Jesus Lord of the Sabbath

[0:00] Let's read the passage of Scripture which is in Mark chapter 2.

[0:29] The chapter is very controversial. This is where Jesus says he comes to announce the forgiveness of sins in the first part of chapter 2.

[0:42] And then this jarring note that he sits with tax collectors and sinners. And the Pharisees are repulsed and offended by this.

[0:56] And Jesus says, well that's what I've come to do. I'm like a doctor getting involved with people who are ill because I've come to save sinners. And then we had this debate over fasting in verses 18 and onwards.

[1:11] And let's start the reading there. Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, how is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting but yours are not?

[1:22] Jesus answered, how can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot so long as they have him with them.

[1:34] But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and on that day they will fast. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.

[1:50] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined.

[2:00] No, he pours new wine into new wineskins. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the cornfields and as his disciples walked along, they went ahead and picked some ears of corn or they began to pick some ears of corn.

[2:16] And the Pharisees said, look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? He answered, have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

[2:26] 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.

[2:39] And then he said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even or the Lord also of the Sabbath.

[2:52] And so the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Another time he went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. So they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.

[3:07] Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone. And Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath? To do good or to do evil?

[3:20] To save life or to kill? But they remained silent. And he looked around at them in anger. And deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts or their hard hearts.

[3:38] He said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians of all people.

[3:49] How they might kill Jesus. That's the passage we're going to look at. Do you notice it ends with these intense reactions? Jesus angry. We don't often see that.

[4:03] He's usually compassionate and patient and gracious with people. But here he's angry. And we see the Pharisees murder us. Something has happened to say, right, we're going to get this guy.

[4:17] And we're going to finish him off. So, you know, quite a heavy passage. And you might be prepared that we don't actually learn so much about the Sabbath as about the Savior.

[4:36] Because I think that's actually the focus of it. But see how we get on. So this is the passage. So my snappy summary sentence.

[4:47] The jarring transition from the old covenant to the kingdom of Messiah causes intense reactions over Jesus and the Sabbath. And it is. It's a sort of jarring thing.

[4:58] And I think that what we were looking at before fits in the same sequence. So this offendedness about Jesus forgiving people.

[5:10] The offendedness about him eating with tax collectors and sinners. People who didn't keep the law as the Pharisees thought they should. And this failure to fast, perhaps to an excessive amount.

[5:23] That was all jarring stuff. And then we've still got jarring stuff over the matter of Jesus and the Sabbath. So I think there's something going on here.

[5:36] Let's see if we can. The Lord will help us to get at least some sort of handle on it. This is the picture. So we have the disciples. So in the commentary that I looked at, he said that this phrase, they began to pick some ears of corn, was rather, I couldn't see why it was put that way.

[5:58] I'd like to suggest, it's only a suggestion, I could be completely wrong. I think the disciples are going ahead picking the corn. So Jesus is going through the corn fields.

[6:09] And as his disciples walked along, they went ahead to pick ears of corn. So you might imagine them going ahead. And as they make their way through, they're picking the ears of corn and presumably rubbing them between their hands to get the goodness out and chewing it as they go along.

[6:26] So it's a suggestion. And Jesus is following on. And the Pharisees are there too. And the Pharisees say, look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

[6:43] So here's the scene. There's the disciples who are going through the planted corn fields. Here's Jesus.

[6:54] And here are the Pharisees, the defenders of the covenant of Moses. And the question they ask is, why are they doing what is not right? Let's look at this word, unlawful.

[7:07] I don't know, does anybody, this is an unfair question. Does anybody know the, in the original language, what the word would be for law? Does anybody know that one?

[7:19] I'll tell you, it's nomos. So we get antinomian. And I've probably got other words from that, nomos meaning law. Deuteronomy, second law.

[7:30] So as you read this, you might think that it's something, are they doing what is anomos or contranomos, unlawful or against the law.

[7:41] But that's actually not what the word is in the original. It's exesti. Maria would probably tell me how to pronounce it properly. It's a funny word.

[7:52] I couldn't quite get to the bottom of it. It's made of the word ek, which means outside of, and imi, which means to be. So that's a very funny combination of words, isn't it?

[8:05] Is it, does it come from being? Is it out of being? Is it, I don't know, does it follow? Perhaps something like that. Very strange word.

[8:15] But it doesn't say, is it to do with the law? It's not actually a legal word. It's, so I would like to suggest that, sorry, they're on the Sabbath, which is Saturday.

[8:27] So I'm going to strike out on my own a little bit on this and say, let's have another thought about this word lawful.

[8:37] And I would like to suggest that we translate it in our minds, or have in our minds the idea of being acceptable. And the word is not always translated to do with legal stuff.

[8:55] I can give you another couple of examples where exesti is translated in a quite different way. So Matthew 20, 15, just take a look at it.

[9:07] Matthew 20, 15. Matthew 20, 15. It says, Matthew 20, 15, Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?

[9:34] So this is the landlord who hires people and pays them as he sees fit. There's not a question about what the law demands.

[9:45] It's what's right, what's acceptable. And so that word is in that sentence, and it's sort of saying, isn't it acceptable for me to do what I want with my own money?

[9:55] And here, Acts 21, 37. It's surprising that it's in this sentence.

[10:18] Acts 21, 37. It says, As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, May I say something to you?

[10:30] And in the original, it says, is it exesti for me to speak? Is it acceptable for me to speak?

[10:45] Is this the right moment? Is this acceptable? So it's not, do you get the idea of that sentence? Does that make sense? So I'm saying that this word is certainly used in the way that the translation suggests, but it's actually, it's not basically to do with legal things.

[11:07] It's more to do with what's appropriate or what's acceptable, which brings in the question, acceptable to whom? Acceptable to whom?

[11:22] Acceptable in what way? Acceptable by whose criteria? So, going back to Mark, the question that the Pharisees ask is, look, here are your disciples walking along on the Sabbath, picking these ears of corn.

[11:44] Why are they doing what is unacceptable on the Sabbath? Which I think raises the question, unacceptable in what way? Do they mean that it's unacceptable under the law of Moses?

[12:00] Is it acceptable or unacceptable under the law of Moses? Is that what they mean? Or do they mean it's acceptable or unacceptable under our framework as Pharisees?

[12:12] Because, you know, the Pharisees had sort of added and enlarged and imposed things on what the law of Moses said?

[12:23] So, that would be B. Or do they mean C, acceptable under some other way of looking at things?

[12:34] So, do you see, do they mean just what the Old Testament says? Or do they mean what we, how we interpret it?

[12:46] Or is there some third possibility for acceptability? Well, at the risk of confusing everybody. Let's have that thought in our hearts.

[12:57] So, what thought in our minds? What does the, what does, let's see what the law says. Deuteronomy 23, 25 does actually speak on the matter of walking through a field and eating the stuff that's growing there.

[13:21] Because I would be worried about that. I would think, you know, is it acceptable to be walking through somebody's garden and picking their tomatoes and eating them? I would be a little bit worried about that. Is it acceptable to walk through somebody's orchard and pick their apples?

[13:36] Well, this is the wisdom of Deuteronomy 23, 25. It says, well, verse 24, it says, If you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but don't put any in your basket.

[13:50] Which is rather cunning, isn't it? So, eat what you can manage to put in your mouth, but don't start carrying a basket full, because that would be unfair. And then this bit, if you enter your neighbor's cornfield, you may pick the ears with your hands, but you may not put a sickle to his standing corn.

[14:09] So, again, it very wisely limits what you can take. As much as you can do in your hands, but if you start cutting stuff, you know, that's a different story. So, I did have my pen, but I don't know where I put it.

[14:23] So, I was going to put a tick with this.

[14:33] So, they're allowed to eat it with their hands, but they're not allowed to put a sickle and start chopping it down. So, at least that bit's okay. Okay, so under the law of Moses, it would be certainly acceptable to be, you know, ordinarily to be picking the grain as you're walking along.

[14:51] Now, how does, so it wasn't the picking the grain that they were objecting to. Let's have a little think about the Sabbath law. Now, Sabbath law takes its pattern from God in creation.

[15:05] Exodus 31, 17. Is that right? Yes.

[15:18] So, the Sabbath in the law of Moses is a big subject in itself. But I notice in Exodus 31, in verse 17, it says, It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever.

[15:37] For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested. So, there's interesting things there.

[15:49] So, let's think of God in creation. He has this six plus one pattern. And this six plus one pattern sort of casts its light over all sorts of time frames in human, certainly in Israelite calendar.

[16:04] You can get six years and one year. Six days and one day. So, the sixth and one. On the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.

[16:17] I looked up the word rested. And it's the literal. Literal isn't always correct. But literally it means took a breath.

[16:30] Isn't that a lovely thought? That God made the world. And on the seventh day he stopped working and took a breath.

[16:42] That strikes me as being a rather lovely picture. He was refreshed. He took a breather. He sat back and looked and said, I really did that rather well.

[16:53] And personally I would say that that is a pattern for all humankind. That we work a lot better. So, we live a lot better. If instead of working seven days a week, we can work six days a week and take a breather.

[17:08] And take a breath. And say, you know, smell the roses and whatever else to do to be refreshed. So, but it's also, there's also the saying that there's something rather specific to Israel.

[17:24] Verse 17, it will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever. Something specifically Israelite about it.

[17:34] It's a gift to Israel which in some senses isn't given to the nations. And I also notice while we're in Exodus 31, that it says, verse 14, It carries the death penalty.

[17:59] So, before we get too anxious to say, let's keep the Old Testament, we'll just change the day. I mean, we change more than the day.

[18:14] Because we don't incur the death penalty, do we? We wouldn't say, Chris and Phil, they want you to sneak out and catch somebody who wasn't in church on somebody and throttle them and report back by the next members meeting.

[18:31] So, there are changes. Let's look at these texts here. Exodus 20. I think these probably say more or less the same thing.

[18:44] Exodus 20 is the Ten Commandments. So, we get in Exodus 20, verse 1, the specific nature of the covenant with Israel.

[18:58] So, God doesn't say this to every nation. Exodus 20, verse 1, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. So, it's only one nation for whom he did that.

[19:11] And then, in verses 8 to 11, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

[19:23] On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien, you know, the visitor within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the Sabbath day.

[19:39] Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So, you see that six plus one pattern. That's where, in creation, that's where it's traced back to.

[19:49] And the emphasis is on not working. It talks about being holy, but there is no, there is not present in that text, say, you ought to go to church.

[20:05] Although it might be implied, but what's explicit is you don't work. And that balance of things is reflected in a number of texts.

[20:19] So, Deuteronomy 5, 12 to 15. So, this is the Ten Commandments in the second law, Deuteronomy.

[20:43] Deuteronomy 5, from verse 12. And this time it's not put in terms of creation so much as it says here, Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you.

[20:58] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, nor the visitor, the stranger, the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

[21:19] Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

[21:29] So, there it's put in terms of God's giving people rest. You know, God says, You were slaves, you had to work 24-7, and I took you out of that and are brought into the place where you have a rest.

[21:44] You know, the land is a land of rest. And I brought you into a place where you're not slaved, you're not enslaved. So, don't treat your servants that way.

[21:55] Give them the day off too, so that they can rest and have a breather. That's the way that's put. And again, an emphasis on not working. That's where the emphasis comes.

[22:05] Nehemiah 13 verse 19 takes us on in Israelite history when things had got pretty confused and messy.

[22:17] And in Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah enforces people coming back to the law of Moses.

[22:28] Nehemiah 13 verse 19. Is that what I meant? I think it is. You are stirring up wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.

[22:40] When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day.

[22:53] Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I'll lay hands on you. From that time on, they no longer came on the Sabbath.

[23:06] And I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath holy. I think that's quite interesting. Holy in the sense of special and different.

[23:17] Because what the Levites don't do is say, right, you guys come to church with us. What they say is, you're not doing any trade. And again, that's the Old Testament emphasis. We have a rest.

[23:30] We have a breather. And it's enforced. Enforced by force, actually. He threatens them, doesn't he? He says, if you're going to treat it as a normal day, I'm going to come and whack you over the head with something.

[23:43] So I'm going about a little bit, but Exodus 35, 2 and 3. One of these makes the point again that the failure to do this under the law of Moses was a capital offense.

[24:04] You would be killed. Exodus 35, verse 1. Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, these are the things the Lord has commanded you to do.

[24:15] For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, the Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

[24:28] So not even lighting a fire. Of course, Jews today debate whether you're supposed to turn a light on, don't they? And they would, in some of the circumstances, get a Gentile to turn the light on so that they wouldn't be guilty of desecrating the Sabbath.

[24:44] And in particular, Exodus 34, verse 21, which can't be that far away. Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest, even during the plowing season, and harvest you must rest.

[25:01] So no harvesting on the Sabbath. So that in a bit of a whistle-stop tour is what the law of Moses said in that sort of area.

[25:15] So we come back to the question, as the Pharisees ask it, is what the disciples are doing what is unacceptable on the Sabbath?

[25:28] Now in, so what sort of unacceptable do they mean? So is it unacceptable to Moses? No, I don't know what you think.

[25:41] Did Moses say, Moses said you could pick, if you're walking through somebody's garden, you could pick enough with your hand.

[25:52] So it didn't count as putting in the sickle. It's not quite the same as harvesting. So, I mean, it's a question. Do we think that it was unacceptable to Moses?

[26:05] I think what we'd say is, it's certainly not clear. I mean, there's no particular command one way or another. And I think you would be pretty strong if you said it was definitely unacceptable to Moses.

[26:19] So I think perhaps, A, maybe that's not the case. Is it unacceptable to the Pharisees? Yeah. Yeah. They're saying, in our understanding, this is unacceptable.

[26:32] And C, some other way of judging whether it's unacceptable. There isn't any other way. There is no other way of judging whether things are acceptable.

[26:46] So that's how the question gets asked. Now, now we see, how does Jesus answer it? And it's one of those things, well, you take a bit of a deep breath.

[27:01] What is he actually saying? So he says, the answers were the question, have you never read? Let me tell you something else, he says, which is not what I would have said.

[27:13] This is what Jesus says. He says, here's something to think about. Do you remember the time when David was on the run? He had some people with him and they were hungry and in need.

[27:25] And in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, he wasn't actually high priest at that time, but he was the chap who became high priest. He entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which it is acceptable only for priests to eat.

[27:40] And he gave some to his companions. And Jesus says, this is a good answer to your question. And I'm struggling to think, I don't think I would have answered it this way. So it challenges me a bit.

[27:52] And I'm thinking, how is this relevant? So there's the tabernacle bread. And if you're not a priest, under the law of Moses, it is not acceptable to eat that bread.

[28:06] so Jesus' mind doesn't go. to the sort of legal interpretation of the law of Moses. Although that's where we went, but he doesn't go there.

[28:18] He says, let me tell you about David. David ate the bread, which according to the law of Moses is unacceptable to eat. And I think he's making a point.

[28:35] That David, the king, Oh dear, this is the battery. He's saying, David, the king, in your Old Testament, overtrumps the priestly code of Moses.

[29:15] Do you know what I mean by overtrumps? You say, the law of Moses says this, the king says this, the king is more important than the law of Moses. Which is quite a radical thing to say, isn't he?

[29:27] And, the thing that Jesus points out is he had some people with him. And what he said covered them. So, think what his statement is, two things.

[29:39] One, David the king overtrumps the priestly code of Moses. And two, David the king covers and carries his people. So, what he says goes for them too.

[29:51] Now, how is this relevant? Now you see, when Jesus makes this answer, he's not being silly, is he? If we don't follow why it's relevant, it's because we are so a bit spiritually obtuse.

[30:05] So, I'm including myself in that. But, what I think he's saying is, Jesus is saying, I am at least as important as David. I am greater than or equal to David.

[30:19] And I think he's saying, I'm greater than David. I'm greater than David. And, these guys who went on ahead and they're picking the call, I can see them.

[30:31] I'm letting them do it. If it was wrong, I'd say something. They're my people. I'm looking after them. And as David carried and looked after his companions, I cover and carry my people.

[30:46] So, you know, if there's something that you want to talk about, talk to me about it because they're under my jurisdiction. And Jesus goes on to say, man was not made to fit in with the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man.

[31:05] I put those, both those in brackets because it's a sort of way, it's a translating thing. The Sabbath was, man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.

[31:18] Sabbath was made for man, not man to fit in with the Sabbath. And then, so, I'm puzzled about the so, I don't think I understand the so, but what he says is rather breathtaking.

[31:33] The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. That's his answer to this.

[31:52] Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. So, when he answered the question, was he answering it as A, this is acceptable under the law of Moses, and I say, he doesn't, he doesn't go there at all.

[32:08] And then, does he go with B, acceptable in terms of the interpretation of the Pharisees? And I say, well, he clearly disagrees with the interpretation of the Pharisees.

[32:21] They've completely got it up the spout. And I think he goes for C. He says, acceptability is a matter of what I say it is.

[32:34] Because I am Lord of the Sabbath. and this is where the kingdom comes in. Because, you know, Moses said something, okay, you guys say something, but now we're in the kingdom, what goes is not what either of those say, but what I say.

[32:57] And if I say they can pick the grain of corn, they can pick it. Because you don't realize who I am. He's saying to the Pharisees, I'm Lord of the Sabbath. which is such a statement to make.

[33:13] Let me try and put it this way. It fits in with a whole lot of things that Jesus says and does, and a whole lot of ways that he's controversial.

[33:24] But Jesus and the law, Jesus and the law. I need my pens. How does Jesus relate to the law of Moses?

[33:34] Does he ignore the law? No. Does he come to destroy the law? No. He says, I haven't come to destroy it. Interestingly, it says that Jesus was born of a woman born under the law.

[33:54] So there's a sense in which he is a proper Jew. But the thing that he does say is, I've come to fulfill the law. I've come to take the law of Moses, and the law of Moses doesn't stop with itself.

[34:10] It moves on. It points somewhere else. The Old Testament couldn't get us there, but in me, says Jesus, the law is fulfilled, and it's fulfilled in a number of ways, by deepening it.

[34:23] So in the old, the letter of the law in the Old Testament says you shall not commit adultery, but Jesus says, what I say to you, the way you look and think, that is the fulfillment of that law.

[34:36] And Jesus intensifying it. The Old Lord says, love your neighbor, and you said hate your enemy, but I say love your enemy.

[34:50] So I intensify it. And by completing the law, there are some things that the law pointed to that exactly terminate in Jesus. So blood sacrifice, that's the law pointed to something, and Jesus says, I complete that.

[35:04] You don't need any blood sacrifices now. I complete the law, and I exceed the law. If righteousness would come by the law, then Christ died for nothing.

[35:15] What Christ did on the cross was go beyond anything that the law specified to save us by his own blood. And it bursts out and beyond what the law could encapsulate, and we have a righteousness which is beyond the righteousness of the law.

[35:36] And I think there's something going on here, which was really about Jesus saying, Jesus saying, you're failing to realize that's Moses.

[35:48] I'm bigger than Moses. I'm the king. I'm bigger than David. and I'm lord even of the Sabbath. Let's look at the next issue, which is in the synagogue.

[36:06] So there's our picture. There's Jesus on this side. There's the man with the withered hand, and there are the people.

[36:18] It doesn't say they're Pharisees, but I think they probably are. The Pharisees are the ones who go out. They are watching him closely. So they're probably standing at the back, but they've got their beady eyes on Jesus, and they are watching closely to see if he would heal this man on the Sabbath.

[36:43] And now Jesus knows this, and he says to the man, stand up at the front so everybody can see you. And then Jesus says, right, here's this guy with the withered hand.

[36:54] Answer me this question. Which is acceptable? Which is acceptable on the Sabbath? To do good, or to do evil?

[37:09] To save life, or to kill? So you put it in those terms of acceptable, it sort of raises all the questions. Do I think it's acceptable? Acceptable to whom?

[37:20] Now go on, what do you think is acceptable? Which is acceptable? And they say, nothing.

[37:40] And it's the not saying anything that makes Jesus so angry, doesn't it? Usually it's safe not to say anything, but Jesus is really angry that they don't have an answer to this question.

[37:57] He looked round at them in anger. Can you imagine that? Jesus looking round at a group of people, fuming with anger.

[38:14] It's the anger of the wrath of the lamb. Terrible thing, the anger of the lamb. For somebody so gentle and so compassionate, so understanding and patient to be angry, boy, they must have done something bad.

[38:34] and what he looks around is he looks around deeply distressed. There's a mixture of emotions, anger and sorrow and grief, at their hard hearts, their stubbornness of heart.

[38:54] heart. And he says to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretches out his hand. He's better.

[39:05] And immediately the door goes bang at the end because some people just stormed out. So and so has gone off in a huff.

[39:22] And they have. gone off in an absolute rage. And the Pharisees have nothing to do with Herodians. They're a completely different kettle of fish.

[39:33] The Herodians are the rich, posh, unscrupulous people and the Pharisees are the sort of lay people that are pure and guardians of what is right and wholesome and proper.

[39:48] And for these two people, two groups of people to get together, you know, and they're getting together to kill Jesus. I think what an intense reaction.

[40:02] What is going on? And I have to say, I'm not quite sure because I rather fear that I wouldn't have known what to say in that situation either.

[40:14] And it would be, I hope Jesus wouldn't have been angry with me, but why such strong emotions?

[40:27] I mean, I don't know what you think, perhaps we have time to say. I think Jesus is angry because these people who claim to understand, have a real insight into their own scriptures, don't know what their own scriptures are saying and don't see where they're pointing.

[40:48] And it's, I don't know, is it a sin of claiming to have got something but when you haven't? Is it a sin of resisting something that you keep on being told?

[41:05] I don't know, see what you think in a moment. And why are the Pharisees so angry? That Jesus has just made some bloke better. You know, why are they so angry about this?

[41:20] Is it because an opportunity for them to score points is lost? Because if Jesus isn't going to back them up on the Sabbath, you know, he's undermining because they were very pleased with themselves because they didn't go a pace further than the correct number of paces on the Sabbath and they wouldn't have done anything that was worked, they wouldn't have switched the light on, they would have kept, ticked all the boxes and they would have felt very smug about themselves and Jesus is undermining that.

[41:52] Is it because he's unpicking the fabric of their self righteousness? You know, if you've got a pullover and you pull one little bit and you just, once you started pulling it, the whole thing falls to pieces.

[42:07] You can visualize that, can't you? Oh dear, oh dear, dear, dear, dear, dear. And in picking away at the Sabbath, Jesus has just pulled something and they can see that the whole edifice, the whole structure of the way they view their relationship with God of self-righteousness, the whole thing is going to be unpicked.

[42:28] Got a story about James, what was the guy in Levin, what was his last name? that you know, the minister that we heard at this gospel partnership.

[42:42] If I'll tell you the rest of the story, you'll remember who he was. He was a curator, Bishop Hannington, went over to a parish north of Chichester called Lavant, which is a very traditional Anglican parish where they have a chasuble, whatever that is, and the correct form of words at the Eucharist, and there's even things that aren't in the prayer book, like how you fold the cloth that you put on the altar, you know, you fold it, you know how the Americans fold the flag at a military funeral, it's that sort of thing, you've got to do it and you've got to stand and bow at the right time, all that sort of stuff, that's the sort of Anglicanism that James whatever his name is, dear fellow, so he's a gospel man and he gets appointed to this parish and he tells them the

[43:43] Bible and he preaches the gospel and people hate him for it and they accuse him of things and they talk about him behind his back and they go into Chichester and they shop with their friends and they say that young man who's come from Brighton is ruining our church and I think why such a strong reaction because, I mean here's a suggestion, because the gospel unpicks all that sort of ritualistic self-righteous I can score points, I'm a good person, I've earned my salvation, I'm better than they are, all that whole thing just begins to completely unravel because the gospel says we're all sinners and we're all saved by grace and there's not a single one of us can look down on anybody else and say I'm better than you are because we're all saved by the same blood and people hate it.

[44:50] is it because Jesus stands for the plebs so these disciples who have never been to college, they don't know theology, they're just rough and ready fishermen and Jesus says they're the people of the king and you guys you've done all your studying and everything well you're not, these are my people, is it that they've got under their noses or is it that Jesus, I think this is what he's doing, he says your precious law which you think is the be all and end all, this is the law that testifies of me, this, that I'm the person of whom the law and the prophets speak and you put your hope in Moses, that Moses will be your accuser because if you believed what he said you would have believed in me, it seems terribly radical isn't it but is that what's going on and then I ask having said all that what would we have said if we were in that synagogue what sort of heart do we have

[46:13] I think it's quite a challenging question even for gospel people so I'll stop there does anybody have any thoughts on this because I don't think I've got from the depths of this because it is such a strong reaction anybody have any thoughts on the anger of Jesus or the murderous reaction of the Pharisees you think it was a yeah I think it was fairly obvious yes yes very special if the word so means it is there the Sabbath was made for man not man the Sabbath so the son of man is already for the

[47:14] Sabbath the idea that Jesus knows what's best for men he's the perfect man and he knows exactly what people need it's a wonderful title it's a strange title the son of man I should be called that yes thank you yeah into real humanness yeah yeah yeah yeah yes it was out of envy that they handed him over yes yes yeah yeah that's a very helpful comment because they probably thought they were lords of the

[48:29] Sabbath didn't they that yeah that would yes yeah and I think there's something quite true about that because they were felt threatened by his authority over what they thought they had authority over yeah yeah yeah yeah it's not a repellent scariness is it I mean it's an awesome one yes you're right it makes me a little bit of like I should say it's like a nation by islam where you've got kind of like prayer calls and everyone expected to abide by the sharia law and then so there's a complete network of law and fear and then someone just comes along and says actually

[49:44] I've got a higher authority like you say I thought David had authority and he could open all the priesthood or find the king and they would they'd just be enraged wouldn't they they'd just want to kill the guy and they'd be like this guy and they blaspheme and they'd be going to stone him to death immediately yes yeah that's what they wanted to do amazing I think Jesus must have had immense personal authority like like the bit where they come to arrest him and he says what does he say I can't remember he asks them a question they just fall down in worship don't they yeah yeah yeah let's sing shall we