Scripture Mark 2:23-3:6
One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Sermon
My friends, welcome to this Sunday in Ordinary time. The seasons of Lent and Easter are past, as well as the festivals of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. So, it’s fitting that Jesus and his disciples, too, are just trying to have an ordinary Sabbath.
The Sabbath is important for all three Abrahamic faiths—for Jews, Muslims, and Christians. We all agree that God commands us to observe a day of rest. Jews and Muslims observe sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day of the week: “sabbath” means “seventh.” This is according to the commandment as we read it in the book of Deuteronomy:
“‘Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you… Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” ~Deuteronomy 6:12, 15
In Jesus’ day, according to one scholar,
From sundown on Friday until Saturday’s sunset, Jews encouraged one another to enjoy a day of delight (Nehemiah 8:9–12; Isaiah 58:13–14), worshiping the Lord (Isaiah 66:23; Ezekiel 46:3), laying aside ordinary work (Amos 8:5), and fighting only in self-defense (1 Maccabees 2:29–41).[i]
Yes, you heard that right. Sabbath is supposed to be a day of delight. A day of joy, rejoicing in God and in the goodness of life and love. And this has not changed for Jews. These are still the tenets that keep the day holy, a day set apart.
We Christians observe the day of rest on Sunday, the first day, because it’s the day of resurrection. For us, too, our sabbath is a day of delight, worship, and laying aside our ordinary work.
So, what’s the deal with Jesus and the Sabbath and some of his colleagues in religious life and practice? All Jews agree that the sabbath is a day of rest, but how “rest” is defined may differ according to how the different branches of Judaism practice the sabbath. The simplest definition of “rest” means, “no work.” But what constitutes work?
Jesus and his friends are walking to synagogue as our passage begins, because Jesus is a good, practicing Jew. When some of his followers begin foraging the fields of grain for food, some other religious leaders take notice and ask about it. One definition of “rest” includes not harvesting grain—not even a small amount, for your personal use.
Jesus answers a question with a question. Do you remember, he says, that time when David and his men were on the run and hungry, and they ate the consecrated bread that was only supposed to be for the priests? At the time, David was running from King Saul, who had made it clear he was planning to kill David. The priest gave David and his men the bread to eat, which aligned with God’s purpose to keep David alive so that he would be the next king. (1 Samuel 21:1-6)
Jesus summarizes this by stating: “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath…” (Mark 2:27) And this is absolutely true and scriptural. Remember the words from Deuteronomy: You were slaves, but I rescued you from Egypt. The implied statement here: only slaves work without rest. You are entitled to rest. The Sabbath is for you.
Jesus argues similarly in favor of healing a man, even though that man was not in danger of dying. Once in the synagogue, Jesus encounters a man with a withered hand, and he immediately speaks to the man, tells him to come forward. Now, of course, Jesus is onto the religious leaders watching him, waiting for him to do something outrageous. Jesus, with the man whose one hand is useless to him standing before him, asks those leaders, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” You could hear a pin drop, if they had the same kind of pins we have. The sabbath rules absolutely approve saving lives—even the lives of animals. If your cow falls into a pit on the sabbath, you can rescue her; you don’t have to leave her to suffer and maybe die. The tricky part here is, this man is not dying. But he is suffering. Jesus, frustrated and angry that anyone would take issue with this, expands his understanding of the sabbath permission to save life, because, once again, the sabbath was made for people; not people for the sabbath. He heals the man. In the original language it says, “the hand was restored as whole as the other.”
The uniting of sabbath and healing here has been borne out in modern medical research. Rest is a necessary component to healing. We learned that with Covid—people who jumped back into their activities quickly were more likely to get long Covid. We’ve learned it about strokes. Getting a good night's sleep helps the brain to restructure and create new neural pathways, which is key to stroke survivors as they re-learn movements and functions. We’ve even learned it about the workday… you’ve heard of power naps, right? Fifteen minutes of sleep, and you actually feel a lot better? We even know of cultures that encourage the more leisurely siesta. Rest is good, and it is good for us.
But we struggle with rest. There are those among us who can’t sit still, and who only feel like themselves when they’re extremely busy. There are those among us who feel guilty about rest, as if it means they’re not pulling their weight. (Not me. I love the Sunday afternoon “pastor’s nap.”) And there are those among us whose work schedules don’t allow for true rest. What can we do?
Meet Tricia Hersey, the self-named “Nap Bishop” who wrote the book, “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto.” In the Good Reads description of her book, it reads,
[Hersey] casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.
Our culture tells us that we are nothing unless we are literally working ourselves to death. This is not God’s plan for us. This is not God’s plan for any part of God’s creation, all of which was made with intentional cycles of growth, production, and rest. If we don’t allow for rest in our own lives, we are in danger of believing that we are not enough, that we don’t deserve this basic human need.
The Nap Bishop, who has what she calls a “nap ministry” has created a deck of cards people can use to help themselves embrace rest. Part of embracing this very human need is rejecting what the society our there—which Hersey names as the capitalist, supremacist, white patriarchal system—and instead of embracing the truth of our own humanity and need. I would add to that, we are also embracing the fact that we are created by God for something better. One of her cards reads “These systems make us fearful, closed, and hard… Rest makes [us] hopeful, open, and tender.”
Jesus practices a life-giving sabbath that resists the temptation to neglect those who are hungry, those who are suffering. He embraces a sabbath that recognizes the truth that the sabbath was made for us, for our welfare, for our joy and delight, and for our ability to dedicate time to being in relationship with God. We can all embrace a sabbath that reminds us that Jesus is our healer and our hope.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] C. Clifton Black, “Commentary on Mark 2:23-3:6,” June 2, 2024, Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-09-2/commentary-on-mark-223-36.