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This Sunday, we will be working through a difficult section of Mark’s gospel. There are several ways that this text can be misinterpreted or applied wrongly. It will be a challenge to navigate all these issues within a 35 minute sermon, so I would encourage you to read Mark 2:23-3:6 several times before Sunday. We will use a very simple outline to work through this account. Over the last several weeks, Jesus has demonstrated His authority to bring the Kingdom of God which He preached. He healed sickness, cast out demons, claimed authority to forgive sin, and compared himself to the bridegroom who has come for His bride. We have also seen the religious leaders increasingly oppose and confront Jesus. They doubt His authority to forgive sins, question his company of tax collectors and sinners, and call out His view on ritual fasting. Mark 2:23-3:6 shows the Pharisees challenge Jesus for breaking the Sabbath. First, they question His disciples picking and eating grain on the Sabbath day. To them, this amounted to reaping and threshing (doing work on the day God commanded for rest). Then, their hearts stand ready to accuse Him if he heals a man on the Sabbath. There are several ways we might go off the rails in interpreting and applying this passage. The most common is to deny that God fourth commandment still applies today. It certainly does. There are 10 commandments not 9. Jesus does not deny the creation ordinance of a sabbath rest. Yet, the Sabbath is not the legalistic, burdensome, & rule-filled reality that the Pharisees made it either. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (2:27). In the Christian life, we must keep all of God’s word in balance and stay out of the ditches. Foundationally, the Pharisees’ nit picking confrontations with Jesus were not because He kept company with sinners, didn’t require fasting, or was neglecting the Sabbath. The real problem was their hard heartedness (3:5). The religious leaders knew that their view and teaching on God’s salvation was fundamentally different than Jesus preaching on the Kingdom of God. Their view of legal obedience earning righteousness is not compatible with Jesus’ call for sinners to come to Him in faith. Because of this, their hearts were hard to Jesus’ identity and His call to repentance and faith. To receive Jesus would be to deny their teaching, their worldview, and their own righteousness. They would not do that. So, at the end of this passage, Jesus using the healing of a man’s hand to expose their hearts and Mark 3:6 says began seeking how they might destroy Him. From this point, Jesus is headed to the cross as their hearts grow harder to His call. It is easy to veer off into topical expositions of the Sabbath and legal technicalities (some of which we will do) but this text shows Jesus authority as the Son of Man to rightly interpret the word (for He is the author) and call the most religious of sinners to salvation in Him. 

READ Exodus 20:8-11 for God’s sabbath command

I. Jesus is Confronted With the Law (2:23-24)

II. Jesus Cites Precedent From Scripture (2:25-26)

III. Jesus is Lord Of The Sabbath (2:27-28)

IV. Jesus Reveals The True Problem (3:1-6) 

Remember, daylight savings time begins this Sunday! Everything moves up an hour. When we last left Mark’s gospel, Jesus had called Levi, the tax collector, to follow Him. Having left all behind, Levi held a banquet at which Jesus ate with many tax collectors and sinners, drawing the questions of the Pharisees. As we examine Mark 2:18-22, we again find Jesus questioned about this feast at Levi’s house. Jesus is asked why the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees’ disciples fast while Jesus’ disciples are feasting. Jesus does not condemn the practice of fasting as a spiritual discipline. Jesus himself fasted in the gospels. But Jesus answers by comparing Himself to a bridegroom at a wedding. His presence is a time for joy and celebration. Then, He gives two illustrations showing that the New Covenant Kingdom of God has not come as an addition or addendum to the traditions of Judaism. Jesus says no one sews a new patch on an old garment or puts new wine in old wineskins. Doing so would destroy both the old and the new. Jesus does not come as a helpful addition to an already religious life. He did not come to add an extra little benefit to our already put-together goals and aspirations. Christ comes as the bridegroom to transform the sinner’s nature. He has come to make us new creatures, not to sprinkle some good theology and doctrine on our religious traditions. Sunday, we will examine what kind of fasting Jesus is being asked about and how his answer and illustration apply to us today. 

I. Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting (v. 18)

II. Jesus Presence Is An Occasion For Joy (v. 19-20)

III. Jesus is Not An Accessory To Life Or Religion (v. 21-22)

This Sunday, we enter a new section of the gospel of Mark. Having seen four demonstrations of Christ’s authority, culminating in His authority to forgive sins. The next four passages show us the religious leaders’ opposition to Jesus, which leads to their resolution to destroy Christ (Mark 3:6). Last week, as Christ forgave and healed the paralytic, we saw the beginning of this opposition as scribes viewed Jesus’ authority to forgive sins as blasphemy. In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus calls one of the most despised and immoral people in Hebrew culture - a Jewish tax collector. As Jesus continues to proclaim the Kingdom of God, calling people to repent and believe the gospel, He shows that this salvation is even open to the worst of sinners. Not only that, but Jesus fellowships at table with the worst of sinners. Christ’s association with sinners brings the opposition of "scribes of the Pharisees," who saw this as an act of defilement. Jesus responds with a well-known proverb saying, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17). This is both a glorious welcome for sinners and a warning for those who see themselves as righteous by their works (as the Pharisees did). Jesus is a friend of sinners, but He is not a friend of sin. In Luke’s account of this event, Jesus says, "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32). A sure sign of the Kingdom of God breaking into the life of a sinner is repentance and faith. When Jesus calls Levi, who is probably well-known and hated for his extortion of the people of Capernaum, He calls him to leave everything behind and follow Jesus. Sunday, we will examine Levi’s call, this fellowship meal of sinners, and Jesus’ warning to the self-righteous.

I. Jesus Calls The Worst Of Sinners (v. 13-14)

II. Jesus Fellowships With The Worst Of Sinners (v. 15-16)

III. Jesus Calls Sinners Not Self-Righteous (v. 17)

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Jesus’ kingdom authority has been the focus throughout Mark 1. He burst onto the scene proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand and calling people to repent and believe the good news. Then, Mark presents four consecutive miracles that demonstrate Christ’s authority. Jesus casts out an unclean spirit in the synagogue of Capernaum, showing His authority over the kingdom of darkness. He heals Peter’s mother-in-law because He has authority over every effect of the fall. Last week, we examined the third miracle, when Jesus cleansed a leper. Only Christ has the authority to make the unclean clean. Each of these miracles reveals more of the Messiah’s authority to bring God’s Kingdom, culminating in the exercise of His most incredible display of authority.  This Sunday, Mark presents the fourth miracle, revealing that Jesus has the authority to forgive sin. The story of four men breaking through the roof to let down their paralytic friend before Jesus is a well-known narrative. Yet, this event is not just another physical healing. After seeing the faith of these men who are determined to get to Jesus and seeing the paralyzed man suffering before Him, Jesus does not immediately say, “Pick up your bed and walk.” Instead, His first words are, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Jesus looks past this man’s physical suffering and meets his greatest need. Jesus only heals this man’s physical body to prove that He has the authority to forgive sins. When Christ pronounces the man’s sins forgiven, scribes in the crowd are offended that Jesus would claim an authority only God has. Only God can forgive sins, and claiming this authority is blasphemy. Knowing what is in their hearts, Jesus heals this man proving that He indeed is “the Son of Man” and “has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Mark 2:10).

I. Setting (v. 1-2)

II. Faith Is Displayed In Action (v. 3-5a)

III. Jesus Meets Our Greatest Need (v. 5)

IV. Jesus Has Authority To Forgive Sin (v. 6-12)

Sunday, we examine the third of four miracles grouped together in the first section of Mark. Each of these miracles reveals another dimension of Jesus’ authority and mission. The first showed Jesus’ authority over evil spirits. The second illustrated His authority over sickness & the effects of the fall. In Mark 1:40-45, we will see Jesus’ authority to make clean what is unclean. As Jesus moves through Galilee, preaching and casting out spirits (1:39), Mark singles out one miracle for emphasis, the cleansing of a leper. While this miracle is indeed a physical healing similar to Peter’s mother-in-law, the word "heal" is not used in this passage at all. Instead, both the leper and Jesus repeatedly refer to "being clean." The leper approaches Jesus and says that Jesus can make him clean if He so wills. Jesus touches him and says, "I am willing. Be clean." While this is certainly a healing in every sense of the word, the emphasis is on the cleansing of the leper’s uncleanness. Leviticus 13:45-46 tells us that leprosy not only was a debilitating and deadly disease, but it required the afflicted person to live an isolated, lonely, and humiliating life. Not only this, but the leper would never be allowed into any synagogue or the temple courts to worship God as He commanded. The defilement of the disease separated the leper from the community of faith, his family, the worship of God, and from life in Israel. Because of this, leprosy has often been seen as a fitting picture of sin, which also defiles and separates us from God. As we examine this miraculous cleansing, we see that Jesus has authority not only to heal and roll back the effects of the fall, but Jesus can remove the defilement of sin as well. Jesus can make the unclean clean. That in itself is most instructive as we root ourselves in the gospel of Christ, but the passage doesn’t end there. In a curious turn of events, Jesus tells the leper not to tell anyone of his healing and to go to the priest and be declared clean according to the ceremonial law. Mark chronicles the disobedience of this cleansed man who immediately tells everyone. Because of this, Jesus’ ministry is hindered and he is no longer able to enter the towns to preach in the synagogue. Sunday, we will talk about what this means and how it applies in our own lives.

I. The Faith To Be Made Clean (v. 40)

II. The Compassion & Power To Make Clean (v. 41-42)

III. The Cost of Disobedience (v. 43-45)

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