03 Good or Evil, Life or Death? (Mark 2:23-3:6)

SPEAKER_01: Well welcome again. We are in Mark chapter 2, verses 23 through chapter 3, verses 6. And for those of you who are here for the first time, in this series, we're going through the Gospel of Mark and we're stopping at the places where Jesus asks a question. So it's just another way to look at how he taught. Many of you are probably familiar with his didactic passages, his sermons, or his parables, or the stories he tells, the teachings where he heals. Well, another way he taught was by asking questions, and particularly questions he already knows the answers to. So we're not going verse by verse through the gospel, but we're skipping to the scenes where Jesus asks a question. And we're focusing on the Gospel of Mark, although I am going to bring in details from some of the other Gospels. So this week, the question that we're looking at is in Mark 3.4, where Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, and he asks, which is lawful to do on the Sabbath? Which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save her life and to kill a life or to kill. And what I find most interesting about that question is that ought to be easy. I mean, we would expect that even the youngest of our children in Sunday school could answer that question. I mean, if you walked up to them and you say, What would please God more to do good or to do evil? Most of even the youngest of our kids would say, Of course, it's to do good. Or if you ask them, which would God rather you do to uh save a life or to take a life, they would answer immediately. And yet the Pharisees refuse to answer, which I think is one of the most intriguing things. The answer ought to be obvious, but they refuse to give an answer. So that's really what we're going to focus on is why. Why was this a question they didn't want to answer? And then notice the irony, not only do they refuse to answer by the end of the passage, they're plotting to kill Jesus. So they were determined to kill him. So let me uh let's just open to Mark chapter 2. We're going to look at two Sabbath stories back to back. Um, and they I want to give you a little bit of background, and as we read them, I want you to notice how the tone changes through them, through these stories. Uh in the first story, the Pharisees accuse the disciples of Jesus of breaking the Sabbath, and in the second story, Jesus turns the tables and accuses the Pharisees of being the ones who are the real Sabbath breakers. And um then the other thing is in the first story we're going to look at, the Pharisees seem to be asking a genuine question. It's a real, thoughtful question, and they get a thoughtful answer from Jesus. But by we the time we get to the second story, they're looking to accuse him and they're trying to find a way to discredit him, and Jesus becomes angry with them, so the tone changes. So let me just to give you a little bit of a context of what's going on here. The Sabbath was extremely important in the time of Jesus, and it had become a kind of a litmus test in the Jewish population. It was a tradition, of course, that went back to creation with God resting on the seventh day. It was in the commandments, it was an integral part of their history as they went through the Exodus. Remember, God gave them a double portion of manna on the sixth day so that they could rest on the seventh. And then when they come back after the Babylonian exile and they repopulate the promised land, and following all the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah, the scribes decided we're going to do this thing right now, we're going to keep the Sabbath holy, and they begin developing this rigorous and minute and detailed set of rules and regulations about what constituted work and what didn't. And they disagreed, obviously, about how much you could do or couldn't do. And it was, I think, it was kind of this painfully minute and complicated tasks. I'm going to give you some of them. But the idea was if we want to keep the Sabbath holy, then let's go the extra mile and and avoid everything we could possibly do to keep it holy. So they explored all what all that might mean. And it became so important that if you broke the Sabbath, it was punishable by stoning. And then at the time of the Maccabean Revolt, which was around 168 BC, the Jews were under attack and they took the Sabbath so seriously that they let themselves be killed rather than fight and defend themselves on the Sabbath. So that's how important it had become. So at the time of Jesus, what a rabbi thought about the Sabbath was very important, and it kind of marked who he was or what camp he fell in. So that was kind of an emotional issue. Maybe I was trying to think of an analogy today. Maybe the way we look at judges and our politicians and say, what's their view on abortion? And we ask that as kind of a litmus test to see if we're going to trust them or not, or maybe for a preacher, sometimes it's how they feel about the inerrancy of Scripture, and that becomes kind of the test of which camp do they fall in. Well, at the time of Jesus, what you thought about the Sabbath and which set of rules and regulations you thought were normative kind of told what camp you felt you fell in, and it was very important. People wanted to know what their teachers thought about the Sabbath. It was a dividing line. So Jesus comes along and he's not an ordinary citizen. At this point, he's teaching like a rabbi, he's preaching like a prophet, he's healing like he's God, and he's making these bold claims like I am the Son of Man who was uh from Daniel's vision, he's forgiving sins, he's claiming the kingdom of God is at hand. So what he thinks about the Sabbath is of great interest to the people of the day. They want to know what he thinks and where he stands. Which scribe does he think is right, and whose interpretation of the Sabbath is the one that he would go in, would go with. So I think that's what you see in the first section. He's um the Pharisees want to know what's your view of the Sabbath. So let's look at the first scene, which is Mark chapter 2, verse 23 to 28. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? He answered, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abathi the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. He also gave some to his companions. Then he said to him, said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. So they're walking through these grain fields, and as they go, his disciples are plucking off the heads of the grain, and by doing that and eating them, they're breaking at least four rules, because there were rules against reaping, winnowing, threshing, and preparing a meal, and some rabbis would have considered this all four of them, that they're reaping and then they're pulling it apart and taking off the chaff, and then they're eating it, and that's weeping, winnowing, threshing, preparing a meal, and that would be work. So they are they are outside the bounds. So the Pharisees look at this and they say, Why are you letting them do this? What and I think what's behind that is what's your view of the Sabbath? So Jesus says, and actually asks another question, have you never read what David did? And so what we ought to do as good Bible students is go read what David did to make sure we understand what he's referring to. So keep your finger in Mark and look back at 1 Samuel chapter 21, which is where that story appears. So what's going on in 1 Samuel 21 is David has been anointed king by the by the prophet Samuel, but Saul is still on the throne, and Saul is trying to kill him. And with Jonathan's help, David flees for his life. He gets Jonathan warns him of a plot and he flees. And so he's a fugitive. He has he left in such a hurry, has no provisions for his journey. And the first place he goes is to the tabernacle at Nob, and there he meets Ahimelech the high priest, and he asks for food. So in 1 Samuel 21, verses 1 through 6, this is the story Jesus is referring to. David went to Nob to Ahimelech the high the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him and asked, Why are you alone? Why is no one with you? David answered Ahimelech the priest, The king charged me with a certain matter and said to me, No one is to know anything about your mission and your instructions. As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find. But the priest answered David, I have I don't have any ordinary bread on hand. However, there is some consecrated bread here, provided the men have kept themselves from women. David replied, Indeed, women have been kept from us as usual whenever I set out. The men's things are holy, even on missions that are not holy, how much more so today? So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the presents that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away. Okay. So Himelech says, I don't have any food except this this the show bread or the bread of presents. So we have to make sure we understand what that is. So good thing you got some extra fingers. Turn back to Leviticus 24, because that's the explanation of what this bread is. This is in part of the commandments concerning the temple and the tabernacle. In Leviticus 24 24, verses 5 through 8. It says, Take fine flour and break bake twelve loaves of bread, using two tenths of anetha for each loaf. Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the Lord by fire. This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it's it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire. unknown: Okay? SPEAKER_01: Clear enough, right? I know I read that and I go, okay. All right. So what's going on here is this was the bread of presents or the show bread, and they baked twelve loaves of bread, which was to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, and that was placed on a golden table in front of the Holy of Holies, and they placed it there every week on the Sabbath, and then they would change it the next week. And after they took it away, it became the property of the priests of Aaron and his sons, and they were to eat it, and it was considered a holy offering for them. So that's the only bread that Ahimelech has on hand, is this bread that only the priests are supposed to eat. Now, notice there's a couple of interesting things about this exchange. Ahimelech says, Well, I can give you the bread if your men are clean, which isn't really in the law. Only the priests are supposed to eat it, and the priest would have been ritually clean to go in and take the bread away and replace it. So he's kind of fudging the law a little bit and saying, Okay, well, if your men are clean, I can give you the bread. And David says, Of course they're clean. When we're not we're on any normal mission, we stay clean, ritually clean. Um, but how much more so today? So his response is, not only are my men clean, but the journey I'm on is holy. The journey I'm on is what God wants me to do. So I'm doing something commanded by the Lord that makes it a holy mission, and therefore that's even more so that they would stay clean. So his answer is look, we're on a mission from God, and it's more important that we obey God and do this mission than that we obey the rules of the Sabbath. And Jesus commends him for that. So that's the interesting thing we're gonna we're gonna try to unpack. Why does Jesus commend him for that? Um Let me give you an analogy. Uh we had a lot of rules when my kids were little, and one of them was don't touch the TV. And another rule we had for my son, Brendan, when he was little was don't touch the TV and don't push your sister or don't hurt your sister. So his job as a as a child was to figure out why. And he did this very well, you know, and I'm sure your kids do this too. Well, what if I just lean against the TV? You know, or what if I touch it with my toe? You know, is that okay? Or what if I'm falling and I accidentally brush against it with my shoulder? Have I is that okay? Have I broken the rule? Um and he would test that to see what what is it that mom finds important about not touching the TV? Or, you know, what if I just nudge my sister? Is that okay? Or what if I stick my foot out and trip her? I haven't really pushed her, but you know, what what exactly is the rule? And so he's looking for why would mom give this command. Uh and he might decide, well, mom thinks that the television is more important than I am. That would be the wrong interpretation. He might decide, mom doesn't like to clean the TV, and therefore she doesn't want me to touch it with my sticky fingers. That would be right. Um, or he might decide things like I mess up all the settings when I go play with the buttons, and mom doesn't like that. So he has to figure out what's the reason that mom gave this command. Now, and you your kids, I'm sure you're familiar with this, they do this to you all the time. Why? Why? Why? What about this? What about that? It actually is a pretty sophisticated prompt. They are deriving doctrine. They're trying to figure out the mind of mom. You know. What does mom value? What does mom think important? And they're trying to pull out a set of principles that they so they know how to live in the world. So now assume my my young son is there and the TV is falling on his sister. Oh no, what's he going to do? He's not supposed to touch the TV and he's not supposed to push his sister. So if he touches the TV and pushes it away from his sister, he's broken the rules. But if he shoves his sister out of the way, he's broken the rules also. So what would he do? Well, if he has correctly understood me, he would either one of those would be okay. He would shove his sister out of the way of the falling TV, or he would shove the TV out of the way. And I would praise him for it because he has understood the intent behind my rules and followed that intent. And that's the kind of thing that's going on here. Yes, David has broken the rules, but Jesus, I think, is commending him because he has correctly understood the intent of the rules and is following them. So in my case, my son should have learned that we think people are more important than things, and it's more important to protect your sister than to protect the TV, and that uh, you know, it's okay to touch the TV in certain circumstances. It's funny, my 16-year-old daughter just discovered that she could start the dishwasher. I think this was rather convenient. I I mentioned to her, you know, it's okay to start the dishwasher, and she was like, When I was four, you never let me do that. Yes, but you're not four anymore. It's okay now that you're sixteen to start the dishwasher. We would appreciate that. So she was like this whole light bulb going up. Wow. So I don't know though. I wonder if she was pulling my legs and just didn't want to start the dishwasher. Um, but anyway, that's the kind of thing that's going on here. David has looked at what are the rules behind the Sabbath, and he has correctly applied them. And I think Jesus is commending him, saying, yes, he broke the rules, but he understood the intent of them. So that's what we're going to try to uncover. And I will warn you right now, I'm not going to answer all your questions on the Sabbath. I do not have all the answers, and I do not know all the answers. This is some a uh an area in my life that's continually evolving. So in five years I hope I have a better understanding than I do now. But I will tell you what I think is going on, at least as far as I know, this point, at this point in my life, but I don't have all the answers. Okay, so let's turn back to what Jesus is saying, because his conclusion is the interesting thing. In Mark 2, 27, he says, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. And that I think is what we've got to figure out if we want to understand what David knew that allowed him to break the rules and what Jesus commends him for. And the first thing I'd say is I don't think this is a legal ruling. In other words, I don't think he's saying, um, here's a new rule that we're going to apply such that, okay, the rule is human need takes precedence over every religious observance, or something like that. So David would have been permitted uh to take the bread because he was hungry. Hunger is a human need, and that would take precedence over the laws of the Sabbath, and so he's giving some kind of legal judgment. I think I don't think that's what's going on. I think this is a more theological explanation. I'm going to try to explain it. Now, the Pharisees may have understood it as a legal ruling because that's what they like to do. They like, that's what their whole system of laws on the Sabbath were, was to try to figure out just how much work is work and what's allowable and what isn't. And in their rules and regulation, they did make exceptions for danger. And if someone was in danger, you were allowed to break the rules on the Sabbath to save a life. Now, it had to be an Israelite life. They weren't too sure if it was a heathen or a Samaritan if you were allowed to break the Sabbath rules. That was debated, but they did at least see that there were exceptions to preserve a life. And remember that when we get to the second story, that they did make exceptions for themselves. So I don't think this is legal because that's not the line of reasoning David gives Samuel, or not he gives in Samuel, gives to Ahimelech. He says he can break the rules because he's on a holy mission. In other words, I'm doing what God wants me to do. I am I he has been anointed king, his life is in danger. He needs, he knows he's not on the throne yet. He's waiting for the day when God will grant him the kingship over Israel, and he is acting to save his life in that mission. And so he says, that's his ruling, that I'm doing what God wants me to do. And that's a more theological explanation, and I think that's what Jesus turns to. He says, the guidelines about the Sabbath were there to teach us something about God. They're not there to master us. It's not a burden for us to bear. These Sabbath rules, it's supposed to teach us something about God and his character and his rest. And so for Jesus, he's saying, like David's men, my disciples are following me. They're following the Messiah. They're doing what God wants them to do. And when you're following the Messiah, you don't have time to meet all the requirements of the Sabbath. They didn't have time to prepare food or to ritually wash themselves or all the things that were required. So to obey God and follow the Messiah, for Jesus' disciples, put them in conflict with the laws. And Jesus, I think, is commending them, saying it's more important to obey God than to follow these religious practices. And I think that's the the similarity. David was a representative of the new kingdom that was going to topple Saul as the new king. He's on a mission from God. Jesus is the Messiah coming to usher the new kingdom. His disciples are following him, they're on a mission from God, and it's more important that they follow that mission than that they go through all the rules and regulations. So I think part of Jesus' point is if David's men can violate the laws of the Sabbath because they're obeying the commands of their king, then how much more can the disciples of Jesus violate the laws of the Sabbath because they are serving the Messiah himself, the Lord of the Sabbath? I think that's the kind of reasoning. Now, you've probably got some more questions on that. Let me bring in the second story, and I think that'll help clear up some of it. So look at Mark 3, 1. Notice too how the tone has changed. In the story we looked at last week, when Jesus heals the paralytic, you have the scribes and they're just thinking to themselves. And then the story we just looked at, you see the Pharisees, and they're questioning Jesus and they're kind of thoughtfully asking a real question. And now when we get to this story, we're told the Pharisees are looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. They're watching him closely, trying to trip him up. And Jesus becomes angry at their hardness of heart. So it's the setting, they're becoming more confrontational. The tone is changing as we go along. Okay, so Mark 3 1 through verse 6. Another time he went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, Stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath? Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill. But they remained silent. He looked around at them and angered and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. So the irony of that ought to leap off the page that here he's saying, Is it better to save her life or to kill? And they're like, I'm not going to answer that, and then they go out and plot with their arch enemies to kill him, you know. So it's like, okay, who's the real Sabbath breaker here? The the disciples who are picking heads of grain, or the Pharisees who are plotting to kill the Messiah. Which act do you think would be less pleasing to God? So here you see the situations. Jesus is in the synagogue. There's a man there with a wimp withered hand. And my personal opinion is that the Pharisees planted him there. I have no textual evidence for that. I just think it makes sense. So that's, you know, wild speculation on my part. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if they had brought him there to see what Jesus would do. And Jesus takes the bait. He calls the man center stage and has him stand up so everyone can see him. And then he asks this question Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm? And believe it or not, that was debated among the rabbinical laws and all the scribal interpretations. They would make exceptions to all their rules and regulations when a life was in danger. But what exactly was danger was very open to debate. So they had these whole rules, for instance, on how and when you could remove a splinter or a thorn. Was that danger or not? Maybe you had to leave the thorn until the Sabbath was over. Um and that was debated. If you had a toothache, there was all these rules about whether or not uh the accepted remedy for a toothache was to gargle with vinegar. And some people said no, you couldn't gargle with vinegar. Others said, well, no, you can't gargle, but if you take a toothbrush or whatever they use for toothbrushes and dip it in the vinegar and brush it, that's okay. And other people said, no, no, that's not okay. You can gargle with the vinegar, but you can't spit it out, because spitting it out would be work you have to swallow it. So I mean, and this was just a toothache. So then they had all these other rules about what do you do with a broken bone or you know, what exactly constitutes danger? What about a fever? How long could you let someone lie with a fever? So they might have debated whether this man with the withered hand was seriously ill or whether he was in a danger enough that he required breaking the Sabbath rules, but at some level they would have understood that it's okay to save a life. It's okay to allow some treatment. Because the very fact that they debated how much was enough and how much was too much showed that they at least saw that at some level it was okay to do this. Now Matthew gives us a little more detail when he relates this story in Matthew 12, um, verses 9 through 12, we get he adds this exchange. Going on from that place, he went to their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? So they Matthew points to the fact that this was a test. They were out to trick him and to see where he would fall in the debate. And he said to them, If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. So rabbinics actually the rabbinic law ordered was in conflict on this. Some said, Well, you could lower food and drink down to the sheep, but you can't actually lift them out until the Sabbath was over. Others said, no, no, it's okay to lift them out, but that's okay, if especially they're in danger, and then they had to debate how much danger was danger. So you have this scene where Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, it's probably crowded, they've probably placed this man with a wither hand where everyone could see, they're waiting to see what Jesus will do. And he asked them the simple question, which the answer ought to be obvious, yes, it's okay to do good, and then he heals the man. But notice how he heals them. He tells the man to reach out his hand, and the man is healed. So he has broken their law and yet he has not broken it, because he did nothing. He did not touch him, he did not lift him, he did not move him, he did not apply any outward force, he didn't apply any outward remedy. All of that would have they could have said, Oh my, wait, wait, you did it the wrong way round, you know, you broke the rules. And the fact that he doesn't move a muscle means they can accuse him of nothing. He didn't break any of their rules because all he did was speak. He did nothing, he did no work in their in their eyes. So I the beauty of that astounds me, that he could confound them even with that. So they have these painfully detailed regulations on what constitute works. You know, give you another example. In my reading, I found they said that you could spit on a rock, but you couldn't spit on the ground. Because if you spit on a rock, then the moisture would evaporate and nothing would happen. But if you spit on the ground, then the moisture might mix with the dirt and make clay, and now you've done work because you've made clay. And they have these rules like if you're walking with a walking stick or a staff, you had to be careful not to poke the staff too heavily into the ground or to drag it, because if you made a hole or a furrow and then the wind blew a seed in, now you're sewing, and that's work. So you had to you could walk with a staff, but only if you didn't drag it, and you were very careful about how much pressure you applied because that might be sewing. And they also had a big debate over whether you could lift your child into your arms or not. Was that work or not? And it most allowed that it was okay, but if the child had a rock in her pocket, now it's work because you've lifted the rock. So, you know, these are the kind of rules and regulations they debated, and so they're waiting to see which one is Jesus gonna break. He's gonna heal the man and which one is he gonna break? Is he gonna move to m lift him, touch him, move him in some way, work, and he does nothing. He just says, Stretch out your hand, and the man is healed. So he's broken their rules, but he didn't break their rules. Um I think it's also significant that he heals a man with a withered hand because uh a man with a withered hand was excluded from the priesthood. It was one of those things that disqualified you. And I think it's also symbolic of the fact that he cannot reach out and do good works. And so he becomes, I think, in some ways, a symbol of here's a man with a withered hand, but you've got a nation with a withered heart, and Jesus is saying, I can solve that. I think it's symbolic of the Pharisees who are so caught up in these rules and regulations that not only do they not do good, they're plotting to kill the Messiah. So here is the one who can heal his people with only a word, who um can usher us into that rest that the Sabbath is just a tiny symbol of and a shadow of. Here's the person before him who can heal not only their withered hands but their withered hearts, and he can grant them the rest that's not just once a week, but it's the peace of God that pass surpasses all understanding. This is the person before him, and I think all of that is just a symbol of the rest he's come to bring them, and they don't recognize him. Instead, they plot with the Herodians to try to kill him. So I think what we see when you recognize how powerful the Sabbath was and how much debate there was around it, it's amazing to me how easily the early church changed the day. I mean, they moved the Sabbath from um Saturday to Sunday, which was the day of resurrection, and you have to read Acts carefully to figure out where the change took place. And that's always amazed me. Why wasn't there this big church debate, you know? Why wasn't there a a fight or um or some kind of, you know, we can't do anything in the in the Presbyterian church without at least ten committees, you know. So it's just always amazed me that they so easily switched to um Sunday. And I think it's because they learned the lesson that the significance of the resurrection was now Christ was inviting you to the ultimate rest. And the Sabbath was just a picture of that. Okay, we have a few minutes left. Let me try to wrap all this up and see if I can explain what's going on here. And again, I will not answer all your questions. I do not have the answers, and I do not have, I will not solve any of the controversies. Uh I'm still very much working on that myself. But I think what I want to try to get at is to fully understand these stories. What was the point of the Sabbath? What um why is the Sabbath a reason for difficulties that are in this passage? And I think there's a couple things that come out that we can learn that we could begin to apply. The first is that the Sabbath is a rest that is given to us, it is not a rest we earn. And I think that's an important principle. This is something that is given to us in God's grace, it is not something we earned. So in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the Fourth Commandment, in all the laws about the seventh day and the seventh year and the forty-ninth year, the main idea is rest, and it's to cease from your activities, but as a r it is not a reward. This is not the peak Cadillac you get for having worked the other six days. This is um, you know, it's not a break you deserve because you've worked so hard all week. In fact, it's the opposite. It's the break you get because God worked, it's the break because God is the one who's in control. And I think in many ways the Sabbath is a choice to recognize that, to make God important, to make myself unimportant, and to realize that. Now, where do I get that from? There when the Sabbath is given in Exodus and Deuteronomy, there's two different reasons given. And the first one is in Exodus 20. It says, For in the six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. And I think what we should learn from that, he says, because God made everything and then he rested, what we're to learn is he's the one in charge. He's uh he was in charge of creation, and we can't add one thing to it. So he rested, having completed everything that needs to be done, and that means I'm not in control, God is in control. That all my work and my worry was is not going to change the course of history, it's not gonna upset God's plans, it's not gonna throw him for a loop, because God is in control, not us, and part of the grace we're given is the opportunity to rest in that. And that is an amazing thing if you start thinking about it. I mean, I don't know about you, but I am convinced that the entire world will fall apart if I do not cross the last item off my to-do list. You know. And uh I I just know, at least my family is gonna fall apart. If I don't, you know, if I let my guard down for one moment and I just don't get everything done that I have to do, and make all those errands complete and get every last item crossed up, and you know how you work yourself into this frenzy of I've got to get it done, and no matter how much I do, it's never enough. And um the whole my my whole family is depending on me, maybe the whole world, you know. And you get into this cycle of I've got to do and do and do, and part of the Sabbath rest is no, you don't. God is there, He's the one in control. Um, He's the one who is establishing your plans, He's the one who's who's building your family, and if you let your guard down, He is still in control. And that I think is something we need to learn because busyness has become such a virtue in our society. You know, the busier you are, the better. Um the more busy you are, the more important you are, uh, the more vital you are, and it's become a sin to leave work at five o'clock. You know, if you if you do that, what's wrong with you? Or you took a break on the weekend, so you you have like free time in your schedule. What's wrong? And that's become the mindset of America. And I think part of the message of the Sabbath is you can take a break because God is in control and He gives you that rest as a gift, and it's a picture of the rest that's going to come. Psalm 127, I think, makes this point really well. It's 127 verses 1 and 2. Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stands guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves. Or I actually think a better translation of that is while you sleep, he provides for those he loved. So the idea behind it is even while you're asleep, he is providing and caring for you. So all that toil of rising early, staying up late, struggling, what you need to realize is God is in control, that he makes the watchman successful, the builder successfully successful, and his work is done. And he invites us to rest in that, to trust that he is in control. Okay, the second reason, so the first reason is the Sabbath is a rest that is given to us by grace. It is not a rest we earned, it is based on the work of God, not ourselves. And then the second reason that we're given the Sabbath is um in Deuteronomy 5.15, and that is that slavery has ended. Um this is Deuteronomy 5.15. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. So it's not just that God did a perfect work in salvation and we're required all we are allowed to rest in that. He also ended our slavery. And I think for us that's a picture of ending our slavery to sin, ending ending our slavery to the tyranny of selfishness and um all that that goes along in that. So he says, You are now free, you don't have to think like a slave anymore. You are free to follow God. And part of what we're saying with the Sabbath rest is my master is no longer work or money or health or beauty or finances or whatever else we want to think of as our master. Now my master is the master of the world, and I can rest because he's the one who's in control. He has ended my slavery to all that sin and selfishness and toil. So I think the Sabbath can be this marvelous gift, this incredible blessing that we resist because we want to do it ourselves. We want to be busy and prove, you know, that we're indispensable. And and I think we've we sometimes take our calling and turn it into being driven so that we are we are no longer called, we're driven. You know, that thing, that good thing that I'm supposed to do becomes an idol that now I'm enslaved to, that I have to do. I can't let the ball drop. I can't let my guard down for a minute because you know that's what I'm called to do, and it becomes an idol or a driving force. So I think the Sabbath is a symbol of that rest, that God is our master and that he is in control, that he is in charge of creation, he's in charge of the course of history, he's the author and perfecter of our faith, and that ought to be our understanding every day of the week, not just on Sunday. And it I think the the physical rest of the Sabbath is to teach us that lesson, that we are dependent on God, not ourselves, and that we have the freedom to let go and trust that he is God and I am not, and that he is in control and I am not, and that he will uh make everything right in the end, that he was his guiding every moment of every day and he is teaching us. One of my favorite pastors from college said that work is our drug of choice in response to the pain of the world. I thought, yep, work is our drug of choice. It's easier to work than to trust, you know. It's easier to worry than to stop, you know. I mean, it's it's a lot easier. Um and if you think about what the Pharisees were doing with the Sabbath, it's almost the exact opposite because they were looking at that and saying, okay, if God says to do no work on the Sabbath and to keep it holy, well now I have to figure out what work is. And it becomes this really hard thing to figure out what work is. I mean, what if I what if I drag my stick on the ground, or what if I lift my child, or what if I gargle, or what if I what if my lamb falls into a pit and and it becomes this frenzy of, oh no, what am I supposed to do? How, you know, it's like I don't know if I should do this or that, or and it's almost the exact opposite because now we're working really hard not to work, you know. Um and the whole point is to stop and realize God is in control, he's the author of creation. Um it's a grace, it's not a burden. And I think that's part of what Jesus is saying when he says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made to teach us rest, not to be this set of complicated rules and regulations that we have to figure out how to do right and that we are enslaved to. No, it's it's the exact opposite. Um it's made um to teach us that God is the one in control. So we rest because God is in control and because he's freed us from slavery to sin, and that's a rest that is given to us by grace. We don't have to earn it. Now I imagine for most of you you're not struggling with whether or not you should do good or evil on the Sabbath, but I bet you struggle with how much rest is okay, and knowing that God is in control. I know I do. Um, it's really tempting to labor every moment of every day and make sure everything gets crossed off my list and become obsessed with needing every need and every expectation. And that I think is the attitude that God is calling us against with the Sabbath. So I think we ought to take a step back and say, you know, are we driven or are we called? If we're called, that's a good thing. If we're driven, our calling has become an idol, and we need to step back. Um and just to realize that we are not the Messiah, God is, we don't have to meet every need. God will do that. And yes, in his grace, he gives us the privilege of being part of that, that plan, but again, it is his doing and his control. And society, as we know it, is not going to unravel if we stop and take a break. Because to when you don't, we're living as if we're the master of the universe rather than God. So I think that's also behind what Jesus said, which I want to close with this this verse. Come to me, all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I think part of that is because he is the one who can solve the problems of our slavery and our sinfulness, and uh invite us into the rest that God offers. Let me pray and then give you a chance to ask questions, because I'm sure you have questions. Father, we just pray that you would be working this truth into our lives and into our hearts and showing us how to apply the rest that you have granted us. Show us how to live our lives that are pleasing to you, and knowing how to do business and how to love us, and how to do resting.