Project 119: Mark 2:18-28
| Project 119
“When Do We Eat?”
By this point in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has drawn the attention of the religious establishment, and their ire. Clearly, He taught and did miracles that pointed to His belief that God had sent Him to do a “new thing,” one that upset those who stood to benefit most from the status quo.
For example, Jesus didn’t observe strict fasting regulations of the law that had come to be supplemented by additional expectations. According to the law of Moses, fasting was required only for one day out of the year, the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16, 23). After the exile in Babylon, three additional fast days were added. Then, by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had decided that it would be best to fast two days a week. Therefore, when people didn’t see Jesus and His disciples participating in such regular ritual behavior, they were confused as to His reasoning. Jesus’ answer that the guests of the bridegroom choose to celebrate as long as the bridegroom is with them doesn’t dismiss the importance of the ritual; it only suspends it for the time when Jesus’ disciples will observe it after His crucifixion. Once again Calvary looms in the background of Mark’s account of the Jesus story.
The next controversy centers on the Sabbath, which was the most revered observance in all Judaism. According to Jewish tradition, harvesting was forbidden on the Sabbath, which led the Pharisees to call out Jesus and His disciples for plucking grain when they should have been observing Sabbath rest.
Jesus answers the Pharisees’ challenge by pointing out the manner in which David and his followers dared to enter into the temple to partake of the consecrated bread because they were so hungry (1 Samuel 21:6). As the “Son of David,” Jesus saw no problem following suit. In His way of thinking, doing good is always lawful, particularly when a life is in the balance–both literally and spiritually.
To understand what is involved in following Jesus we must be willing to consider new ways of serving God’s redemptive purposes. While those purposes are unchanging, the means by which we serve them often do. Rituals are important, but unless they are connected to life-giving power, they will ultimately devolve into meaningless practice. It is always better to further the cause of Christ in every opportunity that comes our way, because His authority towers over every rule and regulation, and His grace meets our deepest needs as nothing else can do.
Mark 2:18-28 (ESV):
18 Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”