Missing the Point – Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon Video

In the last three sermons, we’ve looked at three encounters Jesus had with the Pharisees and their followers.

We saw Jesus’ healing of a paralytic and forgiving his sin. We read about Jesus’ association with sinners and tax collectors and Jesus calling Levi to follow him. When challenged about fasting, Jesus said that he was coming to bring something new that wouldn’t fit into the existing structures within Judaism.

Today’s text contains two run-ins with the Pharisees concerning the Sabbath.

Sermon Text: Mark 2:23-3:6

Today’s text deals with two different episodes that happen on two different Sabbath days (Luke 6:6).

• Mark 2:23-28 – Jesus and his disciples were walking through grainfields.
• Mark 3:1-6 – Jesus (and likely his disciples) were in a synagogue.

Before we proceed in our text, I want to help you understand a little more about the Sabbath.

Background of the Sabbath:

• The Sabbath was to be a day of rest that took place from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday.
• The Sabbath was a time to enjoy God and His world.
• The Sabbath was to be kept holy (Ex 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15).
• Keeping the Sabbath holy was the fourth commandment and part of the Mosaic Covenant that God made with Moses and the nation of Israel on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19-24.

Exodus 20:8-11

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but 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, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The Sabbath pointed back to the seventh day of creation (Gen 2:1-3) and it pointed forward to a time when God’s people would enjoy rest in the promised land, ultimately in the new heavens and the new earth (Rev 21:1-4).

Profaning the Sabbath was a capital offense. In Num 15:32–36, a man who was gathering sticks, presumably to start a fire, was stoned to death. Starting a fire was expressly forbidden on the Sabbath. So, keeping the Sabbath holy was a big deal.

In the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Sabbath had become the heart of the law. The keeping of the Sabbath had become a litmus test for zealous religious devotion in Judaism. The extent to which you sought to not do work on the Sabbath determined in part how religious you were.

God commands that the Sabbath be kept holy, so what was one to do and not do?

The Bible gave some direction. For example, certain activities were permitted on the Sabbath^[1]See https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/schreiner-qa-is-the-sabbath-still-required-for-christians/.:

• Military campaigns
• Marriage feasts
• Changing temple guards
• Preparing showbread and putting it out
• Offering sacrifices
• Duties of priests and Levites

Some activities were expressly forbidden on the Sabbath:

• Kindling a fire
• Gathering manna
• Selling goods
• Bearing burdens

Every good Jew knew that on the Sabbath, you do not work! The question then becomes, what precisely is to be classified as work?

As you might guess, the Pharisees were very strict about what could be classified as work. The religious leaders had added many prohibitions, such as tying and untying a knot and how far one could walk on the Sabbath. Their prohibitions included many things found nowhere in Scripture, but their traditions were as binding as Scripture itself.^[2]R.C. Sproul, Mark, 50.

The traditions of the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath had become as binding as Scripture itself.

R.C. Sproul (Paraphrase)

Sabbath observance, along with circumcision, were extremely important in Judaism and noticeable distinctions between Jews and Gentiles. Darrell Bock writes, “Failing to observe such a holy day was seen as completely disrespectful of the law because Sabbath rest was one of the 10 Commandments.”^[3]Jesus According to Scripture, 116.

Thus, these two Sabbath incidents were major disputes. Before going further, it may be helpful to quickly explain the main Christian view of the Sabbath.

Paul makes it clear that the Sabbath is not binding upon believers. We see that in Colossians 2:16-17 and Romans 14:5-6. Paul was not against those who observed the Sabbath as a special day, but he did have a problem with the people who required Sabbath observance for salvation or those who insisted that other believers agree with them regarding the Sabbath..

After Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday, Christians began to worship on Sunday (Acts 20:7). From the earliest days of the church, Christians gathered on Sunday and not Saturday. This is still the case today for the vast majority of Christian churches.

Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, shows us that the Sabbath was meant to be a blessing to God’s people (2:23-28)

2:23-24

23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

The disciples were walking through a grain field and were plucking heads of grain and eating them. The disciples were not stealing but were picking some of the grain from the edges of the field. If you remember from our time in the book of Ruth, the edges of the field were to be left for the poor and the sojourner (those traveling through the land). You can see this in Lev 19:9-10 and Deut 23:25.

Deut 23:25

If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

The Pharisees, with their legalist tendencies and critical attitudes were accusing Jesus’s disciples of harvesting the grain.

What is legalism?

Legalism is when we require something of someone that the Bible does not require. It is taking our traditions and preferences and imposing them on others.

I’ve heard it said that whereas a Christian want you to look more like Christ, a legalist wants you to look more like him or her.

A Christian wants you to look more like Christ; a legalist wants you to look more like him.

For the Pharisees, the enforcement of Sabbath laws had become more important than the observing of Sabbath rest. The Pharisees failed to see the difference between harvesting grain for a profit and plucking some grain for a snack, which was permitted in the law.

What’s interesting is that not many Pharisees lived in Galilee. They would not normally be in a grain field on the Sabbath. So, the Pharisees are either following Jesus around or they have put out the word to local religious teachers to keep an eye on Jesus in the same way the state police might issue a warning to the county police about a suspect in their area.

The Pharisees’ legalism had deluded them into thinking that God is satisfied when they kept religious rules, even if they showed no love to others.

The Pharisees’ legalism had deluded them into thinking that God is satisfied when they kept religious rules, even if they showed no love to others.

After the Pharisees had questioned Jesus about his disciples plucking grain, Jesus responded in vv. 25-26.

2:25-26

²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: ²⁶ how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”

Jesus asks the Pharisees, “Have you not read?” The question is meant as an insult because reading, knowing, and interpreting Scripture was literally the job of the Pharisees.

Jesus presents the example of David eating the bread of the Presence while fleeing from Saul (1 Sam 21:1-6, cf. Lev 24:9).

Bread of the Presence (aka showbread)

Every Sabbath, hot bread was brought inside the tabernacle to a golden table. Twelve loaves of hot bread were placed on a golden table inside the tabernacle in the presence of God, symbolizing the need for the twelve tribes to have fellowship with God.

The following Sabbath, the bread that had sat there for a week would be removed and more hot bread would be brought in to keep that symbol fresh. Leviticus 24:5-9 calls this the bread of the presence.

The old bread on the Sabbath was only to be eaten by priests. Now that was the provision that God had made. So, David and the men that were with him ate the consecrated bread, which it is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests. See, the priest understood that no ceremony should survive while a person dies. You shouldn’t save a ceremony and lose a person. God desires that people be treated in a way that puts a premium on mercy rather than a mandated ritual.

Jesus succinctly summarizes this point in v. 27.

27

²⁷ And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

In v. 27, Jesus teaches that the Sabbath laws were never intended to keep a person from meeting basic needs. The Sabbath was meant to be a blessing to God’s people, not a burden for them.

The Sabbath was meant to be a blessing to God’s people, not a burden for them.

Jesus used the example of David to illustrate that love of neighbor is more important than religious rituals. It doesn’t mean that what the priest was doing wasn’t important. It means that if someone is dying, then feed them! If the disciples are hungry, then let them pick grain and eat it, even on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was instituted as a day for the Israelites to rest, but the Pharisees had turned it into a day of burdensome rule-keeping. The Jews couldn’t enjoy the Sabbath because they were afraid of breaking the Pharisees’ rules.

Now, look at v. 28.

28

²⁸ So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

In this verse, Jesus is asserting his authority as the Lord of the Sabbath. He makes a connection with David, who was the greatest king of Israel. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they don’t get to make the rules about the Sabbath. He does! The Sabbath rules they have put on people regarding Sabbath observance don’t carry any weight for Jesus. He is the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of all creation!

Here’s the main thing I want us to see from 2:23-28.

Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, shows us that the Sabbath was meant to be a blessing to God’s people.

In vv. 23-28, Jesus taught that the Sabbath was meant to be a blessing and not a burden. In 3:1-6, Jesus illustrates this principle by healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.

Jesus proves his authority as Lord of the Sabbath by healing a man on the Sabbath (3:1-6)

The first scene took place in a grain field. The scene takes place in in a synagogue.

3:1-2

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

A man with a withered hand was in the synagogue. This seems like a simple statement of fact. But, in biblical times, many assumed that when sickness happened, it must be due to sin in a person’s life. When the disciples saw the blind man, they asked him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” (John 9:2).

So, with that in mind, let’s look at the situation in our text. As Jesus enters the synagogue, v. 2 says “And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.” The word for “watched” in Greek is in the imperfect tense, so it means that the Pharisees “were continually watching” or they “kept on watching.” The Pharisees were continually watching Jesus. It was their practice to see how Jesus was breaking the rules, as the text says, “so that they might accuse him.” They were ready to try in him court.

Remember, they watched him heal the paralytic. They watched him dine with sinners and tax collectors. They questioned why he and his disciples did not fast. They hated Jesus because Jesus’ love for others exposed their cold and calloused hearts.

Did you know that if you love people like Jesus loved people that some religious people will be critical of you?

With regard to healing, the Pharisees didn’t have a law against healing in general. They just didn’t permit it on the Sabbath. They believed that healing could only be done on the Sabbath in matters of life and death. Thus, they were mad at Jesus.

The Pharisees were so hard-hearted that they are angry that Jesus is even considering healing this man. on the Sabbath.

Let’s see what Jesus does. Look at vv. 3-5.

3-5

3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

In v. 4, Jesus is saying, if it’s okay to save life on the Sabbath (and it is, and the Pharisees agreed with that principle even though they don’t acknowledge it here), then Jesus argues that it is okay to do good, in this case, by healing the man with the withered hand.

See, the Sabbath was not just about resting from one’s work. The Sabbath was a time when you were able to love your neighbors because you were freed up from normal work responsibilities.

Jesus is essentially saying, “The Sabbath is a day to do good. God provided the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship, but that concern for rest shouldn’t keep us from lifting a finger to help others.”

Here is a man that had probably been shunned by many because of his deformity. Most, if not all the Pharisees probably thought that this man had done something to deserve it. And Jesus, with the Pharisees watching, calls the man to come here and he heals him.

Jesus’ compassion for the man is contrasted with his grief and anger toward the hard heartedness of the Pharisees.

Look at what happens in v. 6.

6

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

While this man was healed by Jesus, these men went to destroy Jesus. The Pharisees were so afraid of breaking the Sabbath that they failed to love their neighbor – this man with the withered hand!

Here’s the great irony – the Pharisees, the self-acclaimed guardians of the Sabbath, are mad at Jesus because he healed a man on the Sabbath when it was not a matter of life and death.

However, right after Jesus healed the man, these same men began to form a plan to kill Jesus with their enemies no less! You may have heard the saying, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Well, the Herodians and the Pharisees didn’t see eye to eye, but in this case they had one thing in common: they both saw Jesus as a threat that needed to be eliminated.

You see, the man in the synagogue had a withered hand but the Pharisees had withered souls.

The man in the synagogue had a withered hand but the Pharisees had withered souls.

Conclusion / Application

Now that I’ve explained the text, you may be asking, “So what? What does it mean for me that Jesus and the Pharisees argued about the Sabbath?”

As Christians, we do not practice the Sabbath. We worship on Sunday, in accordance with the practice of the early church (Acts 20:7).^[4]For more, see Tom Schreiner, 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law.

Even though we as Christians don’t practice the Sabbath in the same way, there are at least four things I think we can learn from this text and how it relates to our worship of God and our love for others, particularly on the Lord’s Day when we gather for corporate worship.

(1) Just as the Pharisees missed the point of the Sabbath, we miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we are legalistic and critical (2:23-24, 3:1-2, 6)

The Pharisees were always seeking to accuse Jesus of wrongdoing. They cared less about honoring God and more about their spiritual pride and position.

It’s easy to read this passage and think, of course the Pharisees are wrong. You may be thinking, I would never be so legalistic and critical.

I have experience with this. There have been a couple periods of time in my life where I was very critical of pastors and their leadership in the churches where I was a member. And I can tell you, I had the wrong attitude, and it affected my family’s church experience.

I want to ask you: Do you have rules outside of Scripture that you use to judge the spirituality of yourself and others?

• Do you judge others for using a different Bible translation than you?
• Do you judge other churches for playing a different style of music?
• Do you judge others who don’t have the same conviction as you regarding alcohol?
• Do you judge others who don’t dress like you at church?
• Do you look down on other people whose kids aren’t as well-behaved as yours?

It’s so easy to be critical of others, especially the pastor. I’ve seen or heard of these kind of expectations people have for their pastors:

• The pastor has to wear a suit and tie.
• The pastor needs to be poor so he will stay humble.
• The pastor’s sermons can only be 25 minutes.
• The pastor can’t have facial hair or tattoos.
• The pastor has to be white and cannot be married to anyone that’s not white.
• The pastor has to be married.
• The pastor has to preach from a pulpit.

I’ve seen churches argue about using a projector instead a hymn book, a guitar over a piano, chairs instead of pews, and the time of the service.

Here is what I want to say. We all have preferences and expectations for ourselves and others. We all have convictions of our conscience. I hope, above all that we want to please God as well.

The Pharisees were devoted to God’s Law. The problem was that they went beyond it and started adding to what God’s Word said. They had made what Jesus called in Mark 7 “the traditions of men.”

If we do not want to be legalistic and critical Pharisees, then we should seek to draw a line where the Bible draws a line. You can be convicted in your conscience of something, but if you are forcing someone else to obey a conviction of your conscience instead of the clear teachings of Scripture then you are being legalistic and perhaps critical.

Put simply, another person’s commitment to Christ should not be measured by your standards, but by those of Scripture.

We miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we are legalistic and critical.

Another person’s commitment to Christ should not be measured by your standards, but by those of Scripture.

(2) Just as the Pharisees missed the point of the Sabbath, we miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we don’t love our neighbors (2:25-26, 3:3-5)

The Pharisees didn’t care about the disciples’ hunger or the man’s suffering. They valued rule-keeping over the love of neighbor.

In both of these encounters with the Pharisees, Jesus never criticized the law that required the Sabbath to be treated as holy. He simply teaches us that it is always the right time to show love to your neighbor!

Jesus shows us the priority of people in ministry. Jesus does not first ask, “What are the rules and what do people think I should do?” but “Who needs to be helped?”

Jesus knew that religion and its institutions were not ends in themselves. Later in Mark 12, Jesus says that the most important command is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor. If we miss the command to love God and neighbor, then we’ve missed the point!

• Do you get mad when someone takes your seat at church?
• Do you refuse to sing if you don’t like the song? If so, you are not loving others. We are commanded to sing to exalt God and to encourage one another.
• Positively, are you seeking to encourage others when you come to church?
• Do you arrive early so you can speak with other church members and visitors?
• Are you seeking to hear from God’s Word and to live it out the rest of the week?

We miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we don’t love our neighbors.

(3) Just as the Pharisees missed the point of the Sabbath, we miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we make it a burden instead of a blessing (2:27)

Jesus made it clear that man doesn’t exist for the Sabbath but that the Sabbath exists for man (2:27). The Pharisees and others had squeezed all the joy out of the Sabbath by adding many extrabiblical rules. So much so that Jews could not enjoy the Sabbath for fear of breaking manmade rules.

Isn’t that what Christians do when they tell people:

• You can’t have instruments in church even though you listen to them on the radio.
• You have to use the KJV Bible even though you can’t understand it.
• You have to wear a suit or dress to church even if you can’t afford it.
• You aren’t welcome at church if you have tattoos or piercings.
• You can’t use any Sunday school curriculum except LifeWay.

Here’s a question we should all ask of ourselves:

Do you have more of a tendency to find faults in other people or to find ways to encourage them?

Do you have more of a tendency to find faults in other people or to find ways to encourage them?

Let’s remember this – “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

We miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we make it a burden and not a blessing.

(4) Just as the Pharisees missed the point of the Sabbath, we miss the point of the Lord’s Day if we don’t worship Jesus (2:28)

Deut 5:12-15

¹² “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but 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. ¹⁵ You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

The keeping of the Sabbath was a way for the Israelites to remember that they were slaves in the land of Egypt. In Egypt, there was no scheduled day of rest and worship. They were slaves to Pharaoh and what a difficult taskmaster he was.

One of the purposes of the Sabbath was to remember how God had delivered His people from Pharaoh and the Egyptians. God was saying, “Remember how it used to be. Remember the burdens I delivered you from?”

As Christians, we gather for corporate worship on the Lord’s Day to remember God’s grace through Jesus. We remember how we were slaves to sin. We were slaves to sin, deserving of God’s wrath for our sin. But Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath came to deliver us from our sin by coming and dying on the cross on our behalf.

The Pharisees missed an opportunity to worship the Lord of the universe!

They were too busy being legalistic, too busy being critical, too busy burdening people.

If we’re not careful, we can miss the whole point of the Lord’s Day.

• To the extent that we are legalistic and critical we miss the point of the Lord’s Day.
• If we burden others with our own preferences and standards, we miss the point of the Lord’s Day.
• If we fail to love and encourage others, we miss the point of the Lord’s Day.
• Finally, if we fail to worship Jesus then we’ve missed the point of the Lord’s Day.

Our preferences and expectations need to submit to the greater priorities of:

• Worshipping God
• Exalting Jesus
• Loving one another
• Making disciples

Because Jesus came and died for us, let’s joyfully worship Him, the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of all creation!