LESSON 28 – THE CONTRAVERSY OF JESUS

THE CONTRAVERSY OF JESUS
In Mark 2:13-3:6, Jesus encourages us to cast aside legalism and follow Jesus in joyous freedom. Mark details Jesus’ clash with religious leaders (Pharisees) over core issues; associating with sinners, fasting rules, the Sabbath observation, and revealing His mission for grace and restoration, not rigid legalism that angers the Pharisees who plot His destruction. Mark recounts a series of conflicting stories where Jesus challenges the prevailing religious legalism of the day, emphasizing compassion, his divine authority, and the arrival of a new covenant of grace.
The first incident is set by the calling of Matthew to be a disciple:
Once again, he [Jesus] went out along the sea. All the crowd came to him and he taught them. As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting by the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. (Mark 2:13-14 NAB)
Jesus called Levi (also known as Matthew), a tax collector, to be one of his disciples. Tax collectors were despised by the Jewish people for their collaboration with the hated Romans, collecting money from his fellow Jews to enrich Rome and taking more than required to line his own pockets. The tax collectors weren’t paid a salary, but they were given the opportunity to fleece everyone from whom they collected. They did have to collect and turn in the required percentage to the government, but they kept any overage. They were usually rich men but extremely hated.
The following day, Jesus went to Levi’s (Matthew’s) house:
While he [Matthew] was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard this and said to them [that], “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mark 2:15-17 NAB)
So Jesus went to a dinner party, evidently a farewell party that Matthew gave for his friends, as he knew he would be leaving to follow Jesus who would travel to many places. Culturally, eating with the tax collectors and sinners was extremely puzzling to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. They could see no reason why anyone who set himself to be a Rabbi teaching about God’s kingdom would do such a thing.
But Jesus who knows men says, “You are right, these are sick men. But where else would a doctor be? I’ve come to heal men, therefore where they are hurting is where I am needed.”
He says, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners?”
Jesus knows that these Pharisees, who think they are righteous, are actually more disturbed and needy than those they regard as tax collectors and sinners, but they don’t know it. Jesus is basically saying, “To those who think they are righteous, I have absolutly nothing to say. But to those who know they are sick, and are open to help, I am fully available as a minister to their souls.” So beware! Many people today who think they are self-sufficient, that they don’t need God, let them go their way, as life will sooner or later teach them they are wrong. That is the time that you can talk to them, as then they will be listening.
The second incident deals with Jesus and the law and the question about fasting:
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to him and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.” (Mark 2:18-20 NAB)
Once again, the people are puzzled, and the Pharisees are offended. It was a fast day on which this incident transpired, and the Law of Moses only required one day a year to be a fast day, and this day is known as Yom Kippur. This is a The Day of Atonement, and it is celebrated by the Jews to this day.
Some people said, “Everybody else is keeping the fast, Why do you go against the traditions like this? Why do you deliberately ignore these customs? Why don’t you make your disciples fast?” Why doesn’t your group abide by the same standards as everybody else?” Hidden in this puzzle is Jesus’ unspoken knowledge of his true identity, that He, the Son of God is with them. He says, in effect, “You’ve totally misunderstood this occasion. It’s a wedding, not a funeral. A bridegroom is here, and nobody fasts at a wedding. As long as the bridegroom is there, there will be joyfullness, cheerfullness, laughter and gladness. But, there will come a day when the bridegroom will be gone, and then it is all right to fast. But when the bridegroom is present there will be feasting, not fasting.” Here, Jesus implicitly identified himself as the bridgroom, indicating that a new, joyful relationship with God has arrived. They cannot fast, for God is with them!
Jesus uses two riddles to point out the impracticality and ineffectiveness of adding old to new.
“No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls
away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Othewise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22 NAB)
Jesus explained that one does not patch an old garment, nor put new wine into old wineskins. The new life in Christ (the “new wine”) could not be contained within the rigid external structure of the old ritualistic law without destroying both the old system and the new message of grace. These analogies illustrated that Jesus’ new convenant of grace could not simply be added to the rigid, external religious system of the Pharisees. The old ways of ritual observance were obsolete in his presence. Ritual fastings belong to the old, and the Gospel of Jesus is the new. The old focus of ritual observance and external ceremony cannot carry the addition of the new inner spiritual life that Jesus has given us. Jesus is showing us what occurs when a people or an individual returns to a relationship with Christ. One must find new ways wo express it and not go back to the old ways.
The principle Jesus is showing us is that tradition must never be permitted to destroy relationships. We have to fight tradition as Jesus fought it in his day. Everywhere he turned, he found himself in conflict with the traditions of the past. The new life of following Jesus cannot survive intact if attached to the old.
Next we come to the conflicts of the Sabbath and the problem with rules:
As he was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Here again is another encounter that puts Jesus in direct conflict with the Pharisees. Understand that they were not stealing from this farmer because the law stated that it was perfectly proper to do this on any weekday. However, this was the Sabbath, and there were a thousand and more restrictions that the Pharisees had put into place. As an example, it was ok to spit on a rock on the Sabbath, but if you spit on the ground and it made mud; mud was mortar; therefore you were working on the Sabbath. So, that was wrong and was a restriction.
Jesus points out to the Pharisees that contrary to their understanding, The Sabbath was made to serve man, not man to serve the Sabbath. God intended the Sabbath to be a rest, to restore man and give him recreation, but they made by their law a burden and bondage. Since the Pharisees gave no reply, Jesus is asserting that human need and compassion over strict adherence to man-made rules. He underscores the principle that must govern our lives as believers. That human need always take precedence over rules. It is wrong to make rules which stop men from satisfying the basic needs of life. If we make laws that do just that, then something is wrong with the system, and we must re-examine it. Jesus challenges religious legalism, revealing God’s heart of grace, foregiveness, and true rest found in Him, not just rules which set Him in direct opposition to the rigid traditions of the authorities.
The last incident deals with healing on the Sabbath:
Again he entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched him closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.
Mark expresses Jesus as deeply distressed and angry at their stubborn and prideful hearts. The Pharisees remained silent, revealing their hardness of heart and lack of compassion. They have made the Sabbath a burden instead of a blessing, not only for themselves, but for others, and Jesus refuses to be subject to them. He refuses to be confined by their misinterpretations of the law, their ignorance to dictate his actions, undermine his authority and curb his compassion. Jesus knows the law’s intention, and by his word, he heals the man. Jesus knew they could trap him because they knew he would be concerned about the man with the withered hand.
But Jesus purposely put the man up front and center and basically said to the Pharisees, “You’re concerned about the Sabbath, aren’t you? Let me ask you: whose thoughts are nearer to the purpose of the Sabbath, yours or mine?” He read their thoughts. “I want to do good to this man, while you want to harm me. I want to save this man and heal him; your thinking of killing me. Now, which is in line with the Sabbath?” As Mark mentioned earlier, they were silent.
The Pharisess were so threatened by Jesus that their response to the man’s healing was not awe at a miracle, but plotting with the Herodians to plan his death.
Jesus did deliberately provoke contraversy and hostility, but he never did things just for the sake of being different. Unlike today’s politicians, he didn’t feel it was necessary to destroy another group to uphold their own. Notice that Jesus was never harsh in his words or his attitude towards men, yet he was neither fearful nor compromising. He reacted as God made man to be. He was always true to truth, and disregarded any obstacle that was in the way.
Isn’t it amazing that we have access to this man anytime we choose to access Him?
Until next time, may love peace and joy be with you always.