Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Mark 2,23-28. The 20th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Mark 2,23-28 (Matthew 12,1-8; Luke 6,1-5) 5013

20. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 065

Calixtus, Bishop of Rome. Martyr 222

13. October 2013

1. O Almighty and Most Merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; so that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, 20. Sunday after Trinity). Amen.

2. One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, His disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to Him: „Behold, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?“ And He said to the Pharisees: „Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar [1] the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him? [2] The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.“

3. The Mosaic law forbade all forms of work on the Sabbath (Exodus 31,13-15), including the harvesting of grain (Exodus 34,21; Deuteronomy 5,14). By the time of Jesus, the traditions of the elders taught that taking grain and rubbing it in your hands was harvesting, and thus work and therefore forbidden (verboten) on the Sabbath [3] (Mishnah Shabbat 7,2). The Pharisees accused the disciples of harvesting grain on the Sabbath, and thus said they were breaking the 3. Commandment. It did not matter to the Pharisees that the Jesus’ disciples might be hungry. The keeping of the Sabbath, complete with all their traditions of what was considered work or not, was more important than satisfying one’s hunger. Jesus’ statement, however, is not to be taken as a celebration of human freedom over tradition, for the Gospel according to Mark transcends the law’s humanitarian intent and focuses on Jesus’ authority over the Sabbath, and therefore over the entire law. Jesus has the authority to allow His disciples to break the Sabbath. The appropriate response is not to insist on the right and freedom to do something because you could, but rather to submit entirely to the lordship of Jesus. The disciples’ breaking of the Sabbath was their acknowledgement of Jesus’ lordship over the Sabbath and over them. Today, we honor Jesus’ lordship of the Sabbath and over us by observing the Sabbath as a day of worship and rest. Thus Luther: „Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What is that? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it“ (Luther, Small Catechism).

4. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day had turned the Sabbath into a legalistic observance so bound up with rules and regulations that it was burdensome to actually keep the day of rest. There are Pharisees in the Church today. They are Christians and pastors who add to the Commandment, forbidding particular activities on Sunday that in the end make the celebration of the day more a burden than a rest.

5. God only requires two things in the 3. Commandment:

1. that those who work during the week take a day off from that work so that they may rest and be refreshed, and

2. that on such a day of rest time is taken to attend the Divine Service, so that we come together to hear God’s Word, praise Him in song and pray (Luther, Large Catechism § 83-84).

We see in Mark 2 that the disciples were truly and rightly keeping the Sabbath, while the Pharisees were guilty of breaking it. The Pharisees had kept the external understanding of the law: they had kept the commandment and its traditions, and as such they had performed no manual labor. The disciples, however, had performed work, according to the traditions of the Jewish elders, but nevertheless, the disciples had kept the Sabbath. The Sabbath was not instituted to forbid taking grain and rubbing it in one’s hands to satisfy hunger, but the Sabbath was given for people to be in the presence of Yahweh. In Mark 2 the disciples are in the presence of the Son of Man. As Jesus was wont to do, He taught the Scriptures while walking from point A to point B. In this the disciples were in the presence of God, attentive to His Word and receiving the rest and relaxation that only the Holy Word can give to a body and soul wearied from a week’s worth of stress and labor.

6. The holy apostles unpack the true nature of the Sabbath rest. The Apostle Paul writes to the Colossians: »Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?« (Colossians 2,16-17.20). Paul here tells the Colossian Christians not to be concerned with keeping the minutiae of the old covenant. Jesus has established a new covenant, and the old covenant is now fulfilled and no longer in force. Thus, the day of rest for Christians is a day set aside for the worship of the risen Christ. The apostle of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes: »So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience« (Hebrews 4,9-11). In this epistle, the apostle goes on to write that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest: »Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need« (Hebrews 4,14.16).

7. Jesus tells us that He is the Son of Man and therefore He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus Himself instituted the Sabbath rest and gave it to Israel in the old Sinai covenant. The Sabbath was a shadow that alerts us to the caster of the shadow who is soon to arrive. When Jesus arrived on earth, preached and ministered to the people of Israel, died and rose again, He did so as the one who fulfilled the old covenant. As the Lord and Fulfiller of the covenant, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. His work was His years of public ministry that culminated with His crucifixion. By this great work He vicariously paid for the sin of the world and the sins of every single individual. With that work completed, He gave up His spirit and died. He entered into His Sabbath rest by lying in the tomb on Saturday. On Sunday He rose from His rest, left the grave, exited the tomb and ushered in the eschatological Sabbath rest that we now enjoy as redeemed and forgiven people under the new covenant of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus. The heavy burden of sin, death and the grave have been born by Christ, and thus these burdens are no longer the heavy yokes for us that they once were. Each Sunday you hear the gospel of Christ Jesus and your burdens are made lighter. By the Word and the Sacraments the burdens you will bear in the forthcoming week will be more bearable because in Christ you are forgiven and He Himself travels with you to bear all your cares, stress and burdens.

8. Sunday is the day the Church has set aside for a day of gathering to worship Jesus and be refreshed by His Word and the Holy Spirit. For many, this day is also a day of physical rest from their daily labors. Your true rest is in Jesus, and on this day you have heard of Him and His gospel that redeems and saves you. This salvation is your rest, a rest that is yet to be enjoyed in all its Divine glory, but a rest you have on account of Christ and His gifts given out through His Church to you.

9. May the words of the Holy Scriptures and the gospel of Christ be heard with your ears, retained in your memory and burrow into your heart. Whereby such Scripture will comfort you on a daily basis when trials come your way or the devil seeks to deprive you of your Christian joy. „The efficacy of the Word, whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard and used, that it is bound never to be without fruit, but always awakens new understanding, pleasure and devoutness, and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these words are not inoperative or dead, but creative, living words“ (Luther, Large Catechism § 101). Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath; He is your Sabbath rest, and He is the Living Word whose words bring you joy and comfort. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord, Jesus Christ, You are the Law of Your Heavenly Father and His Gospel promise to Your fallen creation; teach us to rest in You as our Savior from sin, death and the devil so that on the last day when You return we will enter the eternal rest of eternal life with our resurrected body in Your Divine presence. Amen.

Christ crucified and risen for you

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 11. October 2009 (18. Trinitatis) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on Mark 12,28-34. Copyright © 2011 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.

¹ Abiathar and Ahimelech were names of both father and son. See http://www.wrestedscriptures.com/d02contradictions/mark2v26and1samuel21v1-6.html

² 1. Samuel 21,1-6.
³ The Mishnah lists 39 activities that are consider work to be avoided on the Sabbath.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Mark 2,23-28. The 20th Sunday after Trinity

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