Gospel of Mark (part 12) by Dr. Bill Senyard on 08/18/13

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Who Is This Man?

Aug 18. 2013

 

The God Who Breaks the Law

23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (NIV)

 

Mark 3:1-6  1 Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Slide 1

We are finishing up this segment of the Mark, and preparing to enter into the last portion of Galatians.  Very fitting as you will no doubt discern.

 

According to Judaism there are 613 commandments (mitzvot) in the Torah.[i] By the time of Christ, there had amassed 39 main categories of work that was forbidden on the Sabbath, with many, many more subcategories.[ii]   #3 was “Thou shalt not reap on the Sabbath.”  Further, plucking grain was defined as reaping.  Healing was perhaps more subjective.  It was widely held that if it was a matter of life or death, you could deal with it on the Sabbath.  Leprosy, healing a cripple, fixing a shriveled hand– clearly not life threatening.  Jesus breaks two of the accepted laws.

Slide 2

And so the Pharisees begin a legal case against him—a halakha: a legal interpretation of one of the laws and an application to some event.  So usually is was an accusation—or at least a sharp question—“Is this right to do …?”  “Is it lawful?  “Isn’t is unlawful….?  The accused would then either repent (admit error and seek restitution) or enter into a defense case based upon normally a different point of law.

Slide 3

Jesus does neither (certainly to the ire of the lawyers!).  He uses a different point of argument (haggadha): an argument based upon historical president.  He chooses a provocative, relatively obscure passage that does not appear at all to do with the Sabbath!  David, had entered the temple and eaten the temple showbread; bread that was set apart for God.  In other words, David broke the law (it would appear) and was not condemned by God for doing so.

 

A very interesting line of argumentation!  Is Jesus arguing that there are times that the Law could be broken?  HEADLINE: Pastor Bill says that we can break the law!  Nope.  Its worse than that.  By the way, Jesus is technically not defending his actions. Jesus is challenging their entire approach to God’s law.

Slide 4- What is the role of Torah?

According to the 1^st ct. Pharisees, the Torah defined how man can please God, how man can earn God’s favor and blessing—what Judah must do to become great again.  That’s a huge deal.  That would be equivalent to evangelicals today, saying, “What should we be doing so that God’s power comes in revival today?”  The image is of God petulantly waiting until we get our act together, or at least a tipping point of folk.  Then he would have to come and heal our land.

 

So, when did God become so co-dependent upon us?  We read things that way.  We think that God is just holding back until we miraculously change somehow—until we do it right.

 

But when did this shift occur? We have all had those relationships with perfectionists—very difficult people, where you have to walk on eggshells—make sure what you say is correct and the way they want to hear it.  It is work.  No rest there.  You can’t rest.  No Sabbath.

 

But on the other hand, there have been those relationships that were easy—natural—fun.  This is the only relationship with God the Father that Jesus knows.

 

This kind of relationship existed naturally with Adam and Eve pre-fall.  If you would have told Adam that he’d better keep the Sabbath.  All creation would have laughed at the absurdity of not taking full advantage of an intimate invitation to fully focus upon his relationship, “Why would I not?  What crazy deluded person would willingly choose any other path?”

 

How far away from the point of the law had the people of God gone?  The Torah was not designed for David to starve based upon a technicality.  Or for a man to not be healed.  What kind of God would that be?

 

The law of 1^st ct. Judaism was an institution that directly or indirectly crushed the spirits of failed people like me.  It didn’t set free, it didn’t give the people rest; instead defined unreachable standards that only invited guilt and shame.  It didn’t lead people to God, but enmeshed them in institutional religion.  Oz was run by the distant scary unapproachable wizard behind the veil.  And the religious leaders were the doorkeepers of Oz.

Slide 5- The Sabbath-

There was nothing in creation better than Sabbath.  What was it?  For 6 days, God worked— he did it all.  Humanity just sat on the sideline chilling.  He provided Eden for people—men and women.  There was nothing else they could ever need.  Then God ‘shabbated.’  By the way, God stopped “creating” but He did not stop from running the place.  The highly publicized image of God doing nothing is wildly overstated.  He didn’t just go a do a round of golf.

 

What was left was the day, that marked a new era of fellowship and co-conspiracy, God and humanity, where humans submissively entered into the creation—alongside God–and began to play—began to freely being fruitful, multiplying, filling, ruling and subduing.  He and she entered into the place where they could fully explore their own glories to the honor and worship of God and His glory.  They ‘walked with God’.  We were to enter into our humanity.

 

This is the DNA of the Shabbat!  But we pit Sabbath and careers against each other.  How absurd?  All work was purposeful then.  All rest was purposeful.[iii] It is correct to say equally that Shabbat was fully for man and fully for God.  Man and God in a relationship that was powerfully life giving—no hoops.  To remember the DNA of Shabbat, humans were given a weekly liturgy, a remembrance time.

 

What are we to remember?  God is for us!  We are not alone.  Our identities cannot come from work.  Our identities come from an intimate relationship with Him.  We need to be regularly reminded of that.

 

But by the 1^st ct., Shabbat had become religious abuse, likely by well-meaning people.  The Sabbath was that time that you had to really work to do the right things so that God would be pleased with you—so that God would bless you—not punish you—etc.  It is just the opposite of what it should be.  It was once, to enter into the love of God and enjoy His faithfulness to you— be filled with all of the fullness of God.

 

Now it had devolved into list of work—hard work to prove your faithfulness—a fool’s bet!  In fact, tragically, the Pharisee’s Sabbath didn’t need God at all.

 

So what we have today are some folk who say that “Sunday is my day off, to chill out.  Why would I go to church?  It’s work!  I would prefer to go to the mountains to spend time with God.”  Biblically absurd.  It is functioning unbelief.  But we think this.

 

Sabbath–Work?  What have we done?  Gone were notions of hope, healing, joy, feasting!  Remembering my Sonship, your daughter-ship, our rights calling, purpose?

 

Jesus picks a very strategic battle.  It is so tragic—comical if not so painful.  On the Lord’s day…. a person couldn’t even be healed.  That is how far they had gone.  The implication is that God had ruled against healing on His day.  How petty.  How pagan. Jesus’ reaction is very telling in 3:5- “He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts….”  I love the term—“stubborn” hearts.  According to BDAG, stubborn reflects a “state or condition of complete lack of understanding, dullness, insensibility, obstinacy.”  Jesus sees that they were not guardians of righteousness, they were obstinate.  Wow! Jesus sees that they were really not about truth, or God.   Huge blindspots!

Slide 6- Q: How much of Modern Sabbatarianism is really breaking the Sabbath.[iv]

The day is not about arguments over what is approved and what is not approved, what pleases God or what doesn’t please God.  If this is at the heart of your concern over the Sabbath, then you are missing the gospel.  Nothing that you do or don’t do on Sunday, or for that matter any day of the week adds to your favor with God, or takes away from it!  Either Jesus, his life and death, resurrection and ascension purchased for you all of God’s favor, or not.  Which is it?   If he did, then you gain nothing of God’s favor by Sabbath.  BTW, if Jesus didn’t (atone) you still gain nothing from Sabbath.

 

So here’s another way of looking at it.  The legalist was right after all.  God’s favor is earnable from perfectly keeping the law.  But only one did it.  Jesus kept Sabbath regulations for you, so that you can enter in and take a seat at the table.  Enter the rest.

 

Many of the modern self-proclaimed ‘Sabbatarians’ seem to miss the Cross.  They seem to deny all that Jesus did and replaced it with a Pharisaical moralism/legalism.  The formula is simply put, if you keep the rules, then God will bless you and your spiritual life will just take off.  If you don’t do enough—well nothing—you might as well give up.

 

So listen, check this out.  If you want to ignore the work of Jesus on the Cross, and really be Torahic, then listen:

Ex. 31:14 ¶ “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.”

 

So the formula is this, if you miss a Sunday, minimally you need to be kicked out—or killed.  First of all, I don’t know any sabbatarians who are putting people down if they miss a Sunday.

 

Rather what if from God’s perspective, if there is someone who just does not want to come into His presence, but would prefer to go and find wholeness, joy, life, love, purpose, identity in other areas?  That person at their heart level is a God-betrayer, a celestial rebel.  “I don’t need You, God!”  I can be human without You.  I can be me without Your interference.”  The latter reflects a heart-level unbelief and idolatry.  The penalty for both is “death!”

 

What if Sabbath was not about what not to do—but rather what you and I have–in Christ been invited into?  What if it really was for us!

Slide  7 So here is a statement.  Tell me what you think?

Q: The Sabbath is an ongoing gospel presentation for that Exodus 31-person.  Stunning good news!

Gen. 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested (shabbat) from all his work.

 

But in Exodus, a different Hebrew word is used.

Ex. 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested (nuach) on the seventh day.

 

Listen to TWOT on the word nuach.

“In Gen 2:2–3 shabat (cessation from labor) describes God’s rest, but in Ex 20:11 nuach is used. Hence, man is not only to cease from his worldly pursuits (31:12–17; cf. Isa 58:13–14), but he is to enter into a state of victory/salvation rest (Josh 1:13; cf. Deut 25:19). It is only the presence and favor of God that makes this rest…possible (Ex 33:14; cf. Isa 14:3, 7). True rest/salvation is to be declared in the messianic age…God ultimately will accomplish true rest for his elect people through his Messiah (Isa 63:14; cf. Heb 3:7–4:13).”

 

God invites us to enter today into a state of victory rest.  This is stunning good news.  We do nothing to gain it.  We, by faith, the faith that comes from Him, get the experience that Jesus earned.  This is good news! The day is not the goal.  The act of not working on one day is not the goal. It is so much bigger than that. The author of Hebrews helps us out here. [v]

Slide 8

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” (Heb 4:9-11 NIV)

 

He/she is a ‘hyper-Sabbatarian’.  The author says that now, after Christ has come that we are to enter Sabbath experientially by faith every day.  THE POINT OF SABBATH IS NOT ABOUT “NOT WORKING!!!!” It is all about daily entering it to everything that Jesus purchased for us.  Ironically such Sabbath takes work!

 

But our problem is that something is driving us internally to not want to submit to God’s rest.

Q: Why would anyone really come into the presence of God anyway?  There are a lot of things working against it.  Fear.  Shame, guilt, unbelief that Jesus did it all, fear.  Fear.  I mean if you really believed that God was powerfully here, especially so in the congregation of the Spirit-filled? Why would a moralist a legalist dare come into the presence of God—they cannot ever be sure that they have done enough—and suspect that they have not.  Too scary a concept.

 

Hard for a proud self-sufficient moralist/legalist to swallow, right?  Unless—unless God has shown a huge light on your desperate need for Sabbath—your lack of Sabbath no matter how hard you have worked.  Or—or, if you are today Spirit-filled-unaware and the Spirit is empowering you to come as you are—a failed Sabbatarian—c’mon admit it.

 

Sabbath is less a noun and more of a verb—a work.  And God must draw us in because of our stubborn, obstinate hearts.

Slide  9- Are we sabbatarians?  How do we see our sabbath experience– now?

 

But what if we can’t do Sabbath without God?  Without his Spirit?  What if that was the final straw for the Pharisees?  They had worked real hard, along with generations before them to define what people were not to do on the Sabbath—just knowing that God would be pleased—but all of that was slave thinking!  “All of this we will do!”

 

What if doing Sabbath was not a measure of your faithfulness to God, but your desire or lack of desire to want to do Sabbath was a measure of the state of your dynamic present relationship with God?

 

What if the Sabbath really was for us?  What if it was a rule for former helpless shamed slaves who needed a temporary rule to remind them in their hardness of heart to stay in a posture of need in the presence of God?  But now?  We are children. Not Slaves.

 

What if the Spirit of the law was that we would truly want to gather and to bring offerings, and to be totally pride free to submit to the process, and to be changed, and to receive what God would give you, to follow his lead?

 

So maybe, one Sunday, don’t do Sabbath.  Maybe it has become a work idol.  And if nothing in your heart, no still small voice says to you, “Hey, lets go to worship!  Hey, I want to go.  I can’t think of anywhere else I would prefer to go!” then I have good news for you.  There’s a real problem!  Run to Jesus, by faith and boldly ask for the Spirit to fill-fill you.  Until you feel a renewed power within you to want to come and submit to the community, submit to the Spirit here.

Slide 10 Q: So then if everyday is Sabbath, why come on Sunday?

Seriously?[vi]

1)      If I really have the dynamic Holy Spirit filling me, then I am experiencing the height, and length and width and depth of his love, not just for me, but for others. I am feeling a bit toward you, how the Spirit feels toward you.  It is human nature, I want to be with people that I love, that I like.  I would more and more want to be here—because you are here.  Right?

2)      If I come and am transformed (not just a high experience) but transformed, healed, refreshed, remember who I am, why I am here, to be reminded of God’s love for me, tell why a sane person wouldn’t look forward to the day?

 

The key is that gathering with others to submit to a corporate worship process is a fruit of the Spirit.  People filled with the Spirit of God will want to come.

 

Sabbath is better than yoga.  Better than Pilates.  Why would I ever purposefully miss it?  It would be gross unbelief, tragic selfishness, totally arrogant and wrong headed.  Self destructive.  In Mark’s word- “stubbornness of heart.”

 

May today, we individually and corporately enter into the rest earned for us by Christ.  May today, we know healing, feast upon the harvest….. The Sabbath is the Sabbath because the bountiful Lord is here.  Our fellowship with Him with each other…. dine with Him—with each other, embrace Him—embrace each other.  There is no other Sabbath.

Slide 11

So the Scribes and Priests and Pharisees had been working around an empty shell.  God’s Shekinah glory hadn’t been in the Temple for 600 years.  They were museum superintendents.  Sabbath, then—and don’t mistake what I am saying—I am not saying that they would say this, I am suggesting that this was the functional truth.  First Ct. Judaism was primarily deistic, no one expected God to actually come.  Remember the Zechariah story?  The Priests and Scribes were culture warriors.  No power.

 

And then here comes God, with power, and he ekeplessonto’s them—knocks them flat—challenges everything they were, gives them pink slips, trashes the temple, calls it a den of thieves (after they worked so hard keeping it clean).  And says, “Guys, the Sabbbath has always been for you.  I say this with absolute authority.”  This would have set me over the edge too.  For these crimes Jesus must die.  God is a threat to our religion, our comfort, our comfortable notion of His Kingdom among us.  The good news is troubling to us—and far better than any human construct of religion or Sabbath.  Be still and listen to a powerful poem by our own Nicole Vanvakas.