MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 2:23 - 3:6

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IN THIS passage we have the account of two incidents where Jesus clashed with the Pharisees over the right view of Sunday. The first is when Jesus with his disciples pick ears of corn to eat while they walked through a field on the Sabbath. The other is over Jesus healing a man with a shrivelled hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Of course we understand that the 4th commandment was changed after the resurrection of Jesus from the Sabbath the 7th day of the week, to Sunday, which is the first day of the week. The Christian Sabbath is Sunday.

The first thing we can learn from these stories is how something God has meant for our good can be turned into evil, even with the best intentions. It is perhaps easy for us to see the error of the Pharisees over their observing of the Sabbath, but we have to realise that the church today can easily be wrong in a similar way.

As a child I was brought up in a strict evangelical family. My parents had a deep concern that we children may grow up to know the Lord, and be kept from the world and evil. One of the examples of their care of us was the way the family observed Sunday. Nothing was allowed that was remotely worldly. We were not allowed to play any games except of a Christian kind. This usually meant a game which tested Bible knowledge in some way. As I was a very poor student of the Bible in those days, these games were purgatory for me. The only recreation allowed was going for a walk. Apart from going to church and Sunday School, there was nothing much else to be done except read the Bible. I found the day the most boring day of the week and longed for it to be over. Sunday School in those days was not very exciting as we were generally made to sit in a row and taught audible, with not practical activity. This action concerning Sunday at my childhood home was for the best and most honourable reasons. We must not suppose that the Pharisees and the Jewish culture of their day was for any other reason than a desire to honour the law of God.

Here is an example, even with the best intentions, of error where, like the error amongst the Pharisees of Jesus day, the Sabbath had become the master dominating man. God meant the Sabbath to be a blessing to us. The Sabbath was made for us and our good, not the other way around.

What does Jesus mean when he says "The Sabbath was made for man"? Surely it means that Sunday is for our blessing, for our enjoyment and for our good. The chief blessing it is commending to us is the blessing of enjoying fellowship with God, and dwelling in his presence and his love. It is given so that we may have a time each week, out of the business of life, to spend with the Lord; to hear his word and nourish our souls. It was never meant to be our master and be a tyrant over us, and make itself a burden. What we do on this day is not important, as long as it is not directly sinful; what we have to bear in mind is that anything we engage in must not hinder this prime joy of fellowship with the Lord.

The right use of this day is so important for our happiness and our spiritual health. As Jesus needed to get apart to spend time with his Father, so we much more need to spend time with our creator and redeemer. However, the day was never meant to take from us such necessary comforts as eating, nor was it to prevent us from doing good to others, so that their lives may be lifted into greater joy and blessing. We do need a law, however, because such is the worldliness of our flesh, that even when we are redeemed and born again, the flesh can drag us away from heavenly fellowship to that of the world.

Jesus, as the Son of man, is Lord of the Sabbath. His actions concerning this day were perfectly right. He as Lord of the day had every authority to determine how the day should be spent. He gave his example by always being in the synagogue on the Sabbath, but he also gave his example by healing this man's withered hand in the synagogue. He could have healed the next day. It would not have been much for the man to wait another 24 hours, but this was not the best for Jesus. The Sabbath was to bring blessing to us and so he brought such blessing straight away.

We need to get hold of this principle that Sunday was made for us. It is so necessary for us to enter into the joy of fellowship with the Lord, and for our spirits to hunger after the word of the Lord, so that we long for the time this day gives, to worship God and adore him, and nourish our souls in his love.

We must not leave these verses without noting the depth of evil in the human heart, and the awful grip the world and sin has. How gracious Jesus was in explaining the reason his disciples plucked corn, showing that God did not disapprove, and showed powerfully by an example in the life of David whom all the Jews revered. Further he explained so clearly the purpose why God gave the Sabbath. None of this changed their opinions. Such is the grip of sin and the spiritual deadness of the natural soul, that even the best teaching made no impression on these Jews. It requires a sovereign work of grace.

Then when we come to the incident in the synagogue, such was the evil in the hearts of the Jews, that they were hoping that he would heal so that they could accuse and condemn him. They had no other design than the downfall of Jesus, and so were in no state ever to profit by the teaching of Jesus. They were so confident of their own righteousness and spiritual superiority that they were immune from deliverance. Such was the evil in the hearts of the Pharisees that they were not convicted by the clear testimony of Jesus which left them without a leg to stand on, but immediately plotted how they could hurt him.

Lastly we need to notice the heart of Jesus which so plainly is opened up to us. He was angered and deeply distressed at the hardness of the hearts of the Jews and the Pharisees. Jesus grieves over the bondage to sin he sees in us. This is why he gave his life a ransom for us.