1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:06,240 The Holy Ghost of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Mark, one 2 00:00:06,240 --> 00:00:10,760 Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made 3 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,280 their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 4 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:19,480 And the Pharisees, we are saying to him, look, why are they doing 5 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:21,760 what is not lawful on the Sabbath? 6 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:27,360 And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when 7 00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:32,080 he was in need and was hungry, He and those who were with him, 8 00:00:32,439 --> 00:00:37,000 how he entered the House of God in the time of abatha, the high 9 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,160 priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful 10 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:46,920 for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who 11 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,800 were with him. And he said to them, The Sabbath 12 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,560 was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 13 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,640 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. 14 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:04,000 Again He entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a 15 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,240 withered hand, and they watched Jesus to see whether he would 16 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:13,600 heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 17 00:01:14,320 --> 00:01:18,600 And he said to the man with the withered hand, Come here. 18 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:24,120 And he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good 19 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,280 or to do harm, to save life or to kill? 20 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,720 But they were silent. And he looked around at them 21 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:36,760 with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and say to 22 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:41,920 the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his 23 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:45,640 hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and 24 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:50,200 immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him. 25 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:55,800 How to destroy him? The gospel of the Lord? 26 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:02,200 Let's pray together, Lord, we pray now that just as you 27 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,480 brought the liberating power of the gospel to your disciples and 28 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:09,600 to the people who needed it on that day of Sabbath, we pray 29 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:12,640 that you would bring freedom for us, Lord, in whatever ways that 30 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:17,240 performance culture or rules based performance is gripping 31 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:21,360 our our lives, our, our, our families, our friends. 32 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,160 We pray, Lord, that the power and beauty and light of the 33 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,280 gospel would shine now into our hearts, into our church and into 34 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:28,920 our city. We pray this in the name of the 35 00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:31,080 Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen. 36 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:36,640 And please be seated. We're returning to our series 37 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:41,120 that we started last fall called simply Jesus, and we're walking 38 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:44,800 through the Gospel of Mark section by section and looking 39 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,320 at the beauty, the power, simplicity of Jesus and his 40 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,920 gospel. So I admit you to turn there now 41 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:56,600 it's imprinted in your bulletins or turn there in there in your 42 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:58,040 turn there in your Bibles as well. 43 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:01,840 Mark 2 verses 23 through chapter 3, verse 6. 44 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:09,040 In high school, I attended a Christian School that was very 45 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:14,800 strict. Every day the men were to wear 46 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:20,600 ties, every day the women were to wear dresses or skirts of 47 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:26,480 appropriate length, and under no circumstances were the men or 48 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:28,320 the women to hold hands with one another. 49 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:35,000 I joined in my first year of this school. 50 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:47,400 I joined the puppeteering team. And we worked on and put on an 51 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:51,000 amazing show for the school. It was a banger. 52 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:53,640 It was a huge hit. It was a rare moment of fun. 53 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,520 But all the fun ended when our team was called into the chief 54 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:04,520 administrator's office because someone in the audience, one of 55 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,000 the authority figures, thought they heard one of the puppets 56 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:13,600 say the word. Darn, which was considered one 57 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:19,560 of those junior swear words. Now, if you're if you're on the 58 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,320 outside looking in on an environment like this, it's 59 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,360 hilarious. It's quirky and silly. 60 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,520 If you're on the inside, it does not feel funny. 61 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,760 It's heavy. It's super serious. 62 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:43,480 Lot is riding on these kinds of silly situations because behind 63 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:47,760 all the surface level behaviors that everyone is trying to keep, 64 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,360 there are these heart level questions like this. 65 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:56,280 Do I belong here? Am IA good person or a bad 66 00:04:56,280 --> 00:04:58,400 person? Am I better than everyone else 67 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,680 or worse than everyone else? Does God approve of me? 68 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:06,000 Do others love me? Am I looked at or am I truly 69 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,560 seen? And whenever we try to answer 70 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:14,680 those questions, those deep questions with surface level 71 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:17,600 behavior, that is what we might call a performance culture. 72 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,680 And the behaviors might be different, but the questions are 73 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:26,200 pretty much the same. You know, human beings are are 74 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,000 basically of the same nature wherever you go. 75 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,760 And so my school environment's one example of performance 76 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:38,240 culture, but you might have your own story of a performance 77 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:41,400 culture. The preschool Co-op parents 78 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:43,800 group can be a performance culture. 79 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:49,880 So can the college dormitory. So can the sibling text thread, 80 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:53,200 right. So can the Zoom call with the 81 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,120 department heads, as you're talking about the quarterly 82 00:05:56,120 --> 00:06:00,520 reviews. Where do we find ourselves, 83 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:04,840 like, playing silly little games to earn love and to prove 84 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:07,320 ourselves? Where do we find ourselves 85 00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:12,200 jumping through kind of bizarre hoops to get approval from 86 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:16,120 certain people? Where have simple interactions 87 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:19,920 become kind of heavy and weighted and complicated and 88 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:23,920 sort of charged? As we'll see in our gospel 89 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:28,440 reading today, Jesus Christ came to set us free from performance 90 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,760 cultures and from slavery to performance cultures. 91 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,640 His gospel is the opposite of performance cultures. 92 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:40,040 It's simple, it's clear, it's life giving, it's honest. 93 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,200 He doesn't play our silly games, but He does answer the deep 94 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:47,320 questions of the heart that drive those silly games in the 95 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:50,960 1st place. He says in me you are forgiven, 96 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:56,760 in me you are loved, in the Father you belong, You are free. 97 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:01,920 And if you can just imagine whatever, whatever way in which 98 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,240 performance culture has gripped your heart or made life heavy, 99 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,960 imagine releasing that and just knowing that you could walk 100 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,240 free, that you could live a little bit more courageously, 101 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:16,880 and that you could actually let God's love fill the place of 102 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:22,440 heaviness that you carry around. The gospel of performance just 103 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,640 tends to suck the life out of people. 104 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:29,120 And Jesus Christ came to bring life abundantly and to relieve 105 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,200 us of everything that would weigh us down. 106 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:35,120 And I wonder if that's why he allowed the behavior in verse 23 107 00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:40,600 of Mark 2. You can look there as it says, 108 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,720 Mark says this one Sabbath, he, Jesus was going through the 109 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,480 grain fields. And as they made their way, his 110 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,040 disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 111 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,640 Now, I don't know if you've ever plucked heads of grain before, 112 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:58,160 but they must have been pretty hungry to eat raw grain. 113 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:00,840 It was edible. Probably they would have 114 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:05,360 preferred like hot, fresh bread. But the heads of grain were, you 115 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:08,000 know, right there and they walked everywhere and there 116 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,600 probably didn't have a lot of like, food on hand, money on 117 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:13,840 hand. So here they have some kind of 118 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:16,320 sustenance. And there and there maybe they 119 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:18,520 give Jesus a look like, am I allowed to do this? 120 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:21,480 And maybe he smiles back at them and they just pluck it and eat 121 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,920 it and chew on it. And how that, how good that must 122 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,680 have tasted, how refreshing those heads of grain must have 123 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:32,080 tasted on a hot Palestinian day where you are just, you know, 124 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,320 needing something to fuel your ministry and your walk and 125 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:40,880 everything else. And, you know, I just imagine 126 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:42,960 Jesus. Jesus may have smiled. 127 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,440 Maybe he shrugged his shoulders. Maybe he raised his eyebrows 128 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:50,040 like he knew what was coming because the very next verse, 129 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,240 it's almost as if the Pharisees pop out of the grain fields. 130 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:58,440 They certainly are right there, verse 24, ready to catch them. 131 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:01,640 The Pharisees were saying to them, look, why are they doing 132 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:04,240 what is not lawful on the Sabbath? 133 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,040 Immediately, Pharisees, they notice an infraction. 134 00:09:09,560 --> 00:09:11,400 It's a simple thing, just a basic thing. 135 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:14,800 Someone's just eating, you know, heads of grain, and they're 136 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,840 there and it's not lawful on the Sabbath. 137 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:24,400 You're breaking the rules. Their intention, their focus was 138 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,800 like, OK, it's the Sabbath, what are the rules? 139 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,440 What are the rules? But God's intention for the 140 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,320 Sabbath was not the rules. God's intention for Sabbath from 141 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:39,640 the very beginning was the rest. Sabbath rest, not Sabbath rules. 142 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:44,880 Rest for you, rest for me. For six days we we labor. 143 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:46,880 For six days we're carrying out hard labor. 144 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:51,640 But the 7th day we rest Why? Because God loves us, because 145 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:56,080 we're not slaves, because he he wants us to be filled with life. 146 00:09:58,240 --> 00:09:59,800 That does mean that we don't work. 147 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,400 And so the question was like, what does not working mean? 148 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:08,040 And so some of the lawyers of the day were working really hard 149 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:11,760 to be like, OK, well, you can't skin a fish and you can't like, 150 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:15,440 you know, pluck heads of grain and you can't sort one thing 151 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:16,960 from the other. And there's all these things 152 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:19,600 that are not. But the focus was off of God's 153 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:23,520 love, off of the rest of Sabbath onto the rules of Sabbath. 154 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,000 And they're, they, they came up with like 30-9 different rules, 155 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,040 which were very, very specific. And their focus was on don't 156 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,440 break those. And ironically, Sabbath had 157 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:38,560 become the heaviest day of the week. 158 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:41,400 It was what they were so focused on. 159 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:46,560 And we go, why was Sabbath? Why were they so focused on the 160 00:10:46,560 --> 00:10:49,160 rules? And we have to remember those 161 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:52,320 deep questions of the heart. Remember those those burning, 162 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:57,760 churning questions of the heart of do I belong and am I loved 163 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:02,080 and how do I rank and does God approve of me? 164 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:06,280 And just think, you know, the Pharisees, these are like 165 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,240 regular human beings just like you and me. 166 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:12,840 And you consider their situation. 167 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:16,960 You know, foreign armies had dominated their people like 1 168 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,560 after another for centuries. There's lots of generational, 169 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:23,880 you know, trauma and being shuffled around and moved 170 00:11:23,880 --> 00:11:26,280 around. Their culture was despised, 171 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:28,520 their rights were taken away. And you know what? 172 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:33,600 The Sabbath was one of the only things that distinguished their 173 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,160 culture and their religion from other people. 174 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,160 It was one of the only things that they had. 175 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:41,080 It was central to their covenant. 176 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:43,840 It was central to their story. It's central to our story. 177 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:46,720 So of course they would care about it. 178 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,040 The problem was not the Sabbath. The problem was the pressure 179 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:54,160 that they put on the Sabbath and Sabbath rules and one another to 180 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:58,800 answer the deep questions that only the gospel can answer and 181 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,760 satisfy. The truth is, I've got some 182 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:05,800 Pharisee in me. Maybe you've got some Pharisee 183 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,840 in you. Where are we watching for those 184 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:12,880 infractions? Where does fairness matter more 185 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:17,880 to us than fullness of grace? Where does rules matter more to 186 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,040 us than rest, behavior more than belonging? 187 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:25,600 Do we like Santa Claus? Keep a naughty list? 188 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:29,720 Who's on the naughty list? How did they get there? 189 00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:35,600 They ate the rest of the chocolate ice cream. 190 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:39,240 That's what they did. Or they got into credit card 191 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:40,400 debt. Shame on them. 192 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:45,160 They hurt my friend. They're on the naughty list. 193 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:49,080 They cut in line in Costco when clearly everyone is running late 194 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:53,320 and everyone's stressed. They said something offensive 195 00:12:53,320 --> 00:13:00,320 and ignorant in the year 2026. The thing is, it's like not hard 196 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:02,560 to become an accidental Pharisee. 197 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:07,960 It's not hard to pop out of the bushes and say you did an 198 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,880 infraction. It is not lawful to say what you 199 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:12,640 said. It is not lawful to do what you 200 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:16,960 did, and you don't belong and you are not worthy of love 201 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,360 anymore. The thing is that we could all 202 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:24,280 use some of what Jesus brought which is this gospel freedom, 203 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,160 the simplicity and he provides it. 204 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:31,560 As the story continues in verse 25 Jesus responds to the 205 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:34,720 Pharisees accusation and he said to them, have you never read 206 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:38,280 what David did when he was in need and was hungry? 207 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:42,840 He and those who were with him, how he entered the House of God 208 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,680 in the time of Abbathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the 209 00:13:45,680 --> 00:13:49,240 presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, 210 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:51,800 and also gave it to those who were with him. 211 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:57,520 Jesus is telling a story here from First Samuel 21 when David, 212 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:01,640 Israel's true king, was running for his life from Saul who was 213 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:06,720 literally trying to kill him. What did God do in that moment 214 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:09,120 for David? God provided a way for David to 215 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:11,560 stay alive. David was starving, his men were 216 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:14,680 starving, and so how did God provide for David? 217 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:19,240 God provided for David by giving him some of the bread that was 218 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:22,080 consecrated for the Levitical priests. 219 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,080 And according to ceremony law, only they could eat it. 220 00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:30,520 But when David broke into this unholy site, not in Jerusalem, 221 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,760 but off site nevertheless, dedicated to God, the priest 222 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,400 gave him the consecrated bread. David ate it. 223 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:39,080 David shared some of it with his men. 224 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:41,640 And you know what? That was God's provision for 225 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:43,480 them. It meant they broke a ceremonial 226 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:48,080 rule, but they stayed alive and David fulfilled the greater 227 00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:51,920 call, the greater, you know, path before him which which was 228 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:55,360 to simply live his life and eventually rule Israel and 229 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,320 become king. So here's the point. 230 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:04,400 Jesus says it in verse 27. The Sabbath was made for man and 231 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:06,720 women. The Sabbath was made for people, 232 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,480 not man for the Sabbath, not people for the Sabbath. 233 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:15,160 So the Son of Man, he's referring to himself is Lord 234 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,080 even over the even of the Sabbath. 235 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,160 The Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath. 236 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,880 Friends, listen, wherever Jesus is Lord, there is freedoms. 237 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,800 Jesus is Lord, and when he is Lord over a situation, he 238 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:36,480 restores it to God's life, giving love, God's life, giving 239 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:41,120 purposes, God's true heart for the Sabbath, which is it is for 240 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,360 people. Sabbath is God's container, his 241 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,680 fountain for pouring out life for his people. 242 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:51,520 It's not meant to be a sieve or a drain on people to suck the 243 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,280 life out of them and grind them into the ground. 244 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:57,400 It is not intended to be a burden. 245 00:15:57,480 --> 00:15:59,600 It is intended to be a burden lifter. 246 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,200 And I wonder, what performative area of our life could we 247 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:09,200 declare Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, is Lord over this area, 248 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:13,840 over this performance culture? Where are their burdens or 249 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:17,840 pressures in our life to get things exactly right, to never 250 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:21,120 make a mistake? Can you imagine Jesus being Lord 251 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:25,200 over that area? Where are their judgements 252 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:30,680 against others from our own hearts, contempt for others, 253 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,280 where we could say Jesus is Lord over this situation, over this 254 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:39,640 judgement, over this, over this sense of rejection over other 255 00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,600 people? Where are there silly games and 256 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,720 rigid rules that we're kind of caught up in? 257 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:48,920 We see others caught up in? Can you imagine saying Jesus is 258 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,440 Lord over this situation? It's for the benefit of people, 259 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:56,320 not the other way around. Ask Jesus to become Lord over 260 00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:02,120 it, friends, and over you, and to fill your heart with freedom 261 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:08,920 and love and to lift the burden. And then things begin to change. 262 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:11,680 How do we know though? How do we know that the gospel 263 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:16,640 of Jesus is beginning to to transform our heart and give 264 00:17:16,839 --> 00:17:18,520 freedom from performance cultures? 265 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:24,680 I think one test is this. How do we see people who have 266 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:29,280 nothing to offer us? How do we treat them? 267 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:35,400 How do we lift them up? And case in point is the man in 268 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,160 verse 1 of chapter 3. Here's a test case again. 269 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:43,920 He Jesus entered the synagogue and a man was there with a 270 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,400 withered hand. Now this is likely a long 271 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,240 standing condition for this man. We don't know why his hand was 272 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,040 was withered, as Mark called it. It could have been from an 273 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,160 injury and then maybe it was paralyzed and he couldn't use it 274 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,400 anymore. So could have been atrophy in 275 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,760 his hand. And maybe it was from birth, 276 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:06,040 maybe that he was born with a, a smaller hand or a, you know, 277 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:08,360 just a, you know, a hand that was paralyzed. 278 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:12,640 But in any case, he had a hand that he probably couldn't use 279 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,760 very much. In a manual labor economy. 280 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:17,760 This put him at a huge disadvantage. 281 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:24,000 So he couldn't perform the feats of strength that other men could 282 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,960 perform. And in a religious culture of 283 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,280 outward appearance, he would be diminished. 284 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:32,840 He wouldn't, his body wouldn't be whole as it were. 285 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,640 And so he would be in some ways kind of put off to the side. 286 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:38,160 He could still come into the synagogue and still clean 287 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,600 technically, but he would certainly not have been a 288 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:43,840 platform. He certainly would not have been 289 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:47,560 considered whole. Now, how did the Pharisee see 290 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,040 this man? Verse 2? 291 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:54,640 And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the 292 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,680 Sabbath so that they might accuse him, Accuse Jesus. 293 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:03,000 All the Pharisees saw in this man was an object. 294 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:06,440 Some might call him what's called an NPC. 295 00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:10,840 You familiar with this phrase? A non player character. 296 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:14,520 He's just kind of like part of the game they're playing. 297 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:16,920 They don't actually see it. They're looking at him because 298 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:20,720 he's useful to their game, but they don't actually care about 299 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:25,040 him as a person. Jesus, on the other hand, sees a 300 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:27,440 man that he loves. Verse 3. 301 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:30,320 And Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, come here, 302 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,360 come here. Word for here really is this 303 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:36,920 like middle, middle of the synagogue. 304 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,760 There's a a way in which everyone can see what's about to 305 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,640 happen. This man is drawn from wherever 306 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,840 he's sitting into the middle, into the center, not only of the 307 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:51,920 synagogue, but of Jesus's presence and his Kingdom, not to 308 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:55,960 perform something for everyone, but to simply receive God's 309 00:19:55,960 --> 00:20:01,200 healing and God's love. Now Jesus turns to his critics 310 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:06,960 and he he uses their words against them when he says this 311 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,720 in verse 3. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to 312 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,600 do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? 313 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,880 What a brilliant question. What's lawful guys on the 314 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:20,520 Sabbath? You know, questions have a way 315 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:23,400 of framing reality. And it's like, at the end of the 316 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,080 day, what do you want to be doing or not doing on the 317 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,440 Sabbath to do good or harm, to save life or to kill life? 318 00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:36,200 And it just cuts to the heart because he's making them choose. 319 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:41,280 You know, look at this man. He clearly has something that is 320 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,240 causing him suffering. Do you want to do him passive 321 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:48,280 harm by denying him the healing that would absolutely change his 322 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:50,480 life? Is that really how you're going 323 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:53,440 to to get to me? Is that really what you're going 324 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:55,760 to do? Are you going to stand in his 325 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:57,000 way? Or are you going to stand with 326 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,240 him and say, yes, we are for his healing. 327 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:01,760 And that's what the Sabbath is for. 328 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:10,080 Choose this day, good or evil, healing or killing, but really 329 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:14,200 at the end of the day, come out of hiding, come out of your 330 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:19,480 silent, judgment filled hypocrisy and stand either with 331 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:21,720 Jesus in his Kingdom or against it. 332 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,880 And I wonder if in that moment when Jesus poses that question, 333 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:30,720 if he was like hoping for a change of heart, hoping that 334 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:34,000 they would like be cut to the heart and that they would come 335 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,280 to the center too, and that they would stand with this man and 336 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:42,520 they would stop trying to use him to get to Jesus, whatever 337 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,560 the case may be, there was no change of heart. 338 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,640 Because verse 5 shows us that Jesus can see he's not getting 339 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,000 anywhere with these, with these, with these people. 340 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:56,200 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their 341 00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:04,120 hardness of heart. If we could just stop for a 342 00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:09,600 moment to appreciate that Jesus cared enough to be angry and to 343 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:14,520 grieve in response to their hardness of heart, you know, 344 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,240 they didn't care about the man. They only cared about their 345 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:21,720 games, their status. And Jesus's heart was like 346 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,640 strong enough, connected enough, compassionate enough to get 347 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,840 angry and to and to like let himself feel that and to really 348 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,040 actually want their hearts to change. 349 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:36,520 I think Jesus cared just as much about the Pharisees as he did as 350 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,120 he did about this man. The difference was that this man 351 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,440 was ready to receive what Jesus had to offer and they were not 352 00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:46,280 in. Jesus heart was also large 353 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:48,800 enough and tender enough to heal this man. 354 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,440 At the end of verse 5, Jesus said to the man, stretch out 355 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:57,280 your hand, stretch out. Here's that act of agency. 356 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,040 Jesus is calling this man too, and he stretched it out and his 357 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:07,400 hand was restored. Such love, such tenderness for a 358 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,520 man who had nothing to give to Jesus in return. 359 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:16,280 It's simple, it's restful, it's good, it has all of the marks of 360 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,880 Jesus is Lord. Wherever Jesus is Lord, there's 361 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,640 something simple and restful and good and life giving. 362 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:28,280 But for his enemies, they wanted to keep it complicated. 363 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,120 They want to stay in their games. 364 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:33,160 And so mark ends with a very chilling aside. 365 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:39,360 Verse 6, the Pharisees went out and and immediately held counsel 366 00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:44,000 with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 367 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,760 The irony is that the Pharisees were also working on the 368 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:56,640 Sabbath, just secretly. And this is what all performance 369 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:01,320 cultures produce. They produce sort of chilling 370 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,280 hypocrisy where on the outside you're doing everything you can 371 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:09,080 to put up a face, put up a front, appear like you're 372 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:12,680 keeping like all of the rules and you're really good. 373 00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,480 But then secretly there's this other side, there's this split 374 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,040 personality, as it were, where secretly there's all kinds of 375 00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:27,040 terrible things coming out and there's a private life that no 376 00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:31,240 one would recognize. And The thing is like, again, 377 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,280 who among us has not done this? Who among us does not put on a 378 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:40,800 face and been fake and two faced? 379 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,480 Who among us has not been truly a little complicated? 380 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,560 The gospel of Jesus, friends came for complicated 2 faced 381 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:54,920 people to help to free us from that to to change us from the 382 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,280 inside out. It's simple and the gospel can, 383 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,760 I would say, untangle all these knots that we get ourselves in 384 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:09,520 because one day after this, Jesus would their their first of 385 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:15,240 all, their plot would work eventually and Jesus would 386 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:21,520 stretch out his hands not to be healed, but to be pierced for 387 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,920 all the for everyone who lives a complicated life. 388 00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:32,440 His cross was honest. It was simple, it was public. 389 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,000 It was a public declaration. God loves you. 390 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,920 God came to forgive you. Your sin is real. 391 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,560 It has really hurt people. I came to forgive it. 392 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:45,560 I came to heal it. And here is grace. 393 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,440 But if you want to receive it, you got to come to the middle. 394 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,840 If you got to come to the cross, you got to come out from the 395 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:56,400 shadows into the light. Would we but come to the cross? 396 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:01,520 Would we but come to the center where Jesus calls us like he 397 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:03,480 called the man with the withered hand? 398 00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:08,880 Come here. Come here out of silly games 399 00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:14,880 into a simple gospel. Come here out of judgement and 400 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,200 into forgiveness. Come here out of performance. 401 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,160 I'll give you peace. Come here. 402 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:24,400 My yoke is easy. Come here. 403 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,080 My burden is light. Come here, sister. 404 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,680 Come here, brother. Stretch out your hands to be 405 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,120 cleansed. Stretch out the part of you that 406 00:26:35,120 --> 00:26:38,280 needs to be healed that you don't want to show anyone. 407 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:43,560 Open your heart to be loved. Give me the knots and let me 408 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:48,280 untangle them. Open your eyes to see those on 409 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,480 the outside who are silently asking the people around us who 410 00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:54,960 are silently asking themselves, do I belong here? 411 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,440 Where do I rank here? Am I better or worse than the 412 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,560 people around me? Am I safe? 413 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:03,760 Does God approve of me? Bring them to the center. 414 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,880 Bring them to me, Jesus says, and I will give to them what I 415 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,600 have given to you. It's the simple gospel. 416 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:16,960 Jesus is Lord Hallelujah, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 417 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:18,080 Spirit, Amen.