we should concern ourselves with having hearts like christ.

we should know the bible.
we should follow the bible's rules.
we should have a heart like christ's.

sounds like more fun than it is.

do you really want to be humble? to consider yourself as less than others, who will look down on you? be unkind to you?
do you really want to take on the concerns of others, to allow their problems to be your stress?
jesus did. and we are required to.

personal note:

it's a bit scary for me to read about the pharisees; i have a lot of their sin inside of me.
i would like to ask that you all pray for our church, and if not that, at least for me, that we (or i) would have a passion for righteousness that is not merely for externals, but is also for a christlike heart.

Mark 2:23-3:6

intro: sabbath