Saturday, March 15, 2014

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Mark 2:23 – 3:6

Today’s scripture relates two incidents on the Sabbath illustrating how Jesus used the Bible, how he cared for people in need, and how he reacted to the Pharisees, some of the religious leadership in Jesus’ society.  We learn about Jesus’ priorities and emotions and we are challenged to become more like him in our actions, thoughts, and feelings.

One of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:8-11) says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  God’s intention was for the Sabbath to be a weekly day off from work for rest, recreation, and worship.  In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees made many rules and regulations tightening Sabbath restrictions and paid more attention to their rules than to the basic intention of the commandment.  The Sabbath became a legal burden more than a day of renewal and restoration.  So Jesus called people back to the basic biblical principle as he said, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath.”  

In the first story today (Mk. 2:23-28), some of Jesus’ disciples helped themselves on the Sabbath to a snack of grain from a field.  There was nothing wrong with their helping themselves to the grain in the field; the Jewish law allowed that for travellers and for the poor (Lev. 19:9-10).  But the Pharisees objected strongly to the “work” of plucking the grain on the Sabbath.  Jesus wouldn’t tolerate such legalism making people go hungry because of arbitrary rules.  So he upset the Pharisees.  He upped the confrontation by referring to a slightly obscure account (1 Sam. 21:1-6) about David, running for his life from King Saul, asking the priest Abiathar for bread.  Abiathar had only the special, consecrated Bread of the Presence, but David and the hungry young men with him unlawfully took that bread and ate it.   Jesus’ point is that God – and the Bible stories from which we learn about God – are more concerned about meeting human needs like hunger than about even the worship ceremonies the Bible itself specifies.  The Pharisees must have found this story particularly galling, as they greatly admired King David, and the Bible in no way criticized David for unlawfully eating the consecrated bread or even for deceiving the priest, which David did by telling him he was on a secret mission for King Saul when he was actually running away from Saul.

Notice the different approach to the Bible between Jesus and the Pharisees.  The Pharisees (like some Christians today) saw the Bible as a source of restrictive rules and regulations, which they tightened up even more and used to impose burdens on other people.  Jesus looked past all that and saw the real purpose for the Bible, to show us God’s love, God’s healing, the freedom and joy that God brings to people.  Jesus takes the Bible very seriously, but for its positive liberating purpose, with restraints only for the good of people, not to impose burdens.  What is our attitude to the Bible?  Are we sometimes like the Pharisees?  Or are we learning to see, with Jesus, what is really fundamental and liberating in the Bible, how it brings healing and joy and hope?

Our second story (Mk. 3:1-6) takes the differences even further.  Jesus already has a reputation as a healer, and the Pharisees are watching to see if Jesus will heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.  For them, their Sabbath rules are the important matter; they care little if anything about the man who needs healing.  For Jesus, it is the reverse.  Confrontation follows, and Jesus shows his emotional reaction: he looks at the Pharisees with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and heals the man anyway.  Earlier, Mark (1:40-41) has told us of a leper toward whom Jesus was moved with compassion, with pity, as he reaches out and heals him.  Thus we glimpse Jesus’ emotions of compassion and care for those in need, for the powerless, the excluded and rejected ones.  We also glimpse Jesus’ emotions of grief and anger toward those who care nothing about the people in need, those who care only for their own rules and procedures, only for their own power and authority.

Let us consider how we react in similar circumstances.  When we see people in need, people who are marginalized and excluded, people who are suffering, do we react like Jesus with compassion, with caring, with every effort to bring healing and hope?  Or, like the Pharisees, do we look away and hardly notice people in need?  And how do we react to people like the Pharisees, especially those in authority, who care little or nothing for people in need?  Do we shrug our shoulders at this usual state of affairs?  Or do we, with Jesus, grieve because they don’t care about people in need, but only about themselves and their own agendas?

Our scripture today has a sad conclusion.  We learn, for the first time in Mark’s Gospel, that Jesus is under threat:  The Pharisees (religious leaders) are consulting with the Herodians (who shared political leadership with Herod Antipas, governing Galilee for the Roman Empire), how they can destroy Jesus.  The way Jesus cares for the poor, the sick, the excluded, in defiance of their rules and authority, is totally unacceptable to these leaders.  They are determined to assert their authority and stop Jesus no matter what, even by destroying him.  

This sad conclusion is meant for us too.  If we are serious in following Jesus, in learning to live and act like him, if his character infuses us until our emotions become like his, we too will be rejected by many of the powers that be.  The closer we walk with Jesus, the harsher, even violent, that rejection will become (2 Tim. 3:12).  So let us count the cost as we endeavour to follow Jesus, so we will not turn back from him who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2).

-  Robert Kruse