Mark 2:23-3:6 · Lord of the Sabbath
Battle With The Law
Mark 2:23-3:6
Sermon
by King Duncan
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How's your blood pressure today? I want to read you some very interesting results from some extraordinary legal cases.

In 1964 a California woman was driving a Porsche after having had several drinks. While driving 60 in a 25-mph zone, she had an accident in which her passenger was killed. Porsche was ordered to pay $2.5 million for having designed a car that was too high-performance for the average driver. 

In 1985 an overweight man with a heart condition bought a lawnmower from Sears. Later he had a heart attack while starting the mower. He was awarded $1.8 million. 

While in the process of attempting to burglarize a school, a man fell through a skylight. The company that insured the school was ordered to pay $260,000 in damages and to give the would-be burglar $1,500 a month for life.  

In Maryland, two men tried to dry their hot-air balloon in a commercial laundry dryer. The dryer exploded, injuring them slightly, and they ended up winning almost $900,000 in damages. 

In California, a man was injured when a drunk driver rammed into the phone booth in which he was making a call. The state's chief justice ruled that the company that designed the phone booth was liable for the man's injuries. (1)  

Some of these would be funny if they weren't so pathetic. No wonder justice wears a blindfold. No wonder lawyers are the targets of so many jokes. Now you and I both know that there are many outstanding, dedicated lawyers in our land, but few things are more frustrating in today's society than our system of jurisprudence. Maybe that's because the law was never intended to save us.  Jesus had his own problems with the law, as did St. Paul. In fact, this was why Jesus was vulnerable to the slander of the religious leaders of his time: he had a tendency to interpret the law a little differently from the established norm. Consider our lesson for the day. Jesus and his disciples were passing through a corn field and his disciples began to pluck the ears of corn. Unfortunately for them, though, this was on the sabbath. The Pharisees saw them and complained, "Why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?" 

They had a point. The Sabbath was holy. God rested on the seventh day and he commanded them to do the same. The actions of Jesus and his disciples went against this commandment, and it disturbed some people. But Jesus said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he had need, and was in hunger, he, and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?" 

All I can say is that if you are going to pick an argument with Jesus about a point of law, you had better know the scriptures better than he did. Jesus used the actions of King David in the temple as a precedent for what his disciples were doing. David was hungry and he ate consecrated food. Surely that was more dramatic than plucking corn on the Sabbath. Then Jesus added some very important words, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." 

A legend of John the Evangelist tells us that John was once playing with a partridge. Someone chided him for resting and goofing off in play rather than being busy at work. John answered: "I see you carry a bow. Why is it that you do not have it strung and ready for use?" The critic replied, "That would not do at all. If I kept it strung and ready for use, it would go lax and be good for nothing." "Then," said John, "do not wonder what I do." (2) 

WE NEED A SABBATH. Jesus is not belittling our need for a sabbath. He knew we need a day for rest, relaxation and worship. You can't keep the bow strung and ready for use all the time; that would ruin the bow. My guess is that people who keep a sabbath get as much done as those who do not, and I would also guess that they live longer. We need a sabbath. 

The problem in our text is that of legalism.  Do you know how the ice cream treat known as a sundae got its name?  The year was 1875, and the ice cream soda was about a year old and fast gaining in popularity. However, in Evanston, Illinois, the elders of the Methodist church were taking a very dim view of this ice cream treat. Some of these church leaders believed that "soda water," or carbonated water, was a "mite intoxicating." Community leaders were pressured into making a law that forbade the selling and serving of ice cream sodas on Sundays ” on the premise that they were a corrupting influence on all. Needless to say, the town was shocked at the ban on ice cream sodas. And in W. C. Garwood's Drug Store, it was worse than shocking. It hurt sales at the soda fountain, which was the favorite gathering place of youngsters, families and Sunday-strolling sweethearts. So to get around the local law, an enterprising fountain clerk started to serve scoops of ice cream dribbled over with thick syrup: a soda minus the soda water. The soda-less sodas became called "Sunday sodas," and they were quite legal in every way. However, they became so popular that customers began asking for "Sundays" all through the week. The church elders were indignant at having been outwitted. In an attempt to have the last word, they raised objections to the fact that the dish was named after the Sabbath. Again ingenuity stepped in ” and the spelling was altered to s-u-n-d-a-e. (3)  

We certainly don't have to go back to the world in which Jesus lived to find examples of legalism. The Puritans of 17th and 18th century America were famous for meting out various forms of punishment for people who did not keep the sabbath. For example, two lovers, John Lewis and Sarah Chapman, were tried for sitting together on the Lord's day under an apple tree. A soldier wet a piece of an old hat to put in his shoe to protect his foot. He was fined forty shillings for doing this heavy work. In 1656 Captain Kemble of Boston was put in public stocks for two hours for his "lewd and unseemly behavior," which consisted of kissing his wife in public on the Sabbath on the doorstep of his house after his return from a three-year voyage. When another man who had fallen into some water absented himself from church to dry his only suit of clothes, he was found guilty and publicly whipped. "(4)  A Scottish minister, asked if he thought it was wrong to take a walk in the country on Sunday, said, "Well, as I see it, there's no harm in takin' a walk on the Sabbath, as long as ye dinna enjoy yourself." 

Do you see the problem? When legalism enters the picture, we take what was intended to be a blessing and turn it into a burden.  It was not an ancient Pharisee but a New England Puritan who said that to hold a wedding banquet or any similar festivity on the Lord's day was "as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his child's throat." It was not a Jewish rabbi in the first century, but a Christian clergyman in the twentieth century who wrote that to eat breakfast before partaking of Holy Communion was a sin comparable with fornication. (5) Where do these heresies come from? They come from an obsession with the law. 

May I suggest to you very quickly three additional problems with a legalistic faith? First of all, you can stay within the bounds of the law and still be a scoundrel.  A woman was visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa some years ago, and she noticed a man handing a slip of paper to the tourists who parked their cars nearby. He asked, and received, a sum of money from each driver. The tourists thought they were paying for parking. But the woman, who spoke Italian, examined one of the pieces of paper and saw that the man was actually insuring the parked cars against damage in case the tower fell over. (6) Now, technically, the man was within the law. But he was taking advantage of naive tourists who did not speak the language. James Whitcomb Riley put it like this: "The meanest man I ever saw, always kep' inside o' the law." And it's true. You can keep the law and still be a scoundrel. 

In the second place, legalism causes some people to become obsessed with finding loopholes.  As you know Buddhists are not allowed to kill animals, but they can always get someone else to do the dirty work. In Thailand and Burma, to be truly virtuous, a Buddhist should never crack an egg. Shopkeepers routinely evade this restraint by keeping a supply of eggs that have been "accidentally" cracked. Wealthy Buddhists ask their servants to break their eggs; the masters escape blame because they didn't do the killing; the servants escape blame because they were ordered to do it. (7)  Did you see the latest news on financier Ivan Boesky? Not only did Boesky get to keep a sizable share of his ill-gotten gains, but he got a $50 million tax break from his punishment. Not only does crime pay. . . it's deductible! I'm sure there are factors here of which we are not aware, but it is amazing how adept some people get at finding the loopholes.

Even more importantly, the law condems us all.  If we are saved by keeping all the laws and ordinances, then all of us are doomed. 

Henry Moorhouse tells of a lady who said to him, " I can't see how a person who has broken just one of the commandments can be as bad as another who has broken five or even all of them." Moorhouse explained to her that God had actually given only one law which consists of ten different parts. "Look at this watch of mine!" he said. "If you counted all its cogs, you would find many. If you ruined only one, you might leave the other parts in perfect condition, and yet this would be a broken watch and would no longer run." The woman still couldn't see the point; so he said, "Suppose you were hanging over a precipice, suspended by a chain with ten links. If someone took a hammer and smashed every link, where would you go?" "To the bottom of the canyon, of course," she said. "But if he severed only one link, what would happen?" "Why, that would be just as bad," she said, "I'd still fall and be killed!" Suddenly she grasped the truth that "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." (8)  If we are saved by the law, then we are all doomed. For none of us can keep it in its entirety. We are all sinners. But it is not the law that saves us. We are saved by one thing and one thing only ” our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. And he is Lord of the sabbath. 

What then shall we do this sabbath, to keep it holy? Let me make some brief suggestions. FIRST, DO NO WORK. I know, that's not possible for some of us. Again, I am not speaking from a legalistic standpoint, but we need one day out of each week in which we totally rest and relax. TWO, ENJOY YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. This is a good day for strengthening our primary relationships. Sunday is a good time to get our lives back into a healthy balance. FINALLY, GIVE THANKS TO GOD. That is why you are here this morning, I hope. Not out of some legalistic obligation, but as a genuine act of gratitude ” giving thanks to the Lord of the sabbath. ” ”


1. Mark H. McCormack. THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT LAWYERS.  

2. Robert Neale. IN PRAISE OF PLAY. (New York: Harper & Row 1970) p. 36. 

3. Robert Wayne Pelton. LAUGHABLE LAWS AND COURTROOM CAPERS. (New York: Walker and Company, 1993), p. 109. 

4. Mrs. Alice Morse Earle. THE SABBATH IN PURITAN NEW ENGLAND.  as quoted in "The Blue Laws of New England," LIBERTY,
Jan/Feb. 1963, pp. 18-19.  

5. Harry Emerson Fosdick. THE MANHOOD OF THE MASTER. (New York: Association Press, 1958). 

6. Robert Lauer and Jeanette Lauer. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1988) p. 159  

7. Marvin Harris. SACRED COW. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985). 

8. Life and Light       

Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan