A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 2:23- 3:6 Lessons from Jesus' Acts on the Sabbath
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What if religious devotion can become a double-edged sword, transforming righteousness into a trap of pride and legalism? Join us as we unpack this provocative question through an exploration of Mark 2:23, where Jesus and His disciples' simple act of plucking grain sparks a heated confrontation with the Pharisees. Witness how Jesus' compassionate deeds, like freeing the demon-possessed and welcoming outcasts, not only defy societal norms but also clash with the stringent practices upheld by religious leaders of His time. You'll discover the deeper significance behind the metaphor of new wine in old wineskins, highlighting the urgency for spiritual renewal and heart transformation.
We also shed light on the Sabbath's profound importance and how its strict interpretation sometimes led to legalistic practices that missed its true intent. By revisiting the origins of the Pharisees, we'll see how their laudable pursuit of holiness slowly morphed into a cautionary tale of pride. This episode doesn't just critique; it aims to inspire us to cultivate humility and compassion, avoiding the pitfalls of self-righteousness. We conclude with a heartfelt prayer, reminding us of our continual need for Jesus' guidance and grace. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion that promises to enrich your understanding of these timeless truths.
Mark, chapter 2, verse 23, is where we'll pick up Mark, chapter 2, verse 23. And you know, being in the Gospels, one of the Gospels could not be a better place. It just is so sweet to see the heart of God, to see the life of Jesus, god in flesh, the life of Jesus God in flesh, delivering the demon-possessed, touching lepers, befriending tax collectors and sinners. Lots of love going on in the heart of God. But then we notice that Jesus is also making waves. He's crossing some social norms here and the confrontation is heating up and today it will come to a quick boil here.
Speaker 1:The religious folks, as we know them by the end of this, are plotting Jesus' destruction. Murder is in their hearts and we kind of see where it's been coming from. You know, aside from, you know, delivering the demon possessed and forgiving sins and hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. Last week we saw that they asked. Well, back up to verse 18, the disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting and they came to Jesus and said why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And so they kind of confront him on the spiritual norm there that spiritual people fasted. Now Jesus said that his disciples, at the right time, will fast. When he was taken away, he said they will fast. So fasting is an okay thing and in our fallen world we probably ought to do a little bit more of it. But he says this he gives an illustration of why they were having a problem. He says in verse 22, no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled and the wineskins are ruined, but new wine must be put into new wineskins. So an illustration that's really good but isn't really natural to our world. Jesus says you know what's wrong with you guys? You're like old wineskins Okay, wineskins. We'll go over it again, because I know you're fascinated by the idea of winemaking.
Speaker 1:It was a daily thing then. You don't want to drink the water back in those days because you were bound to get dysentery and probably die from it. So you didn't drink water. You made wine. You took the juice there and you put it in a wineskin a literal skin, probably a goat skin, tied off at the legs and around the neck, and you would put your juice in there and give it time. It would ferment and it becomes something that can kind of last, you know, for hydration and such. And Jesus there says you're like old wineskins. Well now, if your wineskins were reused and old, they would be cracked and brittle we get it right and they wouldn't expand as the fermentation was going on. You're fascinated by this, I know. As the fermentation was going on, you know the skins, if they were new they would expand and they would handle it. And Jesus says here's the problem. Right now, the reason why you're having so much problem with what he was saying was because you're brittle, you're like old wineskins.
Speaker 1:Now, the point there isn't necessarily. You just got to be more flexible. That's it. In our modern world, you know, if you're going to roll with it, religion and faith is always changing. You need to be more flexible. That's not really the point. We kind of a lot of people use that new wineskins as just be flexible. Whatever we do, wineskins as just be flexible. Whatever we do, you know if we're making a big hoopla or something you know or whatever modern religion, you got to be more flexible. Jesus isn't saying you need to just be more flexible, you need to be new. Right, that was the problem. You need to be new, you need to be born again. That's the big problem that y'all are having, he might say. Now they didn't take it so well, but here in verse 23, we see that, the wineskins of their heart right, you could say that, the religious leaders, they're expanding and they're about ready to burst everywhere in a big ugly mess, and that's what we're really going to see here today and from now on, probably, in their hearts.
Speaker 1:Let's look at the story in verse 23. Now it happened that he, jesus, went through the grain fields. Picture it grain fields, amber waves of grain, right On the Sabbath, rain fields, amber waves of grain, right On the Sabbath. And as they went, his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him look, do they? Why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And so here's the problem. Picture it it's a beautiful day there in Israel, it seems A beautiful day. Jesus is walking with his disciples. What was that like to walk with Jesus, you know? And as he's walking, he's telling them truths about the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:Maybe and they're walking through a grain field the roads would just kind of cross through people's fields, because it kind of makes sense. You know, it's not like they were purposefully made roads most of the time. It was just how do you get from point A to point B? Walk across the field and he would pack things down and there would be a little pass going through. Well, as they're going through his disciples, take grain, you could do that, it's in the law. You could do that. You could take enough for a snack and to provide you know that it's in the law. You could do that. You could take enough for a snack and to provide, you know, nourishment for yourself. They would take grain off of these stalks and they would rub them in their hands. It's kind of a neat little process here, right? You'd rub the grain in your hands and then you would blow the chaff away, the part you couldn't eat, and you would just pop those grains of wheat in your mouth.
Speaker 1:So, jesus and his disciples taking a walk through the grain fields. They're enjoying their time and here, picture it as they're going through this grain field. I mean this is a picture we get here. Verse 24 pops up. The Pharisees said to him now, where in the world did the Pharisees come from? You know what I mean? I don't know. Were they walking along with him? Maybe Right in the field. That's the way I picture it. Right here they are, you know, and Jesus, you know, god's kingdom is, and they're eating grain. And the Pharisees aha, look, you know. And the word look there. Behold. Aha, we caught you, your disciples, eating grain. Notice, on the Sabbath. They're doing what's not lawful on the Sabbath. This is going to be the big problem here and it's going to be a battle that they're going to fight for almost the rest of the book of Mark, breaking the Sabbath law.
Speaker 1:Now we'll get a bit more about the Sabbath in a second, but there's another problem we see in chapter three. We'll fill it in here in a second, but notice chapter three, verse 1. And he entered the synagogue again it's the Sabbath, by the way and a man was there who had a withered hand, a shriveled hand, and they watched Jesus closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And Jesus said to the man who had the withered hand step forward. And he said to them is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they kept silent and when he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts. He said to the man stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was restored, as the other. So here's the other problem we see in our time.
Speaker 1:Today it's the Sabbath again. They're meeting in the synagogue it was just a place of meeting and Jesus is there and there's a man with a withered hand. I don't know what it was like Powerless, shriveled it's this idea of a shriveled plant Right. So here he is, he can't really use his hand and Jesus has him stand up, come forward and he heals him. Reach forward your hand. And where there was no strength before, no muscle before he's healed. Now we see here that the religious leaders, they are accusing him as well. Why are you doing this? They're saying in their heart, they wanted to trap him, they wanted to see what he would do, and the Sabbath in their hearts and in their mind is broken. They're mad. Now the Sabbath is something that we don't talk about a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Let's turn to Exodus, chapter 20. You can hold your place here and turn to Exodus chapter 20. It's the big 10 commandments in Exodus, chapter 20. The 10 commandments, and there, in verse 8, we read this One of the commandments. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord, your god. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle. Don't let your cows work, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested. On the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it. Seventh day, therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it. So this is a commandment, up there with murder and stealing and lying and all those things. A commandment of God. Remember the Sabbath day.
Speaker 1:Now, the Sabbath we can figure is what we would call Saturday. The early church met on the first day of the week. There's seven days in a week. If Sunday, the day that the early church met on, is the first day, then the seventh, going back one day before it all starts over again, would be Saturday. So Saturday is a traditional Sabbath and here God says you work six days. On the seventh you need to rest, a commandment to rest. Now, we don't generally have a problem with that, right, we have two-day weekends, most of us, right. And I think, in order not to you know, is the Sabbath supposed to be for us Sunday or Saturday? Well, you know what? Let's just take them both, you know, and I'm okay with that. But here God says you work six days and one day you need to rest. A commandment to rest, and you don't have to tell me twice, but just rest, a time of rest and refreshment. Some spiritual realigning Time with God was important in this time, but it's a commandment that God seemed to find the need to write down in commandment form here in the Big Ten. So rest is important.
Speaker 1:God didn't make us to work continually. We need rest. I mean, you kind of see that in the general flow of life, right? I mean most of us do have to sleep some, right and sleep. You know, god could have made us without a need to sleep, but yet half of our lives, sort of, we spend sleeping. Gone, you know. And yet God knows that rest is important for us. It's a sin of the Ten Commandments to not give yourself over to some rest. And look at this for just a second the heart behind God's commandments.
Speaker 1:God says don't murder. We'll take an easy one, right? God says don't murder. Murder is bad for people, right? That's pretty obvious. Murder is bad for people. It's bad for the person murdered, but it's also bad for the person who murders.
Speaker 1:You weren't made to kill people. You weren't made for unmerited anger and bitterness. Jesus warns us about anger in our hearts, bitterness in our lives. You weren't made for that. That's not how God created us. God says don't commit adultery. You weren't made for just sexual relations with anyone except your spouse.
Speaker 1:And now you look and you go well, why did God put that? Does God just like to put rules on us? Does God just like to put rules, like you know? Does God just like to put rules like well, because I said so. That's the way I look at it sometimes. Why shouldn't I do that? Well, because I said so. Right, and a lot of it's. You know my inconvenience, or whatever power trip I've had plenty of power trips in my life. But God, when he commands us, he has a reason. You weren't made for sexual sin. You weren't made for that. It will rip you apart. It will change, like even the fabric of your mind. You weren't made for lust, right, lust will destroy you, lust will just twist you and make you something that you weren't supposed to be. And so we look at this and we look at God's law, and God says you need to rest. We weren't made to just keep going and going and going. We realize we get sick, we break down. So he commands rest, and it's for our sake, rest, and it's for our sake, not his.
Speaker 1:Well, here's the thing. There's the law, the Sabbath law. Now here's the problem that we see today in the religious folk. They were very religious. The Pharisees, right, their name meant holy ones. They did everything they could to fulfill the law. That's not a bad thing, right? But here's what they did and followed right. They took these commands, the things that God said, and they said well, we don't want to murder. Well, they didn't. I don't know if they said that, they probably said that, but we don't want to break the Sabbath, let's just stick with the Sabbath. Said that, but we don't want to break the Sabbath, let's just stick with the Sabbath. We don't want to break the Sabbath. God says to rest. So here's what we need to do. We need to build a fence. You build fences around things for safety reasons, sometimes, right, sometimes you put a fence around a pool. Should maybe have one, I don't know. You build a fence around the pool so that people don't fall in, keep you from danger.
Speaker 1:Fences have a purpose A fence around the law. The religious leaders were really good at that. For instance, if you had a problem, well, let's just stick to the Sabbath. They built a fence around the law of the Sabbath. Well, what does it mean to break the Sabbath? I can understand rest. But what does that mean? Well, you're not supposed to work what is work? Well, okay, if you're a farmer, don't harvest your field on the Sabbath. That's too much work, rex. Okay, I won't harvest my field. But what does that look like? I mean, what if I harvest half of my field? Does that still work? What if I harvest a quarter of my field? Well, let's build a fence around that law. Safety reasons, we don't want to break the Sabbath. Let's build a fence around it.
Speaker 1:So this is where this thing with the disciples comes in. They felt that picking grain, one stalk of grain, picking grain, rubbing it in your hands, blowing the chaff up was harvesting that wheat for just a little bit, but it potentially could be breaking the Sabbath. So we're going to say no, none of that, no harvesting wheat in any form. And so here the religious guys. They look at Jesus and his disciples and they pop out of the bushes and they say aha, you've broken the Sabbath. Now, jesus hadn't really broken the Sabbath, but he did break their fence down. That was the real problem. They did break their fence down and they were upset about it. Now we see that the real problem here is their heart. It wasn't so much holiness. I mean, god wants us to do the right thing. It's good to do the right thing, it's not bad. But they were worshiping their fence and we see it by what it produced in their life. Something was wrong in their hearts because of what it produced in their life.
Speaker 1:Come back to Mark, chapter 2. Mark, chapter 2, verse 24, we pointed out again the word look. Is there any way to read that word look? I mean they could have just said why do they do what is not lawful? But they say look. And I'm taking back to, like, elementary school. You know, I never had a problem with tattling, but some kids, I tell you, they really had a problem with tattling. You know what I mean Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, teacher, I saw Jimmy and he's doing it. You know, and you know, and we're going to say tattle right.
Speaker 1:This is what I see with these religious folk at this point, they're so excited to point out where Jesus and his disciples have gone wrong. They want to call foul. You know, and we see here, the fruit of this is some spiritual pride. Spiritual pride. We're all capable I am very capable of spiritual pride. It can be the fruit of something in our heart that we love to just look at where people get it wrong. Oh God, god, look, look, look. They're doing this and we just love to point it out. We cherish it. But it's spiritual pride. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:If pride is the fruit of what's in your heart, you're in a bad place. If pride is the fruit this idea that somehow I'm better than someone else is the fruit of what's in my heart, then we got something ugly in our heart because of that fruit and they worshipped it. It was like their little empire, wasn't it? You know, and we'll see here in a second, how angry they get when Jesus tries to take over and become lord of their little empire. They want to kill him, but the heart was bad. They were worshiping it, it was their little kingdom and they could do it right. They were good at it, they stood out in it. But here's the other thing we see in the fruit of their heart is they cared more about their little thing than they cared about people.
Speaker 1:Notice chapter 3. As Jesus is in the synagogue, it's always a good time for Jesus to do good and heal people. But notice again verse 2, they watched him closely. Same thing, this heart just wanting to bust him. You know, they watched him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And a man steps forward with a withered hand. I don't exactly know how to picture this other than you know. It's the idea of a withered plant, right, so his muscles aren't working.
Speaker 1:Tradition, somehow I don't know where this came from, honestly, but tradition says that he was a stonemason. I don't know why they say that, but maybe and it adds some color, picture it. Here's a guy who's used, you know, his arm to work. It's his skill, man. When people do things like that, well, it's impressive. You know that it, you know. And they're building a wall and you go how in the world that's amazing what you did there and notice there it's withered. Whatever way, he can't do it anymore. It's frustrating, right. That's just a heartbreak for somebody who has that kind of skill. You know can't do it anymore. And here he is. Probably you know had to go to begging and you know charity and those kinds of things and here he is humbled and Jesus comes in and he sees him. Now the religious leaders they know Jesus is probably going to try to heal him.
Speaker 1:Is healing breaking the Sabbath? Now, I don't know where they came up with this that healing, supernatural healing, could be breaking the Sabbath. But they wrote it into their laws. For Jesus' sake, I think, yeah, that's against our law. You can't heal some other day. There's six other days to heal Come then. They say at another point in the Gospels but as Jesus steps forward, he has the man step forward, I'm sorry. And he asks them this.
Speaker 1:Verse four Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? Well, is it lawful to kill someone? No, it's not lawful. In any situation, not like this, it's not lawful to kill. Is it lawful to help someone? No, it's not lawful in any situation, not like this. It's not lawful to kill. Is it lawful to help someone? Doesn't that make sense?
Speaker 1:But look at verse five. We see God's heart. He looked around at them with anger, anger, it's like fury, you know real anger. And he was grieved by the hardness of their hearts. And he looked at him and went what's with you? I'm grieved. Here's a guy that can't do what he was created for. His arm is shriveled. I'm going to make him well and you guys are upset about it. All you want to do is bust me for healing him on the Sabbath. Look at your heart Grieved, angry.
Speaker 1:But when things in our life give us a wrong priority, like this the value of human life I think we can all get messed up with that. We hear about people dying all the time. We hear about snipers and snipers being shot. Now, that might be instant justice, but it's still a human life. The news went to go talk to the man's father, I guess, and he said you know what? I'm not able to comment right now, I'm just trying to figure it out. And you go 20-year-old kid man is a life, not saying that he didn't deserve what happened, but it's a life and it's so easy for us to get twisted, even in our godliness, to get twisted where we stop caring about people, pride, misplaced priorities on life. We can all be messed up. We can all have messed up hearts and what we see here with these religious folks.
Speaker 1:Verse six says Jesus has a man stretch out his hand. Not a whole lot of effort involved in healing this man. Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out. His hand was restored, as the other verse six.
Speaker 1:Then the Pharisees went out immediately plotted with the Herodians against Jesus how they might destroy or kill him. So a lot of things go down in verse 6, as these really religious holy, they're trying to live the law. People see Jesus have compassion. He knocks down their little fence around the Sabbath and they say you know what? We gotta kill this guy. Murder, honest to goodness, murder, right, and I mean talk about straining at a gnat, as Jesus says, and swallowing a camel, right. They're like our little fence you knocked down. How dare you violate the Sabbath? We're going to kill you, murder.
Speaker 1:And they went to the Herodians. The cherry on top, they went to the Herodians, people who were given to help. There were people that followed Herod. Now Herod. You don't have to know much about Herod other than he's an absolute nut, psychotic. He's psychotic. All the Herods were pretty well messed up. And picture it. The Pharisees are as conservative as you can get. The Herods are way past any other line you can get. They're just absolutely nuts. Live for today nuts, and you know it's funny. That was enough to bridge the gap. A hatred for Jesus and we see that later on at the cross too A hatred for Jesus was enough to bridge the gap for some of the greatest enemies in the world and they went to the Herodians to find a way to kill Jesus. Talk about a snowball here. I mean, they've just down the hill and and, and you look at this and you go.
Speaker 1:Those nasty Pharisees. The Pharisees, you know. You hear the word Pharisee in the gospel and you just picture them. You know the horns are peeking out. You know under their hair, their turban, you know and you go. They're like the devil, those Pharisees.
Speaker 1:But the Pharisees started way back when, in the book of Ezra. When the people came back to the land, they said you know what? We don't want to end up in captivity ever again. We're going to have to be holy, we're not going to give into idolatry. We're not going to give into sin. We're going to make some hard breaks with the world. We're going to be separate and we're going to be holy. Hey, that's pretty good. You know standard of righteousness, but check it out, come back, check it out.
Speaker 1:The lesson in this is not those lousy Pharisees. It's not to teach us to be anti-Semitic. It's the Jews that crucified Jesus. No way. It's to teach us if it can happen to the Pharisees, it can happen to us. Right, because we're no better than any of them.
Speaker 1:We can have a desire to do the right thing in our own little empire I am in an empire of my own holiness, and we can be given over to pride. Oh, we have to search our hearts. Am I proud of who I am? Do I think I'm better than someone else? No way, but by God's grace, I'm no better than anybody on this planet. There's no pride, there's only humility.
Speaker 1:But if pride is the fruit, you ought to be aware, if you're looking at the world around you proudly but twisted, that our perspective on what's really important in life, what's a value People are a value, relationship with God, value. And this should terrify us and cause us with all of our heart, say, god, if it could happen to them, it could happen to me. God, I need your grace. God, I need your mercy. God, I want to have a right heart. I want to have a heart like yours, to love people and help people to grieve over death and destruction yeah, to grieve over it, to have a heart like God's.
Speaker 1:And so the warning is here as we look through the scriptures every single one of us, we need Jesus, god. So easy for us to fall into a wicked heart and our own arrogance and our own pride, god, that we can have a heart that looks nothing like yours and God. We don't necessarily need more fences, although sometimes they're of value, but we need our eyes on you, god. We need a dependence on you, a humility. God, help us to be part of that group, not looking for a way to point a finger, but spending time with you, walking through the fields, enjoying just a wonderful life and communion with you. God, give us your heart this week. Guard our hearts too. In Jesus' name we pray Amen.