Be a Sabbath-Breaker
Mark 2:23-28 shows us that to be a person that helps people we need to Be a Sabbath-Breaker. June 14, 2009.
Summer is a time for vacation – my family returned from our relaxing, sunny vacation this past week. At least, I hope it was relaxing because before this vacation my wife and two teenage sons told me that I have a way of making vacation unrelaxing. My personality style prefers to pre-plan and pre-organize every activity with a detailed agenda. I want to know on May 26 what I’ll be doing on vacation on June 8. So on previous vacations my kind of fun was calling a family meeting at 6 a.m. every day of vacation to preview the precise agenda for that day. That was my duty as the self-proclaimed vacation police, until my family asked me to research the definition of vacation. The happy ending is that they said this latest vacation was very relaxing.
Today in God’s Word Jesus encounters the self-proclaimed Sabbath police, a religious sect known as the Pharisees. The Pharisees held to super high standards of religious observance, especially in matters of ritual cleanliness, an exact agenda for feast days, and keeping every last detail of the specially set aside seventh day of the week known as the Sabbath Day.
God had set aside the Sabbath as a day of rest from one’s own work in order to rejoice in the works and words of God. The problem of the Pharisees is that they focused so much on the particular sins of various types of work on the Sabbath that they missed the point about rejoicing in the greater works of God’s mercy on sinners. They were so driven by rules that they added detailed layers of their own interpreted Sabbath do’s and don’ts. For example, God prohibited the harvesting and threshing of grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered Jesus disciples to be harvesting grain by picking the kernels, and to be threshing by rubbing the kernels in their hands to dispense of the outer husk. “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” But the Pharisees were the unlawful ones because, hiding behind religious rules and rigid interpretations, they robbed themselves and others of God’s restful mercy. They stressed obedience to rules out of a lust to feel good to themselves and look good to others, instead of a love for God. Jesus once described Pharisees as “full of greed and self-indulgence … hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:25,28) who, like tombs, look good on the outside but on the inside are rotten to the core.
Pharisees coerce their children to go to church on Sunday because it’s the family duty, but on Tuesday ignore the very ways of God professed on Sunday. Pharisees ask to join as a church member, but neglect the church’s faith-building activities that nurture the soul. Pharisees repeat the same tried and true prayers before and after every meal, but falter when it comes to opening up to God in heartfelt private moments. Pharisees put church offering envelopes in the plate with crumbs and leftovers tucked inside. Pharisees condemn other religious denominations for bending doctrinal truths while refusing to bend a bit to love those in need. Pharisees put on robes and stand in pulpits publicly condemning sins, and then commit those same sins in private.
Jesus uses the Pharisees’ own ammunition to blast back at their faulty argument: “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?” According to God’s law only the priests were allowed to eat any of the twelve loaves of bread baked every week and stored in the holy place. The intent of this law of the consecrated bread (literally “bread of the face,” meaning God’s presence) was to demonstrate that God’s words and works of mercy for sinners are special. God is the Bread of Life. His merciful presence among people will last forever, as symbolized by the priests being responsible to replenish the twelve loaves week after week. David, a man after God’s own heart, was fleeing from wicked King Saul who was trying to kill him. But David refused to strike back and Saul, refused to revolt or take the throne by force, and instead waited on the Lord’s word and showed mercy to Saul. In essence, David was engaged in the very intent of the consecrated bread. The Pharisees would have condemned David too.
That’s why Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” he tells the Pharisees and us. God’s purpose is not for us to observe religious rituals for the sake of religious rituals or go to church so that we can mark our calendars that we went to church. No, God’s purpose is for religious rituals and church ceremonies to serve and help us explore, enjoy, and expand the God’s mercy in his words and works. So Jesus worked on the Sabbath when work was prohibited by the Pharisees because it meant loving people. Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. Jesus picked grain and fed his hungry disciples on the Sabbath. And in his greatest work of love, Jesus lay in the tomb one Sabbath at rest and at the same time accomplishing more for us than any of our works ever could. Dead, and yet soon to come to life when the husk of his tomb ripped open to reveal life inside, a seed of resurrection sown on the earth that would spring forth with life for all believers. Jesus broke the Sabbath of the Pharisees and in doing that, he fulfilled the true Sabbath and became the reality of spiritual rest for us. So, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn people, but to love and save people. To give sinners rest from our worries and fears, from our incompetent strivings to work for our own forgiveness or freedom from guilt, from a burdened conscience and an anxious future. You are the sick-to-death mother who can’t live another day and you meet Jesus on the Sabbath, and he heals you. You are his disciple picking grain on the Sabbath because you love following Jesus, and he defends you. You are the sheep who falls into the pit on the Sabbath, and Jesus rescues you.
Break the Sabbath by breaking free from obeying rules simply because you must, and obey them because you love them and trust the one who gives them, Jesus. Break the Sabbath by adjusting any man-made religious rituals that do not serve the purpose of helping you to explore, enjoy, and expand God’s words and works of mercy. Break the Sabbath by taking a break from the pressures of sin and guilt and giving yourself permission to be happy.
Christian author Philip Yancey tells a story about a desperate woman in Chicago who, for two years, rented out her daughter as a prostitute. The mother ended up confessing this awful behavior to a Christian friend who asked if at any time over the two years she ever thought of going to the church for help. She replied, with astonishment, “Church! Why would I ever go there? They’d just make me feel even worse than I already do.” Do you know anybody like that? Yancey responds to that story, “How did Jesus, the only perfect person in history, manage to attract the notoriously imperfect? And what keeps us from following in his steps today? Jesus was the friend of sinners. They liked being around him and longed for his company. Meanwhile, legalists found him shocking, even revolting” (Yancey, Philip, The Jesus I Never Knew, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995, pp. 148,149).
People today avoid the church because they think it is judgmental; they avoid the Bible because they see it as a big book of rules; and they avoid God because they consider him the ultimate policeman in the sky. We can show them differently. We can uphold and obey God’s laws with behavior that resonates with love and satisfaction, and we can follow religious rituals that are filled with meaning and mercy. I see that happening here at Grace in our worship, our new member nurture, our generous giving, our volunteering, Bible studies, leadership, and Christian friendships. And I’m not the only one …
One of the highlights of my agenda-free vacation was an urgent phone call from a young man who has been touched by the love of God here at Grace. In the middle of a family crisis he somehow got my cell phone number and when I answered he said, “I’m not the type of person who has ever asked others for help. But I am asking you and God for help now because I know I can find it in this church.” Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on June 14, 2009
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