Mark wrote his gospel to tell people about Jesus’ ministry. He did it by first showing Jesus’ power and authority. Mark showed this by telling of Jesus’ baptism, forty-days in the wilderness, succeeding over Satan’s temptations, calling men to follow Him, casting out demons, teaching in the synagogues, and healing people. Through Mark chapter 1, Jesus did not meet any overt challenges to Himself. From chapter two, the religious leaders began challenging Him outright.
In Mark 2:1-3:6, Mark used a teaching method called a chiasm. Because the people learned orally, teaching this way made for easier remembrance. The style used a step method of A, B, C, B’, A’. A and A’ tell about Jesus' healing people. B, C, and B’ relay Him teaching about and using food as an illustrative tool. The middle and last stories, C and A’, emphasize the main point. As Mark taught each level of the chiasm, the people would understand better the main point of the teaching. They would learn about Jesus’ authority and power. The people would learn more and learn to believe He is Deity.
The lesson relayed in the Bible study titled “The Standard” explains Jesus is the bridegroom. Jesus taught the religious leaders that His disciples do not fast when the Groom is with them. Only in the Old Testament does God use the analogy of Himself as the Groom. Jesus took this title when the Pharisees challenged Him about His disciples not fasting like they did. This teaching is the central one of this chiasm because in it, Jesus explains He is God in a way the Pharisees, who were learned men, would recognize and understand.
This lesson comes from Mark 2:23-28. Through this third teaching moment, Jesus instructs people using food for illustrative purposes. The Pharisees openly challenged Him in this retelling of Jesus’ meet with them.
The Setting
And it happened that He was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. (Mark 2:23 [NASB])
This verse begins by telling the hearers and readers, “And it happened.” What happened? Mark sets the stage. He leads his audience to set their focus and pay attention to what would be said in this passage. Mark does this by aiming people on the person and occurrence coming up in his retelling of history.
Mark said, “And it happened that He (Jesus) was passing through the grain fields.” Many people, if they are walking somewhere, they will try to take the quickest route. Sometimes that meant they walked through another person’s property. We readers might think that is why the disciples and Jesus walked through a field of grain, because it was quicker. Yet, often, the destination was not the main purpose for Jesus doing what He did. Many times, the journey was more important than, or just as important as, the end point. The disciples may have thought Jesus took them through the grain field because it was quicker, but Jesus knew the Pharisees looked for a way to find fault with Him. Jesus wanted to meet the Pharisees. He wanted each person to believe in Him and receive salvation. This was not an “Uh oh, we’ve been caught moment,” but a planned meeting by Jesus.
Besides the meeting being intentional, let’s consider another matter. In this verse, we notice the disciples picking heads of grain. They did not pick them to harvest the grain for the landowner. The disciples picked the grain to quench their hunger.
Mark made one other point to set the scene for Jesus’ discussion with the Pharisees. Jesus and His disciples walked through the grain field on the sabbath day. They did not walk to go to the synagogue in Mark’s retelling in this verse. They may have already left or were going to the synagogue. Mark does not give us that information. The day of the week was important in this story about Jesus’ ministry. The sabbath day was the focus.
Mark recalled pertinent details for his readers and hearers. He relayed Jesus, and the disciples walked through a grain field on a sabbath day. The disciples plucked heads of grain. The Pharisees laid in wait to catch Jesus and His disciples. What would be the lesson for the listeners?
The Challenge
The Pharisees were saying to Him (Jesus), “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” (Mark 2:24 [NASB])
The Pharisees never seemed far from Jesus. They boldly approached Jesus with their accusation couched in a question. These men scrutinized Him and His disciples so they could confront and accuse Him. When people want to accuse someone of doing wrong, it does not take much scrutinizing to find a fault. Each person is a sinner, after all.
The Pharisees felt their job was to point out a person’s sins so the person could make amends with God. Their idea of holiness came from a skewed interpretation of God’s intent of His laws. God gave His laws, statutes, and commands to lead people to Him, not to drive a wedge between Him and them.
The religious leaders had created 633 laws for the Israelites to live by, based on God’s laws. Instead of making it easier for people to live godly lives, it created a caste system of sorts. The people who publicly lived the laws obviously were holy, according to the religious leaders. To appear holier than the common people, the Pharisees, scribes, and rabbis prayed aloud on the streets and in the city gates. They fasted twice a week instead of on the only day of the year God required. These religious leaders publicly repented with ashes and loud prayers for people to see and hear them.
The only use the Pharisaical laws gave was to create a sense of holiness, which people call religiosity. Doing religious actions do not lead to holiness. Works do not save a person from their sins. They do not convince God a person is holy enough to redeem. Yet, for the Pharisees, the laws they created served a purpose. It showed their pseudo-holiness, a lack of righteousness.
With this mindset, of course, the Pharisees would challenge Jesus. They saw Him as a threat since He daily gained followers. If Jesus became great in people’s minds, people might give fewer offerings to the synagogues and temples. They would be less inclined to follow and obey the religious leaders. The religious leaders would lose stature in the nation.
With this understanding, the Pharisees waited for Jesus and His disciples to make a mistake. To them, plucking grains of wheat on the Sabbath was not lawful. The Pharisees considered their actions and opinions made the sabbath day revered. How they lived—what they said and did—mattered more than the purpose God set aside for the day. Their Pharisees showed the intentions of their hearts with their question to Jesus. Actions determined a sabbath day’s purpose, according to the Pharisees.
Notice, the Pharisees did not say the men plucking grain from another man’s field was wrong. What they pointed out was that they plucked grain on the sabbath day. In Deuteronomy 5:12-15, no work was allowed on the Sabbath. That permitted people to keep the sabbath day holy. Holy means consecrated by God and set apart for Him. The focus of the sabbath day was to keep one’s mind set on God. The focus was not work was disallowed. For the Pharisees, the sin was plucking the grain on a Sabbath.
Is plucking working? Is plucking to satisfy hunger work? Many Old Testament passages teach about this topic. Each deals with “working” on the sabbath day. Is plucking a few heads of grain reaping? This takes us back to the intention of the Ten Commandments and, particularly, the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment states, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). The intention of this commandment, according to the wording, is to keep the sabbath day holy. God’s nature defines holiness. For people to keep the sabbath day holy, they must focus on God and set themselves apart only for His purposes. The purposes of a person for the sabbath day sets it apart in their lives as being for him or herself or for God. Those purposes originate in the heart, take form in the mind, and can cause each person to act for God or him or herself.
What were the disciples’ intentions for plucking grain that sabbath day? Did they intend to harvest the grain, or did they intend to quench their hunger as they followed Jesus, the Son of Man? What were the intentions of the Pharisees that day? Did they intend to help a person realign to be in God’s will or to accuse a person so they themselves seemed more holy? What was the intention of Jesus that day? If He meant to catch the Pharisees by setting Himself and His disciples in their path, He succeeded. If He meant to help them see Him as the Messiah, He tried, but the Pharisees' hearts still were stubborn.
God set the sabbath day aside for rest because it was a day of rest for Himself. Instead of focusing on the sabbath day or on what one can or cannot do, people should focus on the One who created it and gave it to them. The sabbath day is not god over Yahweh. Yahweh is God over the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, people are to rest and focus on God because He created it and gave it to them.
For the Pharisees, the laws based on the interpretations of God’s Laws were more important than the words God gave the Old Testament writers. They became inflexible in applying their own interpretations and put more emphasis on them that on God. All the while, God gave the Old Testament to point people to Himself. God judges each person according to His Word, not the rules humanity makes.
God forbade men to work for their profit on the Sabbath, not for gathering a few grains to feed themselves. Jesus’ disciples wanted to know Jesus more and to see Him teach, preach, heal, and cast out demons. They followed Jesus, even on the Sabbath. By following Jesus, they kept the sabbath day holy. They focused on the Messiah. When they became physically hungry, these men ate what they could find, heads of grain near their hands. This action was not harvesting, but gleaning. Deuteronomy 23:25 teaches about this. It says, “When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.”
The disciples’ plucking grain was not work. It did not distract them from God. The disciples’ actions did not make the day unholy. The intention of Jesus’ followers was to continue to follow Him, but they had a need. Their physical bodies required sustenance to continue following Jesus.
The Reminder
And He (Jesus) said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry: how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” (Mark 2:25-26 [NASB])
Jesus continued teaching. He taught with words and with actions. He knew the Pharisees followed Him to trap Him in what He did and taught. Jesus understood the educated religious leaders would learn from His use of history and Scripture. It would be easier for these learned men to discount miracles and harder for them to push aside known historical facts and sacrificial laws. Jesus meets each person where they will listen most to Him.
Jesus did not debate or argue with the Pharisees. He focused the Pharisees upon a man whom they held in high esteem in Israelite history. That man was David, God’s chosen man as king for His people. David had expanded the borders of Israel. The crops and livestock of the nation had increased. David was deeply devoted to God and enjoyed His favor. God had promised David that his kingdom would never end (2 Samuel 7:11-13) and, from him, the Messiah would come (Isaiah 59:20). The Israelites considered David godly. Jesus then reminded the Pharisees of the time David fed his soldiers with the showbread on the altar in the holy place of the temple.
Jesus taught the Pharisees in the method to which they were accustomed by asking questions. This was the rhetorical method where education happens through discourse, orally. He said to the Pharisees, “Have you never read?” Jesus knew these learned men had read about David. He realized they held David in high esteem. To the Israelites, David was the model for being a great Jew. People sought to emulate him. They also had hope in the promise God gave to David about the Messiah coming from his line. Because of this, Jesus showed His disciples’ actions were like David’s men’s actions. This could then be reason enough, according to the religious leaders, for the disciples to pluck grain. David and his men were hungry and so ate from the temple offerings (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Likewise, Jesus’ disciples were hungry and so plucked and ate on the Sabbath. The actions of both leaders’ followers ran parallel.
According to Leviticus 24:5-9, only the priests were to eat the showbread that was in the holy place. Yet, the high priest, Abiathar, offered the showbread to David and his men, if they had kept pure from women. God never condemned this action by the priest. David had not acted in rebellion to God when he asked for food and accepted the showbread. He wanted to meet the immediate need of hunger in a life-or-death situation. God never condemned the priest for giving David the showbread. God considered David just.
Like David and his men had a just reason for eating the showbread, Jesus’ disciples had a just reason for plucking and eating the grain. They hungered while following Jesus. The disciples did not reap and steal a man’s grain. Their intention was to eat while continuing to follow and learn from Jesus. Staunching the hunger was a necessity. Ceremonial law was less important than the necessities of men.
The Pharisees would not dare to say David and his men eating the showbread was inappropriate. They held him in too high a regard to consider saying that. If they could not judge David, then they could not judge Jesus’ disciples. In both instances, the men ate out of necessity. The bread was still holy in that the men received it from God. Likewise, Jesus and His disciples still held the sabbath day in high esteem. The followers did not stop to harvest a field so they could make bread; they just plucked a few grains to eat as they followed Jesus.
To Jesus, ceremonial ritual is not always necessary, but moral duty is. Feeding people. Helping the sick. Caring for the homeless, orphans, and widows. These are moral duties. As Christians, our care for people shows our love for God. This being said, Jesus did not encourage willful disobedience. He considered how God’s Word deals with the issue. Scripture should always guide how we live.
The Lesson
Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27 [NASB])
Jesus helped the Pharisees to realize ceremonial rituals are not as important as giving what is necessary for people to live. He then arrived at the point of His teaching. Jesus reminded the Pharisees of David. He wanted to make sure the Pharisees, and each person, understood this lesson. Jesus understood if a religious leader learned a truth, then his/her followers would learn the truth, too. This model of getting the truth to more people is one reason Jesus trained His followers and made them fishers of people. A quicker way to get the gospel to each person was to multiply the messengers.
Jesus used the sabbath day to teach His disciples and the Jewish religious leaders. He willingly faced the Pharisees’ accusations so He could discuss God’s intentions and His heart. Plucking grain heads on a sabbath day and having the Pharisees see it allowed Jesus to instruct both sets of people about God’s intention for the Sabbath. The lesson about the Sabbath is that God’s faithful ones should serve people, not restrict activities. This promoted keeping one’s focus on God and not on self. This teaching showed the Sabbath say was for serving God by His ways.
The purposes of the Sabbath are about keeping it holy to serve God and providing a rest day to serve people. If we truly serve God, then helping someone on the sabbath day can honor God. It can allow someone to hear the gospel or get needed encouragement and prayer. God instituted the Sabbath as a day of rest and focus on Him.
With this lesson about David breaking ceremonial law, Jesus taught a principle that governed this incident. The “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” This lesson would help the Pharisees accept the disciples’ actions of plucking grain. The disciples plucked grain because of their hunger. The Sabbath law created by the Pharisees hindered the moral law of meeting the hunger need of the disciples. Ceremonial laws they created were secondary to the necessity of the men. Jesus differentiated between ceremonial law and moral law. He wanted the Pharisees to learn this and believe in Him. Jesus wants each person of every nation, race, people, tribe, tongue, and time to learn about God, His Sabbath, and the salvation He offers.
The Point
So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:28 [NASB])
God created the Sabbath Law (“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” [Exodus 20:8].) to keep us focused on Him and to give us regular rest. This Law is for the good of each person. This Law is a divine law, not human created. Since this law is a divine law, the Son of Man, as Daniel wrote in Daniel 7:13, can direct which of humanity’s laws can be interrupted for the moral good. Because of this, plucking grain to feed hungry people is not working. People are affected for good when they are not starving. Jesus’ disciples did not faint from hunger. He explained to the Pharisees and His disciples that He has the authority to suspend law to meet the needs of humanity for his/her spiritual and physical good.
Further, this means it was right to eat with sinners so they would come to know God through the Messiah (spiritual good). It was right to heal the paralyzed man because it was for his physical and spiritual good. It was right to eat with the bridegroom—Jesus—while he was with the groomsmen, His disciples (spiritual good). Each of these was for spiritual and/or physical good. Jesus, as God, had authority to suspend manmade Sabbath laws for the physical and spiritual good of these people and everyone He healed, cast out demons, and ate with during His three-year ministry.
By feeding the disciples grain (taking them through the grain field), Jesus sought to ease their hunger. By forbidding their plucking grain, the Pharisees showed they cared not for the plight of men, but for their own system of godliness, which did not include God. These Pharisees did not argue with what Jesus said. If they did, they would show their stony hearts of not caring for other people. The Pharisees’ pride was bound up in their laws and self-ordained religiosity. They would hate whatever and whoever came up against their standard of faith, yet their faith was not in God, but in their ability to do every one of the 633 Judaic laws. The Pharisees were religious, according to their standards, but not godly, according to God’s standards. Religiosity is following rules and rituals as dictated by a religion, but not necessarily having the faith in Jesus that is the hallmark of being a Christian. Doing things does not make a person faith-filled. Actions do not save a person from his or her sins. Faith in Jesus alone by God’s grace saves a person from his or her sins and eternal death.
Jesus showed His innate power and authority. He did this by healing people, casting out of demons from people, feeding people, and teaching people. His love issues from His being. God is the source and definition of pure love. Jesus speaks, acts, and thinks morally. From Him comes absolute morals for the good of all humanity.
From this time onward, the Pharisees sought to catch Jesus blaspheming so they could add it to His list of crimes. Jesus has been calling Himself the Son of Man. If the Pharisees had been paying attention, they would have realized His statement meant He is Deity and has authority over God’s laws. Jesus’ statement was like peeling another layer of the onion to show more to people that Jesus meant He is the Son of God—the Messiah.
Application and Conclusion
The Pharisees were preoccupied with every ritual of the Sabbath. They did not see Jesus as the Messiah. They put more emphasis on the day of the week than they did on the Savior. Jesus should have been their priority. Instead, they chose the demands of human traditions as their priority.
Jesus suspended a ceremonial law to meet the moral law. He taught the Sabbath Law God gave was to serve God and humanity, so keep it holy by focusing on Him and helping people in need to whom He sends you. Often, people cannot or will not hear a person tell them about Jesus because they are hungry or in pain. Sometimes only when a person receives tangible love from a Christian can or will he or she see Jesus. Often, people are stubborn, like the Pharisees. Other people refuse to see or hear Christians until Jesus shows proof of His love. Sometimes even tangible proof does not move a stubborn heart.
The point of this chiasmic story from Jesus’ ministry is that Jesus has authority over the Sabbath because He is the Son of God, Deity. The Pharisees, after this discussion with Jesus, still refused to believe in Him as the awaited Messiah. They continued doing their ceremonial rituals and immersing themselves in religiosity. We do not have to be like them. At this point, we can choose to believe in Jesus for salvation and cast away the empty rituals we follow aimed at proving our self-proclaimed goodness. This will allow us freedom from sacrificing ourselves on the altar of good-enough-ness. We can know without doubt Jesus redeemed us and set us free to be holy, focus on God and His intentions, and serve Him and other people. The Sabbath Law of God is our law of rest and service.
This leads to questions:
1.
Are you too busy policing others that do not
worship?
2.
Are you too busy criticizing the music or
sermon that you do not worship God?
3. Are you telling other people about Jesus, while feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and taking care of the widow, orphan, and foreigner?
Take your day of rest before God and receive what He offers you-wholeness, peace, joy, renewed energy, and His mission—for you to serve other people.
17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people,
24 knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. (Colossians 3:17, 23-24 [NASB])
