As I mentioned on Sunday, this week we are going to be looking at Mark’s account of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41). Of course, that means that we won’t be looking at a number of early events in Jesus’ Galilean ministry. One such passage is Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees over healing on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6).
In this passage Jesus is at a synagogue on the Sabbath when he encounters a man who Mark says has a “shriveled hand.” We don’t know exactly what this man’s disability was, but it was obviously debilitating. The Pharisees, who are starting to watch Jesus wherever He goes, are watching and waiting to see if Jesus would heal the man on the Sabbath. This incident comes on the heels of another confrontation with Jesus regarding the Sabbath laws (Mark 2:23-28).
Jesus knows exactly what is going on and has the man stand up. Looking over to the Pharisees, He asks them “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life, or to kill?” The Pharisees give no reply. Mark writes that Jesus “looked around at them in anger…” This is the only time that one of the Gospel authors explicitly states that Jesus got angry! His anger, of course, is a righteous anger. These guys’ hearts are so hard that they would deny healing to a man with a shriveled hand.
Jesus goes ahead and heals the man. This is a significant moment in Jesus’ ministry, because this is when the Pharisees decide that Jesus has to die (Mark 3:6) and begin to plot how to do it.
So what was the big deal? Why were the Pharisee always harassing Jesus about what He and his disciples did on the Sabbath? Well, it’s important to note that Jesus never broke the Law regarding the Sabbath. He was certainly doing things that weren’t aligned with the Pharisee interpretation of the Law, but He never broke the Law itself.
The relevant portion of the Mosaic Law regarding the Sabbath is found in Exodus 20:8-11:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
That’s it. That’s the Law. The issue lies in the interpretation of how one goes about keeping the Sabbath holy and what does and does not constitute “work.” For example, in Mark 2 the disciples picked a few heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and then ate the grain as they walked through a field on the Sabbath. To the Pharisees this amounted to harvesting and reaping…in other words, “work.”
If you think that’s being a bit overzealous, it’s only the beginning! By the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had banned the following activities on the Sabbath:
writing and erasing
conducting business transactions
mending clothes or even tearing cloth
shopping
cooking, baking, or kindling a fire
gardening
doing laundry
carrying anything for more than six feet in a public area
moving anything with your hand (i.e. a broom)
(you could move things with your elbow or your breath, but not with your hand)
And this is just a partial list!
So, the only thing that Jesus violated when He healed on the Sabbath was a manmade list of rules, not God’s Law! But we might ask why Jesus seemed to be provoking the Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath. After all, He could have just waited a day to heal people, and if He wanted to maintain a “low profile” during His ministry this wasn’t the way to go about it.
A couple of thoughts come to mind. First of all, Jesus was definitely challenging the pettiness of the Pharisees and their love of rules. He is also reminding the people of why the Sabbath existed in the first place – it was created for the people to help them recover, recharge, and refocus on God after a long six days of work. It’s easy for us to sort of gloss over how difficult the daily lives of the people were back then. And the Pharisees were adding to their burden! Healing people (lessening their burden and redirecting their focus to God) definitely aligned with God’s purpose for the Sabbath.
Let’s make sure that we are remembering the purpose of the Sabbath in our lives as well.
Here’s what’s happening:
- Junior Youth meet THIS Sunday, February 5 after church.
- Senior High Youth meet NEXT Sunday, February 12 after church.
- We are looking for people to serve as “on call” nursery staff each week. This would entail being at church and willing to be in the nursery for the worship service should the need arise. Of course, if there isn’t a need these folks can join us in the worship service. Please see Amber McMillion if you would be interested in helping out.
- On Saturday, February 11th, Wesley Church is hosting a morning of workshops for the community at Colerain Church (1923 Noble Road in Kirkwood). I’ll be leading a workshop focused on strengthening marriages. There will be several different workshops offered at 9 am, 10 am, and 11 am that morning. You can see the different workshops and their time slots below. Registration is encouraged so they know how many folks to prepare for. If you would like to register, you can do so by emailing Pastor Blake Deibler at bdeibler@wesleyqville.orgor by calling Pastor Blake at 717.826.6193.
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oking forward to our time together on Sunday. Invite a friend to join us at the Bridge!