October 13, 2024
Mark 3: 1-6
This morning I’m here to warn you about several things we should all be doing but I fear none of us are. As your Pastor I feel it’s my job to tell you, my flock, when you’re in danger of being in the wrong, so as a warning, I’m going to make you aware of these things.
First, the next time you’re driving along a country road at night you must stop every mile and send up a rocket signal. Then wait ten minutes to be sure the road is clear of livestock before you keep driving. Second, it is illegal in Louisiana to sleep on top of a refrigerator outside, though if you choose to do so in your own home that’s your business. Third, as a minister the state prohibits me from performing a wedding if the bride or groom is intoxicated, and if you’ve been dueling lately, you are no longer eligible to become our Governor.[1]
Confused? That’s probably because despite being law-abiding citizens you didn’t know that these laws are technically still part of Louisiana law. For whatever reason no one has gotten around to repealing them, so laws such as not being allowed to sing in the bathtub or to use dynamite to catch fish[2] continue to exist. And Louisiana isn’t the only state with such odd laws in need of repeal.
In Missouri you can’t drive down the highway with an un-caged bear in your car. The education of dogs is illegal in Connecticut as is selling your eyes in Texas. Texas law also requires criminals to give their victims 24-hour’s notice, either verbally or in writing, of the crime to be committed.[3] Ladies take care when you drive in Memphis because state law requires a man to be in your front seat with a red flag so as to wave and warn others there’s a woman driver on the road.[4]
Humans are masters of creating laws and for as long as human societies have existed there have been rules to help us live together better. From the Law Code of Hammurabi, which dates to around 1750 BC, to the 10 Commandments given to our Jewish ancestors, to the Napoleonic Code France adopted in the 1800s, to our own Constitution and Bill of Rights, communities continually create rules for life within that community.
Over time laws become antiquated or their original purpose becomes murky and it’s necessary to replace them, but the intent behind these laws remains the same – to protect and uphold the community. To safeguard the community’s people and perpetuate its cultural norms.
This is exactly what has the Pharisees in this morning’s Mark story so frustrated with Jesus. Let me say from the outset that the Pharisees – and really all Jewish leaders – too often get painted with a negative, one-dimensional brush as though their only purpose is to be a foil for Jesus. In actuality, the Pharisees are a group of middle-class businessmen and synagogue leaders whose representation of the common people makes them popular with working folk.
For the Pharisees the law is central, and they’re convinced the Jewish people need to follow all 600 plus laws in the Torah. These men are absolute-ists, believing oral tradition is just as important as written tradition. And, perhaps most importantly, they hold these beliefs during a time of occupation, of foreign leaders being continually sent in by a superpower the Jewish people have no hope of overthrowing. The Jewish state, such as it is, exists because the Roman Empire hasn’t seen a reason to destroy it.
So, are we really so surprised that the Pharisees saw Jesus, with his reinterpretations of the law and language about being the “Son of Man” as a threat to their way of life? How would we feel in their position, living in a potential powder keg while trying to keep our culture alive? Striving to keep our people focused on living Godly lives that follow Torah law with this crazy man and his followers blatantly breaking the law and telling others they should too? I doubt any of us can imagine the pressure and level of responsibility these men are feeling as they watch Jesus' disciples walking ahead of him through this wheat field plucking the heads off the grain.
Why doesn’t Jesus stop them? As their teacher, he’s responsible for their actions[5] and yet there he is, allowing his hooligans to “make a way” for him without saying a word. Surely, he knows their picking is one of the “thirty-nine varieties of work that[‘s] forbidden on the Sabbath,”[6] and as commentator Wendy Farley points out, “[Jesus]disciples are not starving. They are wandering through a field, idly plucking off the tips of grain,”[7] If they were starving, they could’ve been helped. Torah provides for care to those in crisis on the Sabbath. Why break such an innocent law for no apparent reason? Is Jesus trying to be inflammatory?
From here the third chapter of Mark tells us he goes to the synagogue, encounters a man with a withered hand, and launches accusations at the Pharisees that stun them into silence. How dare this man accuse them of trying to do harm on the Sabbath! All they’ve ever tried to do is protect and maintain the Sabbath as God has commanded! Everything they do is for God and God’s people!
Except that somewhere between upholding God’s law and protecting the people the Pharisees have ushered in a legalism that’s no longer functional. They “represent the basic temptation of religion to absolutize those things that mediate faith to us.”[8] In other words in their attempts to maintain the Sabbath and follow the law as closely and as well as possible, the Pharisees have lost sight of God and the beauty of their faith. They’ve become consumed with religious practice to the point of becoming caricatures of who they set out to be.
Although Jesus is deliberately provoking and seems to be picking an unnecessary fight, the fact remains that the Pharisees “are enraged by his indifference to religious customs. Their love of Scripture and tradition make them blind to the compassion and joy that pour off of Jesus toward all humanity.”[9]
They’ve legalized themselves to the point of hard-heartedness while Jesus is “offering a new vision of life and a new vision of God”[10] and expanding the law in a new way. It doesn’t matter that the disciples aren’t starving but merely hungry, it doesn’t matter that the healing of the man's hand could have waited until sundown when the Sabbath was over, Jesus' intention is to “[place] the…priority on meeting the basic human needs of others rather than on ritual observance, even of the Sabbath. [Jesus is making it clear that] God is served about all when, out of love, religious [people] serve the needs of others.”[11]
Again, Wendy Farley makes the impressive point that within this story “Jesus invites us into a terrifying form of faith in which time-honored practices are relativized by healing power, compassion, and joy. The rather terrible implication of this story is that normal and natural religious commitments render us indifferent to human suffering and true community…This conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees contrasts religion that hardens hearts with the gospel that opens hearts to the ubiquitous presence of God and gives birth to compassion and joy.”[12]
So, this morning the good news that Jesus cares more about people than laws comes hand-in-hand with the challenge of not letting our religious commitments and preferences hardness us. The simple reality is that “the continuity of any religion over time requires…concrete ways of living out dedication to God.”[13] Things like communion, reading scripture, and the singing of hymns have been part of Christian worship since the Church began and if we’re doing church right those elements will always be present. These things connect us to generations of believers who’ve gone before us, they connect us to fellow believers around the world with whom we may have no more in common than knowing the tune to “Amazing Grace.”
But as fundamental as these elements are Jesus calls us to be his followers, not Bible followers. Christ calls us to care for “the least of these” not those who fit our definition of being deserving. There is absolutely a place in our world and in our religious life for laws and structure and I hope you leave here today with a bit more sympathy for the Pharisees because we’re so much like them in so many ways.
So, I also hope you leave here today understanding that for those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers, there will always be a balancing act not to cherish the gifts of God more than we cherish the people of God. Our challenge will continue to be to love this church and maintain its unique identity while never forgetting that isn’t our church, our table, or even our mission but God’s because the radical message of Jesus is not “follow the rules;“ it’s “follow me”
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/strange-unusual-laws-still-on-the-books-in-the-texas-panhandle
[5] R. Alan Culpepper, “Smith and Helwys Bible Commentary: Mark,” Smith and Helwys Publishing, Inc, 2007, pg. 90.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Wendy Farley, “Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Mark 2:23-3:6, Theological Perspective.” Year B, Volume 3. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville. 2009, pg. 96.
[8] Ibid, pg. 94.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Nibs Stroube, “Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Mark 2:23-3:6, Homiletical Perspective.” Year B, Volume 3. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville. 2009, pg. 95.
[11] Culpepper, 92.
[12] Farley, 96.
[13] Ibid.
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