Read Mark 2:23-3:6
Questions from the Scripture text: On what day did Jesus go through the grain fields in Mark 2:23? Who begin to pluck the heads of grain? Who think that this is unlawful (Mark 2:24)? What had David gotten to eat (Mark 2:26)? Who also ate it? For whom was the Sabbath made (Mark 2:27)? And who is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28)? What were the Pharisees doing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:2? What does Jesus ask them in Mark 3:4? What was the condition of their hearts (Mark 3:5)? What are the Pharisees doing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:6?
What is the Sabbath a day for? Mark 2:23–3:6 prepares us for the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twelve verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Sabbath is a day for being with Jesus.
In this passage, the Lord Jesus challenges us as to whether we will consider the Sabbath a gift for our good.
Just as David was needy and hungry, so also the disciples are hungry, out in the field with Jesus (Mark 2:23). They don’t actually break the law. The Scripture prohibited harvesting on the Sabbath (cf. Exodus 34:21), but also made a distinction between harvesting and gleaning. You weren’t allowed to harvest in your neighbor’s field, but you were allowed to glean as you walked through it (cf. Deuteronomy 23:24–25).
But the point that Jesus makes about the Pharisees is not even that they got the Law of God wrong. Rather, He shows that they are completely wrong about the God of the Law. God is generous and kind.
The Sabbath was a love-gift to man (Mark 2:27), but the Pharisees treat it as a burden to be borne.
They aren’t the first to do this. When Jesus calls Himself the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), it brings to mind Isaiah 58, in which the most religious of the Jews make a great display of how miserable their religion is, and how they believe that God “owes them” for bearing the miserable burdens He has placed upon them (cf. Isaiah 58:3–5). But the Lord reminds them that the whole point of the day is joy, pleasure, and delight (cf. Isaiah 58:13–14). Delight in the day! Delight in the Lord!
And now the Lord of the Sabbath is here! What should the Pharisees be doing on the Sabbath? Having fellowship with Jesus and delighting in Him!
The men with David were able to eat the showbread, not only because they were needy and hungry (deed of mercy/necessity), but especially because they were with David. And now great David’s greater Son is here. There is no safer, more righteous place to be on the Lord’s Day than with Jesus. Being with Him is the point of the day. Watch out for being either the sort of person who wants to justify his own activities on the Lord’s Day, or the sort of person who is obsessed with the list of things that one cannot do on the Lord’s Day. Rather, spend the whole of the day in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, and those deeds of mercy and necessity required to enable others and yourself to spend the day in worship. Spend. The. Day. With. Jesus. In. Worship. He is the Lord of the Sabbath.
When someone is wrapped up in justifying himself, he opposes Jesus. We already saw this in Mark 2:16, but it gets worse in Mark 3:1–6. How are the Pharisees keeping Sabbath now? By watching to accuse others—by watching to accuse Jesus Himself (Mark 3:2). By treating God’s command as a misery—closing their heart against their suffering brother (Mark 3:1) in church, implying that they see God as cruel-hearted as themselves. This is what Jesus exposes by His questions in Mark 3:4. This is why He is so grieved with them in Mark 3:5. By Mark 3:6, they are “keeping Sabbath” (?!) by going out and immediately plotting how to destroy Jesus.
Oh, dear Christian, let us see that a day in which God gives us Himself (!), as the gift, is an act of divine love and generosity!
Let us not consider it a misery for ourselves. Let us not spurn God’s good gift for the labors and recreations of the other six days. Let us have soft hearts toward those in need and in pain, and make a point of alleviating their suffering, in fellowship with Christ.
Most of all, let us enjoy the Lord’s Day as a day of delighting in the Lord Jesus all day long. He is the Lord about Whom Isaiah 58 was speaking! When God blessed the Sabbath day, He made it a greater blessing than the whole of creation. When God made it holy, He made it a day to leave behind our own ways, our own pleasures, and our own words, and spend the whole day worshiping Jesus.
What would your Lord’s Day keeping look like, if you saw it as a generous gift from God? How are you responding to the fact that He has given you a day completely and entirely for public and private worship?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for the divine generosity in which You have given Yourself to us. And thank You for the generosity in which You have given us Your day as a day with Jesus, and a day with You in Jesus. Forgive us for how we spurn that generosity by wanting spend that day on other things than worship. And forgive us for how we fail to reflect Your generosity by being heartless toward others. Keep us from wanting to please ourselves, and make us to have our pleasure in You and Your worship. Keep us from wanting to justify ourselves, and make us to receive Your day and its worship as a gift of joy, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP92 “It’s Good to Thank the LORD” or TPH153 “O Day of Rest and Gladness”
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