It’s great to be with you. Thank you for joining us as we study God’s Word. The Bible is full of practical truth we can put into daily practice. It does not matter where you are from, His Words will instruct and form all of us, IF we allow them to. We must have soft hearts toward Him.
Today’s lesson will focus on Jesus’ teaching about the Sabbath. We won’t finish the entire teaching today, but we will continue it next time. If you can turn to the end of Mark 2 and follow along, we will delve into Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath.
In the late 1700s, the London fruit and vegetable peddlers discovered that their donkeys could carry their loads 50 kilometers daily if rested one day in seven. But if the peddlers worked the donkeys seven days a week, those same donkeys could only travel 25 kilometers a day.
The livelihood of these peddlers depended on their animals, and they discovered that they lost 120 kilometers of travel each week by working the donkey every day; not only that, but they also had a sick, shabby-looking donkey. If they used the donkey six days a week, they gained several thousand kilometers of travel in a year and had a sleek, nice-looking donkey.
Do animals benefit from the Ten Commandments? Here’s Deuteronomy 5:14: “The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. God made men and donkeys. He knew what was good for them and put both into the commandments.
In our study of Mark’s Gospel, we’ve learned that the ordinary people flocked to hear Jesus’ teachings. Compared to traditional Jewish belief, his teaching was like a new garment that would replace an old one, or like new wine that would burst old wineskins. The Pharisees had begun to openly oppose Him. And so, Jesus confronts them with the statement that HE is the One qualified to decide what constitutes keeping the Sabbath, not them!
Several words from His statement became the title for our study: “Lord of the Sabbath.” Now, I will read our text, Mark 2:23-3:6.
23 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.
24 And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:
26 how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
28 Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Chapter 3
1And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.
2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.”
4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.
5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.
6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.
In this text, Jesus supports His claim to the lordship of the Sabbath by posing two arguments.
His Argument from Scriptural Precedent
The scene Mark creates for us in our text must’ve been quite common at that time. According to Deuteronomy 23:25, if you were passing by a grain field, olive grove, or vineyard, you could pick and eat what you needed to satisfy your hunger.
Picture Jesus and His disciples walking beside a field of grain. As they walk, the disciples strip the heads of grain from the stalk and rub the kernels together in their hands to remove the outer husks. I remember doing that in my childhood. After you rub the kernels together in your hand to remove the husks, blow gently so that the husks float away, and you have a ready-made snack – not very tasty, but nutritious.
The disciples were satisfying their hunger, but the Pharisees immediately accused them of doing something unlawful on the Sabbath. How so? To the Pharisees, there were three simultaneous violations of the law: reaping, threshing, and preparing food!
Who said that the actions of the disciples violated the Law? It was the Pharisees. They saw themselves as the final judges of the Law. But Jesus had something to say about that.
However, before I look at Jesus’ response, I want to say a bit about the Pharisees. First, while Jesus was sharply critical of them, He also realized their sincere attempts to obey the law. If not, then why did He say things like, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not after their works: for they say, and do not.” That’s Matthew 23:2 and 3.
Jesus didn’t fault them for their study and application of the Law. He faulted them for giving their interpretations equal weight with the Scripture. Therefore, because Jesus and His disciples did not keep the law exactly as the Pharisees thought it should be maintained, they were pronounced guilty of violating the law.
Jesus responded by appealing to the Scriptures. He takes them back to the experience of David in 1 Samuel chapter 21. David was fleeing from Saul and came to the town of Nob. This was the location of the Tabernacle during the reign of Saul. David was hungry, so he asked Ahimelech, the priest, for five loaves of bread or whatever was available at the time. Ahimelech told him the only thing he had on hand was showbread, the hallowed bread, the Bread of the Presence.
The Bread of the Presence was 12 loaves, one loaf for each tribe of Israel. And these loaves were not small either. Each one was made from two-tenths of an ephah, about 4 liters. Jewish sources indicate that each loaf weighed approximately 5 kilograms.
This bread was a symbol of God’s desire for fellowship and communion with His people. It was the only bread Ahimelech had on hand. That hallowed bread was to be eaten by the priests. Jesus said it was “for the priests alone.”
Jesus’ illustration shows that human need supersedes the letter of the law. Some can take that statement as a license to do whatever they want. But that violates the spirit of Jesus’ teaching. The key is human NEED, not convenience.
Today, within Christendom, there’s considerable debate about how this principle of ‘one day in seven’ should be observed: Sabbath or Sunday, or if it should be observed at all! Those who argue for a Saturday observance point back to Genesis 2:2-3.
Those who advocate for Sunday observance point to the Resurrection of Christ and the fact that the early church met for times of worship and fellowship on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2). They also have valid points in support of their practice.
Then another group says there’s no need for any one day of the week to be set aside as a day of worship. They point out that the observance of the Sabbath and feast days was only a shadow of things to come, and when Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to heaven, those shadows and types contained in the law were all fulfilled. They quote Galatians 4:10 and similar verses. So, what do we make of these different ideas and Jesus’ teaching? One thing seems clear: don’t reject those who see things differently than you do! At the same time, remember that there are biblical commands, such as those in Hebrews 10:23-25. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
I believe that those who argue that no particular day should be set aside for worship, fellowship, and inspiration are at the most significant risk of becoming self-absorbed in their business and pleasure. There is something valuable about structure and discipline in our lives.
But then there’s also the risk of becoming what we call “a Sunday-Christian.” You attend church and observe the day of rest, but the rest of the week, those who don’t know you and went to Sunday service could never tell that you are a follower of Christ. So this whole issue becomes a matter of what’s in your heart.
I believe that is, at least in part, what Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees. Their rigid enforcement of rules and regulations turned what should have been a delight into drudgery, not only for them but for those who looked up to them as spiritual guides. We discussed this in a previous study on fasting when the bridegroom is present.
Many professing Christians today view God’s commands as drudgery. They think God is out to spoil their fun and to make their lives monotonous. They feel this way because they focus on themselves and their own desires and interests. But Jesus said that joy in life comes from learning to serve others.
As God in the flesh, Jesus perfectly understood the needs of His followers. He still understands today. And so, He said to the Pharisees, “I’m the Master of the Sabbath. I helped write these laws; I’ll show you how to interpret them.” Here, we have the Living Word appealing to a precedent in the written Word to establish His authority to interpret the Law!
Thank you, J. Mark, for this teaching on the Sabbath. I don’t know how you apply this teaching of the Sabbath where you live, but we understand it is crucial to grasp the principle when studying doctrines like this one. J Mark mentioned the verses in Genesis and shared some ways others apply this teaching. As usual, there are many different perspectives on this. I encourage you to delve into God’s Word and then apply His teachings to your life. Please don’t view this as drudgery; this is for our own good. God knows us, and the things he tells us to do are a benefit to us.
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Thanks so much for joining us today. Lord willing, you can join us next time as we finish this teaching on the Sabbath. To close, I will read the verses from Genesis 2, which J Mark referred to earlier. This is a foundational and vital consideration as you proceed. “On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
