Sabbath Reflections

In the ‘Red Letters’ series, we spend time listening to the words of Jesus.

Once on a day of worship Jesus was going through the grainfields. As the disciples walked along, they began to pick the heads of grain. The Pharisees asked him, ‘Look! Why are your disciples doing something that is not permitted on the day of worship?’

Jesus asked them, ‘Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and his men were in need and were hungry? Haven’t you ever read how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was chief priest and ate the bread of the presence? He had no right to eat those loaves. Only the priests have that right. Haven’t you ever read how he also gave some of it to his men?’

Then he added, ‘The day of worship was made for people, not people for the day of worship. For this reason the Son of Man has authority over the day of worship.’

We learned from Jesus last week that following God sometimes means upsetting religious folks.  This is because religious people can often, and unknowingly, make their traditions the very object of their devotion.  It is as if a loving mother, having made pack-up lunches for her children year after year, continues make sandwiches over weekends, school holidays, and after all the children have grown!

Again and again we see that Jesus’ motives are grounded in his belief about the coming Kingdom.  He doesn’t say that the Sabbath doesn’t matter, but that the work which he and his disciples are doing is more important than the Pharisees’ agenda of hyper-observance of the Law.  ’David and his men’ ate the bread reserved for the priests of the temple, but they did so because their service to God required it.  And by following Jesus, his disciples were honouring the ‘day of worship’ in a far more substantial way than the Pharisees.

Today, our service to God likewise brings us into conflict with religious tradition.  We may lose the respect of upright, religious people when we choose a lifestyle of radical generosity and acceptance of the ‘untouchables’ of society.  When we are open about our weaknesses, we will likely distance ourselves from those who would rather ignore their own.  And most of all, when we share our conviction about the Kingdom of God which transcends all nationality, political policy and economic philosophy, we will make enemies out of anyone who pledges allegiance to the ‘powers and principalities’ of the world which Jesus overcame on the cross.

I say ‘we’, but I know how often I fail to follow Jesus when it runs counter to so-called ‘acceptable behaviour’.  But as I spend time with Jesus’ words, I am convinced that I would rather pick heads of grain with Jesus than follow the religious traditions of the Pharisees.  Will you join me?

‘Sabbath Reflections’ is a weekly meditation from a Christian perspective. You can find out more by clicking here.

In the ‘Red Letters’ series, we spend time listening to the words of Jesus.

Some people came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples don’t?’ Jesus replied, ‘Can wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them. Then they will fast.

‘No one patches an old coat with a new piece of cloth that will shrink. Otherwise, the new patch will shrink and rip away some of the old cloth, and the tear will become worse. People don’t pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the wine will make the skins burst, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is to be poured into fresh skins.’

What does fasting have to do with wine skins and fabric?  And who fasts now, anyway?

The purpose of this series of dialogues in Mark’s gospel is to help us see how Jesus and his ‘kingdom message’ are different from the other religious options open to Jewish people in the first-century, different especially from the Pharisaical movement.  If we can figure out what those differences are, it might help us to understand how to follow him better in our own time and place.

Other Jewish disciples tended to follow a strict regimen of fasting; for the Pharisees, it was often two days out of the week.  In addition to the real benefit of discipline, I imagine it might have been useful to help prove that you were ‘for real’: that you took your religion seriously and were fully committed to the cause, sold out for God.  Perhaps a modern counterpart of this desire might be the desire to dress sharp for church on Sundays, take copious notes of every sermon, volunteer for lots of responsibility, and sign up for all the church’s extra-curricular activities.

Enter Jesus’ disciples.  If they were around today, they would be the trouble crowd.  They don’t seem to care what they wear in ‘God’s house’.  Sometimes they nod off during sermons.  Sometimes they don’t show up at all.  Strangest of all, not many of them seem interested in joining the church volleyball team!  There’s some (justified) speculation that they aren’t really very committed Christians, and nobody would trust them with taking on any responsibility in the church.  They just haven’t shown any dedication, or even desire, to jump through all of the cultural hoops in our religious tradition!

If we look at it this way, we can understand some of the Pharisees’ incredulity.  Jesus came along announcing a big agenda, but with none of the rigorous formality to back it up.  How could he claim to be doing God’s work without keeping up a public persona of impeccable piety?

And so we see the contrast.  The Pharisees were good religious people, following the rules and customs which they knew were handed down from God.  But Jesus believed that he was bringing about the reality of God’s kingdom, which was so much greater than simple religious observance!  He didn’t subscribe to a ‘one size fits all’ religious framework, but one that was appropriate to the circumstances of real life.  In the kingdom of God, religious disciplines aren’t an empty activity, but an expression of our living relationship to God living among us.

Followers of Jesus might not make the best church-going Christians, because they don’t always follow all the rituals.  In evangelical churches, they don’t always raise their hands and close their eyes in fervent, emotional worship.  In liturgical churches they are more likely to rock the boat in any number of ways.  They often make life uncomfortable for those around them by stirring them from complacency.  But if Jesus were next to us, well, he’d probably be doing the same thing.  Perhaps we would be wise to listen?

‘Sabbath Reflections’ is a weekly meditation from a Christian perspective. You can find out more by clicking here.

In the ‘Red Letters’ series, we spend time listening to the words of Jesus.

Jesus went to the seashore again. Large crowds came to him, and he taught them. When Jesus was leaving, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting in a tax office. Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me!’ So Levi got up and followed him.

Later Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house. Many tax collectors and sinners who were followers of Jesus were eating with him and his disciples. When the scribes who were Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard that, he said to them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor; those who are sick do. I’ve come to call sinners, not people who think they don’t have any flaws.’

Like the story of the paralysed man, our next few encounters with Jesus continue to illustrate the friction he generated with the first-century religious and political establishment.  We’ll try to figure out what the roots of their differences were, and then imagine what it might mean for us to follow Jesus today.

It’s easy to pick on the Pharisees, of course.  But I don’t think it would be unfair to call them the ‘elites’ of Jewish society.  They had the privilege of an education and the time to spend debating theology and philosophy, as well as the political reality of the return to the historic Jewish homeland, albeit under heavy-handed Roman occupation.  The common folk, of course, were entirely dependent on them for religious enlightenment and cultural education.  If the Jewish nation was going to throw off the Roman shackles and re-establish the ‘kingdom of God’ (as the prophets said would happen), it would undoubtedly be a result of their bold leadership and spiritual purity.

It’s not hard to see the same dynamic still at work in today’s religious establishment.  Popular teachers (sporting impeccable fashion and relaxed smiles) dispense moral and cultural guidance with confidence and authority.  Raising the banner of religion, they draw a clear line between the faithful and the secular powers which threaten their persecution and extinction.  Only by renewing our religious fervour and opposing the enemy, they say, can we hope to witness God’s judgement and our righteous vindication.  They believe in the importance of loving one’s enemies, insomuch as it means forgiving them for being so dreadful.

Is that a caricature? Of course. So is Mark’s picture of the Pharisees, who I’m sure were generally friendly, upright, family-values-type people.  And yet it was clear that Jesus was not cut from the same cloth.

In contrast to the Pharisees, Jesus was decidedly ‘working class’.  He didn’t seek approval from the establishment, and in fact he accuses them here of being part of the problem rather than the solution!  How could that be, since they were so passionate about being moral, upright leaders of God’s people, so zealous to fight back against the influence of pagan culture and reclaim the land for God?  How could they not be on God’s side?

According to Jesus, the biggest obstacle to the kingdom of God wasn’t secular corruption, or lax religious observance, or moral impurity.  It was pride.  The desire to be spotless examples of godly perfection, and to win the well-deserved praise of others (and of God) for our achievement.  Of course, once we put ourselves on that high pedestal, the last thing we would want to do is reach down into the muck that we’ve worked so hard to climb out of.

And so Jesus makes a statement by associating with sinners and tax collectors.  He doesn’t stand on the outside and call them out of their lifestyles into his (that’s the Pharisee approach!).  He joins them without condemnation or judgement.  No pre-requisites.  Jesus’ Kingdom has room for all the filth and complexity of real life, but not for those who think they’re already doing ok.  Or rather, it’s those people who wouldn’t dare be a part of it.  After all, they might get dirty.

Much of the Christian church continues to walk the Pharisees’ road today.  They draw a dividing line between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and preach that if only ‘they’ would change their ways then God would do what ‘we’ want (remove oppression and calamity and bring prosperity and security).  But you and I can choose to follow Jesus, by erasing these lines and be-friending people from every culture, religion, lifestyle, sexuality and political persuasion.  Not superficially, but genuinely.  Practice generosity, humility and love.

Perhaps by following Jesus we’ll be more likely to find his Kingdom there than in the doctrinally-sound, pure and homogeneous church of the Pharisees?

‘Sabbath Reflections’ is a weekly meditation from a Christian perspective. You can find out more by clicking here.