DAY #56: February 25, 2009 - Mark 2:18-3:12

The Pharisees fasted as a show of piety; the disciples of John the Baptist fasted as a sign of mourning for sin and to prepare for the Messiah’s coming. But, like Jesus’ disciples, they did not need to fast because the Messiah was with them! To be with Jesus the groom is as joyous as a wedding feast. Wedding guests do not mourn or fast; a wedding is a time of celebration and feasting. Likewise, Jesus’ coming was a sign of celebration, not mourning and fasting.

While Jesus walked the earth, his presence was a cause for celebration—the Messiah had come! The people did not need to mourn, they needed to rejoice. But Jesus knew that soon he (the groom) would be taken away from them. Jesus’ arrival on earth ushered in a new time, a new covenant between God and people. The new covenant called for a new way of expressing personal faith. This new covenant could not be combined with the religion of Judaism any more than a piece of unshrunk cloth should be used as a patch on a worn-out garment. When the garment is washed, the patch will shrink, pull away from the old garment, and leave a bigger hole than before.

In Bible times, wine was not kept in glass bottles, but in goatskins sewn around the edges to form watertight bags called wineskins. New wine expanded as it fermented, stretching its wineskin. After the wine had aged, the old wineskin (that had gotten brittle with age and couldn’t stretch anymore) would burst if more new wine was poured into it. New wine, therefore, needs new wineskins. Like old wineskins, the Pharisees and indeed the entire religious system of Judaism were too rigid to accept Jesus, who could not be contained in their traditions or rules.

Jesus always seemed to be doing something against the rules of the Pharisees on the Sabbath.
Jesus and the disciples were walking through some grainfields. As they walked, they began breaking off heads of wheat to eat. The Pharisees pointed out that they were breaking the law against harvesting grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees had established thirty-nine categories of actions forbidden on the Sabbath, based on interpretations of God’s law and on Jewish custom.

Harvesting was one of those forbidden actions. The disciples, who were not farmers, were not doing their daily work on the Sabbath. Neither were they stealing grain, for God’s law allowed for this kind of sharing among his people (Deuteronomy 23:25). Thus, though they may have been violating the Pharisees’ rules, they were not breaking any divine law. The Pharisees, however, could not see beyond their legalisms.

The Pharisees knew the Scriptures thoroughly, yet Jesus’ question, “Haven’t you ever read,” reveals their ignorance of the true meaning of the Scriptures that they claimed to know so well. Yes, they had read this story many times, but they had obviously not discerned or applied its meaning. The Pharisees, having added all kinds of restrictions for the Sabbath, had completely forgotten God’s purpose in creating the Sabbath. God mercifully provided the Sabbath as a day of rest for his people—a day to set aside the normal duties of the workweek and spend time resting and worshiping. But the Pharisees had only succeeded in making the Sabbath an impossible burden. Jesus made clear that the Sabbath was made to benefit people by providing them a day of rest. God did not create people in order to place impossible restrictions and burdens on their lives.

Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. As Jesus entered, he noticed a man with a deformed hand. Jesus’ reputation for healing preceded him, but would he dare heal on the Sabbath with the Pharisees watching? God’s law prohibited work on the seventh day of the week; thus, the religious leaders allowed no healing to be done on the Sabbath unless the person’s life was in danger. Healing, they argued, was practicing medicine, and a person could not practice his or her profession on the Sabbath.

To Jesus it didn’t matter that this man’s life was not threatened by the condition of his hand; it didn’t matter that he could have waited until the next day to perform this healing legally. If Jesus had waited until another day, he would have been submitting to the Pharisees’ authority, showing that their petty rules were equal to God’s law. God is a God of people, not of rules.

Up to this point, Jesus had been aggressively confronting the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. Then he decided to withdraw from the synagogue before a major confrontation developed, because it was not time for him to die. Jesus had many lessons still to teach his disciples and the people. So he went out to the Sea of Galilee, followed by a huge crowd.

While Jesus was drawing fire from the religious leaders, he was gaining great popularity among the people—they came literally from all directions. Some were simply curious, some sought healing, some wanted evidence to use against him, and others truly wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah. Most of them could only dimly guess at the real meaning of what was happening among them.

Mark described a second encounter between Jesus and evil spirits. Ironically, the demons recognized who Jesus was; the people didn’t. Jesus warned the evil (unclean) spirits not to reveal his identity because he did not want them to reinforce a popular misconception. The huge crowds were looking for a political and military leader who would free them from Rome’s control, and they thought that the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament prophets would be this kind of man. Jesus wanted to teach the people about the kind of Messiah he really was, because he was far different from what they expected. Christ’s Kingdom is spiritual. It begins, not with the overthrow of governments, but with the overthrow of sin in people’s hearts.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

We have to put he ministry to people before programs and tradition. In the one act of healing healing the man with the deformed hand, Jesus made this distinction. Lord, today, help me put the needs of others before my agenda and before my "to do list".

"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John 13:35 (NIV)

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)

PRAYER

Lord, strip me of me once again today. JOY = Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last. Help me practice that today Lord. Build this into Emily and Drew and Katie. Build this into our marriage and into our church. Lord, give me the power to go home after a long work day and serve Sharon. Help me be more like You today.