Day 805 - Faith and the Hardened Heart

A Sermon for Urban Outreach Ministry, February 23, 2015

Gospel Reading: Mark 2:23-3:6

This passage in Mark gives us a very good idea of exactly what Jesus is about and why radical Christian behavior is such a threat to the status quo of power and evil. He addresses the desires to preserve the status quo of both religious and political leaders, and the implicit evil in the hardened heart necessary to do it; but his message is a question pointed at all of us, “Are we glorifying the Lord of All?”

What is so bad about the status quo, you ask? The priests are concerned about the status quo. Their job is to interpret the law. Here Mark tells us the priests get angry at Jesus and the disciples for walking through a grain field and plucking heads of grain and rubbing them in their palms to husk then so they can eat the grain. The act of rubbing the grain is technically “threshing” something the tradition of Jewish Law labels “work.” Since the Sabbath is intended as a day of rest, then they have technically sinned according to the priests’ interpretation of the Law.

They have some basis for this claim based on Deuteronomy 5:12-15:

¹²Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” But Jesus is about to show how they have perverted this command and ignored its true message.

Remember we learned in the first 20 verses of Mark that Jesus is the sign of a radical departure from the old ways of the world, the World of Flesh to the Kingdom of God. (Remember, Mark 1:14-15?, I’ll come back to it in a minute.) Jesus sets a clear claim and demand of us of what I earlier called radical Christianity. Jesus is the death knell to the old world. It is dying and we are not expected to pay stilted homage to its institutions but to heed the call to compassion and grace that Jesus brings to us.

What is Jesus teaching with eating the grains of wheat in the first part of these verses? The Pharisees call it sacrilege but Jesus recalls the experience of David when in his flight from Saul who sought to kill him arrives at the temple with his men hungry and tired. David asks the priest to give him what food is here, but the priest says the only food available is the holy bread for sacrifice and ritual, called the bread of the Presence (Only the priests can eat it).

Then Jesus makes his fundamental claim, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath.” Does that mean we can do anything we want on the sabbath since it is ours? Well no, because Jesus makes an even greater claim, “Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.”

In other words, the Son of Man, Jesus, is the Lord of the sabbath therefore whatever you do on the sabbath ought to glorify Him. Next Sunday, ask if your activity is glorifying God. But hang on, there is more to it.

Jesus has made a claim that rubs the priests the wrong way. They have always been in charge of the sabbath, therefore, he is challenging directly their authority. But Jesus is fully consistent with the beginning words in Mark 1:14-15: ¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Turn around for there is a new day upon us.

This first confrontation is really a set up for the great confrontation we read next. What is unique about it is that the priests, Pharisees and Herodians never say a word, but Jesus makes it clear what their inner thoughts are.

This appears to be a confrontation that Jesus sets up intentionally. He sees a man with a withered hand (crippled hand? If this had been the Temple, he would not be admitted.) He uses it as an example.

Mark tells us the Pharisees were watching, Mark 3:2 states, "They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.” What does Jesus do?

He calls this man with the withered hand to come up and stand in the center of everyone! There is no question that Jesus is making a very big scene here.

Jesus asked the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Why would they not reply? What do you think?

Now Jesus is getting angry because the question has a clear answer. Doing good and saving a life are glorious things that honor God. Their refusal to answer means they again are more interested in their own self-interests of “protecting the Sabbath” than they are with the reality of grace.

It is really the same question in new words repeated from the previous verses. We ought to realize Mark is telling us Jesus is asking us the question.

Jesus gets really angry when they refuse to answer. Their refusal reveals their hypocrisy and false piety. He knows their hearts are hardened (a good pointed OT term) and they care little or nothing for righteousness but only their own authority. These are the people who think they are defending their religious rules and faith.

Jesus has called them out publically; their silence condemns them in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of God. They love power and office over faith and duty. Mark makes their lack of faith and conscience clear when he tells us the Pharisees begin collaborating with the Herodians on how to destroy Jesus. (This is the first clear message that Jesus is going to die.)

There were three major “power groups” around Jerusalem and Judah at the time, the Sadducees that are not mentioned here, and the Pharisees and the Herodians.

The Sadducees were the wealthy elite members of Jewish society who took it upon themselves to maintain the purity and upkeep of the Temple. The Pharisees were laypeople who took it on themselves to seek out and stop unrighteous behavior and defend the Jewish faith. They were the religious fanatics, or zealots of the day. The Herodians were Jewish political leaders who compromised with the Roman King Herod who true Jews loathed. By gaining favor with the Roman king they insulted and compromised Jewish nationhood, a thing at the very heart of Jewish religious thought. It would seem impossible that Herodians would get along with the Pharisees, the self-appointed guardians of the Jewish faith.

I wonder if we have some of the same examples of modern day Pharisees and Herodians floating around now?

How many times do we read in the paper or hear on the news of some politician who defends a corporate economic interest that works against the welfare of the public because the corporate interests bankroll the campaign. How many times do we read or hear of a politician backing some political position that clearly contravenes Christian stewardship and compassion because it panders to the selfish interests of the voters?

We should not lose sight of the fact that there are modern-day Pharisees and Herodians in our own state of Tennessee - Politicians who oppose extending Medicaid benefits. Politicians who blame persons drawing disability insurance as the reason the Chickamauga locks are not repaired and label Christians who advocate for healthcare for the poor as "insulting and laughable."  Politicians who want taxes cut regardless of the effect of the poor and disadvantaged. We do not have to look very far to find hardened hearts.

Now, do not get me wrong. Soon we will come to Mark 14:1-9 and hear Jesus say to us that we can help the poor and disadvantaged anytime we want. We don’t need a government to do it.

So the message you should get from the confrontation with the religious leaders and Jesus over the Sabbath is that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and everything we do on the Sabbath ought to glorify God, fulfilling both of the two greatest commandments. We should also keep in mind that glorifying the Lord of the Sabbath is serious business. We should also keep in mind that especially in our Reformed faith, every time is appropriate to worship the Lord and therefore, every time is an opportunity to shine by glorifying God in this manner. AMEN.