Authority over Sabbath

Introduction

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Welcome again. It’s good that you’re here. It’s good if you’re joining us online. I’m Miles, I’m one of the pastors here, and it is preaching time. Let’s pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you that you have revealed yourself to us through your word and through the Lord Jesus. Would you help us to listen and to respond in a way that brings honor to Jesus in our lives? Would you help us to listen and respond in a way that grows us as followers of Jesus? Would we see growth of deepness in our faith, growth of confidence in our hope, and growth of willingness in our obedience? Amen.

Recently, my wife Morgan was listening to a podcast, and they were talking about people who grow up in an asking family and people who grow up in a guessing family, and then what happens when those two people marry each other? It’s brought some clarity to our marriage. Askers are comfortable asking for anything with the understanding that sometimes the answer will be yes, sometimes the answer will be no, and either answer is okay because the person being asked should just say yes or just say no and mean it. Wouldn’t that make sense?

For example, an asker might say, “Hey, let’s go get a coffee this week.” If the person says yes, that’s great. If the person says no, that’s fine, not a problem. What a reasonable way to live, what an obvious, simple, standard way to live, just asking for what you want. Let your yes be yes, let your no be no. That’s biblical, that makes sense. Then there are guessers, and guessers are only comfortable asking for something when they’re pretty sure that the answer will be yes. Before they ask the question, they’ll do some research or consider past experience, how the relationship is, and if they’re not sure, they probably just won’t ask.

For example, a guesser might want to go get coffee this week, but before they ask, they’ll consider the other person’s schedule and ask some other questions, like they might want to get some more data, and then only if they’re pretty sure the person will say yes, then they’ll ask. It’s psychotic, misleading, silly, unhelpful, what a ridiculous way to live. I’m an asker, and Morgan’s a guesser, which has been fun to discover and has helped us explain why sometimes we just misunderstand each other. Askers are more black and white, we just say whatever needs to be said, pros and cons to doing that. Guessers are more picking up on social cues and reading between the lines. There’s only cons to that one.

When we drive past a new cafe and Morgan says, “Hey, that looks nice,” in her head, she has fully communicated to me that that is a good cafe and that I should take the initiative and take her to that cafe, whereas in my head, I’m thinking, “Oh, yeah, that’s it.” I wonder if one of those resonates more with you, whether you’re an asker or whether you’re a guesser. It’s easy to clash with someone when you’re coming from very different foundations, isn’t it? An asker will clash more with a guesser, someone who resonates more with logic will clash more with someone who resonates more with emotion, a big fan of instant gratification will clash more with a fan of long-term goals. Morgan has a friend who, when she gets a new book, turns to the last few pages and reads them first, because instant gratification. That friend is clashing with all of us right now. That’s jail time, I’m pretty sure.

It’s easy to clash with someone when you’re coming from different foundations, and that is exactly what’s happening in our passage today. Jesus and the Pharisees clash, and it’s a pretty heated clash. Jesus gets angry, and then the Pharisees go and ask their mortal political enemies to help kill Jesus, and it’s all because when it comes to God’s law, the Pharisees are coming from a human religion foundation, and Jesus is coming from a gospel foundation, and if we can understand the difference and side with Jesus and cling to his gospel foundation, then we will have access to deep, satisfying, fulfilling rest and contentment that can only be found through him. Let’s jump in and we’ll see what’s happening.

Jesus is Lord even of the Sabbath

The Disciples Pick Grain on the Sabbath

Have a look at Mark 2, verse 23. Jesus and his friends are walking through a grain field, and they’re hungry, and so the disciples pick some heads off the grain to eat. Now, first, you might expect the Pharisees to maybe have a problem with that, maybe it’s kind of stealing, but that’s just normal practice. In fact, that’s normal practice that’s commanded by God in Leviticus chapter 19 and chapter 23. God commands that farmers, when they harvest their grain, they can’t harvest all the way to the edge of the field. They should leave some so that travelers, orphans, widows, the poor, they can come by and eat some. Jesus’s disciples aren’t stealing, they’re just taking part in God’s good design to encourage his people to be generous.

There’s a problem because the Pharisees see this happening on the Sabbath day, the day of rest, and according to God’s law, harvesting grain is not allowed on the Sabbath day. The command on the Sabbath day was to not work. The Sabbath was a good gift designed and given by God for refreshment and refocus on God. The Pharisees had added layers of rules on top of it. They defined work in 39 different ways, which included picking grain, picking their heads off grain, and so in doing so, the day of rest had become a day of burden, a day of anxiety. What if I’m accidentally working? Am I allowed to help this person? Can I move this chair? Can I do my hair? It’ll just be better if I sit at my home and sit there all day. The gift of rest had become a burden.

When I was a kid, we had a pool, which is already awesome. It’s particularly awesome when you grow up in Western Sydney and you have to face summer here, and all the best memories I have of the pool are on Christmas Day. I’m the youngest of five. All my siblings moved out at 17 or 18 years old, and so Christmas Day, we’d all be back together, and if we weren’t eating food or opening presents, we were in the pool playing volleyball, having just the best time. Our pool had just a standard pool fence around it, which is a very good idea to protect young children, but imagine instead of all of that happening, instead of all those happy memories, imagine that when I was younger, my parents decided that the pool just wasn’t safe, and so no pool ever. 45 degrees, too bad, go melt in a corner or something, no pool. Then imagine they notice that I’m getting taller, which means the pool fence isn’t tall enough anymore, so no more playing in the backyard just in case. Then imagine that they notice that my friends are talking about swimming and I’m talking about swimming and I’m starting to question them about the pool and why we can’t use it, and so then the new rule is no more talking about the pool. What a shame. The pool was meant to be awesome, it was meant to be a gift, but then over time, the extra rules just ruined it and they became an unnecessary burden in my life.

That’s what’s happening in a similar way. The Sabbath was a good thing given by God to help his people refresh and refocus, and the Pharisees had added all these layers of rules around it, turning it into a day of burden and anxiety, and this is all fueled by their foundation of human religion. To their credit, the Pharisees are trying to obey God’s law, but Jesus shows them that their foundation is wrong. Verse 25, see what Jesus says. He reminds them about the true story from the Old Testament where King David is running for his life from Saul, and he breaks the Old Testament law. He eats some sacred bread that was set aside for priests, and Jesus doesn’t disregard or nullify the law. He says, “Yes, David broke the law, it’s true, it happened, and yet what he did was reasonable and acceptable,” and he justifies this in the next verse. He uses the Sabbath law as proof. He says the Sabbath law is a gift given by God to help his people refresh and refocus and re-energize, and so how very Sabbath-like for his hungry disciples to pick some grain heads, how very Sabbath-like for the hungry to be replenished.

Jesus Has the Authority to Correct Them

Jesus has the authority to correct them because, as the next verse says, he is Lord even of the Sabbath. If I, Miles, here at church, reinterpret a standard, orthodox, everyone-agrees Old Testament teaching, then you should be slow to listen to me. If everyone else thinks it’s a very normal, standard way to interpret this part of the Old Testament, and I think something different, you should be slow to listen to me. If Jesus reinterprets a standard kind of orthodox understanding of the Old Testament, then we should be quick to what he says. He’s right, we’re wrong. He is Lord, even Lord of the Sabbath.

The story continues into chapter 3. Something similar happens. It’s the Sabbath again, and Jesus is in a synagogue, and he sees a man with a deformed hand. You might remember from Mark chapter 1 when Jesus heals the leper, and it’s almost like he can’t help himself but heal the man. It says he’s moved with compassion. He immediately reaches out and touches the man and heals him. Jesus is so kind. It’s not hard to imagine that he would feel the same way here. He’s not going to wait until tomorrow to heal this man for the sake of the Pharisees’ tainted views on the Sabbath, and so he asks the Pharisees a question in verse four, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” That’s a brilliant question because the answer is obvious. Everyone knows the answer. The answer is the law permits good deeds on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day to save life. The Sabbath is a day about restoring and refocusing and re-energizing, and so healing this man’s hand is very, very Sabbath-like. It’s the perfect example of what should be happening on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees don’t reply. Imagine if they did reply and they agreed with Jesus. What an amazing moment, a profound, humbling, truthful moment where they’re like, “Actually, you’re right, let’s do this.” Imagine even if they replied and they were like, “No, you’re wrong, we disagree with you.” That would be sad, and it would show how deep their misunderstanding is, but to not reply at all, to just remain silent, that just shows how deeply pride has infiltrated their hearts. They can’t bear to admit that Jesus is right. Imagine a doctor like that. They see a patient and they come up with a diagnosis, and then they’re given some new evidence that shows that they’re mistaken, but it’s more important for them to be right, and so they just go ahead with the treatment for the original diagnosis. How crazy would that be? That response makes Jesus angry, and it makes Jesus sad.

Jesus heals the man, and then the Pharisees go and find the supporters of Herod, their political mortal enemies, and they ask them for help to kill Jesus, to kill the miracle healer who damaged their PR. It makes sense that Jesus is angry, doesn’t it? It makes sense after that response. These Pharisees would prefer this poor man to go on suffering for the sake of their overbearing rules. Why is Jesus sad? Why does this make Jesus sad? He’s sad because he knows that behind the Pharisees’ pride is a profound anxiety and insecurity. He’s pitying them. He knows that they approach God’s laws from the foundation of human religion, not the foundation of the gospel, because human religion says, “If I obey God, then God will accept me. He has to accept me.” Human religion says, “I can draw near to God if I tick all the right boxes, if I press all the right buttons.” Human religion says, “Hey, God, look at me. Look how superior I am. Look how I am more holier than all of you. Look at me.” Human religion says, “God has commanded we can’t work on the Sabbath. The idea of work is pretty broad, but we’ve got to take those boxes, and so let’s just add layers and layers and layers of rules just to cover our butts.” That’s how this works, and that foundation can only ever bring anxiety and insecurity. Have I done enough? Am I good enough? What will God do with me? Will I really make it to the afterlife? Have I ticked all the boxes in the right order with the right colored pen? The Pharisees are anxious and insecure, and Jesus is sad for them. If only they knew, the alternative was standing right before them.

Human Religion vs. The Gospel

Human Religion Can Only Bring About Anxiety and Insecurity

Human religion says, “If I obey God, God will accept me.” The gospel says, “God has already accepted me, and so then I will obey him.” I’m already accepted through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and so now with humility and with gladness, I’m going to obey him. Human religion says, “I can draw near to God if I tick the boxes, if I press the right buttons.” The gospel says that Jesus already ticked all the boxes. He already pressed the buttons. He used the right colored pen. Because of him, I can draw near to God. He forgives me and declares me righteous, and he signs the adoption papers, and now I’m in God’s family. Human religion says, “God, look at me. Look how superior I am. You should look at me and not all the others. I’m so much more holy than them.” The gospel says, “God, look at me. Man, I’m a broken sinner, and I’m not better than anyone else. I’m not good enough for you. I’m not good enough for myself, and yet you love me anyway.” Human religion says, “God has given us a law that we can’t work on the Sabbath. The idea of work is pretty broad, let’s add all these rules.” The gospel says, “I just want to obey Jesus, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, that’s what I’m going to do, and I’m going to become more and more like him.”

Jesus felt sad for the Pharisees because human religion can only bring about anxiety and insecurity. It’s tiring, it’s draining, it’s unsatisfying, it’s hopeless. The gospel gives us deep, satisfying, fulfilling rest and contentment that can only be found in Jesus. The gospel crushes anxiety and insecurity. I can know for certain that in this life and the life to come, I am not defined by my mistakes. I’m not destined by my failures. I’m not drawn away from God by my weak moments. Instead, I’m declared righteous by Jesus. I’m delivered from guilt and shame, and I’m driven by God’s love and not by fear. This is amazing. The gospel rest doesn’t shift along with my circumstances. The rest we find in the gospel doesn’t lose its effectiveness when I’m less effective. It doesn’t grow tired when I grow tired. It doesn’t weaken when I am weak or slump when I slump. It’s transcendent, it’s untouchable.

Jesus is Our Sabbath Rest

In this gospel, we discover that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. There is no requirement for followers of Jesus to rest one Sabbath day every week. Jesus has fulfilled that law. He’s fulfilled that requirement. There’s a few passages we can see this. I’m just going to tell you one of them. It’s an easy passage to listen to, Colossians 2, verse 16 and 17. In Colossians 2, Paul’s celebrating the freedom that we have in Christ. Here’s what he says, “Don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holidays or New Moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. Don’t let anyone condemn you for not celebrating Sabbath, for these rules, the Sabbath rule, are only shadows of the reality yet to come, and Christ himself is that reality.” Jesus is our Sabbath rest. We are keeping the Sabbath every moment, every day. We are experiencing Jesus’s Sabbath rest, which does restore us and refocus us and refresh us.

This is not an excuse to live recklessly when it comes to physical rest. Me, Dan, and Melissa, we work six days a week, and so then we make sure to have a day off so our bodies and our minds can recover and so we can work sustainably. That’s a very good idea. This is not an excuse to be reckless with rest. This is just a freedom that we are given. Our Sabbath rest isn’t confined to one day per week. It explodes out into all seven and then explodes again into eternity. Human religion can only bring about anxiety and insecurity. The gospel gives us access to the deep, satisfying, fulfilling rest and contentment that can only be found through Jesus.

Don’t Slip Back Down Towards Human Religion

You might have already heard something which has resonated with you, something that the Holy Spirit is nudging you toward, or perhaps he’s shoving you towards, he’s very clear this is what he wants to happen in your life, but let me just give you one more implication which is I think very relevant to everyone here. It’s frightening how easy it is for us to slip back down towards human religion. As followers of Jesus, we know that the gospel is our foundation. We know that we have certain hope in Jesus. It’s very easy to slip back down towards the anxiety and the insecurity of human religion, to slip towards questioning our forgiveness, or to slip towards feeling superior to others or inferior to us, to slip towards anger or frustration towards God and what he’s doing, to slip towards worry and anxiety, to slip towards letting our circumstances rule over us, to slip towards being like a Pharisee. The world and the flesh and the devil are very loud, and they want you back down there, and this is why we teach gospel truths over and over again at church. This is why we’re preaching through the Gospel of Mark. It’s not like we level up as Christians and then now we can just leave behind Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We just move on to Revelation or something. We need this. We need the basic gospel truths like the one that we’ve been talking about because it’s frighteningly easy to forget them, to diminish them, to ignore them.

This is why we say that we want everyone to be a part of our term to Alpha course at least once, to revisit the basic truths of following Jesus. This is why we go on about repeating the goodness of being at church and being in a connect group because if we’re honest with ourselves, if we’re really honest with ourselves and we can consider what following Jesus has been like even for the last 24 hours, we’ll recognize how easy it is to slip back down. Can I encourage you, and can I encourage me, like I need to hear this, to encourage us? The gospel crushes human religion. Don’t look down there. There’s nothing but anxiety and insecurity. Instead, look at Jesus, look at Jesus who is our Sabbath rest, who is our deep and satisfying and fulfilling rest and contentment. Look at him and cling to him.

I’ll finish with this. You might have heard of Augustine of Hippo. He was not a hippo, he was a man, a famous man. He was a famous theologian and church leader in the fourth and fifth century. One day he was hanging out with his friend Alipius in Milan, and he heard a child voice singing the lyrics, “Pick it up and read it.” He went and found a Bible, and he picked it up and he read it, and then he started following Jesus, and then he became a bishop and a church leader, and he’s famous. One of the reasons he’s famous is because of his work, the Confessions, his masterpiece, this massive book, and in it, there’s a famous prayer of praise. In a moment, I’m going to pray for us, and I’m going to use his words, and then I’ll use some of my own, and here’s why. Listen to the last line of his prayer, “You have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Our heart is restless until it rests in you. What a good summary of a great reality.