{"id":36730,"date":"2025-07-24T22:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T05:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=36730"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T21:14:08","slug":"mark-2_23-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark-2_23-28\/","title":{"rendered":"When Grace Became an Outlaw"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p>Mark 2:23-28 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Mark%202%3A23-28&amp;version=NIV\">(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-36731 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/250725.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/250725.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/250725-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Mark 2:23-28.\u00a0With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Mark 2:23\u00a0(NIV)<\/strong><br \/>\n<sup>23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verse 23:\u00a0 The law of Moses allowed poor people to walk through a landowner\u2019s 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).\u00a0 By allowing the poor to glean in the fields, the Law of Moses was demonstrating that God\u2019s heart is one of grace and compassion.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Mark 2:24-28 (NIV)<\/strong><br \/>\n<sup>24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Pharisees said to him, &#8220;Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He answered, &#8220;Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?<br \/>\n<sup>26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In 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.&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said to them, &#8220;The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.<br \/>\n<sup>28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verses 24-28:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 How unfortunate that the Pharisees took the law of gleaning that was meant for God\u2019s people to experience grace and turned it into an outlawed form of work.\u00a0 They were missing God\u2019s point in allowing gleaning and requiring a Sabbath in the first place.\u00a0 Jesus tries to set the Pharisees straight, saying:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.\u201d\u00a0 To paraphrase, \u201cPharisees, 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\u2019s grace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSo the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, Jesus is Lord of everything that God has dominion over, even the Sabbath.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>What can we glean from all this?\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Remember that God is full of compassion, undeserved grace and mercy.\u00a0 Remember that the Sabbath was given to us for our rest and restoration.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Father, thank You for showing us over and over that You are a God full of grace and compassion, that You don\u2019t stand on the side of blind and heartless legalism, but on the side of compassionate grace and mercy.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Mark 2:23-28.\u00a0With an open mind and a humble heart, read this passage and see what sticks out to you in this passage.\u00a0 Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage?\u00a0 After you\u2019ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p>Mark 2:23\u00a0(NIV)<br \/>\n23\u00a0\u00a0One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.<\/p>\n<p>On verse 23:\u00a0 The law of Moses allowed poor people to walk through a landowner\u2019s 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).\u00a0 By allowing the poor to glean in the fields, the Law of Moses was demonstrating that God\u2019s heart is one of grace and compassion.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36732,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36730\/revisions\/36732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}