A Day of Rest or A Life of Rest

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

A DAY OF REST or A LIFE OF REST 

Mark 2:23-28

23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" 25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."  27 Then 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."

NIV

Here is an argument over the holiness of the Sabbath, at least according to the law which the Pharisees were very good at pointing out everyone else’s failures in regard to the law. There are some comments from our scholars as to why the disciples were hungry, which is mentioned in Matthews’s account of this incident. The thought was that why did Jesus allow his disciples to go hungry, especially when he had compassion on the crowd and wanted to feed them multiplying the loaves and fish to the point of having so many leftovers. Was he not concerned about the hunger of his disciples that they had to break the law by picking grain as they passed through a field? We think our scholars have missed the point. This was all a setup so that Jesus could make the Pharisees see the error of their ways following the old, the law, especially about the Sabbath when he was the Lord of the Sabbath. All they believed about the grain offering on the second Sabbath of the Passover feast was covered under the law, and that was the most of importance to them, as this offering was done in the temple, the place God was worshipped. Again, Jesus was making the point that he is greater than the temple, for He is the Son of Man and is Lord even of the Sabbath. Once again, Jesus supersedes the law. The reference he was making to David certainly was to show them that as it was said to David by God, that his throne would endure forever, which was to say that Jesus came from the line of David and is, in fact, the throne of David that will last forever. Jesus pointed to himself over and over again, not to be self-centered, but so that man would come to him for salvation. Everything Jesus did was for the benefit of man, His creation. Hunger is a natural thing and everyone eats at the pains of hunger, Jesus ate and did so with sinners. Jesus feeds thousands, so it is not about Jesus allowing his own to go hungry and we should not take a lesson that our following Jesus is more important than the grain of the world, as those scholars wanted to force our attention toward. Jesus always said that if we have a need to ask, in fact, ask God for anything in his name and he will do it for us. Ask and receive, so it is not about Jesus keeping food from his disciples, but about taking the argument right to the Pharisees showing them that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. In addition, the Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath. We do not worship the Sabbath, as the Pharisees appeared to do, but the day of rest was made for us, to rest from our labor, to repose, to spend our time with the Son of Man, the Lord of that day of rest. Of course, in our society, that day of rest has pretty much gone by the wayside, as we live in a twenty-four seven sort of lifestyle. Then again there is no rest for the wicked, but for us, we at least take a few hours out of our day and attend a house of worship. We rest our spirit all the time in the Lord. We rest our life in Him, we live at rest because we know Jesus and He has given us the Spirit to calm our spirit, to lead us in the way of life everlasting. His word is a light unto our feet, He shows us His way. So we live at rest because we rest in Jesus, therefore every day is a day of rest.