Missing Out

Title: Missing Out
Series; Mark: Who is this Man?
Passage: Mark 2:18-3:6
Date: May 19, 2024

Mark 2:18-3:6
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long asthey have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying 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 was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, 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 held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. 

Context: People noticed Jesus and His disciples behaving differently than what was customary, and they came to Him with, what may well have been, an honest question as to why they were doing something different. John the Baptist was in prison at this time and the grouping of his disciples with the Pharisees seems to indicate that this portion of his disciples that didn’t begin to follow Jesus aligned themselves with the Pharisees.

Main Idea: The Pharisees were so interested in religious activity that they missed out on the joy of being with their Messiah.

I. Missing the Point

They missed the point in relation to a fast.

Mark 2:18 - Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

They missed the point of the Sabbath.

Mark 2:23-3:2 - One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying 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 was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

A. First, let’s talk about the fast. There was only one annual fast that the Jews were required to observe, that was on the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 23:26-32 - And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lordyour God. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.” Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

B. The Day of Atonement is a day that Israel fasted, cleansed the sanctuary of impurity, and dealt with sin through blood sacrifice of animals, and sending a goat into the wilderness. The goat – where we get the term “scapegoat” – was to transfer the sins of the people to the goat and send it into the wilderness.
C. The Law demanded that the Jews would fast on that day. The Pharisees demanded that they observed the fast two days a week, thus cheapening the significance and adding to the yoke of what was required.
D. The Pharisees missed the point of the fast.
E. They also missed the point of the Sabbath.
F. When they should have been resting on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees made themselves the Sabbath police and sought out to catch Jesus breaking the Sabbath so they would be able to accuse Him.
G. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees with two important statements
1.) The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. – again, the Pharisees demonstrate a danger in religion, adding more to that which is required and thus missing the point completely.
2.) He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Both the Sabbath and the fast are more about being than doing – but the Pharisees were all about doing and maintaining the appearance of doing…
H. Isn’t it interesting that the Pharisees completely missed that the Who the scapegoat foreshadowed was before them? They missed that they were questioning the very One who would transfer the sins of the world onto His back – the only One who has the power to save and the Lord of the Sabbath was before them, and they missed it. 

Main Idea: The Pharisees were so interested in religious activity that they missed out on the joy of being with their Messiah.

Not only did they miss the point of the fast and the sabbath:

II: Missing the moment.

Mark 2:19-22  - And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

A. A fast is a time for sorrow, petitioning, and grieving – a week-long wedding would be a strange place to fast.
B. A wedding is a time for celebration – fasting during a wedding would be entirely insulting to the hosts.
C. The Pharisees were so consumed with religious activity that they missed the Messiah!
D. Jesus also offers a hint that the time that He would be with them would be short and end unexpectedly. He said: "The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day." The word used is “aparthee” which has a sense of being suddenly taken away – referencing His coming death.
E. How many times do we get caught up in the work of ministry and miss an encounter that could have had eternal consequence.
F. Jesus explains that they are missing out on what is happening by using two short parables. First – No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
Second - And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.

G. What do these parables mean? Jesus is explaining that the new way of repentance from sin and the forgiveness of sin won’t be built upon or added to the old way of self-righteous religious traditions.

Main Idea: The Pharisees were so interested in religious activity that they missed out on the joy of being with their Messiah. 

III: Missing the joy.

Because the Pharisees missed the point of the fast and the Sabbath, and missed the moment that the Messiah was with them, they missed the joy of being in His presence.

Mark 3:1-6 - Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, 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 held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

A. Strict adherence to external, self-righteous acts of piety (religious activity) over the heart behind the activity itself, lead the Pharisees to placing the activity over the activity Giver.
B. Jesus is far more interested in the heart than outward expressions of piety.
C. Jesus heals a man’s hand – a deficit that likely resulted in his inability to provide for himself. And instead of joining him in his joy, they looked to accuse Jesus of breaking the Law.
D. It is important to observe the Law, but in order to do so correctly, you must understand it correctly.
E. The Pharisees believed that their observance of the Law made them holy – that it was their efforts that saved. They missed it completely!
F. People, we have the tendency to make the same mistake as the pharisees! When we think that our faith is all about doing and completing tasks and following rules we end up focused on what we must do and miss out on the joy of “being” with Christ.

Main Idea: The Pharisees were so interested in religious activity that they missed out on the joy of being with their Messiah.

Challenge:

• Spend 30 minutes sometime this week and meditate on what you faith expressed looks like. Is it rules that you follow or time that you spend “being”?
• Pray and ask God how you are like the Pharisees.
• Ask God to give you His joy when someone else experiences Him.