“If you are a Christian, then you are called to obey all of God’s commands.” I’ll say that phrase again. “If you are a Christian, then you are called to do good works.” As I say that, examine how your heart responds. Did you respond by thinking “Ugh. That’s so difficult. I stink at it. I’m a bad Christian.” Or perhaps you thought, “Amen. That’s right. Most Christians aren’t putting in enough effort.” Maybe you thought something entirely different. But the way your heart responds tells you some things about how you feel about God’s commands. If you find you can’t live up to them, then it’s likely you view God’s commands as burdensome. They are a heavy weight on you and you do not have enough strength to prevent them from crushing you. But if you responded with a soft condemnation of those who don’t obey God’s commands, then it’s likely you view yourself as a bit of a superior Christian. You might think that you are more pleasing to God because you have worked harder and put in more effort than others. Obeying his commands has caused you to condemn others.

In the first instance, you’re in danger of thinking God is a tyrant and failing to see the generosity of God’s commands. In the other instance, you’re in danger of thinking you’re more righteous than others and you’ll harden your heart to correction.

In this morning’s text, Jesus wants to balance us between those two by creating soft hearts that are open to receiving his generosity by keeping his commands.

Main Point – Do not harden your heart to the generosity of God’s commands

Text –  Mark 2:23 - 3:6 , which can be found in your pew Bible on page 786

Prayer

Point #1 – Recognize the generosity in God’s commands (vs.23-28)

Our text today deals specifically with the laws around the Sabbath day and why and how these laws should be kept. On the surface this seems like a bit of a dated issue. We don’t have much of any Sabbath laws anymore and generally no one is troubled with keeping these laws or breaking them. I’m not going to argue for whether or not we ought to keep the Sabbath today or how we ought to keep it. That’s a sermon for another day. But today we’ll see the Sabbath as representative of all of God’s commands. To paraphrase verse 27, we might say “God’s commands were made for man, not man for God’s commands”. So as we consider these Sabbath laws, keep in your mind all of God’s commands in his word and how we relate to them.

READ Vs 23-24

The disciples are hungry and they are breaking little heads of grain off, rolling them in their hands to remove the husks, and they are eating the wheat. When the Pharisees see this they accuse them of breaking a law on the Sabbath. What are they doing that is wrong? Your first thought might be that they’re stealing. They’re eating grain from someone else’s grain field. But that’s actually not a problem. If you search your Bible back in Deuteronomy, you will find that the law specifically allows people to eat someone else’s crop as they pass through. They simply may not harvest it or collect it for later. So you have to keep searching your Bible to find what law they are breaking here. Unfortunately, you will not find any specific laws being broken. The closest thing you will notice is in the 10 Commandments. Number 4 states, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. You shall not do any work on the Sabbath. The disciples here don’t seem to be doing any work. They’re just eating.

The Pharisees however are trying their best to keep Israel pure and prevent them from breaking God’s laws. So what they have done is set up boundaries around the laws to make sure it didn’t get broken. Obviously, harvesting your crops on the Sabbath would be a violation of the law, but what counts as harvesting? This law shouldn’t be applied to merely large harvests, but small ones as well. In fact, any time you collect even the smallest amount of your crop, it should count as harvesting. Threshing your crops on the Sabbath would be another violation of the  law. But how much threshing? Again, even separating the smallest amount of grain from its husk should count as threshing.

Thus, we see the disciples breaking the law on two accounts here. They are harvesting a crop by plucking heads. And they are threshing a crop by separating the husk before eating it. The logic is pretty sound.

In their zeal to protect the law, the Pharisees have created an abundance of further laws surrounding the original. It’s as if there is a button on the wall that says “Do not press”. And to prevent anyone from accidentally pressing it a small glass box is placed over it. But of course children might still remove the glass and press it, so a small fence is built around the button. But the fence is too close and can be reached over, so a larger fence further away is built. But of course that fence could easily be broken if someone wanted to smash through it, so the second fence is replaced with a concrete wall. But that wall could be mined through with tools and enough time, so a guard is set to watch the wall to make sure no one bore through it or even touches it. And the windows in the room are bricked up so no one can even see the button. This is what the Pharisees have established. What started as a desire to keep the law “Don’t push the button” has become an outrageous system built to force people into compliance.

Jesus sees this system and he has thoughts.

READ vs. 25-26

He starts with the question “Have you never read?” This is a pretty straightforward claim. If you want to know what God commands, you need to know what the Bible says. It would be foolish to claim you know what God wants and how we ought to act, without knowing what the Bible says. The Pharisees did in fact know what the Bible says, but they hadn’t put it together. They didn’t understand it. So not only do you need to know what the Bible says, but you need to be able to put it together and understand it.

Jesus references a story in the Old Testament about King David that takes place before he is King David. In 1 Samuel 21, David is on the run from King Saul. Saul is convinced that David is a menace and he wants him dead. So without any provisions David flees. He runs somewhere he thinks he might be safe to the town of Nob where the priests are and God’s holy tabernacle is about 3 miles away from Saul’s home. He’s scared. He’s looking for help. He wants to know if he’ll be safe. And he’s hungry. The high priest there recognizes someone in need and then does something very unusual, but wise. He offers David the holy bread that was set aside for God. There were 12 loaves of bread to be set on a temple in the presence of God and considered holy. According to the law, they were only allowed to be eaten by the priests. They represented God’s presence with his people. That’s why they’re called in our passage “the bread of the presence”.

So why does Jesus bring up this story? Both David and the high priest practiced wise discernment because they were able to discern the purpose of the law, not merely the letter of the law. He recognized that the reason God made a law about holy bread was to teach people about his presence to bless them. The law was meant to be a generous gift to the people coming from God’s generous heart. A rigid adherence to a ritual form of the law that withheld the bread from the person in need would have placed more emphasis on ritual than on the generosity of God’s heart. This is why Jesus is able to say these following words in verse 27-28.

READ vs 27-28

As the one who wrote the law, Jesus has authority over it. He is the only one qualified to interpret it perfectly and declare its purpose. The purpose of the Sabbath wasn’t to crush people. It was given as a blessing to people. What a blessing that your provisions don’t depend on your ability to work endlessly and tirelessly. What a blessing that we can trust God to provide for us even if taking a day off  causes us to miss out on business and market opportunities. God sustains us when we rest in him. The Sabbath is a generous gift from God’s generous heart.

To use our “don’t push this button” illustration, it’s as if we build all the walls around the button to protect it, but no one understands why we’ve been told not to push the button. It turns out if you push the button, the fans turn off and the room loses circulation. It becomes stuffy in there. But here the Pharisees bricked up the windows and built concrete barriers everywhere and the room is stuffier than ever as they “keep” the law.

God’s laws haven’t been given to make things stuffier. They’ve been given as a means of generosity. That law which allowed the disciples to eat grain in another’s field was generous. The laws which called them to rest one day a week were generous. And Christian, the laws he gives to you are generous. God’s laws are not meant to restrict you, but rather they are meant to free you.

Let me take a moment to speak to the teenagers in this room. Satan will do everything he can to convince you that following God will be disappointing. He will try to convince you that obeying God’s Word will prevent you from enjoying all the good things this world has to offer. But I’m telling you that true and genuine freedom, true and genuine delight are all found in keeping God’s laws. Listen to these verses from Psalms

"the rules of the Lord are true,

and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey

and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them is your servant warned;

in keeping them there is great reward." - Psalm 19:9b-11

Perhaps, you’ve met some Pharisees in your life that have made following God seem stuffy. I’m sorry. I’m sorry they have misled you. But obedience to God is where life is. Obedience is how God forms your heart and molds it. It’s how he shapes you into the image of Jesus.

But God’s law will only shape us when we have soft hearts. In this next portion of our text, we’ll see that the Pharisees refused to soften their hearts, but rather hardened them.

Point #2 – Do not harden your heart to God’s commands (vs. 1-6)

In this second event, we see another encounter with Sabbath laws. But this time instead of seeing the generous heart of God in his laws, Jesus is going to expose the wicked heart of men in their attempts to keep God’s laws. Our first two verses are setting us up for a tense confrontation. Let’s read verses 1-2.

READ Vs. 1-2

On the outside it appears to be a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees, but below the surface we see they are staging a confrontation between the generous heart of Jesus and their understanding of the law of God. Jesus they know has both the power to heal people and he has the desire to heal people. They are attempting to weaponize that in order to catch him in the act. What law would Jesus be breaking? Well, doctors aren’t allowed to work on the Sabbath either, unless of course there is a life saving emergency that requires it. Any other non-urgent healing would have to wait until the next day. This man with a withered hand is not urgent. Healing him would be working on the Sabbath.

Do you remember in the story of the paralyzed man let down through the roof, Jesus was able to look into the scribes’ hearts and see their doubts? Here again, Jesus looks into the Pharisees' hearts and knows what their intentions are. We’ve just seen 4 consecutive “why” stories, where Jesus is confronted and asked “Why”. This time Jesus is the one who speaks first.

Read Vs. 3-4

He calls the man with the withered hand forward fully aware of what the Pharisees are watching for. Then he asks the most simple question to answer, but it both exposes the purpose of the Sabbath and the contrary purpose of their own hearts at the same time. “Should we do things on the Sabbath that are good for others or that harm others?” Of course the Sabbath is a gift from God. It’s a blessing. It should be for doing good. No one would use it to harm, right? The next question goes even further. “Should we do things on the Sabbath that save life or kill?” This question is borderline absurd. It is always appropriate to save lives. And there isn’t a single day of the week where it is appropriate to kill. No one would use the Sabbath to kill, right? Right?

The Pharisees are trapped. They can say nothing. There is no middle ground offered. They can’t simple say “neither” because that would suggest that the Sabbath is meaningless. They must choose.  If they say it is for doing good and saving lives then it would encourage Jesus to heal the man. But of course they cannot say it is for harming and killing. So they remain silent. Instead of admitting that they have missed God’s heart and admitting their own cold lack of love, they furrow their brow and cross their arms and make no reply.

Read Vs. 5

When Jesus walked into the room they stared at him ready to accuse. Now Jesus stares at them and in their silence they have accused themselves. It says he is both angry and grieved at their hardness of heart. He is angry because they have no compassion. They are protecting themselves. They don’t care about those who are hurting. They care about power. They care about reputation. And worse off they are misrepresenting God all the while because they claim to be the ones who love him most. Jesus is furious because God’s honor is being dragged through the mud. God is overflowing with generosity and compassion and these men portray him and his laws as if he were ruthless. All they must do is humble themselves. Humble themselves and admit they are wrong, but they stare back at Jesus. Absolutely hardened.

Have you ever encountered this kind of pride in someone before? Have you seen that cold obstinate stare with crossed arms that represent a hard heart that will absolutely not soften for anyone? Have you ever had that cold heart? Have you let your pride harden your heart into an immovable stone? Are you staring now with the same stare the Pharisees returned to Jesus?

Jesus was angry, but he was also grieved. He was grieved that their hearts were hardened. Do you know where a hard heart takes you? Do you know what these Pharisees would do if they didn’t humble themselves? Do you know where these men are right now today? Their hard hearts refused to repent. Jesus gave them the opportunity to turn from their pride and they refused. They were able to keep their hardened, unrepentant hearts. And they kept them to their death. And they are keeping them to this day in hell. Jesus is grieved at this outcome. He doesn’t want these men to face that end. He is compassionate. He wants to see people turn from sin. He wants hearts to be softened. But they would not.

Seeing that they are immovable, Jesus gives them over to their hard hearts. He heals the man. And immediately the wicked purposes of their hard hearts are revealed.

Read Vs. 6.

We asked the question earlier if anyone would really use the Sabbath to kill someone. Here the answer is found. The violence in their hearts has been exposed. They have acted as if they wanted to serve the Lord with their observance of the Sabbath. Perhaps they even believed they were serving the Lord with their observance of the Sabbath. But when the Lord of the Sabbath arrives, it is revealed that all along they wanted to be the lords of the Sabbath themselves. They liked the power that wielding Sabbath laws gave them. God’s purpose in giving commands is to bless others out of his generous heart. But at the same time, obeying his commands will cost you something. You will have to give up control and soften your heart. Neither of which the Pharisees were willing to do.

Jesus exposed their hearts and gave them opportunity to repent by asking them a simple question. But they hardened their hearts all the more and doomed themselves. I wonder what question Jesus would ask us if he were to walk in now. Do we have the appearance of those who love God while inwardly our hearts are hardened and refuse to respond to him? What if someone walked up to you and straight to your face calmly said, “I don’t think you’re a Christian.” How would your heart respond? Would you be filled with anger? Would your words immediately be, “How dare you? Who do you think you are?” Would that be followed by a litany of accusations against the questioner trying to call out his sins? Would you list all of the good things you have done defending your moral uprightness? In other words, would you attempt to demonstrate how the questioner is a lawbreaker, but you are in fact a good law keeper? If so, you may sound painfully like the Pharisees. I’m afraid that you might be using God’s commands as means of justifying yourself and not as a means of receiving God’s blessing.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is calling on you to soften your hearts. Repent of hard heartedness. Don’t drive your feet deeper into the ground. Instead, soften your heart. Be willing to receive correction. Don’t view God’s commands as a way to earn points on your Christian scoreboard. Instead, keep God’s commands because it’s the way you love God and love others.

We know that Jesus Christ is on a mission. He is entering the kingdom of Satan to save people by calling them to repentance. But we see that Jesus’ call has a polarizing effect. It causes hearts to either soften into response or harden into obstinance. The fire that melts wax into a puddle is the same fire that hardens clay into a brick. Christ is calling you to turn from sin and turn from hard-heartedness and follow him. He alone offers salvation. His death on the cross is your only hope for life. How is your heart responding to this call? Is the Holy Spirit urging you to respond to Christ? Then pray to him now. Have that conversation now and plead with him to soften your heart. Is there something you need to do this week in response to him? Who do you need to talk to? If you have questions for me please come talk to me. But whatever you do, don’t stare back at Jesus in silence.

God’s commands to you are generous. They are not burdensome. He wants to bless you through obedience. Don’t harden your heart towards him.