Review

Thus far Mark’s narrative has been filled with lots of fast-paced action:  healings, exorcisms, and plenty of “arky conflict” in the form of dramatic confrontations between Christ and the Powers that Be.  In this section we step into what one commentator calls “the first main block of Jesus’ teaching.”[i]  In Chapter 4 the Master returns to His central message of The Kingdom of God, explicating it by way of three parables and two analogies.  The first of these parables is perhaps the most famous of them all:  the Parable of the Sower, the Seed, and the Soils.         

The Subtlety of Seed and Soils:  Verses 1-9

1 And He began to teach again by the seashore.  And such a very great multitude gathered before Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and all the multitude were by the seashore on the land. 2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, 3 “Listen to this!  Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and it came about that as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. 6 And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 And other seeds fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they were yielding a crop and were producing thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 9 And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”[ii]           

So much has been written, preached, and taught on this parable that it almost seems presumptuous to try to add anything to the discussion.  But a few salient points may be worth mentioning.

First, it’s difficult to divide this passage into smaller segments.  The section hangs together as a whole:  Jesus gives us the parable, then provides the interpretation; and sandwiched in between these two inseparable halves of the discourse He offers some explosive comments on the purpose of His parables in general and how they work.  It seems important to keep all this together.

The story Jesus sketches out for us here is so straightforward and familiar as to seem almost banal.  Most of us have heard it so many times that we could recite it and its interpretation in our sleep.  Nevertheless, as with most of Christ’s teaching, there are things about this parable that aren’t readily apparent to the eye; and, as usual, it’s these hidden gems that merit the most attention. 

As we’ve already indicated, the parable is designed to give us a picture of the coming of the Kingdom.  This was a subject of great concern to all of Jesus’ listeners:  everybody from the common folk to the tax collectors to the Pharisees to the politically potent Herodians and Romans.  Each of these groups had ideas, hopes, dreams, fears, and expectations of its own connected with the coming of the Kingdom.  What’s significant about Jesus’ representation of the matter is that it doesn’t match any of these popularly held notions. 

Most people looked for the Kingdom to arrive in a sudden flash.  The Messiah would appear, marshal His forces, oust the enemies and oppressors, and instantly establish God’s reign on earth.  It would be a top-down, overnight, indisputable military and political victory – a sudden paradigm shift at which every knee would bow, just as Paul assures us it will be at the end of the age (Philippians 2:10, 11).  That’s what the Jews were hoping for – a hope very much like that entertained by many American evangelicals today.  That’s the vision that caused the Roman overlords so much unease and gave them so many sleepless nights.  But it’s not the scene that Jesus envisions here.

As Jesus sees it, the coming of the Kingdom is not the result of military or political conquest, but of the sowing of the Word.  And it is anything but sudden, stark, instantaneous, total, and undeniable.  On the contrary, it can be more accurately described in terms of a series of modifiers we’ve used before:  ironic, ambiguous, subtle, and paradoxical.  Instead of an overnight victory, “It’s more like a farmer sowing seed, much of which apparently goes to waste because the soil isn’t fit for it, can’t sustain it.”[iii] It does not come with its own set of unanswerable self-validating proofs.  Some see what’s happening and respond positively.  Others simply don’t get it.  Not a particularly hopeful scenario from the perspective of the average Messianic enthusiast.               

Paradoxical Purpose:  Verses 10-12

10 And as soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. 11 And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get everything in parables; 12 in order that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE; AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND; LEST THEY RETURN AGAIN AND BE FORGIVEN.”   

By way of explanation – or perhaps consolation – Jesus now gives His closest followers – and us – a primer on the subject of parables.  And here again the words that come most readily to mind are paradox and ambiguity.

The typical Sunday-school definition of a “parable” is “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.”  A parable, we are often led to believe, is a “helpful illustration” of a spiritual truth expressed in an easily accessible narrative form.  It’s a teaching device calculated to “put the cookies on the bottom shelf,” as a colleague of mine used to express it.  But that’s not what Jesus says here. 

According to Jesus, a parable has the effect of dividing insiders from outsiders – an idea that surfaced last week in the story of Christ’s mother and brothers.  What’s worse, a parable is actually designed to conceal the truth rather than revealing it.  Jesus backs this up with a quotation from the prophet Isaiah (6:9-10).  He asserts that “outsiders” get the message “in parables” in order that “they may see and not see, hear and not hear.”  He expressly tells us that the purpose behind all this is that they should not “repent and be forgiven.”            

Some commentators have called this “one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament.”  It certainly isn’t easy to understand – at least not according to our normal categories of biblical interpretation.  “Doesn’t Jesus want everybody to get the message?” asks Wright.  The answer, he suggests, is “Yes and no.”  Why?  Because “what He is saying is such dynamite that it can’t be said straightforwardly, out on the street.”  It’s something so “subversive and unexpected” that it has to be communicated in a “code” that only insiders will fully be able to grasp.[iv]

We may not be able to wrap our brains around this concept – at least not apart from a long and hard process of careful and prayerful contemplation.  But there’s one thing we can say with certainty:  this is not a good marketing strategy.  Unlike Henry Ford and Steve Jobs, Jesus does not “try to figure out what consumers are going to want and then find a way to give it to them.”  Instead, He “puts the cookies on the highest shelf of all” – almost beyond their reach.  He makes us stretch until we’re almost ready to break; for it’s only at that point that we’ll be ready to cast ourselves upon His grace.           

Diversity and Division:  Verses 13-20

13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?  And how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 And in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good ground; and they hear the word and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. 

Obviously there’s a great deal that could be said about this interpretation of the parable.  I’m going to limit myself to a single reflection.  In contrast to first-century Jewish expectations, the coming of the Kingdom, on Jesus’ representation, does not lead to some sort of instantaneous “theocratic solidarity”; “one nation under God,” if you will.  Instead, it produces even more division and confusion.  Of the four types of soil identified in the story, only one receives the seed of the Word and grows an abundant crop.  The rest fail to respond.  And there’s nothing that the Sower or you or I or anybody else can do about it.

Final Thoughts 

This, then, is Christ’s portrayal of the Kingdom’s arrival on earth.  It’s not a picture of a monolithic “Christian Empire” where eternal truths are universally accepted, where God enjoys the backing of the White House and the Supreme Court, and where everybody shares a common commitment to “traditional biblical values.”  Instead, it’s a picture of a small but potent force surviving, thriving, and pushing its way to the surface through hostility, adversity, and widespread diversity.  This is our situation today.  It’s the environment in which we must learn to function in this “already-but-not-yet” period of our Christian experience.           

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[i] Schnabel, The Tyndale New Testament Commentary on Mark, p. 98.

[ii] This week’s Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible. 

[iii] N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 43.

[iv] Ibid., p. 44.

Review

Our discussion of Mark 3:7-19 was dominated by the themes of irony and opposites.  We could re-state this by saying that the events narrated in that passage were characterized by a certain degree of ambiguity:  a quality that is also highly descriptive of our personal lives as followers of Jesus in this “already-but-not-yet” period “between the Ages.”  We’ll find this same ambiguity – mingled with appropriate measures of frustration, adversity, misunderstanding, and disappointment – running through the section that follows.           

Labels:  Verses 20-22

20 Now Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat. 21 When his family heard this they went out to restrain Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” 22 The experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the ruler of demons he casts out demons.”     

Jesus has taken a dramatic and revolutionary step forward by choosing twelve apostles to “be with Him” and join Him in the task of proclaiming the arrival of God’s kingdom – a clear sign of progress in the advancement of His mission.  So what is the opposite of that?  The answer, of course, is more resistance.

At this juncture the resistance comes from a couple of arkys we’ve encountered before:  the family and the religious establishment.  In Jesus’ day, these two powers or principalities went hand in hand.  They represented two related sub-aspects of an even greater allegiance, an overarching loyalty that could not possibly brook the claims of a powerful rival like Jesus:  loyalty to the nation Israel as the People of God. 

In this instance, the opposition offered by these two arkys assumes a particular form:  labeling.  A savvy choice on the part of Christ’s adversaries.  A disturbing phenomenon like Jesus is almost impossible to understand, much less control, if you can’t fit it into a recognizable category.  As long as it’s permitted to run wild, free, and undefined, you have to face it honestly and deal with it on its own terms.  But if you can cram it into a pre-fabricated box of some kind, it becomes fairly easy to dismiss.  That’s what’s happening here.  Jesus’ family attempts to take Him in hand by calling Him “crazy”.  The spiritual authorities claim He’s “in league with the devil.”  After that, it’s a done deal.  There’s nothing more to say. 

This is a timely topic.  At present this tactic of name-calling is being employed with great effect by prominent people on both sides of every imaginable aisle.  If you’re uncomfortable with what someone stands for, you call him a “terrorist” or a “liberal”.  Case closed.  If a magazine prints something you don’t like, you label it “left-wing” or “reactionary” and toss it in the trash.  No need to do the hard work of reading, listening, thinking, or responding.  In the same way, if you find Jesus strange, unsettling, unorthodox, or challenging, don’t bother to ask why.  Just say, “He’s nuts.”  Just broad-brush Him as a “sorcerer”.  That will take care of the problem.  Then you can go about your business with a clear conscience.

Facing the Obvious:  Verses 23-27

23 So He called them and spoke to them in parables:  “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom will not be able to stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan rises against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand and his end has come. 27 But no one is able to enter a strong man’s house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man.  Then he can thoroughly plunder his house.”    

Jesus, of course, is not a wacko or a Satanist.  He’s the Word of God Incarnate, the Arky above all arkys.  And His response to this kind of talk is consistent with His divine nature and character.  He cuts through the name-calling by drawing His accusers’ attention to the plain facts.  In His own inimitable style, He says, “Don’t you see what’s happening?  Evil is in retreat!  The darkness is being pushed back!  The enemy is on the run!  Do you think any of this is his doing?  Can’t you tell the difference between good and bad when you see it?” 

In other words, Jesus resorts here to an image and an argument He often used in cases of this kind:  A tree is known by its fruit.      

No Way Out :  Verses 28-30

28 “I tell you the truth, people will be forgiven for all sins, even all the blasphemies they utter. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin” 30 (because they said, “He has an unclean spirit”).

With this we step straight into the age-old question of the “unforgivable sin”:  “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.”  Controversial though it may be, Jesus’ pronouncement here really isn’t as difficult to understand as it seems – not if we read it in context.  As N. T. Wright explains, “It isn’t that God gets specially angry with one sin in particular.  It’s rather that if you decide firmly that the doctor who is offering to perform a life-saving operation on you is in fact a sadistic murderer, you will never give your consent to the operation.”[i]  To say it another way, if you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, you’re out of luck.  If you demonize the Redeemer, there’s no one left to redeem you (see Hebrews 6:6; 10:26).  You’ve painted yourself into a corner with no way out. 

Redefining the Family:  Verses 31-35

 31 Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came.  Standing outside they sent word to Him, to summon Him. 32 A crowd was sitting around Him and they said to Him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 He answered them and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who were sitting around Him in a circle, He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

The picture Mark paints for us in this concluding section is poignantly symbolic.  The members of Jesus’ natural family, who have now re-entered the scene, stand outside the inner circle of which He forms the Center.  Seen in its historical context, this is sufficiently shocking in and of itself.  It’s another statement – an appallingly radical statement – about arkys, allegiances, and connections.  But Jesus’ blunt comment on this striking tableau makes the claim even more explicit:  “Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

In recent years there’s been a lot of talk among those who are accustomed to view reality through the lens of the “culture wars” about the dangers of “redefining the family.”  Ironically (there’s that word again), this is exactly what Jesus is doing here.  Just as the Kingdom of God is distinct from the kingdom of politics, so the Family of God is something completely different from the natural nuclear family.  It takes its name and derives its meaning from an entirely different Source.   

As we have already seen in Mark’s account of the calling of Simon, Andrew, James, and John, the family, like the nation, the state, the church, the “organization”, the “team”, or any other purely cosmic and sublunary construction, easily becomes “an arky out to govern us”[ii].  That’s precisely what’s happening to Jesus in this little vignette.  And He rebuffs the assault with deftness and grace.  “In the final analysis,” He says with a smile, “the only connection between people that has any lasting significance at all is the connection they share through their bond of allegiance to Me.”  Can you imagine how Mary and the boys must have felt?  It’s enough to rile anybody! 

Final Thoughts 

This is probably a good place to remind ourselves of Martin Luther’s maxim:  “The Christian is a most free lord of all and subject to none; the Christian is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone.”[iii]  Jesus’ “redefinition of the family” does not entail the rejection of family ties or the nullification of natural affection.[iv]  It simply re-shifts the focus by directing our attention to the True Hub of the Wheel.  And it magnifies and enhances all our loves, whether of mother, father, brother, friend, neighbor, co-worker, or compatriot, by making them reflections of our love for Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us.            

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[i] N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 38.

[ii] Vernard Eller, Christian Anarchy, p. 2.

[iii] Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian.

[iv] As many cultic groups would have it. 

Review

A sort of first significant milestone has been passed in Mark’s chronicle of the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom in Christ.  We’re still only in Chapter 3, yet Jesus’ public proclamation of the arrival of this Kingdom, coupled with His subtle and stubborn opposition to every other arche or exousia, whether supernatural or earthly, has already brought things to such a pass that the established authorities feel they have no choice except to get rid of Him.  Let’s see what happens next.        

Opposites:  Verses 7-12

7 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea.  And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.  9 So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.  10 For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.  11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God.”  12 But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.[i]  

Webster’s Dictionary defines “irony” as “a method of humorous or sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense.”  Experientially, “irony” can be understood as “a combination of circumstances or a result that is the opposite of what might be expected or considered appropriate.”  As we’ve said before, the Scriptures in general and Mark’s Gospel in particular are full of irony.  Solemn and pious readers may not see it, but the Bible is rife with dark humor.  It tells us again and again that life plays us lots of ironic jokes.  Jesus’ life was like that too.

A good way to create a compelling story, we’re told, is to write a scene and then ask yourself, What is the opposite of that?  Something of the sort is happening here.  In response to Jesus’ public activities in town and synagogue, the scribes and Pharisees have laid a plot to kill Him.  What is the opposite of that?  Easy:  Jesus takes His disciples and withdraws to the seaside.  But what happens then?  Instead of solitude, Jesus finds a crowd!  All at once He has become an international celebrity!  He is besieged by multitudes not only from Galilee and Judea but from such outlying areas as Idumea (Old Testament Edom) and pagan kingdoms like Tyre and Sidon. 

This is good news for the advancement of the Kingdom, right?  Ironically, no.  Why?  Because these crowds, who are pressing upon Him so forcefully that He has to get into a boat and put out from shore in order to escape being trampled, aren’t really interested in the Kingdom.  Allegiance to Jesus is the farthest thing from their minds.  All they want is to be healed from their maladies and afflictions.  And while Jesus is openly proclaimed to be “the Son of God,” as we might have hoped and expected, this confession does not come from the lips of His admirers and devotees, but from unclean spirits.  Jesus, seeing that these accolades and endorsements are coming from precisely the wrong quarter, tells the demons to cease and desist.  He forbids them to “make Him known” (Greek phaneron, “manifest”) to the crowd, reintroducing the theme of the “Incognito Messiah”.  It’s a bit late for that, of course.  Just another funny little twist in the narrative.                               

Another Kind of Revolution

13 And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.  And they came to Him.  14 Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, 15 and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:  16 Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”; 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite; 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.     

The next thing Jesus does is equally paradoxical.  Once again He withdraws, this time from the seaside to the mountainside.  And in so doing He makes a statement that is almost certain to be seriously – and ironically – misinterpreted.

“He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted.”  It’s easy for modern readers to miss the point here.  Jesus climbs the hill, Mark says, in order to choose twelve “apostles” who are to “be with Him” and whom He will “send out to preach” in His name.  But there’s more to this than meets the eye.  Jesus could not have been blind to the construction His contemporaries would have put upon His actions; for “up the mountain,” as N. T. Wright tells us, “is where people went to plot revolution.”  Nor is that all.  Twelve was a powerfully symbolic number for the Jews.  The choice of twelve apostles would have been seen as a clear reference to the twelve tribes of Israel, which in turn would have implied an agenda aimed at the Restoration of the Nation.  “Anyone launching a restoration movement,” Wright goes on to explain, “was doing so in the face of the current rulers and the current pressure groups.”  No wonder he concludes that this calling of the Twelve was “among Jesus’ most revolutionary gestures.”[ii]

But was it “revolutionary” in the usual sense?  “Revolutionary” as that term would have been understood in Jesus’ day, or in own, whether by Jews, Romans, liberals, conservatives, or “activists” of any variety?  To put it another way, was it politically revolutionary?  The answer, of course, is no.  And in this is one of the chiefest of the many ironies of Jesus’ ironic life. 

At risk of stating the obvious and repeating myself for the hundredth time, I will simply point out once again that the kingdom Jesus brings is not political.  The Authority He represents stands apart from and in direct contrast to that of any and every other kind of “arky”, including the “arkys” of government and nationality (John 18:36). 

We should add that this is a concept most modern people find it very hard to grasp.  We live in a time, says Jacques Ellul, when “politics and its offspring (nationalism, for example) have become the cornerstone of what is good or represents progress”[iii]; a time when our very humanity and personhood are judged according to our political commitments and involvements. 

“In our society,” Ellul continues, “anyone who keeps himself in reserve, fails to participate in elections, regards political debates and constitutional changes as superficial and without impact on the true problems of man … will be judged very severely by everybody.  He is the true heretic of our day.  And society excommunicates him as the medieval church excommunicated the sorcerer.”[iv]

This is what Ellul describes as “the Political Illusion”:  the idea that politics and political concerns are the be-all and end-all of existence.  It’s an illusion of the worst kind, for it makes many fantastic promises on which it can never deliver.  It destroys our basic humanity by diverting attention from the things that matter most.  For the church, it’s a particularly dangerous illusion when it is allowed to redefine the Kingdom in terms of worldly agendas and allegiances.  The Revolution and Restoration that Jesus set in motion have nothing to do with this deceptive mirage; and in the end, it was a fatal misunderstanding based on “the Political Illusion” that led to His death on the cross.                           

Final Thoughts 

Here is the greatest irony of all:  a Revolution which is not the “revolution” most of us are looking for; a Restoration that may entail changes the exact  opposite of what we expect.  For just as Aslan of Narnia is not a “tame lion,” so the Master who demands our total allegiance cannot be held accountable to human perceptions and plans.  He is the Lord, not only of the Sabbath but of all things; and every knee will ultimately bow to His will.        

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[i] This week’s Scripture quotations are taken from The New King James Version. 

[ii] Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 34.

[iii] Jacques Ellul, The Political Illusion, p. 17.

[iv] Ibid., p. 18.

Review

For several weeks now – both in the course of our study of the Gospel of Mark and (last week) in a quick side-glance at the Letter to the Hebrews – we’ve been hovering over the theme of the Sabbath.  We’ve talked about the true significance of “Sabbath Rest;” about Jesus’ apparent determination to flout the traditional religious understanding of the Sabbath at almost every turn; and about the deeper meaning of His claim to be “Lord of the Sabbath.”  This subject continues to dominate Mark’s narrative in this week’s passage, but with a rather obvious raising of the stakes.

Upping the Ante

1 Now He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a paralyzed hand.  2 In order to accuse Him, they were watching Him closely to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath.[i]  

The scene now moves from the grain fields to the interior of the synagogue.  Once more Jesus finds Himself caught up in a confrontation with the religious authorities, but the tone is different this time.  No longer are the scribes and Pharisees merely curious about the teachings and behavior of the odd new rabbi from Nazareth.  Their mission has shifted from investigation and discovery to one of search and destroy.  They now have a clear agenda:  to “pin something” on Jesus – anything will do – so that they can “accuse” Him.  Based on past experience, they have every reason to suppose that He is about to oblige them by healing on the Sabbath once again.  And so they lie in wait, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.    

The lesson here is simple.  The conflict between the “Arkys” is a battle to the death.  Whether we are talking about the Arky of Society, of Human Tradition, of the Religious Establishment, of Nationalism, of the Organization, the System, or the Power of the State, it is clear that the worldly or cosmic authorities cannot tolerate the threat posed by the Authority of Jesus.  That’s because allegiance, as we’ve said before, can never be a half-way thing.  It’s always a question of total, complete, and absolute loyalty.  There is no room in this world – or in the life of the individual – for a “double allegiance” of any kind (for example, “God and Country”).  No man can serve two masters.  Therefore it is essential that that the exousiai and kosmokratores (“world-rulers”) of this age (Ephesians 6:12) find some way to eliminate the Competition.  Such will be their goal from here on out.                       

Taking Up the Gauntlet

3 He told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand before us.”

The main thing we want to notice about Jesus’ response is that He accepts the challenge without flinching.  Not for an instant does He hesitate: immediately he says to the man with the paralyzed hand, “Get up.  Let’s do this now.”  He doesn’t try to “walk anything back,” nor does He seek to accommodate the sensibilities of His adversaries.  He drives straight on, and His driving is like the driving of Jehu. 

This in itself is worth comment.  As you will recall, there are several instances recorded in the book of Acts where the apostle Paul, who tells us elsewhere of his desire to “become all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22), seems to go out of His way to avoid giving offense to pious Jews.  Jesus doesn’t take that tack. 

On another occasion very much like the one here in view, a synagogue leader objected to Jesus’ unorthodox activities by saying to the people, “There are six other days in the week when you can come and be healed of your diseases.  Why not come back then?” (Luke 13:14)  The man had a point. 

But Jesus cares nothing for this kind of reasoning.  After all, the issue of Ultimate Authority is at stake here.  Not only has the observance of the Sabbath been institutionalized, it’s also been weaponized, and the weapon has been turned against the Lord of the Sabbath Himself.  The conflict between the Arkys is and must be a battle to the death.  And so He takes His stand.                 

Good or Evil?

4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.    

At this point Jesus, in characteristic style, turns the whole scene upside-down by putting the question on an entirely different footing.  The Pharisees are in a huff about “doing” on the Sabbath.  According to them, no one can “do” anything on the Sabbath, because that’s the same as “working” on the Sabbath, which, as we all know, is against the rules.  But Jesus shifts the focus.  It’s not a problem of “doing” on the Sabbath, He says, but of “doing good or evil” on the Sabbath. 

What does He mean?  Simply this.  Genuine Sabbath Rest is not a question of “doing nothing.”  Real Sabbath Rest is about leaning into Jesus and finding repose in Him no matter what the circumstance.  When we “enter into God’s rest” in Christ, a la Hebrews 4, we do not suddenly cease to live.  Quite the opposite.  This is important to bear in mind, because to live is to choose and act, no matter who you are, where you are, or what day of the week it happens to be. 

Here’s the point.  Whether it’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, “doing nothing” is never an option.  As Jesus expressed it on yet another occasion when He was in trouble for healing on the Sabbath, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working” (John 5:17).  Even on the Sabbath one must do something.  The question is whether we will choose to do good or evil.  As far as Jesus was concerned, it would have been evil to withhold healing from the paralyzed man when it lay within His power to grant it.  This is a spiritual principle well worth remembering at a time when society is trying to make up its mind whether to do something about state-sponsored oppression and injustice or not.                        

A Time for Anger

5 After looking around at them with anger and sorrow at the hardness of their hearts, He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.”  So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.      

Are good Christians allowed to get angry?  Is it ever appropriate for a disciple of the Master to seethe and boil and rage against the Arkys and exousiai of this world?  Is it okay to get downright mad and frustrated with the system?  To overturn tables, make whips out of cords, and get right up in the faces of those who block up the hallways of the world and step on the necks of the weak and defenseless?  This verse seems to say yes. 

But notice how Jesus expresses His anger.  He doesn’t shout and scream.  He doesn’t break windows or start a fire.  Instead, in the spirit of the Lord’s Servant, who “does not quarrel or cry out, nor does anyone hear His voice in the street” (Matthew 12:19; Isaiah 42:2), He deals directly with the sufferer. He looks straight at the man and says, “Stretch out your hand” – a command the paralytic couldn’t have obeyed a moment before.  With calm determination He exercises the Authority which is resident within Him by virtue of Who He Is.  And at His word, the situation is reversed and the healing is accomplished.                

Strange Bedfellows

6 Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.      

With that, the die is cast and Jesus’ doom is sealed.  His foes now have what they came for:  a reason to shut Him down and hound Him to the death.  It’s time to move on to Phase Two.  And so the Pharisees, pious and principled Jews whose loyalties are supposedly due to Yahweh alone, link arms with the Herodians, Roman collaborators par-excellence, and begin to make a plan. 

This is Politics – the Art of the Deal, the Way to Get Things Done – at its best.  It’s the coming together of otherwise incompatible worldly arkys in an unholy alliance with a single objective in view:  to oppose the advance of the Arky of God.  It’s what happens when so-called religious people decide the time has come to promote their own agenda and protect their own interests at any cost.  And it’s never a pretty picture.            

Final Thoughts 

Whether most readers realize it or not, these six verses are rife with irony.  They force us to ask ourselves a number of poignant questions.  Do we appreciate the way in which God’s kingdom has “burst into” the world in Jesus?  Or are we, like the Pharisees, too blinded by commitment to the “rules” to perceive what’s actually happening?  How do we, in our modern context, recover the real meaning of the Sabbath?  And do we understand that, whether waking or sleeping, sitting or walking, working or resting, speaking or keeping silence, we are always faced with an inevitable choice:  to do good or to do evil?

Perhaps most ironic of all is the rather obvious question:  did Jesus’ actions on this occasion actually amount to an infringement of the Sabbath?  “That,” suggests N. T. Wright, “is far from clear.  But His approach and attitude were clearly on a collision course with those of the self-appointed Guardians of the Ancestral Traditions.”[ii]   

Thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. 

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[i] This week’s Scripture quotations are taken from The Holman Christian Standard Bible. 

[ii] N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 31.

Preliminaries

In reading through Mark’s Gospel over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at some of the different ways in which Jesus establishes His Kingdom, asserts His Authority, and calls His followers to give Him their absolute and uncontested Allegiance:  He heals diseases, casts out spiritual “principalities and powers,” challenges worldly “Arkys,” forgives sins “on earth,” and, most recently, proclaims Himself “Lord of the Sabbath.”  We’ve noted that in many of these instances, Christ seems deliberately (in the phrase of N.T. Wright) to “drive a coach and horses” through the revered and beloved institution of the Jewish Sabbath.  We’ve considered some of His reasons for doing so.

This week we’ll make a quick return visit to the book of Hebrews to see what it has to say on this subject.

Review

Last time we were in Hebrews the writer had just finished telling us that the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus is superior to the Old Covenant inasmuch as Christ Himself is superior to both Moses and the angels.  He is, in fact, incomparably qualified to serve as High Priest (2:7) and Mediator between God and Man because He is both God and Man.  At that point the author launched into the second of five practical “warnings” or “exhortations” scattered throughout the book:  this one a warning about the danger of failing to enter God’s Rest through hard-heartedness and unbelief (3:7-19).

That warning is still in progress as we step back into Chapter 4.

Mixed with Faith

4:1 Therefore since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.  3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:  “So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.[i]

Three key words or phrases jump to the forefront in these verses:  promise, gospel, and “mixed with.”

Promise (Greek epangelia) is one of the most powerful grace words found in the New Testament.  It denotes something that is announced to someone.  There’s nothing you can do to earn or merit a promise:  you’re simply told that it’s coming your way, and it does. 

Gospel, as everybody knows, is another “announcement” word:  it’s a proclamation of good news.  Verse 2 uses the verb form of this word:  “We were evangelized (euangelismenoi) just as those people were.”  We today are like the ancient Children of Israel in that we also have received an announcement that something good is coming our way. 

“Mixed with” is the New King James Version’s rendering of the Greek synkerannymi.  It’s a good translation.  The word means “to mingle, blend with, connect, put together.”  The thought here is that faith – and remember that this faith (Greek pistis) is not just intellectual “belief”, but an act of the will and a commitment of the total self (i.e., allegiance) – is the catalyst that activates the effects of the announced promise in the life of the individual.  Without that connection, the “good news” is nothing but a dead letter.               

Rest

4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way:  “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place:  “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.      

The important word in this section is, of course, rest.  It’s at this point that we are strongly reminded of Jesus’ conflict with the Jewish religious authorities over the observance of the Sabbath as recorded in the Gospel of Mark.  The word “rest” or “Sabbath rest” occurs no fewer than eight times in Hebrews 4:1-13.  In only one instance does the writer use the Hebraic term “Sabbath” (Sabbatismos, verse 9).  In every other case the word used is the Greek katapausis, which means “ceasing, cessation, calmness.”

There’s a significant message in all of this.  Verses 4 through 8 are all about the deeper meaning of “Sabbath rest.”  What the writer has in mind is not a weekly religious observance, but an experience of genuine fellowship with the true and living God – as the Lord Himself calls it, “My Rest.”  It’s the repose we find when we entrust ourselves to Him alone; a sharing in the rest into which He Himself entered at the end of His creative work.  It’s firsthand knowledge of the Reality behind all realities, which can only be accessed through faith, belief, and trust, by ceasing from self-dependence and leaning into Him – not just on the seventh day of the week, but Today and every day.  (Psalm 95:7, 8)                         

Claim Ticket

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

These three verses represent the focal point of this passage.  When the author says, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God,” what he means is that the reality of the promise has yet to be claimed.  Despite their unrelenting emphasis upon Sabbath observance, the people of the Old Covenant never really cashed in on this promise.  They failed to go there.  They never actually possessed true Sabbath rest because they never really “got” what it was all about.  Accordingly, the substance behind this religious shadow-image has yet to be realized.  But we can enter into it now, “Today,” by putting all our confidence in the One who came to make it real in the presence of His Person.        

The Power of the Word

12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

These are some of the most famous and best-beloved sentences in the entire New Testament; but it may be worth our while to ask ourselves precisely what they mean in this particular context.  The “Word of God” in this case is not simply “the Bible,” as we often assume.  Instead, it’s the promise of the gospel discussed above (verses 1 and 2).  It’s the Good News proclaimed by Jesus in Mark 1:15:  the announcement that the Kingdom is at hand, and that it can be accessed right now.  That’s why the writer describes this Word as living, powerful, active, vibrant, effervescent, uncontainable, and sharper than any two-edged sword.  It’s not a matter of dutiful religious piety, but of personal connection with (“mixed,” synkerannymi) and total allegiance to the King.         

Final Thoughts

Who is this King?  That question brings us back once again to our study of Mark.  This King, as we discovered in our last installment, is the uncontested Lord of the Sabbath.  In other words, the deeper significance of God’s Sabbath Rest is summed up in Him.  He is the unrivaled Master who, like His forefather David, comes to us in the “In-Between Time” with the message that everything we thought we knew about “religion” and “spirituality” is both wrong and right:  wrong because it cannot save us in and of itself; and right because it ultimately points to Him.         

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[i] This week’s Scripture references are taken from The New King James Version.