Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 2:23-28
Pastor: Pastor Nathan Berg
Sermon Date:  June 6, 2021

The Pharisees and the experts in the Law thought they had it all figured out. Their relationship with God was as good as it could get, because they were following all the laws better than anyone else. In fact, they had even added to the law, sharpened the interpretation of the law to prove their superiority, to prove their worth to God. And they expected everyone else to fall in line behind them. They looked down upon those who couldn’t and shamed those who wouldn’t. The popular belief of the time was that the Pharisees and the experts in the Law had it all figured out. They were the ones in the know. They were the ones in charge. They were the spiritual authority.

And then Jesus showed up.

For the next 8 weeks, we are going to be following Jesus’ ministry and his interactions with the people of Israel. Mark is going to take us on a journey that is leading toward the cross. And on the way, we are going to watch as Jesus turns everything the people believed, everything the Pharisees taught on its head. Jesus is going to upset the status quo. It’s almost as if you can hear him say at every turn, “Well, contrary to popular belief…” 

Today, we find Jesus on a Sabbath Day, early on in his Galilean ministry. Capernaum, a city on the Sea of Galilee, had become Jesus’ home base of sorts. And Jesus and his disciples are walking on a path that cuts through some fields of grain. And there’s a group of Pharisees that are right there with them. It seems as if the Pharisees were just constantly following Jesus around, looking for some way to discredit him. Why? They were jealous of Jesus’ growing popularity. Their years of rabbinical training, their expert in the law status no longer carried the weight it once did. The people were eagerly listening to Jesus. They were giving him the time, the respect, and the honor the Pharisees thought they deserved. And the Pharisees didn’t like it. But there was more to it than just petty jealousy. These Pharisees had abandoned God’s plan of salvation for a system based on their own devised works. They didn’t see themselves as sinners needing a Savior. So, of course, when Jesus comes in and upsets the apple cart of this legalistic system, they’re going to be upset. Their very way of life was in jeopardy. And so it’s with that in mind that we turn to Mark chapter 2. 

“Once on a Sabbath day, Jesus was passing through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick heads of grain as they walked along. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” Prior to this particular Sabbath day, the Pharisees had tried to trip Jesus’ up in their own rules about fasting. However, they struck out. And so they’re still looking for a way to discredit Jesus, and today they think they’ve found it. You can see that in their bold. “Look…” It’s almost as if they’re saying, “See here! Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?” Was it unlawful? Not at all. What the disciples were doing, plucking grain from a field as they walked along was allowed by the Law. In Deuteronomy 23:25 it says, “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 question at hand isn’t the legality of the action. The point of contention is that this happened on the Sabbath. No work was to be done on the Sabbath. In the eyes of the Pharisees, work was exactly what was happening. 

Do they have a point? Perhaps, albeit a weak one. People were allowed to eat on the Sabbath. It wasn’t a day of fasting. You could argue that’s all the disciples were doing. How much extra “work” was happening? How was this different from plucking food off of a table? But this doesn’t matter to the Pharisees. To them, this is a clear violation of the Sabbath. They think they have Jesus right where they want him. 

“He replied to them, “Have you never read what Dadid did when he was in need and hungry (he and his companions)? He entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for anyone to eat, except for the priests. He also gave some to his companions.” This isn’t the only time the Pharisees would question Jesus about the Sabbath day. What we see is that in every instance, Jesus doesn’t allow himself to be attacked personally. Notice the question here isn’t about him, but about his disciples. This allows Jesus to deflect any personal attacks and actually get straight to the point. “Is it lawful not?” The law was the issue here. And as Jesus is so apt to do, he goes straight to Scripture when the law is at question. In this instance, Jesus uses an illustration from the life of King David, when he was fleeing from Saul. In 1 Samuel 21, David and his men were in desperate need of food. When they came to the tabernacle, the only food that was available was the Bread of Presence, which was lawful only for the priests to eat. The high priest gave David and his men the bread to eat. Even though it was unlawful by the letter of the law, something greater was at stake. Jesus’ point is clear: When it comes to the Law, human need is of higher consideration to God than religious ritualism. In other words, the Law of love, the spirit of the whole Law, outweighs the letter. Even divine ceremonial law was not intended to be absolute in its application. God is more concerned with the heart. 

And this application allows Jesus to hammer home the principle. “Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” The principle is clear: God intended the Sabbath to be a blessing for man. It was a day of physical rest, but more importantly, a day of spiritual rest. The Sabbath was given so man could be fed by the Word and enjoy the true spiritual rest that comes with the knowledge of sins forgiven. The Pharisees had turned it completely around. They had made the Sabbath a work. They had turned man into a slave to the Sabbath. But Jesus says today, Contrary to popular belief: The Sabbath was made for man. 

Before we rag on the Pharisees too hard, a little self-examination is in order here. Unfortunately, we all have a little Pharisee running around inside of us. By nature, we all are little legalists. Our sinful nature wants us to think that we can earn our own salvation. Like the Pharisees, we tend to want to add human rules and regulations to the holy will of God. That’s what you hear when someone says, “All God requires of us is one hour a week.” I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of becoming legalists when it comes to worship. Instead of receiving our Sabbath rest from God, worship becomes work! It’s something we have to do in order to fulfill the requirements of God! We have to offer up our prayers and our praises. We have to pay our dues in our offerings. We have to serve on this board or that committee to really be a good Christian. Like the Pharisees, we can even turn rest into a work. 

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. He won the real Sabbath rest for us by refusing to rest until our salvation had been won. Jesus and his work for us are the true fulfillment of the Sabbath. And even though Jesus has fulfilled the Sabbath regulations by his perfect life, the Sabbath principles remain for our benefit. It’s only through the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us through his life and death that we can have true rest for our souls. That’s why God established this command in the first place. Jesus provides the spiritual rest we need through his Word and Sacraments. The Sabbath is a day where God initiates the action. It becomes a day where we are on the receiving end. We receive all these blessings we could never earn on our own. We receive Christ; we receive life; we receive the forgiveness of sins, the solution to our greatest problem. That’s what New Testament worship primarily is thanks to Christ! New Testament worship is chiefly a worship not of doing but of receiving what God has done for us in Word and Sacrament: our faith is strengthened, peace and true rest are received, encouragement is given, service to our neighbor is offered. Contrary to Popular Belief, this what the Sabbath is still all about. This is what God intends for us to enjoy.

We thank God that Jesus showed up and turned the establishment on its head. We thank God that Contrary to the Popular belief then and now, the Sabbath was made for us and for our benefit. May we find the rest God offers as he serves us. May that rest then allow us to serve others and share with them the same rest we have received. AMEN.