Summary
Our two stories from Mark this morning are linked by a number of commonalities. What links them? Let’s start with what is the most obvious link between these two stories in Mark, chapter 2.
Most, if not all of you, will immediately think, “The link is that they both take place on the Sabbath!”
And, of course you would be correct. In both of these stories Jesus has conflict, first spoken, and then unspoken, with the Pharisees concerning legalistic interpretations of the Sabbath laws.
And so, this important issue is the first link between the two stories. Yet, if you noticed I said there was actually more than one link. I am not going to try and pull out all of the possible commonalities between the two stories, but I do want to point out an important one we usually miss. In fact, I myself have never thought of it before. It just occurred to me the other night when I was pondering upon this text.
I am speaking of the Pharisees. It is not just that they are asking questions of Jesus. I want to take another step back and ask a rather obvious question.
That is, “Why are the Pharisees present at all?”
The obvious answer is that the Pharisees are following Jesus. In fact, if we are willing to understand what we are reading, then we see that they are following him almost as closely as the disciples. The Pharisees were not simply sitting in the synagogue on that Sabbath because they happened to be there. They were there because Jesus was there. Even, more obvious in the first story, is that the Pharisees had to have been walking through the fields with Jesus and his disciples, in order to be able to notice that his disciples are plucking the heads of the standing grain, to eat.
This missing the obvious happens often when we read the Bible, especially when we read stories that we know pretty well. We know what is coming next in the story, and so we tend to not read deeply, nor with inquisitiveness. Quite often we miss obvious clues in the Bible, because we think we know what is going to happen. All this does though, is to keep us from fully understanding what is happening, or it can even cause us to come to different conclusions!
And, sometimes we do the opposite, and ‘place’ things in the Biblical story that is not there, because a tradition has become dominant. As an example, I would love for anyone to be able to point out to me the verse which describes Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem.
Anyway, enough digression, let’s get back to the main point here.
To crassly put it in today’s language, the Pharisees are ‘stalking’ Jesus. If there had been cameras back in that day, they would have been snapping away like first-century Paparazzi. Or, if there were cell phones, videos of Jesus’ teachings and sermons, healings and miracles would have been shared around the internet, and had thousands of viewings on Youtube. Jesus was being watched, and even more importantly, being listened to very closely.
The question is, “Why?”
Well, the Pharisees wanted to figure out who he was, what he was saying and teaching, and most importantly, as word went around about his miraculous powers, in whose name was he acting?
Today’s text is from the second chapter of Mark, so it is early in his ministry. The Pharisees were not trying to trap him at this point, but simply wanted to see if what he said and did, was in-line with their orthodoxy. Was he teaching correct Judaic theology, or was he a heretic, or even worse a blasphemer?
It probably was not only professional either. I am sure there was also a little bit of the human question of the ego in all of this, meaning, the Pharisees must have asked themselves, “Is this Jesus any good? Is he smart, and a wise teacher? Or, is he just a flash in the pan?”
With the football World Cup coming up in eleven days, it reminds me a bit of when a young player first breaks onto the scene, and word about him, or her, starts to spread. The question that is asked of him or her is, are they really good, or just flashy?
For those of you who care, think back to when Lionel Messi first started playing for Barcelona. Or, perhaps it is best to think of when he first played for his national team in Argentina. Certain people immediately starting to compare him to the great Diego Maradona, who led Argentina to a World Cup victory. Was this Messi, just a flashy player, or was he truly something special, they asked. They have stopped asking now, for Messi is now spoken of as possibly the greatest player in history.
In Jesus, I think the Pharisees realized they were encountering someone beyond the ordinary. Jesus wasn’t simply flashy, rather he was good, better than good, he was special. Yet, he wasn’t interested in pleasing them…or agreeing with them either. And that, that was not good…in their eyes that was not good at all.
To help explain this, I want to quote from Dr. Matt Skinner. He writes, “The Pharisees understood the sabbath. Perhaps they did not appreciate that is was Jesus, by some appearances a new and uppity teacher, who was dispensing legal insights. Where Jesus definitely would have caught their attention was in his assumption that somehow he and his calling we’re comparable to David and David’s calling. Also, declaring himself the “lord” or “master” of the sabbath itself could be tantamount to claiming that the law’s ultimate purpose is to serve Jesus. The scandal resides here: Jesus presents himself as no ordinary teacher.”
No ordinary teacher…well, that’s correct, for Jesus was correct in calling himself the Lord and Master of the Sabbath, and thus inferring he was the Master of the Law.
And this is the problem for the Pharisees. In the end Jesus is telling them whom he really is, the Messiah.
This is what made them upset. This is what made them start to plot against him. Jesus’ allusions to himself as Messiah, were understood by the Pharisees, and the Priestly caste as blasphemy. It was what propelled them to eventually arrest Jesus, try him, torture him, and then execute him. For according to their interpretations, their understanding, and their legalistic wisdom, Jesus could be nothing more than a teacher, a wise one for sure, but in the end, he could only be another rabbi.
The only problem of course, was that Jesus was more than that. Jesus truly was the Lord and Master of the Sabbath, of the Law, of the world, of heaven, of the universe. He was…and he is still today.
The Pharisees, the priests, Herod, the Romans, and many others on down through the ages, have doubted Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah, to be the Savior. They have not believed, or they have doubted, because they have become stuck in their own interpretations of the law, of what they thought God should be, and what God should do. The Pharisees then, and so many now, do not understand that at God’s core is love. The gospels ultimately tell us the story of God’s compassion, shown us in Jesus, who is the Messiah, the Christ, who didn’t care for the theological interpretations that had been institutionalized around the Ten Commandments, around the Law in order to protect God’s law. No, as Jesus states in today’s reading, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.”
What Jesus is saying, is that all of the laws were given, not to constrain humanity, but to show humanity God’s love. As Jesus puts it later on in his ministry, “The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind and strength. The second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two commandments hang all of the law and the prophets.”
In other words, the Law was given to preserve life, to make life worth living. How does that happen?
Life becomes worth living, when you live it in the reality of God’s love, shown us by Jesus, and given to us still today through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the master of the Sabbath, because Jesus is the master, and wants you to know his love, to believe, in his forgiveness and salvation. Jesus, our Lord, wants you to experience the joy that can only be realized through life with him. It’s not about laws, but about love, and thus life.
Believe, and follow Jesus as your master, as your Lord, as your God.
Amen.
Bible References
- Deuteronomy 5:12 - 15
- Mark 2:23 - 3:6
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.