Christianity is More Than Rules | The Gospels | Mark 2:18-28

[music] Welcome to 10 Minute Bible Talks. Where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. My kids have been watching one of my favorite childhood shows. It's called Recess. Now, if you've never watched it, the show follows a gaggle of kids who get into these hilarious hygiene stirring, you guessed it, Recess. One of the villains in the show is a kid named Randall. He's the classic brown-noser. He literally carries around a clipboard and a pencil and tries to catch kids breaking the rules so that he can report them to the higher-ups. As you can imagine, Randall isn't very popular. I recently re-watched an episode with my kids and this one was told from Randall's perspective. In the episode, it's his birthday. And before school, his father announces that he'd be coming to school to meet all of Randall's best friends. But who are his best friends? Well, it turns out that Randall had been fibbing to his dad. He told him that the whole recess gang that he was continually snitching on. He said that whole gang considered him their best friend. So Randall isn't quite a pincer because of his dad shows up and discovers that his perfect rule following child has been lying about his friends. That won't go so well for Randall. You see, it turns out that Randall's rule following mentality didn't produce the kind of heart or the kind of character that pleased his father. In other words, being the kind of person who had friends. I don't share this show out of nostalgia. I share it because it illustrates a point that many religious people fail to see. We often imagine that God is a cosmic Randall. He's got his clipboard and his pen and he's taking constant note of all the rules we break so that he can punish us. And if we think that's who God is, that's often who we become ourselves. We become the kinds of Christians who think that the chief end of human life is to follow the rules and believe that our rule following mentality will please our God. We become the kinds of Christians who are self-righteous and judgmental and always trying to tattle on the people around us. In many ways, this is how the ancient Pharisees thought. You see, they knew the Scriptures well and they correctly believed that Israel was sent into exile by God because of their disobedience because they broke the rules. They also correctly believed that God promised to return one day, resurrect the dead and reestablish his kingdom on earth as in heaven. The question was how would all of this happen? They believed that if breaking rules caused the exile, then the only way to end it and usher in the kingdom of God was to follow the rules. In fact, they believed that everyday people should live like priests and they become so punctilious about following the rules that they invented hundreds of new rules just to ensure that no one accidentally broke the big rules. The God of the Pharisees was a clipboard carrying rule enforcer and thus they became clipboard carrying rule enforcers themselves. As we enter into today's passage in the Gospel of Mark, I think Mark wants us to ask two questions. First, does a rule keeping mentality produce the heart and character that please God? And second, is God really a cosmic stickler obsessed with rules and regulations? In Mark 2, we read about two encounters between Jesus, His disciples, and the Pharisees. And in both instances, Jesus' disciples are breaking the rules. And in both cases, the Pharisees pull out their clipboards, they click their pens and take note of the misbehavior. And in both instances, Jesus says something that fundamentally challenges their assumptions about who God is and what God wants. Today, we're going to focus on the second story. But I'd encourage you to download our Bible reading plan so that you can read the whole passage and continue reading alongside us every day as we go through Mark and the rest of the Gospels this year. Let's pick up in verse 23. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields. And as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" So let's pause. The Pharisees' rule-keeping mentality is on full display here. They catch Jesus and His disciples breaking the rules. And then they confront them. Now on one level, it's hard to disagree with them. Food was supposed to be prepared and collected on the day before the Sabbath according to God's law. But of course, this isn't always possible. For example, a traveling group of disciples might not have been able to procure food on the day before. There's also a question as to whether it's wrong to just grab a snack on hand on the Sabbath. Is that really what this law was meant to ban? Well, let's continue in verse 25. Jesus answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?" In the days of a biothar, the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions. Jesus responds to the Pharisees by reminding them of a story of King David, the King after God's heart. Now this story takes place before he became the King of Israel. And at that time, a different guy named Saul was King. And Saul was jealous of David, and so he sought to kill him. And this forced David to go on the run. After a long night fleeing, David and his men came to the tabernacle, famished, and in need of food. And so they asked for food. The problem was that technically the food was off limits for anyone, but the priest. But think about this. If the priest didn't feed David and his men, they might starve. Or they might lose so much strength that Saul could kill them. So Jesus is asking a very subtle question here. He's saying, "When it comes to rules, is it the rule that's most important or the spirit of the rule?" You see, the spirit of the law that said, "Only priests could eat the consecrated bread." Well, it was in order to protect the food for the priest, so they had something to eat. But Jesus is saying that because the protection of life, the life of David and his men, is more important than the protection of food, the priest was right to give it away. His heart had things in the right order. Protecting life is more important than keeping the consecrated bread consecrated. The priest gave in order to honor a higher principle. Life should be protected. Let's continue in verse 27. Then 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." So what's he getting at here? He's saying that the Pharisees value their rulekeeping and Sabbath keeping, more than the wives of his hungry disciples. Their rulekeeping mentality has caused them to lose sight of what's most important, the preservation of life. Moreover, he's saying that they've lost sight of the spirit of the Sabbath laws. These laws did say that no work could be done on one day of the week. But the Pharisees seem to think that these rules exist for their own sake, just to be followed. They think that humanity exists for the sake of following rules, like the Sabbath. But Jesus turns that upside down. He says, "No, no, no, no, no, no, man doesn't exist for the Sabbath. Sabbath was created by God for mankind. Why? Because Sabbath protects humanity. It protects people from the abuses of those who would overwork them. It protects them from slavery, where there is no break. And it also protects the soul from its own addiction to busyness and consumption. So what's Jesus' point? The Pharisees are keeping the rules, yes? But their rulekeeping mentality hasn't given them a heart that pleases God, because their heart is out of order. They love the wrong things. In this rulekeeping mentality, it's made them judgmental and condemning. And it's made them reject the very people that God has accepted, the people that God wants to love and rescue. You see, God does care about obedience. And He gives us laws for our own good, because breaking them often hurts us. But God is not a rulekeeping God. He's a loving God who brings about His kingdom, not by keeping rules, but by sacrificing Himself. The true God is a God of grace and mercy. He's also a God of holiness. The holiness understands that protecting life always supersedes rule following. So what about you? Have you fallen into a rulekeeping mentality, thinking that you please God so long as you follow the rules? What God wants is not a self-righteous heart committed to rule following. What He wants is a humble heart that repents of sin and obeys Him, not because it loves rules, but because it loves God. And because that heart knows that God loves Him and is full of grace and mercy towards Him. That's the kind of God we worship. So let us become those kinds of people, the gracious kinds of people who don't judge, who don't condemn, who don't think that a rulekeeping mentality makes us right before God. But know that the only thing that makes us right before Him is the death of His Son. [Music]