Mark 2:13-3:6, Lights in a Crooked World

There are, generally, two things that set apart Christ and true Christianity from Pharisaism and all other religions: forgiveness for sin and welcome for the sinner.  Think about that as we navigate through these events in Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.

·       2:13-18: We begin where we left off previously, with Matthew the tax collector.  His dinner for “sinners” (a derogatory term used by the Pharisees; in God’s view all are sinners) and tax collectors bothered the Jewish leaders who asked why Jesus ate and drank with such people.  They kept themselves physically separate from these people.  But Jesus made it clear: “these people” were the very ones He came to call to repentance.

·       2:18-22: Next came a question about fasting.  Even disciples of John the Baptist engaged in fasting beyond what the law required on the Day of Atonement.  But Jesus’ disciples did not do these fasts.  Jesus answer to this complain was two-fold.  First, His disciples did not do these fasts because they were in the presence of the “bridegroom,” and that’s not a time for fasting.  In other words, Jesus used the opportunity to make Himself the issue.  In addition, they didn’t fast because what the Pharisees were calling for were the traditions of the elders (old wineskins) designed to implement the Law (the old wine).  In this answer Jesus both predicted His departure (ascension) and the coming of the Church (the new wineskin that would implement the New Covenant (the new wineskins.)

·       2:23-28: Again the Pharisees complained, accusing Jesus and His disciples of breaking the Law of Moses by working on the Sabbath.  Jesus’ answer here builds from an example to a truth.  First, He reminds them of an OT exception, when David ate the food that was only supposed to be eaten by the priests.  This “emergency” made the point that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  But then, again, as always, Jesus made Himself the issue because He is the issue: Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. 

·       3:1-6: In the final story, it is Jesus who asks the question.  But He is still dealing with the complaints that were being brought by the Pharisees.  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or evil, to save life or to kill?  Theoretically, the question is easy, or at least should be.  But the silence of the crowd, and especially the leaders, was “deafening.”  You know you are in trouble when your life-principles cause you to become stupid. 

What Jesus taught and lived was what Paul says to us in 1 Cor. 5:9-13.  It is the essence of Christianity that we have interaction with and love for the people of this crooked world in which we serve Christ.  Jesus argued for this.  Even more, Jesus died for this!  May we shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Phil. 2:15).