I delivered this homily at Christ Episcopal, Yankton, SD on June 2, 2024. The scripture lessons for the day were Deuteronomy 5:12-15 and Mark 2:23-3:6 on which this homily is based.
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“Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” Mark 3:4a
Given the full rendition of the fourth commandment in our first reading, how would we answer Jesus’ question? Unlike the fourth commandment in our prayer book which simply tells us to Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy, the biblical account tells us how to do so. Throughout the Old Testament what it means to refrain from work is explicitly laid out. For example:
During the exodus, the Israelites were to stay in their dwellings on Sabbath; they were to gather the manna they ate during the week because God would not be provide it on the Sabbath.
Lighting a fire or extinguishing a fire was prohibited.
Plowing and harvesting was forbidden.
Walking was limited to 3/4 of a mile on the Sabbath
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Today, Orthodox Jews have 39 sabbath prohibitions. Yuval Harari, a professor a the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, noted in his book, “21 Lesson for the 21st Century;”
that some Orthodox Jews in Israel tear off sheets of lavatory paper before the Sabbath starts because one of the 39 prohibitions is tearing things. To be clear, Orthodox rabbis have determined that the Sabbath can be “violated” in order to save someone’s life. The point is, in Judaism, keeping the Sabbath holy is no small undertaking. It requires planning and preparation.
So, why was Jesus allowing his disciples to pluck heads of grain - to harvest - them on the Sabbath? When the Pharisees questioned Jesus about this, he reminded them of David doing something far worse; taking the Show Bread that was offered to God on the Sabbath which only the priests could eat after nine days.
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As the story goes, David was alone and on the run from King Saul who was out to kill him. David lied to Abimelech, a priest in the Tabernacle, telling him he was on secret mission for Saul and needed food for his companions. Believing David, Abimelech gave him five loaves of the twelve loaves of Show Bread. Then David said, “O by the way, you don’t happen have any weapons lying around? I was in such a rush to do Saul’s bidding, I forgot to bring mine. Abimelech said, “As matter of fact, we do.” We have Goliath’s sword and gives it to David. When Saul finds out about this, he has Abimelech and eighty five other priests killed. [See 1 Samuel 21 - 22. (Note: In Mark's telling of this story Jesus states that Abiathar who was the High Priest during King Davids reign was the priest David approached in 1 Samuel, which is obviously incorrect.)]
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Mark tells us that prior to healing the man with a withered hand, Jesus liberated a man possessed with a demon and healed Peter’s sick mother-in-law on a previous sabbath. When that Sabbath ended, others came to Jesus in the dark of night to be healed by him to avoid violating the Sabbath.
When Jesus entered the synagogue, in today’s reading, he sees the man with a withered hand and asks the
congregation, in his roundabout way, if he could lawfully heal him. The congregation goes silent. Jesus give them an angry look because of their insensitivity to the man’s condition and he immediately heals his withered hand.
I am not sure why asking the man to stretch out his hand was considered work, but it most likely has something to do with Jesus’ provocative question which cast healing as his work. Jesus could have reminded his disciples to bring along extra food to eat on the Sabbath and avoid the risk of violating the fourth commandment. Jesus could have waited until the Sabbath ended to heal the man’s withered hand, but Jesus didn’t do those things.
Why? Why was he being provocative when it came to keeping the Sabbath holy?
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The answer lies in Jesus’ earlier statement to the Pharisees:
“The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Jesus recalibrated the purpose of fourth commandment based its original premises; the creation story in Genesis in which God rested and gave rest to creation and the Passover story, considered a Sabbath event, in which God liberated the Children of Israel from slavery. Sabbaths are transitional moments in which God recreates and liberates.
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About Jesus claim that Son of man is lord of the Sabbath, the term “Son of Man”, in Hebrew is בן אדם, son of Adam. Generically, it simply means human. It is was God’s moniker for Ezekiel which Jesus adopted to reference himself, because, like Ezekiel, Jesus not only taught by what he said but also by what he did.
“So the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath,” in this context is a literary and oratory device in Hebrew to reinforce the previous statement, the sabbath is made for humankind.
Being lords and ladies of the sabbath does not mean we can do what we want on the Sabbath as one might conclude. On the contrary, in Jesus’ recalibration of the fourth commandment, every day becomes a sabbath day, a day in which to re-create and liberate.
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Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, is an edgy man on a mission, for whom there was no time like the present to do good. Jesus was always on the lookout for those who needed a recreating and liberating sabbath rest.
If we claim to follow Jesus, how can we be any different? How can we afford to be indifferent in providing sabbath rest to others when needing it ourselves?
May God give us courageous hearts to become a Sabbath people, who give rest to the restless, who liberate the weary from their burdens, who mend the broken, and who bring Shabbat shalom, Sabbath Peace to all.
Amen.
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Norm
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