Sermon Notes: Mark 2:18-3:6

Mark 2:18-3:6 

Remember, Mark was written first among the gospel accounts. Mark’s work is a gospel tract on the mission field to help the church tell the good news of Jesus and his kingdom. His mission is to show Jesus to be the Son of God so that people can understand the good news and believe. 

Mark quickly gets us to the escalation of the conflict of Jesus with the Pharisees and other religious leaders. Mark intends for us to see Jesus as the Son of God, and he shows us how Creator Jesus comes into conflict with those who oppose his kingdom. 

The five accounts in Mark 2:1–3:6 show that steady intensification of conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders, particularly the scribes and Pharisees. In the first story (2:1–12) the opposition was largely unspoken. In the following three (2:13–17, 18–22, 23–28) the conflict results in verbal confrontations. In the final story (3:1–6) it breaks out into a plot against Jesus’ life. In each encounter the authority of Jesus shatters the categories the people might try to press Jesus into. Like the parable about wineskins in v. 22, Jesus is the expansive new wine that needs its own wineskin.[1]

The authority of Jesus. 

That is John Mark’s big idea: Jesus in his authority as the Son of God is the interpretive key to knowing and understanding and applying the truth. 

John 18:37 (ESV) “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Jesus is the Son of God, the Creator, the crucified and risen One promised in Genesis 3. John Mark intends for us to see it.

In our text today we will see Jesus apply the facts to the misuse of fasting and Sabbath. 

Mark’s point is not to give us a robust theology of fasting or Sabbath. His point is that Jesus is the Son of God, the truth, and Jesus is the interpretive key to right understanding and application of fasting and Sabbath. 

Let’s read about it: Mark 2:18-22

Before we make our observations, it might help us to understand the Pharisees a little who find themselves in conflict with the Son of God, Jesus. 

The Pharisees rose to prominence after the Maccabees won Jewish independence from the Greeks before the Roman occupation. 

The Pharisees had a noble desire to see the people of God be holy. This was and is good. 

Their desire for holiness was so intense that they eventually took the law to places God did not take the law. Rather than understand the whole of God’s word applied to the law with the interpretive key being the character of the LORD who gave the law, they worked out just about every possible scenario you can imagine on how to keep various laws with no violation. They particularly drilled down into the Sabbath and circumcision. 

Rather than know God in relationship and interpret they law through that lens of truth, they isolated God from his law and made a religious framework Jesus will flat out rebuke a little later in Mark’s account recorded in Mark 7:8-13 (ESV) 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother’; and, Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

The Pharisees and others were uncomfortable with unknowns, variables, and dependence on the grace of God in relationship to address the intent of the heart. So, they codified what can’t be codified and ended up “voiding the word of God” by the tradition they created. 

In their zeal for holiness, which is good, they forgot that the LORD is as Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV) tells us “...a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...” 

They forgot that the LORD desires, as Hosea 6:6 tells us “...steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

So, they depended more on their contrived extenuating circumstances captured in their own tradition rather than the heart of God in the law. 

Quietly, and over time, the Pharisee’s zeal for holiness was coopted by the enemy of God and the enemy’s forces , and their zealous tradition was turned into an oppositional force against Jesus. Jesus will say they are sons of their father, the Devil.

Somewhere along the way the Pharisees got themselves co-opted by darkness that looked like light. 

This is who Jesus is dealing with. Those who have been taken captive by the enemy to do his will while believing themselves to be God’s servants. 

Don’t hate them. Don’t throw shade at them. Try to understand them and take caution at how they got where they got. 

That gives me pause and makes me evaluate myself.

What is John Mark showing us?

1. Jesus teaches true fasting. 2:18-22

The Pharisees had taken the discipline of fasting and turned it into a ritual of Monday and Thursday fasting accompanied by putting ashes on their head and wearing torn clothing to show who was displaying the mourning of fasting. It was evident who was fasting.

Fasting had become an act of self-exaltation. 

No doubt, there is a solemn nature to fasting, but in their zeal for managing fasting, they turned what Isaiah called true fasting (see Isaiah 58) into a weekly static ritual that did not pay attention to times and seasons and the true intent of humbling oneself to seek God. 

Fasting is related to worship, personal intercession with God for a host of situations, and it is God’s way for his image-bearers to work things out with him for themselves, others, and creation in such a way that God gets the glory and we get the joy of God’s good outcomes.

Jesus had just been eating with Levi and others that the Pharisees classified as sinners while John’s disciples and the Pharisees had been fasting, so Jesus was sideways of their ritual use of fasting. 

Jesus responds to the question about his lack of fasting with his disciples that there is a time to fast and a time to celebrate, and the key to understanding that timing is Jesus himself. The key to the truth is none other than Jesus.

What is Mark’s point? 

John Mark’s point is that Jesus is the interpretive key to knowing when to fast and when to celebrate and when to do whatever is most fitting at in any given moment. 

Rather than make fasting a static ritual, Jesus makes fasting a relational pursuit of fellowship with him.

And if that is the case, then Jesus must be the Son of God. And if Jesus is the Son of God, he must be followed and believed in. Those who believe and follow Jesus are his disciples, and Jesus’ disciples are the true insiders, not the Pharisees.

Jesus gives us a little parable to understand what he is doing. Jesus is like a new patch on an old garment, and like new wine in old wine skins. 

Jesus does not fit in the framework of what the Pharisees have codified wrongly.

Jesus is the way, and his disciples are invited to follow him and learn from him. 

The good news is not how to keep the law in every way it can be broken. 

The good news is the kingdom of Jesus Christ has come, Jesus has fulfilled the law for us, and he has offered for us to enter his kingdom through repentance and faith so that we can then apply his word to every situation as it is needed as we walk in relationship with him. 

2. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. 2:23-28; 3:1-6

Two observances above all defined Jews and set them apart from the nations: circumcision and the Sabbath. Sabbath extends from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday. (Website removed the footnote when I corrected my sentence and I could not add it back, so note in the notes this is quoted from Jame’s Edwards.)

Mark captures for us two events in 23-28 and 3:1-6 where Jesus gets sideways of the Pharisee’s misinterpretation of the Sabbath. 

Picking and eating grain on the Sabbath and healing on the Sabbath. 

We don’t know which grainfield they are in, and it really doesn’t matter. But we know this synagogue. Most New Testament folks believe this is the synagogue at Capernaum where Jesus released the man from the unclean spirit back in 1:21-28. 

Jesus’ first “violation”: Picking and eating grain on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees only bring up one infraction, but Jesus and his disciples are likely breaking another tradition too. To travel more than 1,999 paces was considered too much walking on the Sabbath. Walking more than 1,999 paces was considered a journey and hence a breach of the Sabbath. Curiously, the Pharisees leave this infraction unmentioned.[3]

What is targeted is Jesus and his disciples picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, a likely violation of Exodus 31 and 34. 

Jesus, however, appeals to the account of David and his mighty men in 1 Samuel 21 being allowed to eat the bread of the presence which was only for the priests. 

Jesus cites David’s violation of the law not as an excuse. Jesus does not need any excuses. Jesus is the Lawgiver, and in relationship to him is where the intent of the law is discovered. Jesus cites David’s violation for his action as the Son of God as a precedent, that is, a model of how to interpret the law in light of who the Lawgiver is.[4]

So, Jesus on the spot tells them he gave Sabbath for humans to be refreshed not to wear them out. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” He doesn’t say that God did that. He authoritatively tells them what Sabbath is for. The only One who can do that is God. For Jesus to do that is a blatant proclamation about his identity as the Son of God. 

Therefore, Jesus proclaims to them that he is Lord of the Sabbath. 

As the Son of God and giver of the Sabbath, Jesus is the interpretive key of truth for Sabbath and tells them on the spot he is the God who has the right to interpret the law he gave. 

Jesus’ next “violation” comes at the synagogue, and likely the same synagogue already mentioned. 

Since Jesus has already done something at the synagogue they didn’t like, and since he’s broken their traditions and emotionally set people off, they are no longer listening to learn. These guys are listening in order to accuse him. 

Mark 3:2 (ESV) 2 And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

Verse 1 tells us there was a man there with a withered hand, and it seems Jesus’ reputation is such they are expecting him to do something. Jesus likes to help people and preach God’s word, and he likes to do it crossways of their tradition, so they are expecting to see something they can pounce on. 

Jesus knows. We know by the nature of his question. 

Jesus’ question to the synagogue is because he’s already encountered their opposition in his picking and eating grain on the Sabbath. “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” 

Nothing. They remain silent. They won’t answer the question because the answer accuses them of not knowing the heart of God in the Sabbath. They knew their tradition, but they did not know God who was standing in the flesh in front of them like he did with Abraham back in Genesis 18. 

Jesus is rightly angry and grieved at their hardness of heart. They are hard to God’s word, to God himself, and to those who need help even when it violates their traditional comfort. 

Jesus heals the man. 

Their response? They begin to plot how to kill the Son of God who is breaking up their traditional comfortable façade of untruth. 

Mark already made his main point about the Sabbath, and this healing encounter just reinforces it: Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. 

What are we to do with John Mark’s account? 

Application

1. Jesus is either repulsive, disappointing, a mascot to co-opt for some another agenda, or so the Son of God.

Jesus didn’t come to isolation. Jesus came and interacted with his image-bearers to show them the truth of the glory of the Father and offer them life. People react to Jesus differently. 

We see that in these accounts, and Jesus’ encounters with people over his whole recorded ministry.

For some, Jesus is repulsive.

If Jesus is repulsive, there is rejection with no consideration. Jesus has no impact on my hard heart, and in fact he sort of makes me angry. I don’t like his tone, demeanor, or strict views on what I should be. I need to flush him and his memory as soon as possible. 

For some, Jesus is disappointing.

If Jesus is disappointing to me, I’ll listen and maybe find some way to just let Jesus be. He may say some things I like and I find helpful, but he’s just sort of “so so”. I might be critical, but not too much. I don’t have a lot emotionally tied up in him. I’m sort of undecided about him and his followers. I may find some social benefit to being around the others who seem to be into Jesus, so I may choose to hang around and build a social life around some pretty good people, but I’m not getting too deep into the Jesus stuff. I can take him or leave him based on what I get from him. 

For some, Jesus is a mascot.

If Jesus is a mascot, I will pick and choose the parts of Jesus and his word I like or am comfortable with and build my life around those comfortable parts. I’m not letting Jesus get into my discomfort. In fact, if Jesus touches too much of that part of me that I just want to be left alone, I’ll push him and his people away and move on. Jesus is a good t-shirt but he’s not a good master.

For some, Jesus is the Son of God.

If I am convinced Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus died in my place for my sin, was buried, rose, and ascended to the Father, then I’m going to drop everything and give him my undivided attention. I’m likely a little set off in my central nervous system. I’m a little afraid, a little intrigued, a little flustered, and very compelled, my heart rate is a little elevated. My intellect and passions are stirred. Something comes alive in me I didn’t know was not alive until I heard his name, heard his word, and encountered his presence. 

When that happened, something changed. Is that you?

Jesus said there are four kinds of soil that the word of him and his kingdom falls into: hard, stony, crowded, and good. 

Only one of those produces the fruit of the kingdom. 

Has the word of Jesus fallen into good soil in the room this morning? 

Has the word of Jesus revealed that there is soil that needs cultivation? 

What has the word of Jesus done this morning? How do you respond to him?

2. Jesus is not against tradition. Jesus, in opposing the Pharisees, was not setting an example on being contrary to good tradition. Jesus showed us the glory of God, truth, and his kingdom. 

Jesus’ opposition to the perversion created by the Jewish nation under Rome was because of how they sinned. See Matthew 23. 

I don’t need to co-opt Jesus’ opposition of how the Pharisees sinned in using tradition to just be contrary to tradition. 

I should see my sin and repent. 

I should exercise wisdom in flowing with good tradition and also find ways to create new and lasting good traditions rooted in truth and wisdom. 

If you stay in the local church long enough and in youth buck the system like we did church planting 26 years ago (we started on TRC 3 years before we had the first service), it’ll take about ten years and you’ll have this epiphany: So that’s why they did that! It works. 

Just don’t let yourself misuse Jesus to be contrary to good things. 

3. We have the word and the Holy Spirit, so we can know what we need to know and we can know how to act at any given moment. 

If you are good soil, and you have believed the good news, you have everything you need to walk by faith and thrive as a member of a local church. 

Jesus, the Son of God, is the interpretive key to understanding fasting, the Sabbath, and the appropriate time to do whatever is most needed. And Jesus did not leave us alone or without instruction. 

Jesus has seen that we have the word and the Spirit. 

We have God’s word. 

Jesus sent the Spirit to indwell us and be with us forever. 

We will run up on this verse later in Mark, but it matters here: Mark 13:11 (ESV) 11 And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave us himself as the interpretive key to his word and sent us his Spirit to teach us in the moment. 

We have every resource and we are not alone. 

Slow down. 

Learn to walk with the Lord Jesus by the Spirit he gave us as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance in every moment, not just in emergencies, so that in emergencies, you are not panicking to fast learn the voice of the Spirit. How? Bible. Fellowship. Accountability. Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control. 

Live and make decisions with ten-year outcomes in mind not next week outcomes. 

Learn from people with some age, hurt, recovery, and wisdom under their belts.

Don’t let youth rob you of wisdom. 

How will I appropriate his word and the Spirit in fellowship with his people today ?

Appendix

1. Discipleship

Discipleship begins with knowing who one is a disciple of. So, Mark will show us Jesus and identify him for us. As the Father is with Jesus the Son, so the disciples are to be with Jesus.

The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father. The Father is near to the Son, and the Son is near to the Father.

Jesus makes himself known to his disciples and is near to his disciples. Jesus’ disciples struggle to get to know Jesus, but they stay near to him. As the Father also sends Jesus, Jesus sends his disciples. Jesus speaks his word to his disciples like the Father speaks to Jesus.

Simply, discipleship for John Mark is proximity to Jesus, and from that nearness knowing him, hearing him, and obeying him.

2. Faith

“For Mark, faith and discipleship have no meaning apart from following the Son of God. Faith is thus not a magical formula but depends on repeated hearing of his word and participation in his mission.”[5]

There are two groups: Those with great faith and those who are faithless.

There are those who show great faith who have no reason to show faith in Jesus. They are on the outside of Jesus’ circle and seem to have no advantage, yet they display great faith. These folks have an assurance of things hoped for and conviction about unseen things hoped for. They display their faith in their deep desire and effort to get to Jesus for help.

The faithless and those struggling with faith should have the advantage: his hometown, the religious insiders who are supposed to be the theological experts, and even his own disciples.

These folks struggle to take Jesus at his word. This group is full skeptics, blasphemers, and those who are slow to believe.

3. Insiders and outsiders

The theme of insiders and outsiders distinguishes those who are enemies of God and those who are not.

Jesus will tell us that he teaches in parables because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are for the insiders and the parables keep the outsiders from understanding. That’s a little hard to swallow, but it is what Jesus says. 

This theme will uncover the bias of those who think they are insiders based on their status and are not. This theme puts the last first and first last.

The insiders are those who live by faith and begin to understand Jesus’ teaching.

The outsiders are the faithless.

The problem is that the faithless and outsiders of the kingdom of God are in power and are the ones who are believed to have the answers and should be insiders.

The outsiders are enemies of God. The insiders are those who have been cast out due to the deceived nature of the faithless who think they are faithful.

That feels confusing, but it becomes clear as you walk through Mark’s gospel, and it should cause each one of us to take account of ourselves, to test ourselves, to make sure we are not  self-deceived and perceived insider who is actually an outsider because we are an elite and faithless hack.

4. Gentiles

The emphasis on Jesus working in the North parts of Israel among the Gentiles and close to Gentile territory and not in the southern Jewish-heavy portions shows us the Lord’s intent on reclaiming the nations and conquering the land and people taken captive by the forces of darkness.

The emphasis you will find in the prophets on the north is important, and it’s a theme for a whole Bible exposition not for a study through Mark alone. But Mark picks up on it because it is geographically significant in the prophets, and Jesus actually works from the north of Israel.

The point is that it is Gentile, unbeliever territory.

Jesus’ work in Israel was not for them to have him to themselves, but to redeem and invite them to mission with him to rescue the Gentiles taken captive by the Serpent Dragon to do his will.

5. Messianic secret

Mark is full of Jesus telling folks he heals to keep it quiet, and they usually don’t do it.

Why would Jesus want folks to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?

Paul said it in Ephesians 3, and we read it last week.

There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about who the seed of the woman is and how the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent dragon. Until the right time, God keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work.

In fact, the Lord will successfully lure the seed of the serpent into his trap by his humble ministry and refusal of popularity. He will play them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keep his identity on the down low not realizing that by his death he tramples over death, the curse, and crushes the Serpent’s noggin.

Listen to how Paul speaks about this mystery that God and his faithful are to understand has been revealed in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV) 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had,they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

We know the mystery now because it is the good news in its fullness from Genesis to Revelation.

This is why Jesus labored to keep his identity a secret. From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show usthe teams, and the Serpent’s seed have been trying to destroy the woman’s seed since God’s declaration.

Jesus intends to keep things as shrouded as he can until the resurrection.

6. Focused journey

After Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah (8:27ff), Jesus sets out with focus to the cross, and Mark captures Jesus’ journey very starkly. Jesus’ focused journey to the cross becomes his invitation to us to join in the focused journey of being with him on mission as the way of the cross.

7. Immediately

Mark uses the Greek word “euthus”, translated as “immediately”, in his account of Jesus’s work. I believe that the entire New Testament uses this word about 51 times. John Mark uses “immediately” 41 of the 51 times, thus making John Mark the predominant user.

What is Mark communicating?

“Euthus” means “to make straight” regarding physical things. “Euthus” is also used regarding immaterial things like the heart of a matter, and when applied to things like that it means “right” and “true”. Its synonyms are firm, unwavering, and ready.

The Greek word as Mark uses it is not so much about time. We hear “immediately” and think

being in a hurry. Jesus was not in a hurry.

Mark is telling us that Jesus was walking in the unwavering and always straight way of truth. Jesus was deliberate about the mission.

Jesus’ way is deliberate not hurried.