Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

24:14 Savior God, your word is a lamb to our feet on this discipleship road. Walk with us. Guide us with your wisdom and grace. Open us to discerning your will and your way. Amen.

24:35 Hear now the word of God as it echoes to us from Mark chapter 2, starting with the 23rd verse.

26:38 This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Last week, Reverend Warner opened our summer sermon series, At Christ's Table. Many passages throughout the gospel witness to Jesus' ministry that occurs over a meal, going to one, or returning from one. We can observe that meals are a vehicle by which Jesus reveals who God is and what God's kingdom looks like. Reverend Warner's passage was about a great banquet that Levi, the tax collector, threw in response to Jesus' invitation for him to follow me.

27:27 Despite all the controversy of eating with tax collectors and sinners, we heard the good news. that Christ has saved a seat for us. So in the scheme of the series called At Christ's Table, following up that hearty feast with a story of nibbling on raw kernels of wheat hardly seems substantial. We went from eating with Jesus to snacking with him.

28:00 Snacking is a weird thing in my home. grandma is not so much a fan of the kids snacking because she wants them to consume a large serving of food made with so much love and care at meal times she reasonably believes snacks ruin their appetites i'm not one to argue because i don't snack it's not because i'm all judgy like all you snackers. I just can't. Because if there's a snack, it will become my meal. So I just avoid it altogether. Maybe the disciples should have avoided it. Their actions in the passage trigger objections by the Pharisees. But before we get to that, let's establish some context for this passage. Although the passage begins with one Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, within the gospel of Mark, this is only the second time a story is set during the Sabbath.

29:10 In the first occurrence, Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and he cast out an unclean spirit from a man, thereby healing him. This amazed the people and Jesus' fame started to spread throughout the region. With his growing reputation as a healer, people brought to Jesus all who were sick and possessed with demons and he cured them. So Jesus traveled through neighboring towns preaching and healing. One time after Jesus healed a leper, the overjoyed leper went around town proclaiming what Jesus had done and it resulted in Jesus going absolutely viral. Jesus became such a sensation among the people that he could no longer travel freely in the city without getting mobbed. So this set the stage for a group of four friends who wanted Jesus to heal their paralyzed friend. When they tore open the roof of some stranger's home to access Jesus, Jesus not only healed the paralytic who picked up his mat and walked home, but Jesus also declared and demonstrated his authority to forgive sin.

30:37 While the people were in a frenzy about Jesus, the religious authorities had pegged him as a flash-in-the-pan charlatan whose fame would likely fizzle away. because it was understood that only God can forgive sin, Jesus essentially declared that he was God. Now, he had to either be a false prophet or he had to be the Messiah. So now Jesus grabbed the attention of the Pharisees. And even though the Pharisees were convinced that he was a false prophet, they nevertheless sent their members to investigate this man who continued to captivate the people. And that brings us to our passage.

31:36 On a Sabbath, Jesus and an entourage were walking through a grain field. His disciples started to pluck the heads of grains. The parallel passage in Luke chapter 6 verse 1 gives even more detail, saying, One Sabbath, while Jesus was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them.

32:09 Since the Pharisees had Jesus under surveillance and were attempting to discredit him, they claimed you know that was the creepy whole thing of they're walking through the the fields and they're like why are they doing something unlawful the pharisees ask and it's like what are the pharisees doing there because they had their team surveilling they were part of jesus's entourage walking all around so when the disciples did what they did the pharisees claimed the disciples had worked. You worked by reaping, winnowing, threshing, and preparing a meal. You did all that.

32:48 And thereby you broke the Sabbath laws. And even though Jesus did not do it, the Pharisees resolved to hold Jesus responsible for the actions of his followers in their attempt to argue that Jesus corrupted people, causing them to stray from the law. in response Jesus references a story from first Samuel chapter 21 and the story goes like this after discovering Saul's plan to kill him David flees with some of his loyal followers and as they travel the band gets hungry so Jesus so David tells him wait here I will go procure some bread. The problem is it was the bread of presence. This bread is holy and it is unlawful for anyone except a priest of God to partake of it. Yet David and his companions ate it. They broke the law because they were hungry.

34:11 After citing this scriptural precedent, Jesus says to the Pharisees, the Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. See, the thing is, because Pharisees are depicted as adversarial to Jesus, I think we're often quick to assume that they are wrong or they just don't know.

34:41 If anything, the Pharisees are much like church officers. They want to see the community thriving in faithfulness and to protect it from unorthodox teachings. teachings. They really do love their community. And is that such a terrible thing?

35:03 As a matter of fact, Jesus saying that the Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath, was an old idea. The ancient rabbinic text, Makilta 31.13 is a commentary on Exodus and it reads, The Sabbath is given unto you, not you unto the Sabbath. This Midrash dictates that the preservation of human life takes precedence over Sabbath laws, allowing for the desecration of the Sabbath where life or health is in danger. So to be clear, this saying was written long before Jesus's time.

35:57 The second part of Jesus's statement, so the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath, builds on what was established earlier in Mark's gospel, that Jesus had the authority to forgive sin. Not only can he forgive sin, but he determines the purpose of the Sabbath. And we will return to this idea later.

36:21 As we continue to examine the story, for a second time in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus enters the synagogue. The first time was at the synagogue on a Sabbath. He was not an established rabbi. And then he cast out an unclean spirit from a man. The people were so amazed at this unknown fellow who did such an astonishing thing that they did not explore the question, wait a second, did Jesus just heal on the Sabbath, violating our law? in this second instance of Jesus at the synagogue on the Sabbath Jesus is now a rabbi of repute with a substantial following and now they are watching him they are specifically watching to see whether he would cure someone which would break the Sabbath law and then that would discredit the man who seemingly aspired to be this respectable Jewish rabbi.

37:34 They were watching Jesus, but they didn't tell him what they were planning. But that didn't matter because Jesus knew, as established by chapter 2 in Mark, Jesus knew their intentions. And so to deal with them, Jesus called forth a man with a withered hand. Now, there is no indication that this man came to the synagogue seeking healing, especially because it was common knowledge that healing is prohibited on the Sabbath. So the urgent care is closed. He didn't come hoping, oh, maybe today. He didn't. It's more likely he simply came to worship. but Jesus singled out that man and brought him into the spotlight. And I'm not even convinced that this man wanted to draw any attention because I'm inclined to think that his withered hand was likely a source of insecurity and shame, and he didn't want undue attention drawn to him. So when Jesus says, come here, it's that, oh gosh, what am I going to do? I don't know. I'd probably just run away. No, and leave. But he somehow walks down to the center of all y'all and gets the attention.

39:01 And as that wither, the man with wither hands sheepishly came forward, Jesus asked, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath to save life or to kill? i'm gonna try something church god is good all the time all the time all right i'm actually surprised that was such a good response i i i had a backup ready to be like okay maybe i'm in the wrong place uh the lord be with you right so so so there are these things that we know when jesus asks, hey, should we do good? Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill? While this is not a perfect example, since Jesus had their attention and the man with the withered hand was in the focus, the people in the synagogue would have no problem responding to Jesus' inquiry by replying, it is lawful to do good and to save life. It is unlawful to do harm or to kill on the Sabbath. But Mark tells us they were silent.

40:20 who are the they? While I believe the people responded, all the officers remained silent. they did not dignify his question with a response. Jesus took notice of this, and he looked around at them in anger. In his essay in the lectionary commentary, Andre Reznor Jr. observes, Jesus' anger is frequently overlooked by Christians for whom such emotion is threatening to their preconception of Jesus as meek and mild, the always kind and accommodating Jesus. But the rabbis would notice not only the incongruity of Jesus' unnecessary works of healing on the Sabbath, but also the problem of his anger on the Sabbath.

41:27 The Sabbath must all be spent in charm, grace, peace, and great love, for on it even the wicked in hell find peace. It is therefore a double sin to show anger on the Sabbath. but what was Jesus really angry about?

41:52 The good book tells us that he was grieved at the hardness of the Pharisees' hearts, and in that anger, Jesus defied the Pharisees. Reznor offers, the Pharisees' view of necessity, which kept people in their condition of brokenness for the sake of legal observance, Jesus interprets as a condition of hard hearts.

42:20 They were neither open nor expectant that God might do a new thing, a restorative thing on the day of sanctification. No longer stewards of the day for God, they were self-appointed owners of the Lord's day, the gatekeepers for what was right and what was wrong, what could and should be done and what was unnecessary to do.

42:49 So, Jesus said to the man, stretch out your hand. And in response, the man stretched it out. And his hand was restored. And Mark tells us after that, the Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against Jesus how to destroy him. Here is all the more reason that the Pharisees remained silent when Jesus asked the question, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill? Because they were all planning to harm Jesus and thinking of killing him too, which crystallized after the healing. In preaching through the Christian year, Fred Craddock comments, The Pharisees' own law made provision in emergencies to care for both animal and human life on the Sabbath.

43:48 Though the healing he did here might not be classified as an emergency, Jesus is announcing by his act and word that it is never the wrong day to do good, to heal, to save life. The hostility against Jesus produces one of those odd unions that overrides hatreds, that overriding hatreds sometimes create. Pharisees in league with Herodians, religion and politics clutching the same sword.

44:27 This is the way of the world. procure power by all means necessary siding with even your enemies if it serves your purpose and do what you must do and use it for others if it aligns with your interest but otherwise ignore it but Jesus shows us a better way when Jesus echoes the old message the Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, it is a call to us to do the good that is ours to do whenever and wherever we can do it. Jesus does not allow his followers to hide behind rules, laws, policies, practices, and traditions to leave people suffering as they are.

45:23 Lamar Williamson makes a piercing comment in his essay in Interpretation. Sabbath rules are not vital for most Christians today, but our need for security through clear structures and attainable goals is such that we continually create customs and rules that function for us as the Sabbath law did for the Pharisees. They separate insiders from outsiders. They make us feel good about God while protecting us from the demands of neighbors in need. For instance, many of us feel good if we attend church once on Sunday, though our use of the rest of the day may leave us exhausted and our neighbors ignored. Jesus' Sabbath principle helps us keep our priorities straight.

46:23 the concern of the graceful message that the sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the sabbath is that people will interpret that to mean that we can do what we want with the concept of the sabbath and turn it into my day such a view would give permission for us to do with it as we please. However, Jesus claims that he is the one who is Lord of the Sabbath, and in our faith tradition, we still call it the Lord's Day.

47:05 In her commentary on Mark in the New Interpreter's Bible, Feeam Perkins challenges us by saying, Christians who acknowledge Jesus as Lord should keep the Sabbath in the same spirit that Jesus exhibits in these stories. The parishioner who has only recently been released from the hospital should not feel compelled to attend church. But those who never consider corporate worship an important part of faith should reconsider whether Jesus is Lord for them. Some of us want the rules, want conformity at church, but it threatens to exclude. Others want the freedom, the flexibility in worship, but it threatens consistency.

48:02 the wrestling with faith is where the meaning is. In this story, it is amazing to me how Jesus healed the man. If you go and read this story,

48:23 Jesus did nothing active. When we say Jesus healed the man, we could sort of argue, No, he didn't. The result was a healing. But when you go back and read what happened, Jesus did nothing to heal the man. What Jesus did was simply tell the man, stretch out your hand.

48:48 Put yourself in that situation. I did. If Jesus, if I was standing out here and Jesus told me to stretch out my hand, that thing that is shameful to me, the thing that I don't want anyone to see and said, hey, stretch out your hand. In his embarrassment, he could have refused to do so and walked out of the synagogue and never had his hand healed. But when the man acted in faith, trusting Jesus, and he chose to stretch out his hand, his hand was restored. God's power is made manifest when on a Sabbath, at worship, in faithful obedience, we stretch out our withered hand, whatever that might be, symbolizing that which we might find, again, shameful or consider imperfection.

49:46 But we do that before God and trust that something good will happen. may it be so for us. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. I invite you now to rise in body or in spirit to join me in the affirmation of faith from the Westminster Confession of Faith. Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord when individuals, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe and wholly rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taking up the whole time in the public and private exercises of worship and in the duties of necessity and mercy. Amen.