Introduction
We are back to Mark and, if you can believe it, we now have seven straight weeks of Mark’s narrative before the Bread of Life discourse. But getting back into this is no easy feat. Because even though we are only in chapter 2 of Mark, so much has already been thrown at us.
So, let’s recap briefly.
Previous Mark Narrative Context
John the Baptizer announces Jesus’ coming. Jesus has been baptized by John and then he is driven out into the wilderness. He returns to Galilee after John is “handed over” (arrested) and he begins recruiting disciples. He calls Simon (Peter) and Andrew and then James and John.
Then they all go to Capernaum where Jesus enters a synagogue on the sabbath and is confronted by an unclean spirit who Jesus casts out. Then, since they are in the town where Simon Peter lives, they go to Peter’s mother-in-law’s house to heal his mother-in-law. After the sun sets (since that ends the sabbath), everyone in the town begins bringing their sick or ill or possessed and Jesus cures many of them.
Then they leave for a little bit and Jesus heals a man with a skin condition after he has gone all around Galilee healing and exorcising demons. This is about where we stopped at the previous narrative point.
Then they return to Capernaum (that’s the important bit here). And unfortunately, we skip a really important story in Mark and some really intense conflict. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus heals the man who is paralyzed. First, because so many people are in the building around Jesus, the friends of the man who is paralyzed remove a portion of the roof so that he can be lowered down in front of Jesus. Then Jesus says something outlandish. He says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” For us this is outlandish because of course we know that sin has nothing to do with a person’s condition or health. But for the scribes who are hearing this, it is outlandish too. They say (in their hearts), “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
And Jesus, hearing their questions in their heart says, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the man who is paralyzed, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralyzed man—“I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And the man stood up and immediately took the mat and went out. Hold on to this scene for a second.
Next Jesus calls Levi (the tax collector) and he then eats at Levi’s house with sinners and tax collectors (which infuriates the scribes further). And Jesus hears their grumbling and says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
And finally, John’s disciples (the Baptizer) and the Pharisees are fasting, but Jesus and his disciples are not fasting. And Jesus, calling himself the bridegroom, is pointing to being the Messiah (thus they need not fast) and then alludes to his death by saying, “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.”
And that takes us to today.
This Week’s Context
So, things are almost boiling in Capernaum. Because that’s the important point here, we are still in Capernaum. Jesus has been around these folks (particularly the religious leaders) for quite a while, and he has pretty intentionally and directly engaged in some conflict with them. He knows they are watching. He knows they are grumbling. And still, he speaks to them even when they haven’t spoken to him. Jesus is not being quiet or secretive. He’s not just minding his own business. He is being very direct (outside of letting the demons call him the Holy One of God).
But now, we are again on the sabbath. And at first, Jesus and the disciples are picking grain to eat. And now the Pharisees are watching. Much of the conflict before has been with the scribes (legal experts) or “scribes of the Pharisees.” But this section specifically references the Pharisees. And traditionally, this is where our hackles get raised and it gets very easy to get antisemitic.
But David Schnasa Jacobsen offers a good viewpoint:
“We need to get this situation right. The Pharisees are no black-hatted bad guys. They represent a lay movement within Judaism that takes the people’s gracious election to holiness so seriously they are willing to apply torah to all of life—even sections of the Levitical code for priests are applied carefully and faithfully to ordinary living. The esteem with which the Pharisees are held in this period is great. Unlike some other parties, the believed in written and oral torah—and, please take note, they believed in resurrection! They text and challenge Jesus perhaps in part because they see him not as an enemy, but a fellow traveler with dicey travel companions [sinners and tax collectors from before]. When Christians jump too quickly to anti-Jewish stereotypes, we miss the truth of the matter. If Jesus and the Pharisees did not share some common concerns and causes, they would have not taken interest in anything he or his disciples did.”[1]
And so, while they disagree with what Jesus is doing, this might not be an antagonistic question. They are debating with Jesus. ‘Why do you and your disciples pick grain on the sabbath when a strict interpretation of the law would suggest that that’s not allowed.’ According to Schnasa Jacobsen, the Pharisees see Jesus in an equal light, or as somewhat like-minded. Why then would he differ in this area?
Jesus takes their relatively simple question and then pushes the envelope. Again, Jesus is not hiding here. He opens himself up to be seen in all his authority by comparing himself to David, the great King of Israel. If David and his soldiers could pick grain on the sabbath, why can’t the Son of Humanity, who is lord of the sabbath? I think the argument could be made that these religious leaders are asking and debating in good faith, but Jesus almost always escalates immediately. For Jesus to compare himself to David, to address himself as the Son of Humanity, to allude to being the Messiah, all of that is so much to take it for what would have just been a simple sabbath debate. It would be like us asking someone, “What did you have for breakfast?” and the response being, “I am nourished by the gifts and grace of my forbearers and sustained by the promise of my offspring to come.” … Oh… so like a really good bowl of Wheaties then?
While Jesus has already done a lot in these first two chapters, there is absolutely no reason that the Pharisees should completely alter and shift their entire theological and religious perspective because of it. Especially without having gone through some good solid debates together first (the heart language of the Pharisees). But whenever they try, Jesus escalates every time. Taking it to impossible and unprecedented territory.
And Jesus is now returning to the synagogue where he exorcized the first demon all the way back in chapter 1:23-28. And this is the first crummy action by the religious leaders. They try to set Jesus up and they do so by using someone in need to make a point. As Jesus enters the synagogue, there is a man with a withered hand. And “they” (the religious leaders) watch Jesus to see if he will cure the man on the sabbath “so that they might accuse him.”
There are a couple important points here. First, the Pharisees are now fed up with Jesus. He hasn’t played the game their way. He hasn’t been engaging in debate. He keeps making them look silly and foolish in front of others (when their questions are perfectly valid discussion points) and as a human being, Jesus really is starting to come dangerously close to blasphemy. They are fed up with it and going to put him in a postion where Jesus will make a fool of himself or do something so big that he will need to leave Capernaum.
The Second thing is more nuanced and it won’t feel good either way but there is a difference. We may resent the Pharisees for using this man with the withered hand for their agenda. But didn’t Jesus just do the same thing with the man lowered through the roof? Jesus could have just healed that man who is paralyzed but instead he ‘forgives his sins’ when that was never a part of what the man or his friends were asking for.
It’s similar to the “man born blind” in the Gospel of John. The disciples ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus there says, “Neither this man or his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him (John 9:2-3).”
Jesus didn’t need to forgive his sins, but he says it so that he can reveal his full authority to the scribes and people. If he can make a paralyzed man walk, then might he really be able to forgive the sins of humanity? Now, the nuance is that Jesus was going to heal the man no matter what. But he does so in a way that furthered his agenda and muddied the waters about the man’s condition. It unnecessarily forces us to ask, is he paralyzed because of sin? Which Jesus then negates by saying that he introduced it to ask which is harder. It sets up Mark’s larger theological point of Jesus death for the forgiveness of sins (unfortunately, that atonement theory is Mark’s theology—see Mark 10:45, “For the Son of Humanity came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom from many”). Jesus does in fact have that authority to forgive sins and we will see that later.
So… the Pharisees are setting Jesus up in a bad way. That’s still not a reason to demonize all Pharisees. We can just be unhappy about this situation. Just like Jesus is.
Jesus is angry in this scene. He is angry that he is set up. He is angry that this man is being used in this way (Mark probably doesn’t see how Jesus did the same thing before). And he may be angry that the synagogue is being used in this way too. Jesus has been healing the entire time that he’s been in Capernaum but this man may have been held back from the healing just for this sabbath day. And finally he is angry because he knows he will now have to leave Capernaum and the clock will start ticking on his path to the cross.
Jesus calls the man forward. And asks, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” Jesus asks an intellectual question. Maybe he is trying to bring them into debate so that what he is about to do will not be so bad in their eyes. If he could just get them to say that saving a life or restoring a life is just, then there would be enough gray area to not escalate their anger.
But they were silent. They respond to Jesus in a similar way to how he has responded their questions. They are now not willing to play Jesus’ game. Jesus looks around, angered at their hardness of heart. And so, Jesus only has two options, not heal the man and give up some authority. Or heal him and flee Capernaum.
Jesus never touches him. He never performs any physical action that would suggest that he “does work” on the sabbath. He simply commands the man to stretch out his arm, and as soon as he stretches it out, it is healed. But that’s all the religious leaders needed to see. And they leave and begin conspiring with the “Herodians” (those would support Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee—meaning that they were a Jewish group that was willing to collaborate with the Romans) in order to destroy Jesus.
So how the heck do we preach this?
Preaching Possibilities
Nuanced Jesus and Normal Pharisees
Given that this is Ordinary time (Comma Time) and teaching season, we could break down this narrative and help our people get back into the Mark story. In doing so, I think it’s important to see that Jesus is not really entering into “good faith” debates with the scribes and Pharisees. He consistently escalates and doesn’t play into their style and pattern.
Maybe Jesus’ urgency isn’t allowing him to stop for debate. Maybe Jesus needs to ‘immediately’ enter into the harder conversations or the bolder healing because his time is short. This doesn’t make the Pharisees bad. It points us to something about Jesus.
Maybe Jesus doesn’t abide by our rules or perspectives? Maybe Jesus doesn’t by our expectations? Maybe we try to fit Jesus in a box?
This could be something to noodle around and see what comes up.
Sabbath
The other thing that can’t be villainized is the sabbath. David Schnasa Jacobsen has a good write-up on this:
“Sabbath is a good and wonderful thing. It is mentioned not only in the Ten Commandments, but first of all in the narrative of creation in Genesis. It has a special meaning in Jewish identity not just because God also gives it as the crown of creation’s seventh day. In an age where we human beings sometimes define ourselves by work, Sabbath is a reminder of the divine order that refuses to participate in the reduction of humanity to what we produce. Christians today need to understand that Sabbath, and disputes about it, cannot be reduced to matters of picayune legalism. Sabbath matters to the Pharisees, to Jesus, and yes, to Mark, too. As a countercultural act in our time, we would do well to attend to its value here as well.”[2]
My wife, Sarah and I, live in a largely Jewish Orthodox neighborhood. There’s something joyful about Fridays and Saturdays in seeing our neighbors preparing for the sabbath. Several of the businesses close down Friday afternoon through Saturday. We see families and friends walking to their local synagogue, rain or shine. I’m astounded at how often I am seeing the families smile and joke around as they walk together. The quality time that you get by walking 10-15 minutes from home to your place of worship, just talking and sharing.
I can’t tell you how many times, I as a pastor have started to feel a little late on a Sunday morning. And so I’d rush to get into my car, drive the 20 minutes to church and hurriedly start setting up. I remember at one point realizing that I was completely stressed right before worship. By starting out rushed, I never had a moment to live in the moment.
And so, one morning I decided to start my Sunday morning a half hour earlier. I do the exact same routine, but I start a half hour earlier. I play the wordle, walk our dog Henri, shower, eat breakfast, and leave for church. By giving myself more time, I have a few minutes to just be present at church. Turning on the lights and sound system is now prayer time for me. I walk around the building humming to myself. Centering myself so that I’m in a place to greet the people of God as they come in for sabbath.
How can we make Sunday mornings and our preparation for them, a time peace and an opportunity to center ourselves?
[1] David Schnasa Jacobsen, Mark of Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014), 49.
[2] Schnasa Jacobsen, 52.
Micah Krey 
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