Week 14 : Mark 2:13 - 5:43

In Mark 2:23-3:6, Jesus seemed to go out of His way to provoke the Pharisees. Firstly, He led His disciples through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and they picked the ears of grain and ate them. Although the picking and eating of the grain was permitted by God (in Deut. 23:25), doing so on the Sabbath was seemingly in violation of the Fourth Commandment (Deut. 5:15); so the Pharisees thought that they had good ground on which to accuse Him.

Yet Jesus's response served only to demonstrate both their hardness of heart, and their lack of knowledge concerning the scriptures. He pointed out how David, when he was being pursued by Saul's men, came hungry to the Tent of Meeting, and ate the bread of the Presence, which was supposedly reserved for the priests alone. Since David and his followers were not held guilty by God for such an act, surely the Lord and His disciples were equally justified. He showed the Pharisees that they cared more for the ritual of the Sabbath, rather than the hunger of the people:

And He said to them, The Sabbath came into being for man; and not man for the Sabbath. So then the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
(Mark 2:27-28)

As the Son of Man, the very God who had ordained the Sabbath, He had every right to change what He had ordained concerning the Sabbath.

Immediately after this case, Mark goes on to present the second breaking of the Sabbath. Jesus went in to the synagogue, where a man with a withered hand was. The Pharisees were watching Him carefully to see if He would break the Sabbath again; and Jesus called the man to stand in their midst, and told him to stretch out his hand. The man responded to the Lord's life-giving word in faith, and stretching out his hand, it was healed.

Here, Jesus was demonstrating again that He cared more for the condition of His people, even a single member, than any dead ordinance. Sabbath or no Sabbath, the Lord is interested in healing the deadened members of His body (signified by the withered hand). To Him, regulations do not matter; the rescue of His fallen sheep means everything.

The Pharisees, of course, were greatly perturbed by this, and together with the Herodians, sought to kill Him.