There is a buzz around him! People are saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” And some begin asking questions about his way of doing things. Uh oh!
Mark 2:23-3:6
August 4, 2024
Dr. Todd R. Wright
Mark, as we have noted elsewhere, does not ease into things. His favorite word seems to be “immediately,” and his gospel is like a video stuck on fast forward!
So his account goes from a brief description of Jesus’ baptism and temptation in the wilderness directly into his ministry. He calls a few disciples and gets to work!
Do you know what they tell you when you are starting a ministry in a new place?
Take your time to get to know the congregation.
Don’t start any new programs in the first year.
Build trust.
Ease into things.
Mark’s Jesus has clearly never heard that advice! (Or if he has, he ignores it.)
He tells people, “The Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe the good news!”
He has no time to waste; the clock is ticking; he’s got work to do!
Right out of the gate he heals a man with an unclean spirit and preaches a sermon and cleanses a leper! Then, he heals a paralytic (and forgives his sins!) and calls a tax collector to be one of his disciples!
There is a buzz around him! People are saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” And some begin asking questions about his way of doing things. Uh oh!
This is the point where a wise mentor takes a new pastor aside and cautions restraint:
You don’t want to get out in front of your skis.
Build relationships.
Involve people in the planning, so they feel some sort of ownership.
Make sure you get on the good side of the power brokers, or you’ll never get anything done.
But Jesus is a whirlwind … and he will not be stopped.
In fact, it seems like he is picking a fight. Uh oh!
He could have responded differently to the Pharisees’ complaint about his disciples:
He could have deflected – saying, “I’ll look into it.”
Or apologized – promising that they wouldn’t do it again.
Or played for sympathy – “They were sooo hungry! Could you spare any food?”
Or appealed to scripture – Deuteronomy includes a loophole for the hungry, “If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.”[2]
Any of those approaches might have diffused the situation. Instead, he quotes a different scripture, one about David, and the Pharisees carry it like a grudge into the next scene. Uh oh!
They bristle, I suspect, at the way he seemed to be making a comparison between himself and David – as if he was God’s anointed one; as if he could pull royal rank; as if he was feeding an army fighting for a new kingdom!
(And, in fact, the gospel writer hopes we will understand that all those things do apply!)
But the Pharisees can’t imagine that … and so they watch him closely to see if he will do anything on the Sabbath that will allow them to register an accusation! Uh oh!
The way Dallas Jenkins chose to stage this scene in an episode of The Chosen,[3] highlights the ongoing, and developing, conflict. Jesus strides into a synagogue. A religious official is reading from Deuteronomy, “No Ammonite or Moabite shall come into the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt …”[4] (Interesting, right?) Meanwhile, Jesus notices a member of the congregation, a man with a withered hand, who is just minding his own business, and draws him to the center of the room. When the officials object that it is not lawful to heal on the sabbath, Jesus asks them, “Is it lawful to go good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” In Jenkins’ version, they object, “His affliction does not threaten his life. It does not even threaten his health.”
They are so used to things as they are, that they miss how his affliction impacts his life.
The cover art is by an artist Hendrick Goltzius. It’s his right hand. When he was a toddler, he fell into a fireplace and burned both hands on red-hot coals. The tendons of his right hand never properly healed and for the rest of his life he was unable to open it properly.[5] He was in constant pain, but that did not keep him from creating beautiful art.
Still, I imagine he would have liked to be healed, relieved of the pain, restored to full health!
Just like the man with the withered hand.
Jesus cannot wait. He believes the man needn’t wait. So he heals him.
Even if it means picking a fight with the Pharisees.
But let’s be clear what the fight is about because it’s not really about the sabbath.
Both Jesus and the Pharisees would have agreed that the sabbath is a gift from God designed to bless humanity. They would have agreed the faithful should honor the commandment; that keeping the sabbath was one of the things that set Jews apart from others; and that it served as a witness to others of God’s loving care for humanity.
So why does Jesus pick this fight early in his ministry?
Jenkins thinks he knows. In his version, one of the religious officials shouts, “If God had wanted him to be healed, he would have done it himself.” To which Jesus replies, “Interesting point!”
If the filmmaker is right, Jesus picks a fight because that is the quickest way to display, for all to see, what God values!
So what does this piece of scripture tell you about God?
What does it show Jesus’ ministry will be about?
What does it reveal about how you are called to be faithful? Amen
[1] “The Artist's Right Hand” by Hendrick Goltzius
[2] See Dt. 23:25
[3] See season 2, episode 6, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWoTGzlefq8
[4] See Dt. 23:3-4
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