Setting Priorities

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First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday ~ June 2, 2024)
Sermon Title – Setting Priorities
Text – Mark 2:23-3:6
Rev Beth Thomas 

​​The lectionary is turning to the Gospel of Mark again and even though we are only in the second chapter today, Jesus has already done some things that the Pharisees see as threating. They are already distrustful, suspicious of him.  They are making it one of their priorities to watch him closely.
So, they notice that at some point on the Sabbath as Jesus and the disciples are walking through a grainfield, the disciples are plucking off the heads of grain and eating them.  We suppose that the disciples were hungry and did not have to follow a gluten free diet.
The Pharisees, you remember, were a Jewish sect distinguished by its strict observance of Jewish law, who had a sort of sense of superiority and holiness about themselves. They were men who had been raised in the Jewish faith and spent their lifetimes studying and following its long-held traditions.  They were experts on the law and eager to enforce it.  But there wasn’t anything in Jewish law that prepared them for Jesus.
Here in Mark’s first chapter this unknown and seemingly un-educated carpenter has shown up and called an unclean spirit out of a man right in the synagogue.  He’s healed Simon’s mother-in-law and as soon as people heard about that they brought him all kinds of people who were sick or demon-possessed. He cleansed a leper and told him not to talk about his healing but the leper couldn’t keep quiet. And let’s not forget about that man who couldn’t walk.  When his friends brought him to Jesus the crowd was so big they couldn’t get near him so they removed a portion of the roof of the house Jesus was in and lowered the man down before him. He forgave the man’s sins and healed him. What is going on?? Now, he’s breaking Sabbath law!
 
The idea of Sabbath has a long history. It is mentioned in the second chapter of Genesis, when God rested on the seventh day, after finishing the work of creation. God blessed the Sabbath and set it apart.
In Exodus 16 that seventh day—the Sabbath--was singled out as a day of resting from the harvesting of manna. In chapter 20 of Exodus the Sabbath becomes the topic of the Fourth Commandment. Keeping the Sabbath holy required the Israelites to abstain from the work they normally engaged in on the other six days,
In Exodus 31 things get really serious when God tells Moses “You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: “You shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among the people… whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore, the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”
 
After this idea became Jewish law, Jewish scholars and leaders shifted their thinking about the Sabbath. Instead of it just being a cessation of normal activities they begin to contemplate the ways in which the Israelite should worship God on the Sabbath. You can imagine the debates:
“The law says that the Sabbath Day is to be kept holy and no work done on that day. 
“So, what should be classified as work?”
All kinds of things made the list: carrying a burden for example counted as work.  But then the scholars asked, what is a burden? According to William Barclay in his study of this story in Matthew,  the definition they came up with was   “food equal in weight to a dried fig, enough wine for mixing in a goblet, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put upon a wound, oil enough to anoint a small member, water enough to moisten an eye-salve, paper enough to write a notice upon, ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet, reed enough to make a pen”—and so on endlessly.
 
According to the Rev. Robert Deffenbaugh, the law makers spent endless hours arguing about the laws of the Torah: whether a man could or could not lift a lamp from one place to another on the Sabbath, whether a tailor committed a sin if he went out with a needle in his robe, whether a woman might wear a brooch, or a man might lift his child on the Sabbath Day. To the law makers, these things were the essence of a religion of legalism, what we might call nit-picking rules and regulations.
 
Another bit of background to keep in mind as we look at Jesus and the Disciples walking through the grain field is that in Deuteronomy 23:25 we read, “When you enter your neighbor's grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor's grain.”
So technically, Jesus and the disciples could pluck grain as they walked through a field. It was and may still be a practice of hungry travelers in Palestine where fields are not fenced and there are narrow paths through the crops.
But the Pharisees objected to the actions of Jesus and the disciples because they interpreted their plucking and eating as reaping—working—on the Sabbath.
Which brings us to the central question of the Sabbath—is it God’s gift to his hard-working people or is it the work of the Jewish leaders to make even the Sabbath difficult because of all its accompanying rules? Was the Sabbath created to serve humankind or is it about making humankind serve God through the following of so many laws?
Jesus asks the Pharisees if they remember the story of David, who, fleeing from Saul, stopped at the temple at Nob near Jerusalem and asked the priests for bread. The only bread they had was the ceremonial bread, set out for Jehovah.  This holy bread, baked on the Sabbath, consisted of 12 loaves and could only be eaten by the priests, after it had been on exhibit for a specified period of time. This is the bread the priests gave to David to eat and that David shared with his companions. In other words the priests used what they had to meet a very human need even if it meant breaking Sabbath law.
 
Jesus may also have been alluding to how busy priests were on the Sabbath. There was bread to bake, sacrificial lambs to kill, lamps to be lit, incense to be burned…so the prohibition against work on the Sabbath was not universal. Maybe work on the Sabbath for the glory of God was okay and God certainly calls us all to feed the hungry. Maybe the prohibition should have been limited to work for worldly gain?
 
Jesus may also be saying that sometimes certain demands of the law are rightly set aside in favor of pursuing greater values or meeting greater needs, especially when those greater needs promote a person’s well-being and facilitate the arrival of blessings.
When Jesus says the purpose of the Sabbath has always been to serve humankind (as opposed to making humankind serve some stern religious principle), he is referring to the reason behind Deuteronomy 5:12-15, in which God institutes the Sabbath so a people who once toiled in slavery can forever enjoy at least one day of rest  each week.  So maybe the proper function of the Sabbath is to promote life and extol God as a liberator.
In the larger context maybe Jesus is pointing out that for the Pharisees religion had simply become a matter of following and enforcing the rules. Maybe Jesus is saying that by doing that religion turns a blind eye to mercy and kindness and compassion.  Weren’t the priests being compassionate by offering the bread to David? Shouldn’t the Pharisees have recognized that the plucking of a few heads of grain was not the same as harvesting a field?
 
Then with the Pharisees already angry, Jesus incited them further by saying that the Son of Man (meaning himself) is the lord of the Sabbath. For the Pharisees this was blasphemy for only God is lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is there to remind them that the Sabbath is for the pleasure of humankind, not another reason to look down their noses at folks. He is “grieved at their hardness of heart.”
 
Our second scene, where Jesus heals a man with a withered hand is another example of choosing compassion and life-giving activity over a strict adherence to the rules on the Sabbath.  When it comes to healing on the Sabbath the Pharisees are once again dead set against such activity.  Jesus on the other hand is all for it—as God is for any activity accomplished in God’s name that sustains or enhances life.
 
The scene in the synagogue intensifies the conflict over Jesus’ authority, his values, and the urgency of his claims. For the Pharisees who lie in wait, watching, the issue is not whether Jesus has the power to heal the man’s hand, it is whether doing so on the Sabbath demonstrates a willful disregard for the law of God -- a law that was originally believed to give good order to life and to provide conditions for encountering God’s blessings and holiness.
Jesus’ response to the Pharisees -- “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” -- indicates that he disagrees with their premise. By orchestrating the man’s healing, he does not disparage or break the law in any way (for nothing Jesus does here can be considered “work” that the Sabbath prohibits).
Rather, Mark casts Jesus as honoring the original purpose of the Sabbath commandment. It is as if Jesus is saying that if the chief objective of the law is to save and preserve life, what better day is there than the Sabbath to heal? Isn’t the Sabbath, a day meant to promote God’s commitment to humanity’s well-being, the perfect time to restore a withered hand?
 
With the restoration of his hand, the man in the synagogue may be able to find work that will allow him to provide for a family and improve the quality of life for all.  It was more than just fixing something that was wrong, it was a restoration to whole-ness.
 
At this point we aren’t very far into the gospel of Mark but even now the Pharisees and Herodians want to destroy Jesus. To destroy the life of the one who brings life. It is the beginning of Mark’s theme that an institution can become an end in itself, stifling legitimate concerns of those outside that may seem to threaten stability. It illustrates how frequently insidious forces we scarcely notice can transform the best-educated, best-intentioned among us into insensitive leaders, desperately out of touch with what’s real.”
Such insensitivity and brokenness move Jesus to grief in the synagogue when he considers the stony, Pharaoh-like hearts that regards anything as more valuable than removing suffering and disadvantage.
But Mark also has good news to announce. This story of the in-breaking reign of God will also tell of compassion and transformation. Jesus, like the God who instituted the Sabbath, is committed to preserving life. His ministry will expose the destruction that comes with fear, governmental pretense, and religious hypocrisy, wherever they reside, and finally, he will deliver us from them.
These stories of Jesus bringing life and truth on the Sabbath are instructive to us today. How is the Sabbath life-giving for us? How are we paying attention to the life-giving spirit of God in our own lives, and how can we support others in doing the same?
 
When we find the spirit of discouragement hovering within us, how do we return to following Jesus? Sometimes we can reflect on those times and places of life-giving energy. Sometimes others have to hold the Christ light for us when we cannot see the way and sometimes others must share their bread with us, so we may sleep through the night. In turn, we must do the same for others, as Jesus did.
 
I think too, this is a cautionary tale so relevant to today’s political climate and the climate in the church. We all know people who can recite one or two verses from the Bible to back up their ideas of who should and shouldn’t be in the church. And sometimes these same people are the ones who, professing God’s love and life-giving agenda, extend those beliefs to include who should and should not be allowed in the country, who should and should not be stopped on the street and searched by police.
 
Then, on the other hand, we have people who can site Bible verses to prove just the opposite and almost seem to believe with the Beatles that all you need is love. 
 
What would you have said about Jesus and the disciples in the wheatfield? Would you have looked at them and noticed their hunger? Could you forgive them for eating heads of grain on the Sabbath? Or would you have been shocked that they broke Sabbath law? If you see hungry people on the street today does your heart go out to them or do you judge them as lazy beggars looking for a handout?
 
If you had known the man with the withered hand all your life and noticed Jesus had healed him would you have rejoiced for him or would you have been angered that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath? Would it give you joy that this man could at last lead a normal life? Would you have recommended him for a job or would you scoff and say, “Well, it doesn’t count because it happened on the Sabbath and look at all the other people Jesus didn’t heal that day?”
 
What does the condition of your heart lead your mouth to say? What does the condition of your heart lead you to do to give life to others?  What are your priorities?  Lots to think about in the coming week!