November 15, 2010 – Mark 2:18-3:19

2:19 – We are not suppose to fast on Sundays and Feast Days in the Church.  These are times of celebration.  Jesus understands and teaches us there are times for fasting and there are times for celebration. 

2:21-22 – I don’t know if I have ever really gotten these parables.  Is he talking about the old laws of the Jews and what Christ is teaching.  That seems to go with the context.  Is He saying that this is not a new teaching or a new religion (new wine or unshrunken cloth) which would destroy the old way.  What He is teaching is a fulfillment of the old law so that it is not destroyed but made better (patching shrunken cloth with shrunken cloth) or filled up (putting old wine in old wine skins).  If you remember that Jesus also says that not a single letter of any of the old law will be undone until it is fulfilled, this interpretation makes a little bit of sense.  

2:27 – We need the Sabbath.  I think we have talked about this before.  The Sabbath was made for us because we need to rest and give ourselves time to reflect on God and grow closer to Him.  The world treats it as another day and thus we have a busy world where everything is go, go, go.  God intended for us to take this day and give it to Him so that we could recharge and regroup and be filled with His grace and energy so that the rest of our week we could do His will. 

3:2-6 – Once again we see that the leaders are completely clouded by their love for power.  If you are not suppose to work on the Sabbath, look at what Jesus actually does.  He says four words, “Stretch out your hand”.  That doesn’t seem like work to me, yet they plotted to kill him because of it.  Doesn’t it seem like more “work” to plot to catch someone doing something and then plot to kill Him on the Sabbath. 

Also, I love when one line can stump them.  “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil?”  They have absolutely nothing to say to this because they know they are in the wrong.