Mark
2:23-28
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
June 14, 2009
Mark
2:23-28 (New International Version)
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Has it ever happened
that someone made a special day just for you?
Maybe it was a special birthday or anniversary! Maybe it was your graduation day or your
retirement day. Several weeks ago we celebrated Mother’s day and next weekend
we will celebrate Father’s day. Each
year we set those days aside just for mom and dad. Wouldn’t it be great if
there were more special days set aside for each one of us, days on which we
received all kinds of special gifts, a day on which we could sit back, put up
our feet and rest!
Well
there is such a day that was made for each of us. Jesus talked about it in our gospel
lesson for today. It’s called the “Sabbath” day. Did you hear what Jesus said
about the Sabbath day? He said, “Man was
not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man.” In a very real sense Jesus is saying that God
made a special day just for you and me on which he wants us to rest and on
which he wants to give us some pretty special things. Let us prayerfully
consider what Jesus meant when he said, “THE
SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN!”
I. Not to
burden him
II. But
to bless him
The event in our text is one of the many
confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees. One Sabbath day Jesus and his
disciples were going through some grain fields. Since they were hungry, the
disciples began to pick some grain and eat it.
Now when the Pharisees saw this, they swooped down just like vultures to
accuse Jesus and his disciples of breaking the Sabbath Day laws.
At
first it seemed like their charge was valid.
The Law of Moses stated that no work was to be done on the Sabbath! But
the Pharisees completely misunderstood the spirit and purpose of the Sabbath
day law as well as the rest of God’s law.
They considered the law of Moses, be it one of
the Ten Commandments or any other ceremonial law, as a way to earn salvation.
In addition they expected the people to obey all the other laws they added to
God’s law. For example, just in regard to the Sabbath Law, the Jews added 39
more laws. They made it a sin to walk
more than 1,000 steps or to pick up sticks for a fire, or to take care of the
sick or dying, and on and on and on. You
get the picture. Talk about piling on! And they allowed no exception, at least
not for other people. And so you see how
they had taken the Old Testament Sabbath day intended to be a day of rest and
they turned into work, a burden of trying to earn God’s favor.
Fortunately
for the disciples Jesus was there to defend their actions, and fortunately for
us the Lord of the Sabbath helps us to under what the Sabbath Day Law was all
about. To show that God is more concerned about the sincerity of the heart by
faith rather than outward conformity to law, Jesus cites an example from the
Old Testament to defend the actions of his disciples. “Haven’t you read what David did when he and
his companions were hungry and in need?
In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he
entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was lawful only
for priests to eat. And he also gave
some to his companions. Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath
was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’”
In
the Temple area there was a special table on which twelve loaves of bread were
placed, symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel and its praise to God for providing
all that was needed for body and life.
Each Saturday, according to Levitical law, the
12 loaves were replaced with 12 fresh loaves and only the priests were to eat
the bread taken from that table. On one occasion when David and his men were
fleeing from Saul who was trying to kill him, the high priest let David and his
men eat some of that bread. Was that wrong? The greater law of law must always supersede.
The purpose of that showbread law was to provide food for the priest, not cause
others to starve to death. So if David and his men were not guilty of breaking
that showbread law because they ate to stay alive, Jesus’ disciples were not
guilty of breaking the Sabbath by eating grain they had picked from the field.
What
does this incident, which took place about 2,000 years ago, have to do with us
in 2009, especially since Christ has brought an end to the ceremonial
laws? First of all, we are reminded that
God’s Law, be it the 10 Commandments or any of the ceremonial laws, was not given by God as a way for man to earn eternal life.
The main purpose of the Law is to be a handmaiden to the Gospel by exposing sin
and our need for a Savior. But when you study the Law you see that through each
of his Commands God is trying to protect blessings he wants to channel to
us. For example, in the Fourth
commandment he is protecting the blessings he wants to channel to us through
the family and in the Sixth Commandment he is protecting the blessings he wants
to channel to us through marriage. What
blessings God intends for us through the Sabbath Day law we’ll discuss later. But for now let us note that
the Sabbath Day law nor any other of God’s Law is a way to earn heaven.
What a burden that would be! God did not
make man for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man.
Another
thing we can take from this account is the necessity of defending our Christ
liberty. As we heard in the second
lesson, the Sabbath Day law was only temporary, a shadow pointing to
Jesus. Once Jesus came, there was no
more need for the shadow. In other
words, we can now work on Saturday and worship on other days. We don’t have to be circumcised and we don’t
have to bring sheep to church for the pastors to sacrifice on the altar. And so, we must be on guard that no one puts
that burden on us again. And that can so easily happen. For example, in the Old Testament there were
a lot of dietary laws that were part of the ceremonial code. Besides providing
a healthy diet those laws were again put in place as a shadow of things to
come. With the coming of Christ we are
free from those diet laws too. But
today, especially on Christian TV and radio shows and on the bookshelves of
Christian bookstores, there are all kinds of programs and books encouraging
getting back to the dietary laws of the Old Testament. Now if someone wants to do that as a way of
eating a healthier diet, that’s one thing. But if some think that that will
bring them closer to God or make their salvation more secure or make them a
better Christian than a Christian who wants to eat a Big Mac at MacDonald’s,
then that is wrong. God did not give
those ceremonial laws including the Sabbath day law as a way to earn
heaven. That’s placing a burden on us
that God did not intend. The Sabbath was
made for us, not us for the Sabbath.
II.
So if God made the Sabbath for us, and he did not intend it to be a burden for
us, then why did the Jews have to observe it?
And if the Ceremonial Law, which included the Sabbath day law ended when
Christ came, then why do we still teach, “You shall remember the Sabbath Day by
keeping it holy?”
As
we learned in confirmation class the word “Sabbath” means “rest.” And so from Sunday until Friday the Jews
could work. But come Saturday, they were
to set aside their work and dedicate the day to the Lord to commemorate
Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. But there was more. The Sabbath was also a shadow pointing ahead
to a greater deliverance from a worse bondage; not rest from physical labors
and burdens, but a rest from the burden of sin and the captivity of death, and
rest from the burden of having to worry about earning heaven and staying out of
hell. Who was going to bring that kind of rest?
You know. Jesus. That’s why he is the Lord of the
Sabbath. He is the REAL REST GIVER!
How
did Jesus do all that for us? Because he
knew that no one could ever keep the Sabbath Day law perfectly, he did that for
us. Think of how Mary and Joseph found
the twelve-year-old boy Jesus in the Temple studying God’s Word with the
teachers of the law! Think of how it was
his custom every Saturday to go the synagogue.
He kept the Sabbath Day law perfectly and he did that just for you, and
you, and me. For the times we violate God’s holy will regarding observing the
Sabbath, he also suffered the punishment on the cross, washing away that guilt
in his precious blood. Having done all
that was necessary to win our salvation, he offers rest in the forgiveness of sins and promises
eternal rest in heaven.
So
how do we receive that rest for our souls and how can we enter the eternal rest
God wants us to have in heaven? You know that answer to that too! We find that rest in God’s Word! We receive that rest by faith in Jesus and
trusting his promises. Because this is
so, Martin Luther correctly connected the Sabbath Day Law with the use of God’s
Word. Whenever we use God’s Word in
church, at home, in our private meditations and family devotions we are
observing the “Sabbath”
That leads us to the all-important question.
We know that we don’t have to worship on Saturday, but we know that we should
be coming to church. Why? Yes, to obey God’s injunction through his apostle,
“Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.” But again, “Why?” He
wants to channel blessings to you. If
your heart and body are weary from the burden of sickness Jesus offers rest in
the invitation “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver
you.” If your heart and soul are weary
from the burden of sorrow, Jesus offers rest in the promise to work out
everything for your eternal good and promises that one day in heaven he will
wipe away every tear from your eyes. In
these times of economic uncertainty your heart might be weary from the burden
of worry. If so, God offers you rest in
the promise that he will provide all that you need and that in heaven he has
eternal treasures waiting for you that neither rust nor moth can destroy or
take away. All these promises are capped
off with the most important promise of all--the promise of forgiveness which
gives the ultimate rest for your soul. And so you see, the most important part
of our worship here in church is not what we do for God, but what God does for
us through Word and Sacrament. Through
the good news about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, he gives us
rest. That’s how the Sabbath was made
for man. So if you are looking for a
special day just for you on which you can get some rest and receive all kinds
of blessings from your God, it’s found in the Sabbath!