Mark 2: Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath and of Every Day

Introduction

One Sabbath, Jesus' disciples walk through a wheat field. They are hungry, so they pick a few heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Right away, the Pharisees object: "Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath?"

The pastor of Chitose Gospel Christian Church in Japan continues here his reading through the Gospel of Mark. Two weeks earlier, he had spoken about fasting. This Sunday, he shows how a commandment given for people's good became, in the hands of the religious leaders, a day of constraints.

Jesus' answer fits in one sentence: the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Then comes a statement that touches your entire week: the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.

Message outline

1. Fasting, a misleading barometer of faith

• Fasting means going without drink or food for a time. It is neither a health practice nor a physical discipline: it is an act that belongs to the spiritual realm and to faith.
• In Leviticus 16:29, God asks Israel, through Moses, to fast once a year, on the tenth day of the seventh month.
• But people like to show their best side, even in matters of faith. The Pharisees and the scribes fasted outside the prescribed times, and they made sure everyone knew it: drawn faces, pale looks, they paraded before the crowds.
• The number of fasts is not the barometer of faith. Having fasted a lot does not prove that you trust God more than others do.
• It is easy to laugh at these people. But we too can compare our spiritual levels or take a secret pride in our zeal. The pastor calls us to be vigilant.

2. Heads of grain picked on the Sabbath

• The religious leaders wanted to keep the law down to its smallest details. When it came to how to spend the Sabbath, they were especially uncompromising.
• Jesus and his disciples are on their way. The disciples are hungry: they pull off heads of grain, rub them in their hands, blow away the chaff and put the white kernels in their mouths.
• The pastor remembers his childhood in Tokyo. He walked to church, was not "a very good student," jumped over the pews and enjoyed making the coal stove glow red in winter. But he remembers this story told by a Sunday school leader. Later, passing by a wheat field, he did exactly what the disciples did. He no longer remembers the taste, except that it was "not as bad" as he thought, perhaps slightly sweet.
• The act itself was not wrong. Deuteronomy 23:24-25 allows you to enter your neighbor's vineyard or field and eat as much as you want, without carrying anything away or putting a sickle to the grain. In other words: take what you need to eat, no more.
• What causes the problem is the day: it was the Sabbath.

3. When a commandment becomes a burden

• The fourth commandment is clear (Deuteronomy 5:12-14): six days of work, then a seventh day when no one works, neither children, nor servants, nor livestock, nor the foreigner. This is a good thing: even today, we normally take one day of rest out of seven.
• The problem came afterward. The commandment "took on a life of its own": the religious leaders defined in detail what counted as work. A commandment given for people's safety, health and peace became very hard to keep.
• There were 39 categories of forbidden work: sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, washing the harvest, grinding, kneading, baking bread, weaving two threads, making or undoing a knot, sewing two stitches, writing two letters (a single letter was allowed), erasing in order to write two letters.
• For the Pharisees, picking heads of grain was reaping. Rubbing them to separate the chaff from the grain was threshing. Hence their complaint.
• The Jews of that time lived under a silent pressure not to break anything. The Sabbath, which was meant to be a day of joy when we remember the Lord's presence together with others, had become a suffocating day. That is not what God wanted when he gave the law.
• The pastor relays what he has heard: in some buildings where many Jews live, during the Sabbath (from Friday evening to Saturday evening), the elevator stops at every floor, because pressing a button would count as work. Fifteen floors, fifteen stops.

4. Jesus' answer: what David did

• Jesus answers with a question: "Did you never read what David did, when he had need and was hungry?" He reminds them that David entered the house of God and ate the show bread, reserved for the priests, and gave some to those who were with him.
• The episode is found in 1 Samuel 21. Around the tenth century before Jesus Christ, David is pursued by King Saul, who wrongly suspects him of plotting a revolt. He flees, again and again, with his men.
• He goes to the sanctuary and meets the priest Ahimelech there. Ahimelech senses David's distress and gives him the consecrated bread, which only the priests' family could eat once it was taken from before the LORD. David is thus able to feed his men.
• If David received this bread beyond the rule, how can anyone blame the Son of God for allowing his disciples to pick heads of grain, beyond rules made by people?
• For the Israelites, David is not a figure of the past: he is the absolute hero. Probably no one criticized him. To approve of David and condemn the disciples is to contradict yourself.

5. Jesus does not abolish the Sabbath, he is its author

• The pastor insists, to avoid a misunderstanding: Jesus does not despise the Sabbath or the fourth commandment.
• When you read the Gospels, do not forget who Jesus is: the Creator of the whole world. Together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he himself established these commandments, including the ten, and passed them on to Israel through Moses. He could not despise what he himself had given.
• The pastor thinks, rather, that the Lord's heart was grieved to see this commandment poorly passed on and poorly understood.
• "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." The Sabbath is the day when people lay down all the work of their hands to worship the living God. It is the day when they rest and praise the one who gave them the harvest and the work to obtain it.
• "It is not only about resting." Resting, praising God and rejoicing in him: that is the Sabbath.
• For a people of farmers and herders, stopping one day out of seven took courage. In the middle of the season, when every hand is needed, regularly ceasing work is an adventure, with a real economic risk. From the outside, it can look senseless.

6. Lord even of the Sabbath: every day belongs to him

• An Old Testament professor at a Tokyo seminary writes, in a book on the ten commandments, that the Sabbath is not only about stopping work on the seventh day: it is about working six days and stopping on the seventh, and therefore, in a broad sense, about how to live all seven days.
• The pastor sums it up: the Sabbath rule shows how to live every day, including the six working days, in relationship with God. From Monday to Saturday, it is about living with God as on the day of rest.
• Jesus says: "The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." "Son of Man" is the title Jesus uses to speak of himself, especially to indicate that he is the Messiah.
• Jesus does not only say that he is lord of the Sabbath. He says he is lord "even" of the Sabbath. That small word matters a great deal: he is the Lord of every day, from Sunday to Saturday.
• Most Christians live Sunday as the Lord's day, and that is healthy. But Monday, the day of school, of the office or of watering the vegetable garden? "That's over, that was yesterday, today is my day"? No: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are also the Lord's day.
• Who is the master of your day, the one who guides you and leads your life? The pastor invites his church to live the coming week by turning their hearts toward him.

Key takeaways

• How often we practice our religion is not the measure of faith. The desire to look spiritual lies in wait for us too.
• The rules added by people turned a day of joy into a day of constraints, the opposite of God's intention.
• The Sabbath was made for man: a day to rest, lay down your work, worship God and rejoice in him.
• Jesus does not abolish the commandment: he is its author, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
• The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath: every day of your week belongs to him, not only Sunday.

Personal application

1. In your life of faith, is there a practice you use to measure yourself against others or to show off?
2. What rules, written or unwritten, have you added to your faith to the point that they suffocate you or suffocate others?
3. Is your day of rest only a pause, or a time to worship God and rejoice in him?
4. What changes in practical terms if your Monday, at work, at school or at home, is also the Lord's day?
5. This week, at what moment of the day can you consciously remember the one who leads your life?

Verses cited

• Mark 2:23-28
• Leviticus 16:29
• Deuteronomy 23:24-25
• Deuteronomy 5:12-14
• 1 Samuel 21:1-6

Frequently asked questions

Why do the Pharisees blame the disciples for picking heads of grain?

Picking a few heads of grain in someone else's field was allowed by the law (Deuteronomy 23:24-25). The problem was the day: it was the Sabbath. The religious leaders had defined 39 categories of forbidden work. Pulling off the heads of grain counted as reaping, and rubbing them in the hands counted as threshing.

What does "the Sabbath was made for man" mean?

God gave the Sabbath for people's good: six days of work, then a day when everyone rests, servants and livestock included. The Sabbath is not only a day of rest, it is the day when we lay down the work of our hands to worship the living God, rejoice in him and praise him.

Why does Jesus say he is lord "even" of the Sabbath?

The pastor stresses this small word: Jesus does not only say he is lord of the Sabbath, he says he is lord even of the Sabbath. He is therefore the Lord of every day of the week. Monday, the day of school, work or the vegetable garden, belongs to him as much as Sunday.