JESUS - THE LAWBREAKER

JESUS – LAW BREAKER
Mark 2:18-3:6

Please turn in your Bible to Mark 2. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 866 or 883.

I’m sure there are laws that you don’t appreciate very much and wish were non-existent. I’m sure there are some speed limit ones that make no sense and are hard to obey. On the internet, there are some things which, according to these websites, are still against the law in some places in Ohio. I cannot promise that these are all true, but I know there are some incredible laws like these still “on the books” in our country:

· In Ohio, if you ignore an orator on Decoration day to such an extent as to publicly play croquet or pitch horseshoes within one mile of the speaker’s stand, you can be fined $25.
· It is illegal to get a fish drunk.
· The Ohio driver’s education manual states that you must honk the horn whenever you pass another car.
· Participating or conducting a duel is prohibited.
· Breast feeding is not allowed in public.
· It is illegal for more than five women to live in a house.
· It is illegal to mistreat anything of great importance.
· No one may be arrested on Sunday or on the Fourth of July.

Jesus was a law-breaker, not in the Ten Commandments or Bible’s absolute laws; but when it came to man-made laws; especially those that were meant to make people seem more spiritual. The laws that were made by the religious leaders of Jesus day seemed even more outlandish than some of the ones mentioned above. They got caught up in the deception that the more laws you made to dictate people’s every move would make you more holy and acceptable before God. Jesus was going to destroy those myths.

In the previous passage (Mark 2:15-17), the religious leaders had been complaining that Jesus was spending time with sinful people; and Jesus told them that He was here to do just that. Those who recognized they were in need were the ones who would humble themselves and accepted the message that Jesus was giving: That He was the promised Messiah, the Son of God, who had come to save them from their sins. But, we will find that nothing will satisfy the religious leaders when it comes to Christ; until they kill him, that is.

This morning, Mark takes us right into another episode where they are criticizing Jesus and His followers for something else:

Jesus and His followers broke the religious traditions of fasting:

Mark 2:18 – “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Perhaps the cynical people, who were looking for anything they could accuse Jesus of, were taking this opportunity with the party at the new disciples’ Matthew’s house, to go after him again. Maybe they were pointing out that while Jesus and his followers were having a feast, the followers of John the Baptist and the Pharisees were observing a religious fast.

The Old Testament said that all Jews should fast on the Day of Atonement, showing their spirit of repentance (according to Leviticus). The Pharisees and those who followed their traditions would also fast twice a week, usually on Monday and Thursdays, to show they were righteous and holy. It is interesting that the fasts normally took place, not during the full day; but from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. At least, according to tradition, that is when they fasted.

So, the criticism was this: Hey Jesus, the followers of John the Baptist and the religious leaders all fast, to show their dedication to God. So, why aren’t your followers fasting as well, following their example of piety? In other words: “your followers aren’t as holy as the others!”

Fasting does not seem to be the issue people use to show their spiritual superiority today; but we could substitute issues such as music, Bible translations, how many church services someone goes to, how long their devotional or prayer time is, etc. Anything that might be good, but people can wrongly use as some type of spiritual holiness test, could fit what these religious leaders were doing with fasting. It would be like going to someone and criticizing them because they didn’t attend a Sunday evening service, not really caring the reason they had, but just assuming that they must not be as spiritual as those who did!

So Jesus responds:

Mark 2:19,20 – “And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”

Jesus used a modern day illustration of the first century to explain why his followers were not fasting. And again, Jesus loved to answer questions with questions: When the bridegroom is present for the wedding and all the celebration around weddings, there is no reason for the wedding guests to fast. When a Jewish couple was wed, they would not go on a honeymoon but stay for a week of celebrating. And the closest friends of the bride and bridegroom were invited. They would be celebrating, eating and drinking and enjoying the presence of the bridegroom. It would make no sense to be somber and abstain from food during the greatest times of celebration. In fact, it would be inappropriate to do so.

And of course, Jesus was referring to Himself as the bridegroom and his disciples as the wedding guests. He said: The time will come when I am taken away and then they will fast. And when he says “taken away”, his words denote a violent removal, as the prophecy declared:

Isaiah 53:8 – “By oppression and judgment he was taken away…”

Yes, that time would come. In fact, some of those religious leaders who were fasting so proudly, would be a part of the unjust judgment that would be brought on Jesus. But, Jesus’ point was that his followers were not fasting now, because he (the bridegroom) was with them; and so this was a time of celebration and focusing on Him. When he would be taken away (the crucifixion and eventual ascension to Heaven), then it would be time for them to fast. Let’s not just keep this in the First Century. Let’s consider how these things apply to us today:

SO WHAT?
Do not allow traditions to dictate your worship
There is nothing wrong with traditions unless you treat them as biblical absolutes. The religious leaders viewed fasting as part of their worship of God (mostly just an external show); and anyone who did not fast as often as they did must not worship God or be as holy. Fasting is not talked about in most churches; but many churches certainly have their traditions which they believe honor God. That is no problem. The problem comes when those churches or individuals within them expect that abiding by tradition brings extra merit with God; or those who do not abide by the same traditions are less committed to Him or less holy. Don’t fall into the trap of being bound by other’s man-made traditions; and don’t use your traditions as the standard for determining someone else’s holiness. But, this does not mean that we should ignore this issue of worship that is described in the Bible:

SO WHAT?
Use fasting to get closer to the invisible God
We should not completely overlook the fact that Jesus said His followers would fast, once He was gone. For we who are followers of Christ today, we serve a God we have never seen. The bridegroom, Jesus Christ, whom we are waiting for, will return one day; but is not yet here in body. So, it makes sense that we would take times to do without things, such as food, in order to focus on our God, and on our complete dependence on Him. However, do not allow even this good practice of fasting to become another tradition just to make you look more spiritual to others.

Jesus moves into a couple other illustrations, to go beyond the issue of fasting, and keep emphasizing how Jesus’ arrival and presence with His followers has brought in a whole new way of life; and means that the old ways of worship and expectation have passed. He is using this critical comment and question of the people to teach something more about Himself:

Jesus broke the traditions of Judaism and became the way to get to the Father

He explains with a couple of illustrations, how you cannot abide by the old laws of tradition and mix it with a belief in Christ. The Old had to go completely so that they could embrace the truth of the new: Jesus was the way, the truth and the life, the only way to the Father. He gives illustrations people in that day would understand:

Mark 2:21 – “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

The religious leaders and people who were hearing Jesus’ statements about Himself and the gospel, were trying to keep the old covenant, the Old Testament worship practices, the traditions that they had added to the Law; and keep their own perceptions of what the future Messiah would be like and what He would do. This, Jesus says, is the old garment.
No one is going to put a new piece of fabric (unshrunk cloth) on the old garment; because it is only going to cause a greater tear in the garment eventually. The new cloth had never been shrunk, so when it got wet, it would shrink, causing a bigger hole than it had in the first place.

I think Jesus’ point was this: He is the something that is new. The Old Testament and law are being fulfilled before their very eyes. This was unique, fresh and definitely new. This is how, through Jesus Christ, that one gets to the Father. And therefore, you (which included all of those hearing Christ, living in that day and today) you must change the way you relate to God. You cannot hold on any longer to the old ways, the traditions, the sacrifices of your faith. You must believe that I (Jesus said) am the only way to God, and in this way, it is a new covenant, a new way of worship. And you cannot mix the two. Interesting.

Have you met professing believers or churches that are so tied to their religious, old traditions, that they just cannot bring themselves to celebrating the freedom in Jesus Christ, and allow what Jesus Christ has done to be enough? Again, there is nothing wrong with tradition until it gets in the way of the gospel and the truth that Jesus Christ is enough to save us and keep us with the Father and eternal life. Do not try to mix salvation by grace through faith with a works salvation. People and churches have tried it; and it eventually tears people apart and destroys.

Jesus goes right into another illustration that they would have related to:
Mark 2:22 – “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins – and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

It was also not smart to pour new wine (not fully fermented) into old wineskins (these were used and worn out, with no flexibility, very hard). No bottles in that day. The new wine would ferment, that is it would release gases, giving pressure to the container, so that the brittle wineskin would burst and the wine and skin would be wasted.

Jesus was emphasizing that you cannot just try to add Him (the truth of the gospel) in with the old church traditions that didn’t save anyone. When it comes to eternal life, you cannot mix grace through faith with hard work through religious traditions. Those who just wanted to add Jesus Christ to their list of religious practices and beliefs were deceiving themselves.

A few hundred years ago, Martin Luther wanted to reform the Catholic Church from within, but soon realized that the old traditions did not mix with the plain biblical truth, that salvation was completely apart from works and came only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The old traditions were getting in the way of getting to God only through Christ and his finished work on the cross.

Please understand: it is not just the Catholic Church that tends to hold on to traditions. It is human nature and the way churches tend to go eventually: we make and then cling to man-made traditions, and we have a very hard time letting go of them; even if they have become obstacles to spreading the good news about Jesus Christ and helping people grow in the freedom available in Christ. Jesus would have many opportunities to teach how His coming brought new life and meaning to all of the laws that God’s people had faithfully practiced and added to in the past. And action from Christ brought the religious leaders frustration and ammunition time and time again:

Jesus broke the Sabbath laws

Mark 2:23,24 – “One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, is disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

Jesus and His disciples, on the Sabbath day, were walking through someone’s grainfields, when the disciples picked up some heads of grain and ate them. The religious leaders, who were following, watching every move of Jesus and His disciples, saw another great opportunity to challenge Jesus.

They are like the younger sibling who loves to come running to the parents: Guess what brother was doing, what sister was doing. You told them not to, but they were doing it anyway! The Pharisees loved to run to Jesus with every little criticism they had, not only of him (they liked to criticize Jesus to other people) but of His followers.

According to commentator William Barclay: “This was done on the Sabbath and…all work was forbidden. Work had been classified under thirty-nine different heads and four of these heads were reaping , winnowing, threshing and preparing a meal. By their action the disciples had technically broken all these four rules and were to be classified as law-breakers. It seems [incredible] to us; but to the Jewish rabbis it was a matter of deadly sin and of life and death.”
According to the Talmud, the book of Jewish traditions: “On the Sabbath, you could not travel more than 3,000 feet from your house. You were not allowed to carry anything that weighted more than a dried fig. You couldn’t carry a needle for fear you might sew something. Taking a bathwas forbidden. Water might splash on the floor and wash it. Women were not to look in a mirror; they might pull a gray hair!”

It was like they were saying: How dare Jesus and His disciples? They claim to be the Son of God and followers of God; and yet they are not even keeping the most holiest of days, the Sabbath. So Jesus responded to this next criticism and accusation with another penetrating question and biblical story:

Mark 2:25,26 – “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: 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 responded to this criticism by asking another, rhetorical question to make his point: Don’t you know the Scriptures, Jesus asked. It is funny, every time Jesus asks that question to them over the few years, because they of course knew the Old Testament Scriptures better than anyone. They just applied them in a legalistic, unbiblical way; and ignored the most important principles of the Scriptures!

Jesus reminded them of the story told in I Samuel 21, when David and his friends were hungry, and they went into the court of the tabernacle and asked for the consecrated bread. There were 12 loaves of bread on the golden table; and it was against the religious laws of that day to eat the bread that was reserved only for priests.

Jesus used this story to show that the religious leaders were so narrow on their interpretation of the law, that they were setting aside the principle. In other words, the true needs of others were to take priority over the man-made traditions of the law. Jesus’ followers picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, in order to satisfy their hunger was no big deal in Jesus’ eyes.

There have been laws in the United States in years gone by that prohibited certain things on Sundays, which in the First Century, took over the importance of the Sabbath Day, as believers celebrated the first day of the week because of Jesus’ resurrection. So, “blue laws”, as they were called were instituted and some of them are still in place in certain areas:
· In Ohio, It is illegal to fish for whales on Sunday.
· In Salem, West Virginia, it's against the law to eat candy less than an hour and a half before church service.
· In Winona Lake, Wisconsin, it is illegal to eat ice cream at a counter on Sunday.
· And don't expect to order a slice of cherry pie a la mode in Kansas on the Lord's Day. No restaurant is allowed to serve it unless they're willing to run afoul of local police.
· Marbles, Dominoes, and yo-yos are also banned on Sundays in a handful of states.

Some of these are old laws, some are still “on the books”; and all of them, I’m sure were instituted so that people could give their focus on Sunday to God and church worship services. However, just as with the Pharisees, man-made laws become inflexible, don’t take real people into consideration and are many times way out of date. They are no longer reasonable or practical or purposeful.

I remember people in my past who felt this same way about Sundays, the Lord’s Day. They didn’t think you should work or even play on that day – just rest and go to church, of course. Now, there is nothing wrong with people who choose to do that; but the problem comes when they make that some kind of holiness rule, and expect everyone else to abide by it as well.

And then Jesus makes this next statement, that should have made it clear to everyone, how the religious laws fit into every-day life:

Mark 2:27 – “And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

This is a very telling statement. The idea of the Sabbath, of course, comes from the very beginning of human existence and beginning of the Scriptures, when we read in Genesis that on the 7th (Sabbath) day, Jesus rested. From then on, the 7th day of the week (Saturday) was connected with rest – a time to reflect on who God was and what He had done. Just like when God took a day to reflect on His creation and to rest.

The fact that God, who was all-powerful, did not need physical rest, should help us understand a little of what the Sabbath was all about; and how it was intended to help man. It gave everyone a day where their main responsibility was to rest from all of their hard work and reflect on who God was and what He had done.

Of course, eventually, the apostles began meeting on the first day of the week, Sunday, and declared that the Lord’s Day, because it was the day Jesus rose from the dead. So, most believers, after that, began taking Sunday as the day of rest – the day dedicated to reflecting on God with other believers.

However, as we have already mentioned, humans end up taking something good and turn it into some legalistic rules of holiness. And that is exactly what happened to the Pharisees and the religious people of Jesus’ day. They made their own binding rules about the Sabbath Day; and condemned those who broke them – no exceptions.

Jesus said during his public ministry that he was not here to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. His point was that the Sabbath Day was put in place to help people, not to confine them or limit them. It was to allow people to not have to work, but to spend the day enjoying God, God’s people, and whatever else they would enjoy as rest. And, if they needed to do work, or needed to prepare food, or whatever was needed, it was ok to work on the day of rest; because the people were more important than the program.

Jesus had authority over man-made laws

And Jesus then adds onto this statement, by reminding them that He is the one who has all authority. He has already demonstrated that he had authority over disease and demons and other’s people purposes for Him, and the process for how everything takes place. And now He says:

Mark 2:28 – “So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Guys, I, fully man and fully God, have the authority to use the day of rest however it will best benefit me and my followers. My followers have the same freedom. Don’t try to tell me that you are the authority. And don’t look at the law so narrowly and hold your traditions over the freedom that comes through me.

Jesus continually demonstrated who He was, and the religious people and leaders continued to deny Him. The next story that the gospel writer, Mark, relates to us is a prime example of this statement by Jesus: that He was the master of the Sabbath day.

Mark 3:1– “Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.”

Here is the set up again. He went into the synagogue, probably to once again preach the good news message about who he was, and guess what? It’s the Sabbath and here is someone in need of healing. Surprise, surprise…There is a man with a shriveled up hand and he comes into contact with Jesus. Hmmm…I wonder what is going to happen.

And the Pharisees begin to drool, because they can see another great opportunity coming to show Jesus to be a religious fraud, not willing to obey the biblical laws of the Sabbath Day! You don’t think they were that diabolical? Look at:

Mark 3:2 – “And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.”

Have you ever felt like there were certain people just watching, waiting for you to screw up? Jesus had that all the time, it seemed. They were relentless, and they certainly were not going to miss Jesus doing “work” on this most holy day – the Lord’s Day – the Sabbath.

And according to the law, this was punishable by death:
Exodus 31:14 – “You shall keep the Sabbath…Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death…”

The only “work” that was allowed by Jewish law on the Sabbath, was to save a life. For example, if a woman was in child-birth, she could be helped. If something was life threatening, saving a life was ok. Injuries could be helped so that they would not get worse, but could not be helped so that they would get better – on the Sabbath Day.

The Jews took this to such an extreme, that they would not even defend their own lives, if it meant violating the Sabbath laws. According to Barclay: “In the wars of the Maccabees, when the resistance broke out, some of the Jewish rebels took refuge in caves. The Syrian soldiers pursued them. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that they gave them the chance to surrender and they would not, so [the Syrians] fought against them on the Sabbath day, and they burned them as they were in caves, without resistance and without so much as stopping up the entrances of the caves. They refused to defend themselves on that day because they were not willing to break in upon the honor they owed to the Sabbath, even in such distress; for our law requires that we rest on that day.”

What did Jesus do?

Mark 3:3,4 – “And he said to the man with the withered hand, Come here. 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.”

Jesus told the man to come out, where everyone could see him. Jesus was about to do something, and really teach something, that he did not want people to miss.

Again, Jesus answers them with a question: a convicting, penetrating, revealing question. He brings the man in need of healing over, then looking at the critics, He asks: So, how does the law speak to this issue? Is it better to do good for someone or hurt someone on the Sabbath? Is it better to kill someone or to save a life? And I love this: The text says, in response to Jesus’ rhetorical questions, they were silent! They were speechless. Jesus had shut them up once again. The answers were obvious: It is better to do good and to save lives on the Sabbath. To not do good would be considered doing evil.

Mark 3:5 – “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.”

Jesus gave a penetrating look to the Pharisees, showing his disgust with their sinful attitudes. He was grieved in his heart because of the hardness of theirs. And then, he said to the man: stretch out your hand. The man extended it toward Jesus; and immediately, he was healed. In this case, it is not recorded that Jesus touched him or even said “be healed.” The man just obeyed what Jesus told him to do and all of a sudden his hand was “normal”, as though it has never been crippled.

There is something that sticks out, here, about the vast difference between the priorities of Jesus and the religious leaders. In fact, there is something revealed about their hearts that is then repeated time and time again in the gospels. And it leads me to the final:

SO WHAT?
Have a tender heart toward those in need of Christ

I believe this is applicable because we can see, over and over again, that those who claimed to be holy, committed to God, were really committed to their own agenda; which meant ignoring the real needs of people and going on the attack instead. Jesus, however, had a tender heart to those in need of Him; and spent His time restoring their health and more importantly, introducing them to God.

Let’s listen to this song and look at the story unfold of those who were so concerned with their righteousness, that they lost sight of a person’s true need:

MUSIC VIDEO: MY BROTHER JACK

Have you ever experienced this, as any of the participants? Perhaps you were the non-believer, lambasted by the professing believers. Or maybe you were the believer that decided you needed to set the non-believer straight. Or maybe you were the believer who brought a non-believer to a place where believers were; and then you witnessed those other believers “attack” your friend. This scenario we just heard played out in song and pictures depicts in present day what was happening in Jesus’ day. The religious, pious people were so concerned with their rules and standards that they forget there is a hurting non-believer who needs to see Christ’s love and acceptance modeled.

When people saw that others were truly healed by Jesus, what kind of response did they normally have? They would glorify God. They would be amazed. And then, they would go everywhere spreading the news that Jesus Christ could heal, do miracles, cast out demons. But, what was the response to this incredible healing, from the Pharisees?

Mark 3:6 – “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.”

Unbelievable! But, then again, this is what religion without a relationship with Christ can do. This is what religious people, more concerned with the external and regulations end up doing: they criticize those who are fully committed to Christ, responding humbly, in Christian liberty, to their God.

Isn’t interesting, that although it was obvious that the Sabbath should be used to give life and do good, the Pharisees used the Sabbath Day to plot how they could destroy Jesus. Do you see the irony in that? Sometimes, it is the church and its people that are the most unloving, unforgiving, critical people around. That is not how it should be; but sadly, it is many times true.

This says that they conspired with the Herodians. Isn’t that interesting? These two groups hated each other, and yet their hatred for Jesus was even stronger and made them allies.

The religious leaders were much more concerned with their traditions and rules than they were that people were in need of healing and that Jesus was able to make them whole. I wish this wasn’t true; but I have met people that were much more concerned with one of the following:

Music style; translation of Scripture; how we dress; how we give invitations; how much we dictate how people live their lives – much more concerned with these issues than whether or not we are reaching out to those in need; and doing whatever we can to meet those needs; especially meeting spiritual needs by pointing them to the love and grace of Jesus Christ. And, of course, the best way to do that is to model it.

To the Pharisees, true religion was about obeying all the rituals and traditions, which is why they emphasized work done on the Sabbath Day. To Jesus, true religion was about serving people; which is why his focus was on those in need, and he was not concerned that it happened to be the Sabbath Day when he did a great service for another people.

The challenge for us to make sure we don’t make our Christianity and worship ritualistic and legalistic. We need to make sure the priorities Jesus Christ had are the same ones we hold to.

Prayer