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June 10/11, 2017
Jason Meyer | Mark 2:23-28
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”—Mark 2:23–28
Introduction
People in our world have different opinions about rest. Consider two very common, but competing versions in our day: (1) value work and boast about how little they rest, (2) value rest and boast about how little they work.
1. Value Work (Life is found at work—the idol of work)
Some people boast in how little they rest. They value work. They talk about what hard workers they are, how devoted they are to their careers. In this version, life is found at work or through work (work provides a reputation, an achievement, success in the eyes of others). So I am driven to succeed or to be recognized. No rest for the weary. There are things to do. I only get a few hours a sleep and I don’t take any time off. I rest when I am dead. Work is life (the idol of work).
2. Value Rest (Life is found outside of work—idle at work)
Others look at work as something to avoid as much as possible. They boast in how much rest they get. They talk about how little they work or how easy they have it at work. Work an eight-hour day, but do it at a leisurely pace. “You can’t make me work; I’m union (UPS)”. In this version, life is found outside of work. Work can be leisurely, and then when I clock out then I can do what I really want to do and love to do—armed with a paycheck that will pay for it (idle at work).
Our world often views work and rest as though they were competing values rather than complementary created realities. Very few have learned how to value both rest and work in line with their proper purpose and proportion. The biblical vision of work is that work is not just something that God designed, but also something that God does. God works and he takes delight in his work. We are made in his image and thus we are made to work like he does. (We create because he creates; we communicate because he communicates, etc.) Furthermore, work can be a means for communion with God when we do what he has gifted us to do for the good of others and for his glory. We can feel his smile when we do it. Yes, the Fall presents many challenges to our work and vocation—thorns, thistles, sin, competition, famine, etc.—but his presence enables us to push through and overcome. He also gave his people a day to recover.
The True God Gave Rest
God gives the gift of rest so that we can be rejuvenated and refreshed so that we can return to our calling with fresh energy and purpose. It is what Steven Covey called “sharpening the saw.” There is the law of diminishing return. You can work, work, work, but eventually you put in more labor for less return because you are tired and can’t focus. You have to saw harder and it cuts less. Taking some time to sharpen the saw would actually be much better in the long run. Batteries need to be recharged.
God gave us the proportion: Six days we work and one day we rest. That day of rest is meant to be a refreshing blessing. The focus is on the provision, not the restriction. What we get to do, not what we can’t do.
False Gods Cannot Give Rest
These false versions of work are really false views of worship. We are made to worship. Genesis 1 tells us that God created the world and then called us to rule over his world. Romans 1 shows us that in our sin, we worship the world rather than the Creator, and as a consequence: The world begins to rule over us. We become slaves to sin—we are slaves to what controls us.
We use work to feed our achievement idol (people will recognize me for my achievement) or power idol (I can have control over others) or money idol (I can have any material life I want and live in comfort and be regarded a success). But that gets really tiring. You get exhausted. The approval idol—you have to work to maintain approval—like balloons that you have to keep bopping up or plates you need to keep spinning. Idols cannot offer rest. You have to keep sacrificing to them in order to keep them. No wonder the world is exhausted and stressed out about so many things. In our story today, we see a debate about rest and work and a solution that is stunning.
Outline
1. The Action (v. 23)
2. The Challenge (v. 24)
3. The Response (vv. 25–28)
Main Point: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
Jesus was going through the grainfields on the Sabbath and his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. Old Testament law established a provision for hunger. “If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain” (Deuteronomy 23:25). The Law was a provision, a blessing for people. The disciples are not having to work for food—it is already provided for them to enjoy. They did not plant the crops or prepare the field—the food is left there for them.
And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Here one notices a couple of troubling little details. The first is that this was not reported to the Pharisees. They were there watching and waiting—not like a lifeguard, but like a hawk (a bird of prey watching mice go through the field). They are spying on Jesus and looking for a reason to accuse them. They are the Sabbath police—hair-trigger critics. Then they spot what they were looking for: a Sabbath infraction. They blow the whistle, stop the game, and like referees they call the foul and have the microphone turned on and announce the personal foul: The disciples are doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees bring a charge against the disciples—they are doing something unlawful on the Sabbath. What is unlawful on the Sabbath? Work. The charge is that they are working. How is what the disciples did qualify as “work?” Most commentators point out that in the traditions of the Pharisees, it was lawful to eat heads of grain, but “plucking” heads of grain would be work, specifically threshing.
I thought the whole point was that they didn’t have to work for this—it is already there?! No, the Pharisees claim that the plucking constitutes “threshing.” That is work—a strenuous activity—exerting enough effort to qualify as work? Has it come to this? The Pharisees take any revealed law and make it more extreme. For example, one must tithe on crops, fruits, and animals (Leviticus 16:29, 31). But the Pharisees added more (mint, cumin, spices). Here they are being even more rigorous about what constitutes work—how much exertion it has to be before it becomes laborious.
They developed a list of 39 different types of activity that you could not do on the Sabbath, including reaping grain. Can you imagine the fine-toothed distinctions and discussions that could develop? Heads of grain are fairly simple and not that strenuous to chew. But what about certain kinds of food that really require a lot of exertion from your muscles of mastication (chewing)? Can you not eat meat on the Sabbath because that would involve too much chewing? In our day, maybe we could make extra distinctions. You can’t brush your teeth unless you have an electric toothbrush, because a manual toothbrush would be too much effort.
Why did they get so detailed and specific and add so much? Here was their reasoning: Israel was kicked out of the Promised Land because she broke the law of God. They were back in the Promised Land, waiting for the Messiah to come. But they had to obey enough and be found faithful to, in some sense, merit his coming. They could go back into exile and lose their land again if they didn’t keep the law. So here was the protection. Let’s put a fence around the law. We don’t want them to break the real serious commands so we will put the restrictions further out so that even if people break the outer ones we can protect the inner ones.
Now Jesus could have met them at that level and argued that they had added unnecessary restrictions to the Sabbath so that it became a burden and not a blessing. Plucking did not equal threshing. Therefore, Jesus shows them that their understanding is really flawed.
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
They don’t understand three things in fact: (1) the Bible (vv. 25–26), (2) the Sabbath (v. 27), and (3) the Son of Man (v. 28). First, Jesus tests their knowledge of the Bible. He says, “Your example is not a problem, I will show you a bigger problem.” He goes to 1 Samuel 21:1–6. The Bread of the Presence was 12 loaves of bread placed on a table in the tabernacle every Sabbath. They were then eaten by the priests later in the week. Jesus draws a consistent connection between hunger (human need), something unlawful, and David and those who were with him.
| David was in need/hungry | The disciples were in need/hungry |
| David did something unlawful along with his companions, but it is not judged as a sin |
The disciples did something “unlawful” (perhaps a minor infraction), but it was not judged as a sin —Matthew says that they condemned the guiltless (Matthew 12:7) |
| Why? Authority as anointed king |
Why? Because of the authority of an anointed King who is even the Lord of the Sabbath |
So they did not understand the Sabbath (v. 27). Human need takes precedent over a ceremonial command. The Sabbath was made to bless man, not man bless the Sabbath.
But third, they did not understand the Son of Man (v. 28). The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is greater than David. David had authority as anointed king. Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath. The point is the same as last week. Jesus is saying, “Don’t ask how I relate to fasting; ask how fasting relates to me. (Jesus is the fixed reference point to which everything else gets its meaning and purpose.) Don’t use the Sabbath to judge me and pretend that it has authority over me so that I answer to it. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. I have authority over it.
How can he have authority over the Sabbath? How can he tell the people why the Sabbath was originally given? Because he gave it. He created the world and then rested. When he gave the Sabbath command, it was the gift of a rhythm of rest. He gave it to man that it may be a blessing and a delight, not a scrolling list of restrictions that you use to load people down and burden them but don’t lift a finger to help. The real irony is that the Sabbath was meant to give rest from work, but the Pharisees had turned it into a work—something you do to work for God’s favor, approval, and acceptance.
Three applications are in order for a proper understanding of the Sabbath: (1) what it is not for, (2) what it is for, and (3) what growth in godliness looks like and smells like.
1. The Sabbath Is not for Union With God
Don’t treat the Sabbath as a work. The Sabbath command was never meant to be turned into a way to work to earn God’s favor. You end up exhausted trying to do enough to earn his acceptance: “Look at me—I am resting. Thank God I am not like other people—like my neighbor who mows the lawn on Sunday. Look at me. Am I resting enough? I haven’t even moved from my chair. Are you impressed by my resting?”
The Sabbath provision of rest was a pointer to something greater—the point is Jesus’ greater provision of rest. In fact, one could call the Sabbath a shadow and Jesus the substance. Does that sound like I am overstating my case? Paul makes this very point with thunderous clarity.
The Sabbath is “a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:17).
It would be quite a foolish thing to have a relationship with someone’s shadow and miss the fact that it is the shadow of the person, not the person. You might respond: “That is what Paul is saying, but does this story in the Gospels really make that point?” The answer is “yes.” In fact, Matthew 11 makes that point explicit:
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.—Matthew 11:28–30
Don’t look for rest in the Sabbath according to the way of the Pharisees. Find your rest in Jesus. He is better than a day of rest because he gives daily rest for eternal days. Think about the better rest Jesus gives. Think first about the work of creation. Jesus was in the beginning with the Father. Nothing was made without him—by him all things were made. He made the world in six days and then rested. Did he rest because he was tired? No, God does not grow weary. There is a different kind of rest. A rest that comes not because of a lack of something (like energy), but because there is no lack at all (perfection and completion). You can be so satisfied with your work that you can announce it is finished because it is good. I am so happy with it that I can don’t need to do anything extra. That is what God did when he looked at all he made.
Now add to that the work of redemption. The Fall messed everything up and marred God’s work of creation so that humans were separated from their Creator —no more walking with him in the cool of the day. So God sent his Son to restore that relationship. That is what Christ did on the cross with the work of redemption. Do you remember what he said on the cross: “It is finished.” There is nothing extra to be done. You can’t add to it. The priests in the temple would have to stand day after day and offer sacrifices. Jesus offered the once for all perfect sacrifice—the temple veil was torn in two—Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down. The work is done. Experience gospel rest!
Without the work of Jesus, you will be exhausted trying to work hard enough and obey enough to earn your rest. Jesus has done the work so that we can rest in his work. We receive it by faith and find rest at a deeper level than bodily rest.
One of the best examples I have ever read that combines all of these threads together is from a discussion by Tim Keller on the movie Chariots of Fire. It is the story of two Olympians in the Paris Olympics of 1924.
One of them, Eric Liddell, was a Christian, and he refused to run on the Sabbath. As a result he lost the chance for a gold medal in a race he was favored to win. At one level, taking a day off for rest is what the movie is all about. But the movie added another level and contrasted Harold Abrahams with Liddell. Abrahams and Liddell were both trying very hard to win gold medals. But Abrahams was doing it out of a need to prove himself. At one point, speaking of the sprint event in which he was competing, he said, “I’ve got 10 seconds to justify my existence.” Liddell, on the other hand, simply wanted to please the God who had already accepted him. That’s why he said to his sister, “God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” Harold Abrahams was weary even when he rested, and Eric Liddell was rested even when he was exerting himself. Why? Because there’s a work underneath our work that we really need rest from. It’s the work of self-justification. It’s the work that often leads us to take refuge in religion (King’s Cross, pp. 42–43).
2. The Lord’s Day Is for Communion With God
I want to make the move now that the New Testament makes from the Sabbath Day (Saturday, the last day of the week) to the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day. The old creation rhythm was six days and rest on the last day. Jesus’ resurrection represents the dawning of the new creation. That is the first day of the week. That is why Christians began to gather for worship together on the first day of the week and they called it the Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7, Revelation 1:10). If the Sabbath looked back to the original creation, the Lord’s Day looks ahead to the new creation.
The Resurrection is the proof that God’s rest has been accomplished by Jesus and guaranteed to us. He is the firstfruits and we are awaiting the final harvest and eternal rest. That is why the Christian church meets on the first day of the week—because that is when Christ rose. I love Easter services at Bethlehem. I love the big focus we have once a year on Easter Sunday, but every Sunday is supposed to be an Easter Sunday. There should be 52 Resurrection drumbeats every year testifying to our blessed hope.
The Lord’s Day should be a blessing, not a burden. I want to call you to the proper use of the Sabbath principle. The Puritans called The Lord’s Day “the market day of the soul.” In the days of the Puritans, you would not have grocery stores open at all hours. There was one day a week that was the market day. That was a day in which people would buy their supplies for the week ahead. You were not just buying food for a day, but for a week. This called for preparation and planning.
In the same way, they taught that The Lord’s Day was a market day for the soul of man (not just the body). A sermon would give them spiritual provisions for the week. We have moved away from having a morning and evening service, but they believed that one service would be great, but two would be an even better way to stockpile their spiritual pantry.
Do you view the Lord’s Day as an opportunity to have communion with Christ? Yes, I hope you do spend time with your family. Yes, I do hope you get a nap. But above all, I pray that you spend time with the One who is above all. This is his day—the day we remember how he defeated death for our everlasting life. Use it as a day to get as much of Jesus as you can before the busy demands of the rest of the week come rushing at you like wild animals. I will not let the cares of this world cause me to lose sight of Christ.
3. What Growth in Godliness Looks Like and Smells Like
The question becomes if we use the Lord’s Day with the heart of a worshipper like the Puritans—a chance to know the Lord of Rest better. Or do we have the heart of a spy like the Pharisees—a chance to see if others are resting like they should?
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.—Romans 14:4–5
Do we turn Sunday into a yardstick by which we judge the servants of Christ? The apostle Paul says that people can have different views on how to approach days of the week. Both need to be convinced and act accordingly—do it for the Lord, not for the one watching us like a hawk. The point is that Jesus is the Master or Lord, not us. They are not obeying us or for us. It is for the Lord.
Paul’s words about the Sabbath being a shadow are even more powerful in context. False teachers are using positions on certain issues as high ground from which to judge others:
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.—Colossians 2:16–19
This is a powerful picture. The false teachers think the power is in the prescriptions. They are emphasizing all the activity they are doing and the things they are observing. Someone may think activity equals growth in godliness. Paul shows that it is the exact opposite. The people that are so fixated on the list of things to do (turning it into works) do not hold fast to the Source of growth (the head). You can have a chicken with its head cut off and it will be active for a time (have you heard the phrase running around like a chicken with its head cut off?), but it is dead, not alive. Don’t be fooled. There is no life apart from our connection to Christ as our head. Holiness is my connection to Christ (I am in Christ) and then Christ in us (I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.—Galatians 2:20).
Two people can do the exact same thing for totally different reasons. You can have the same house and the same furniture in the house, but have a completely different smell if it is the house of someone who smokes. I am talking now about the second-hand smoke of the Pharisees. Is there a legal spirit or smell? Or do people smell grace when they are around you? Is there the sweet smell of the aroma of Christ? Is it a day for communion with Christ or a day for tallying your points and seeing how others compare?
Conclusion: An Eternal Rest
The work of creation (rest), the work of redemption (rest), and now the work of consummation (rest forever—Sabbath rest), and no more Fall. No more tears. No more thorns, nothing that could ever separate us from God. We’ll have complete joy and rest.
So often my desire for order and completion and perfection is really a longing for heaven. We will never get to the point in this life where we have arrived and we can sit back. Do you have expectations that are informed by the Fall? Do you look forward to the day when nothing else can interrupt our communion with God When we’ll have peace with God and peace with everything around us? Rest in the work of redemption as you await the return of the Lord of Rest who will make all things new.
I remember one of our church planters talking about having a retreat in the Smoky Mountains. He had a day off. The wife was watching the kids. He had the whole day to rest. He went outside, looked at the beautiful Smoky Mountains, and was filled with anxiety. Why? He realized that he had bodily rest, but not soul rest. There is a deeper rest—a spiritual rest that is deeper than bodily rest. We don’t turn rest into a work; we can actually enjoy a rest underneath all of our time at work and all of our time doing leisure because we know that God loves us. God is for us. God is smiling over us.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Outline
Main Point: The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to come to Christ and enjoy deep rest for your souls.