Mark 2: 18-3: 6

Theme: Lordship of Jesus

Series: Getting to Know Jesus

Can you imagine him sitting there? His hand was withered, drawn into a useless shape. It hung wasted by his side. He kept it withdrawn into his robe to keep others from seeing it. It was more than an embarrassment. Some who were the more traditional and righteous considered it a sign of judgment, evidence that he has sinned some great sin.

Those same righteous men considered this man as bait. They felt sure Jesus would be tempted to heal him. It was the Sabbath and they considered it a sin to heal on the Sabbath. They waited eagerly to see if they could accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath.

As we read about Jesus, it becomes obvious that he is no ordinary man. He cast out demons. He healed the sick and he forgave sin. He had authority over nature and over the Spirit world. John the Baptist’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. They came to Jesus and asked why were his disciples not fasting? He essentially said, it was not time to. The kind of fasting they were doing belonged to an old age. Something new was happening and the old could not contain it. Just as you would not put new wine in old, stretched out wineskins, you cannot put this new event into the old traditions. Another hint that Jesus was more than a mere man.

On another occasion, Jesus and the disciples were traveling on the Sabbath and they passed through a wheat field and they were grabbing the heads of wheat and rubbing them in their hands and eating the grain. The O.T. was clear about keeping the Sabbath holy. And there were laws Leviticus that said that one should cease from work one day in seven to rest. There were exceptions of course, the ox in the ditch thing. But, the Rabbis and the teachers had constructed a number of laws to interpret the Commandment and many of them bordered on the ridiculous. This act of picking the heads of wheat and rubbing them in their hands was considered reaping and therefore a major violation of the Law.

But, when Jesus was confronted with the question "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus reminded them of what David did when he was hungry and ate the consecrated bread in the temple. That bread was normally eaten only by the priests. The interpretations of the laws have their limits. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. The purpose of the Sabbath was for man’s benefit, we were not made to be slaves to the Sabbath.

Jesus said that he was the Lord of the Sabbath. What a claim! Jesus made the bold claim that he was in charge of religious affairs. He is the one who interpreted them. He is the one who gave them meaning. Who is it who could possibly be the Lord of the Sabbath, except God himself?

The Pharisees and the Herodians were asking the same questions. But, it was more like, "Who does he think he is?" When Jesus entered the synagogue, there was a man present who had a withered hand. They watched closely to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. But, Jesus knew what they were thinking. He asked the man with the withered hand to come to him and he asked the Pharisees "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. They would not answer. Then Jesus told the man to stretch out his hand, and he did and as he did, his hand was made whole. Who could heal a withered hand, even on the Sabbath, if it were not the Lord of the Sabbath? That act declared to all who would see and hear, Jesus is Lord. The term clearly referred to Jesus being God, the Lord, the boss.

We have one of two reactions when we are confronted with the Lordship of Jesus. One, we fall down and worship him and acknowledge his proper place in our lives. Or we hate him. The natural man in us hates God’s claim of Lord because we want to be in charge. The Pharisees and the Herodians, that is, the ruling class in Israel, went out and immediately took counsel as to how they might destroy Jesus. How is that for a violation of Sabbath law?

How do we know that Jesus claim to be Lord is true? The answer is simple. He rose from the dead. Jesus staked his claim on that one act, being raised from the dead. If he was who he said he is, God in the flesh, then not even the grave could keep him. If he did not rise from the dead, then he was just another madman in a long line of deluded fools. Jesus rose from the dead. He slew death. He defeated it. And in the process he took our sins upon him and he buried them in the grave so that we who come to him by faith are forgiven, we are saved. And we have eternal life. Jesus was and is Lord even over death.

How are we to understand the Lordship of Jesus? What does it mean to us as Christians for him to be our Lord? I think the key to understanding is in 2: 21-22. His lordship means that something new has come to us. We start to squirm when someone talks like that. We like order, tradition, we like things to stay the same all the time. We don’t like change. Yet, Jesus coming into our lives means radical change. Our purpose in life radically changes. Jesus has the right to direct our lives in whatever way he wants. It is new wine and new cloth on old garments. The same old thing does not always work.

This principle applies today as it did in the first century. The Christian life is always marked by change. I know that we get too comfortable in church. We want everything to stay just as it always has been. We will be fifty years old in June. It is impossible for this church to try to be what it was in 1953. We must be a church that lives and moves and ministers in 2003. We don’t sing the same music, we don’t preach the same sermons. We don’t have the same style. We all may be more comfortable with the past. But it is utter selfishness that says I will not change and I expect my church not to change so that I may personally be comfortable. Our mission is to be God’s witnesses in a changing culture to men and women who are dying and going to hell.

The command to go into the world and preach the Gospel is still our command. It is not our right to be Pharisees and Herodians who guard the traditions as if they were the Gospel. It is not our right to oppose the moving of the Holy Spirit as He seeks to do a new work among us. We were purchased with a price, the price of the blood of Jesus. It is not our life, it is God’s life. It is not our Church, it is God’s Church. It is not your ministry, it is God’s ministry. It is not your class or group or choir or position, they all belong to Christ and we are all at his command. He is our Boss, our Master and we follow his commands.

If you want a church that is as powerful as that of the first century, you have be as sold out as they were. They let nothing possess them so tightly that they could not let it go if God called them to do so. They moved at his command. They worked at his command. They witnessed at his command. They lived radical lives of grace that often violated every tradition, all at his command. They did not try to patch up an old suit with new cloth or pour new wine into old wineskins. They took off the old and put on the new. The kingdom of God consumes the old and brings in the new.

The Pharisees hated Jesus because they claimed to be the Lord of religion. But, Jesus is the Lord of Religion, life, death, of everything. Jesus is Lord of all. Sometimes we make ourselves lord of everything.

We are made to be in subjection to Jesus. Your life will never make sense until you come to Christ as your Lord. The only way he can be your Savior is if he is your Lord.

Jesus is Lord of all. Come, let is joyfully follow our Lord and King.