Mark
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
Imagine that you are sitting at a table. On your right is Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. On your left is Abner Doubleday, widely considered to be the father of modern day baseball. And sitting across the table from you is none other than Bill Gates, the president of Microsoft and one of the wealthiest men in the world.
If you had the opportunity to talk with these men, if you had
one hour to pick their brains, what kinds of questions would you ask them? Would you ask
Or instead of asking questions, maybe you would take the
opportunity to tell these famous figures where they went wrong. You could show
Sound a little far-fetched? Sound absolutely ridiculous? It would be the height of arrogance for anyone to tell these great innovators what to do with their inventions. Something that outrageous, something that absurd, could never really happen…unless we take a closer look at the text for today.
It was not uncommon for the Jewish leaders to find fault with Jesus. This time their complaint had to do with the observance of the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. It was the Pharisees’ contention that Jesus’ disciples had violated their law.
The problem was that it wasn’t their law. It was God’s law. And since Jesus is God, it was his law. But that didn’t stop the Pharisees. They had their customs. They had their traditions. And they thought they had Jesus dead to rights.
Jesus knew better. Jesus knew what they were thinking. Jesus knew what they were doing. And Jesus knew exactly what he needed to do to expose their sinful motives.
Even though we are no longer bound by the rules and regulations of the ceremonial law, even though God does not require us to observe a specific day of rest, the words Jesus directed against the Jewish leaders have a direct impact on our lives. It is still a great comfort for God’s people to know that…
JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH
I. He established it
II. He fulfilled it
With church scandals in the news on what feels like a daily basis, with church workers under investigation for misappropriation of funds and inappropriate behavior, what the disciples were doing seems rather insignificant. As they walked through the fields, they picked a few kernels of grain. So what’s the big deal?
To the Pharisees, it was a very big deal. As soon as they got wind of what had
happened, they were quick to bring it to Jesus’ attention: “Look, why are they (the disciples) doing what is unlawful on the
Sabbath” (
“Observe the Sabbath
day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day to the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy
In order for good, God-fearing Jews to obey the law (and specifically the third commandment), they needed to know what constituted “work.” Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) they didn’t have to decide for themselves.
Over time an exhaustive system of rules governing proper Sabbath observance was developed and put down in writing. Chapter after chapter was compiled to cover almost every conceivable situation. To give you an idea of how far it went, here are a just a few examples:
It was not lawful to boil an egg on the Sabbath. It would break the Sabbath rest to climb a tree or swim or dance. It was permissible to pick up a chair, but it was not permissible to drag the same chair along the ground because it might produce a rut. And this is my personal favorite. Women were not allowed to look in the mirror on the Sabbath because they might discover a white hair and attempt to pull it out, which would be a terrible sin.
These rules were designed to keep people from violating the Sabbath. These rules were put in place to make everything black and white. But as an unintended consequence, this complex system of “dos” and “don’t dos” distracted people from the true meaning and purpose of the Sabbath.
The Pharisees were a case in point. When they approached Jesus, they were not at all concerned with the spiritual welfare of his followers. They were upset because the disciples had “broken the rules.”
Jesus had every right to denounce them, to condemn them for their hypocrisy, to turn against him the same way they had turned on him. But he didn’t. Instead, Jesus used a story from the Old Testament they knew so well to show them the foolishness of their accusation.
“Have you never read what David did when he and his
companions were hungry and in need? In
the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the
consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions” (
Before David was King David, when David was on the run
because King Saul was trying to kill him, he came to the priest at Nob and
asked for food for him and his men. The
priest had nothing to offer him, but he did have some of the consecrated bread
(sometimes called “showbread”) that was prepared and placed in the
The law stipulated that this bread was to be eaten only by
the priests (Leviticus 24), but the priest gave it to David anyway. According to the letter of the law, this was
wrong. But neither David nor the priest was
condemned for their actions. And Jesus didn’t
condemn them either. Instead, he used the
incident to illustrate an important principle: “The Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath” (
What gave Jesus the right? What gave Jesus the right to defend his disciples’ actions? What gave Jesus the right to go against hundreds of years of tradition? What gave Jesus the right to define right and wrong? What gave Jesus the right to stand in judgment over the law?
Jesus had every right to stand in judgment over the law
because he himself had established it.
As true God, he was there on
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (
It didn’t happen overnight, but what God intended to be a great blessing had become a heavy burden. Ever so slowly, the focus of Sabbath shifted from the great things God had done to all the little things people could and could not do, to the point that it was considered a great offense to pick a kernel of grain.
There is a name for this. It’s called legalism. Legalism led many Jews to believe that their relationship with God depended on their obedience to God. We don’t have to worry about legalism, do we? We don’t have to worry about Sabbath laws. As Christians, we have the freedom to worship whenever we please. As Lutheran Christians, we confess that we are saved ‘by grace alone,’ and not by anything we do.
But our theological heritage does not make us immune to legalism. Even in a church where we sing hymns like “By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless” and “Salvation Unto us has come by God’s free grace and favor” and “Just as I am, without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me,” this sin is alive and well.
Legalism manifests itself in different ways, but legalistic attitudes grow out of sinful hearts. Sinful people don’t want to hear how sinful they are. We prefer not to believe that we are helpless and hopeless on our own. Instead of comparing ourselves with a perfect God, it is much easier, much more comfortable, for us to compare ourselves with imperfect people.
“I’m in church. I brought my envelope. I may not be perfect, but at least I’m here. And as long as I do what I’m supposed to, as long as I do just enough, as long as I do a little more than the person next to me, then I’ll be okay.”
Have thoughts like those ever crept into your minds? Have you ever “put in your hour” on Sunday morning because you think that’s what God expects? Have you ever compared yourself to someone else like they were your personal spiritual barometer?
That way of thinking may soothe consciences for a while, but it doesn’t last. That way of thinking may make us look good on the outside, but it doesn’t remove any of our faults and failings on the inside. That way of thinking attempts to make me the master of my own fate, while in reality it proves that I am mastered by sin.
Legalism is sweet poison. It tastes good as it goes down, but in the end it kills. The bad news is that we have all tasted this deadly poison. The bad news is that we are all dying because of our sins. The good news is that there is an antidote. The good news is that there is one fool proof cure. Jesus. The one who established the law that we could never keep has also kept the law in our place.
The Old Testament Sabbath was a day of rest for God’s
people, but it was more than that. The
Jewish day of rest anticipated another kind of rest. This rest is not tied to a specific day out
of the week. This rest is tied to the
one who says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest” (Mt.
Jesus obeyed every law. Jesus observed every Sabbath. Jesus fulfilled every prophecy of God. Jesus made good on every promise of God. And because he did, true rest, spiritual rest, eternal rest is ours.
You don’t have to wonder if you have done enough in your life to deserve a place in heaven. Jesus has done it all for you, so you can rest. You don’t have to carry around a heavy burden of guilt. Jesus has paid for every single one your sins on the cross, so you can rest. You don’t have to worry about what will happen to you when you die. Jesus says that whoever believes in him will have eternal life, so you can rest. You don’t have to ever feel like you are all alone in this world. Jesus promises that he will be with you always, so you can rest.
You can rest because the Lord of the Sabbath is your Lord and Savior. Amen.