When Grace Became an Outlaw

Today’s passage is Mark 2:23-28. With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.  Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?  After you’ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Mark 2:23 (NIV)
²³  One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.

On verse 23:  The law of Moses allowed poor people to walk through a landowner’s property and pick up the leftover heads of grain that the landowner had not harvested and keep it for themselves to eat (Leviticus 19:10; Deuteronomy 24:10).  By allowing the poor to glean in the fields, the Law of Moses was demonstrating that God’s heart is one of grace and compassion.

Also, the fact that Jesus and his disciples would be among those who glean shows the humility of Jesus, how he would identify with the poor by becoming poor himself, even though as the Son of God he had every right to all the riches in the world.

Mark 2:24-28 (NIV)
²⁴  The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
²⁵  He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?
²⁶  In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
²⁷  Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
²⁸  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

On verses 24-28:  The Pharisees criticized Jesus for gleaning on the Sabbath on the basis that gleaning was a form of work, which was prohibited on the Sabbath.  How unfortunate that the Pharisees took the law of gleaning that was meant for God’s people to experience grace and turned it into an outlawed form of work.  They were missing God’s point in allowing gleaning and requiring a Sabbath in the first place.  Jesus tries to set the Pharisees straight, saying:

1.     “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  To paraphrase, “Pharisees, remember why God told the Jews to observe the Sabbath in the first place, not as another rule to follow legalistically, but as a way to experience God’s grace.”

2.     “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  In other words, Jesus is Lord of everything that God has dominion over, even the Sabbath.  If Jesus says something it is okay to do on the Sabbath, it is okay to do that on the Sabbath because Jesus is Lord.

3.     To illustrate these above two points, Jesus brilliantly recalls the example from 1 Samuel 21 of David and his companions eating the consecrated bread in the temple, which was normally reserved for the priests.  The fact that David and his companions were allowed to eat the consecrated bread shows that (1) God is a God of grace, and (2) just as David, God’s anointed king of Israel, had authority to use the consecrated bread system in his favour, so Jesus the Son of David and the Son of Man has authority to use the Sabbath system in his favour, for he is Lord of the Sabbath.

What can we glean from all this?  Remember that God is full of compassion, undeserved grace and mercy.  Remember that the Sabbath was given to us for our rest and restoration.

Father, thank You for showing us over and over that You are a God full of grace and compassion, that You don’t stand on the side of blind and heartless legalism, but on the side of compassionate grace and mercy.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!