Blessed Are The Flexible
Mark 2:13-3:6
13 And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.
Levi (Matthew) Called
14 As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.
15 And it happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.
16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”
19 And Jesus said to them, “While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20 “But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.
22 “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
Question of the Sabbath
23 And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.
24 The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry;
26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”
27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
28 “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Chapter 3
Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
1 He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered.
2 They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!”
4 And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.
5 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
6 The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.
I heard a new beatitude some time back. Jesus didn’t say it, but it is true: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken." It is so easy to become inflexible, isn’t it? Especially as Christians, we find ourselves falling into the trap of legalism. Because we care about God’s Word and about Jesus’ commandments, sometimes we write our own little set of standards to which people must conform. We end up judging everybody by those standards, even when those standards are based more on tradition than Bible.
It is very easy for us to become set in our ways. This is true not only for individuals, but also for churches. We quickly fall into certain routines, and after we do a thing for a certain period of time, it becomes sacred. The routine becomes the right way. And whenever someone upsets our routine, we are upset. Ralph Neighbour wrote a book entitled, The Seven Last Words Of The Church. He defined those words as "We never did it that way before." Sadly, those are the very words which cause many churches to die. Inflexibility, the status quo, legalism – these can be the worst enemies of the Church.
Jesus and His followers upset the status quo. It was said of Paul and his traveling companions that they were the men who "turned the world upside down." Actually, they turned it right-side up. It’s just that men then and now don’t know the difference. But what was meant by that saying was that these men stirred up controversy and scandal wherever they went, by what they preached and practiced. But they were following in good footsteps. Jesus did the same.
Oh, I know that there are some who think of Jesus as a mild-mannered man, timid and soft, a kind of Clark Kent rather than a Superman. But that is not the picture we get of Jesus when we read the Gospels honestly. We see there that Jesus was far from the image some have portrayed him to be. The Clark Kent turns into the real superman we have all been waiting for because Jesus was a real man in every sense of the word. And He was a man who stirred up controversy wherever He went. When He confronted religious hypocrisy, He met it head on and called it what it was. When He saw traditions made by man in the name of God, He flouted them publicly. And many who saw it didn’t like it at all.
Today, we have a passage in which Jesus deliberately provoked certain groups of religious leaders to challenge the status quo. Our text reveals three areas in which Jesus broke their laws. In the areas of association with sinners, fasting, and the Sabbath, Jesus did more than ruffle the feathers of these inflexible religionists. We see in this passage, several events which show Jesus’ authority over tradition, His purpose behind transgressing it, and the new tradition He is inaugurating. There is a message to us about the real meaning of the Law, and about our attitudes toward it, and about the new life God is bringing to those who are open and flexible enough to receive it.
The Narrowness Of Law
Let’s first look at the narrowness of law. The problem that Jesus encountered was the problem of the Pharisees’ tradition. These traditions had become law to them. They had elevated them above human need, even above the Word of God. Now, tradition usually begins from a good basis. It doesn’t spring from nowhere. There is usually some reason why tradition begins. It serves some purpose. Generally, it is a good thing. It gives us a sense of continuity with the past, and direction for the future. But it can become dead and void of life so easily.
Such was the case in the tradition of Jesus’ day. The Old Testament Law had been given by God. It was the Word of the Lord to Israel. They were to hear and obey it. It would bring order to their lives, both morally and civilly. It was the standard of God. But that Law had not been left as the Lord God had given it. The teachers of the Law had added to the Law what they believed should be the way to keep the Law. As it was intended, the Law was just and holy and good. But that is not how it stayed.
What was once good became a steel vice, and it actually kept people from doing what the Law intended them to do. The spirit of the Law had been circumvented. Jesus Himself would say to them later in this book, in Mark 7:9, ""You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition." And in keeping that tradition, they were actually keeping themselves and others from doing what God wanted them to do. They became insensitive to human need.
And that is the way with most tradition. It begins well-intentioned enough, but ends up replacing the Spirit-led life. It ends up replacing the need to really seek the Lord to lead us, guide us, and empower us. It is so easy to rely on tradition. We are creatures of habits and we tend toward things that are habitual and easy.
In this passage, there are several instances which point out the truth about man-made tradition. In each of these instances, we will see the action of Jesus on one hand, and the attitude of the religious on the other.
The first incident is the problem of association with sinners. We find this in Mark 2:13-17. It begins with the call of Levi (also known as Matthew) who was a tax collector, and continues with the meal at his home. The first thing we see is that Jesus called Levi. Out of all the people He could have chosen, He deliberately chose Levi, a tax collector. This was one of the most hated men in all Israel. They were men who had a license to steal from the people, because they could keep any money that was raised over the amount the government required. So, they generally became rich men at the expense of the common people. Such a man was Levi, or Matthew. But here was a man who was hurting inside, who knew loneliness and who needed Jesus. And Jesus called him to follow Him. He chose him to be His disciple. What a scandal!
But He went further. He went home with him to a supper where many of Levi’s friends had been invited, and ate with them. This caused a stir among the Scribes and Pharisees. How could Jesus do this? They questioned His disciples about this improper conduct. You see, this was not the thing which a good Jew should do; and certainly not the thing an aspiring rabbi should do. It was almost as if you could catch a disease from being around these sick people. This was the general ideal of these Pharisees. A good Jew, and especially a teacher, should stay away from such company. He should not associate with them in any way, as a friend of sinners.
The action of Jesus was to meet real human need. The attitude of the religious was to protect a doctrine. In essence, they cried, "Separation!" There are those today who hold a doctrine of separation. They call it separation from the world, but in essence, it is not that at all. There are some in ultra-fundamentalist circles who believe it is wrong to associate in any way with sinful people. They extend this to Christian brothers and sisters as well, who they feel are not doing right or living right. They believe that to associate with those people is a sin. There are some among their number who have further divided this doctrine into primary separation and secondary separation. Primary separation means you don’t associate with sinful people. Secondary separation means you don’t associate with people who do associate with people who do associate with sinful people – all in the name of the Lord. This sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Let me assure you that to some it is serious business. It was to the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and it is to the Pharisees of our day. So, to this business of associating with sinful people, they cried, "Separation!"
But Jesus was meeting the real human need the only way it could be met. He was the physician, and they needed Him because they were sick. They knew it, and He knew it, and that is why He was there. But to the self-righteous Pharisees who thought they needed no physician, He did not go. They did not consider themselves sick. And someone like that will never call a doctor. It is only as you acknowledge your sin-sick soul that the Healer of Souls, the Great Physician, will be called to your aid.
The next incident is the problem of fasting. It is found in verses 18 through 20. There was only one day per year required for fasting, and that was the Day of Atonement. But the Pharisees had wanted to show their piety to both men and God, so they began to fast two times a week. And they made a great show of it, putting ashes on their faces and appearing in rough clothes before men. They hoped people would notice their great piety. But Jesus was not impressed. And on one of those fast days, He and his disciples were feasting away. Now, even John’s disciples fasted, so the question was put to Jesus why He and His disciples did not observe this tradition.
In His reply, Jesus used the illustration of the marriage feast. In Israel, marriage was a gala event, even more so than it is in the country. The bridegroom and the bride did not have a 30-minute service and short reception, and then go off into the night. Sometimes the feast would go on for a week. And those who were invited to the feast were exempted from all duty which would lessen their joy in celebrating that occasion. This, of course, included fasting. This was the illustration Jesus used concerning Himself - that He was the bridegroom, and that as long as He was present with His disciples, they should feast and be joyful. That, you see, should be the position of every believer in the presence of the Lord – fullness of joy.
Notice that the action of Jesus centers on a relationship with people, instead of on the rules of tradition. The attitude, however, of the religious Pharisees was to shout, "Keep the tradition!" To them, tradition was more important than people.
Then, there is the problem of the Sabbath. In order to understand this, we must see what the Sabbath was supposed to be and what it came to be.
The Sabbath principle was established at creation, when God rested on the 7th day from all His labors. The Sabbath itself was established in the Law of Moses, which God gave on Mt. Sinai. He set it apart and said that no work should be done on that day because it was a holy day. Now, the reason for this was human need. God knew we needed a day of rest in seven, and He provided that for us. The Sabbath was, and still is Saturday, the 7th day of the week. As Christians, we have set apart another day, Sunday, or The Lord’s Day, for worship. It is not the Sabbath. It is our day, the day of Resurrection. And the Church has always made that a very special day, but the Sabbath remained a day of rest.
In our passage today, Jesus encounters still opposition concerning the Sabbath. This is found in Mark 2:23-3-6. In the first case, His disciples were walking through the grain fields and plucking ears of corn. Now, this was perfectly legal to do, as long as the traveler did not put a sickle to the grain, he was allowed to pluck the ears of corn by hand for food on his journey. But this was the Sabbath day, and the Sabbath had become something beset by tradition. The Pharisees and other religious leaders had felt a need to define what God really meant by "no work," and it went even to the absurd.
For example, it was fine to spit on a rock on the Sabbath, but you could not spit on the ground, because that made mud, and mud was mortar, and that was work. Such were the rules of the Sabbath – rules made by men. But it had become a burden instead of a blessing for man.
And so, when Jesus was confronted with these rules for the Sabbath concerning His disciples picking grain to satisfy their hunger, He reminded them that in their Scripture, there was evidence of the readiness of God to meet need, as He met the need of David and his hungry men, by allowing them to eat the consecrated Shewbread, which was normally reserved for the priests only. Jesus gave them the real purpose of the Sabbath as God intended for it to be when He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
But it did not end there. These Pharisees had not seen the truth. Men of hard hearts many times never see. Jesus next went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. And in that place, there was a man with a withered hand. And even though these Pharisees would not see the truth of His teaching, they were starting to understand Him, because they knew that He would seek out this man with the withered hand in order to help him. Jesus would not be at the front of the synagogue rubbing shoulders with the honored teachers, but He would seek out the needy. They were counting on it.
Why? Did they want to see the end of this man’s suffering? No. They were counting on it because they wanted to trap Jesus. What motives! What hardness of heart!
Mark says that Jesus called the man with the withered hand to Him. He asked the Pharisees if it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, as He intended to do, or evil, as they intended in their hearts. They were silent. Mark says that He looked on them with anger, being grieved at their hardness of heart. Then, He healed the man with the withered hand, showing that He cared more for Him than for keeping the rules of man. He exposed the evil of the Pharisees in doing that, and they hated Him for it. From that time on, they plotted how to kill Him. Again, we see the action of Jesus in meeting human need, and the attitude of the religious Pharisees, as they would shout, "Keep the Law!"
But what is the message here? That tradition is made to be flouted? That rules are to be broken? The message is that God is concerned with human need, and so should we be. The law of love, God’s agape love, should govern us. And where we find real need, we are to minister to it, even if it brings us down in the eyes of the self-righteous in the community. We may be associated with what they consider the "dregs" of life, but that is where the need is. They may not dirty their hands with such people, but of such is the Kingdom made; of such were some of you. To have their attitude is to be like the world. To be like Jesus, you may have to defy some traditions of your own making. We must not let our priorities get out of perspective. When God begins to work, traditions are secondary. His power to touch human lives is primary.
The Newness of Life
We have focused on the narrowness of law. Now, let’s turn our attention to the newness of life. In our text, there is the unmistakable message that the Kingdom age is here; that a new way of life has come. Look at what Jesus is telling us in verses 21 and 22.
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.
22 “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
(vv. 21-22)
Jesus is telling us that He has brought with Him an age of new wine. There is a need for new wine. New wine is symbolic of new life. It is the move of God in the midst of His people. It is the Spirit unleashed with power in the Church. This is what the Church of Jesus Christ needs in our day – a fresh move of God in her midst. This is what we need as individual Christians, as well.
The action of Jesus was new wine in their midst. God was doing something fresh and new. He has always done that throughout the history of the Church. There have been various renewals and awakenings, various outpourings and revivals. And when the Church has responded, God has done a new thing in her midst. When individuals respond, God pours forth His Spirit upon them.
But not only do we need new wine, we need new wineskins. The new things of God must be contained in new forms. The old forms cannot hold them. Just as in the case of the new cloth sewn on the old garment, in which the new was not pre-shrunk, and would shrink and tear the old, so also this new life of the Spirit would not be compatible with the old forms.
So also is the case of the wineskins. The old wineskins are old forms. And in the context, forms in the tradition of men. They are stretched out, hard and brittle. If you were to put new wine in them, as it fermented it would give off gases and burst the old brittle wineskins and all would be lost.
Much of what they had done to that point consisted of serving in the Temple. It was solemn, ceremonial, and ritualistic service centering on sacrifice and silence. But Jesus is showing them that a new relationship has come, in which they can have intimate contact with the bridegroom, and that it can only be expressed in joy and gladness and celebration. The Scripture say, "In His presence there is fullness of joy." We can have a new relationship with Jesus, one that changes constantly as it grows more intimate; one in which we must be sensitive to the fresh leading of the Holy Spirit, not encased in inflexible traditions.
One reason the Church is written off by so many today is that it is dead. There is no joy, no celebration, no life. And in many cases, they are right. In some churches, people sit with such long faces that you would think you were at a funeral. And who likes to go to funerals? Or on the other extreme church is nothing more than an hour of entertainment, nothing nutritional is served. No wonder people do not come to many churches. A lot of churches are dead. Another reason why people write off the Church is because the church is not relevant. It no longer speaks with biblical authority to the issues people are facing. Many churches are answering questions no one is asking. To one extreme, liberal preachers are addressing social issues without any reference to biblical truth. And on the other extreme, ultra conservative preachers are parsing Hebrew verbs from the pulpit. In both cases, people are crying out for a simple, straight-forward word from God about where they live. The Church of Jesus Christ needs to be both alive and relevant. It needs to have a balance between zeal and truth. And if we are open, God will give us that balance.
God desires to do a new thing in your life. Are you open and flexible enough to receive it? He desires to deepen your relationship, to bring you into new areas of ministry and service, to use you in a greater capacity. But in order to do that, we must be willing to get out of the rut of the routine and to do things in a new way. New wine must have new wineskins. Are you willing to allow Jesus to upset the routine in your life in order to bring you to where He wants you to be? He is far less concerned about those traditions we’ve set up than He is about meeting our human need. Just has He reached forth to touch human need in each of these incidents we’ve studied today, so He will meet your need as well. And as we let Him meet our needs, He will work through us to meet others’ needs.
"Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken." Let me change it a bit: "Blessed are the flexible, for they are pliable in God’s hands."
Based upon a sermon by J.D. Hoke
