Sermon Index
June 2, 2024, The Second Sunday after Pentecost
Old Testament Lesson: Deuteronomy 5:12–15
Mark 2:23 One Sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
If I were there, I would have thought that the crime was theft. The disciples were picking and eating grain that did not belong to them. That would be not be lawful on any day of the week. The disciples’ crime was harvesting on the Sabbath Day. Even if they were starving, just plucking a few heads of grain was work, and all work was prohibited on the Sabbath Day. Later, in the synagogue, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand. Even doing good or to save life was work. The crime was not just that Jesus healed the man, but that he did it on the Sabbath Day.
This made the religious authorities very worried.
Mark 3:6The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Why were they so worried? Why was the Sabbath Law so important to them? They were not just being legalistic. The Sabbath Law was fundamental to the understanding of who the Jews were and of who God was. Because in this law, we see the wonderful grace and salvation of God for his beloved people.
Before the Exodus, the people of Israel were slaves in the land of Egypt. Some were farmers, shepherds, herdsmen, carpenters, brick-makers, tailors, merchants, craftsmen, and all the necessary workers of the society in Goshen and all of Egypt. But they were not free. They had no days off or holidays. They had to work 31 days a month, 365 days a year. There was no weekend for them. There was no rest. They were like machines, like cattle, like tools. There was no rest from their work. Even if their masters had a holiday, they still had to work and serve their masters.
Then there was the Exodus. Moses led them out of slavery and unto freedom. Freedom means that you do not have to work all the time; you can rest.
Moses led the people out of Egypt, but it was the Lord God of Israel who really delivered them. The Lord saw the hard work and misery of the people he loved. At the Burning Bush, he told Moses:
Exodus 3:7-10. (The LORD said,) “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
The Third Commandment is a Declaration of Emancipation. It is the Will of God that the people of Israel should be free from slavery. It is the Will of God that they should have rest from their work.
“Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” What should they remember?
Exodus 3:15You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
The Sabbath Day is not just a day off, it becomes a celebration of freedom. They are no longer slaves. To work on the Sabbath Day was to become a slave again. It was to reject the salvation of the Lord God. It was a day of rest for everyone. It was for everyone in the household. The servants had the day off. Mothers did not cook. Students waited until evening to do homework. Even animals did no work. Even foreigners who lived in their towns could not open shop or work. The Israelites would not make other people work for them, to slave for them, on this day.
Why were the Jew of Jesus’ day so strict about the Sabbath observances? Perhaps it was human greed. For example, if one shop owner opened on the Sabbath, then another on the other side of town would want some of the business, soon other shops and businesses would open. Carpenters would have to work, farmers would start working in the fields, and everyone would be slaves to work again.
{[When I was a boy, no supermarkets were open on Sunday. Now they all want the Sunday business and the store workers are like slaves who have to work. In Japan when I first arrived, at New Years, for three days everything was closed. I had a hard time finding something to eat in town. Now, everyone goes shopping on New Year’s Day.]}
The Jews in Jesus’ day were rightly afraid that people would forget the deliverance by God from slavery in Egypt. People would no longer depend on God for everything. The authorities could not allow even a small crack in the Law. Therefore they thought they had to stop Jesus.
Mark 2:27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
The Sabbath was a gift from God. It gave rest to workers. It also gave relief to the hungry and to the crippled. It was a time “to do good and to save life.”
We Christians do not have to keep the Sabbath Laws. We have abandoned the Seventh Day Sabbath and have adopted Sunday as our Day of Rest. Both are celebrations of freedom: freedom from slavery and freedom from sin. The Israelites did nothing to get freedom from slavery. They did not fight against the Egyptian army. God led them out by Moses. We do nothing to get our freedom from sin. We do not pay sacrifices in our lives or money. Even our good deeds do nothing to free us. God has set us free through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In our Christian freedom, what are we free to do? The Sabbath was a time to remember the salvation of God. That is what we do on Sundays. It is a time to read the Bible, to sing hymns, to receive the forgiveness of sins, to hear preaching and teaching, and to realize how precious the love of God is. It is a time for prayer. We receive the comfort and strength of God. Sunday is a time to do good. It is a time to thank God for this wonderful gift of freedom.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church