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. 

---

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

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