Jesus Answers His Critics

Mark 2:20 – 3:6

GOLDEN TEXT: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.”—Matthew 6:11

TODAY’S lesson is quite in contrast with the one for last week in that it shows Jesus being persecuted by the scribes and Pharisees, instead of honored by the common people who heard Him gladly and rejoiced in the blessings He showered upon them. True, there are miracles in our present lesson, but we are presented with the reactions of a jealous and hypocritical leadership to these miracles rather than the rejoicing of the humble and sincere.

The attitude of the Pharisees illustrates the fact that those who are seeking an opportunity to find fault are usually able to find it. If we are prejudiced against an individual, or a good work, we can almost always find what our biased minds consider to be justification for our prejudice. Probably one of the greatest struggles a Christian has is to maintain an unprejudiced mind and heart and thus be able to judge all matters solely upon the basis of merit.

Regardless of how the Law given to Israel at Mt. Sinai could be misconstrued, a Jew whose heart was not filled with prejudice against Jesus would not think of attacking Him because of healing the sick on the sabbath day, nor for plucking and eating grain as they walked through a field. Oh yes, technically, perhaps, they would have grounds for finding fault. When the Law said that they should remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, no exceptions were made to cover such incidents as furnished the Pharisees with their excuse to accuse the Master of wrong-doing. But there are some things so obvious, or should be—and are, indeed, to the unprejudiced mind—that they don’t need to be set forth in writing.

But the Pharisees were not without prejudice, so they apparently found no difficulty in questioning the right of the disciples to pluck and eat grain on the sabbath day; and, to exert oneself sufficiently to heal the sick on such a sacred day was more than should he tolerated in Israel. Consequently, they sought to destroy the One whom they considered their rival. How sin and selfishness do distort one’s reasoning! The Pharisees apparently thought it was within the Law to plot murder on the sabbath day, but wholly contrary thereto for Jesus to heal the sick.

Jesus was always more than a match for His adversaries when He chose to answer their charges. Probably His answers were intended as much for the instruction of His disciples as they were to refute His critics. His explanation that the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath, hints at one of the outstanding features of the divine plan. True, even the typical seventh day, under the Jewish Law, was intended for the benefit of man, rather than that man should become a slave to an ordinance. But the Jewish sabbath was an illustration of a larger sabbath; namely, the seventh one-thousand-year day in God’s great plan of salvation.

In this plan there are six thousand years which, as it were, constitutes man’s work-week of struggle against sin and death. But the seventh period of a thousand years is to see a change, a rest, so to speak, from this struggle. Christ, as the Lord of this larger sabbath, is to intervene in the affairs of mankind, remove the curse and thus rescue all the willing and obedient from the miry pit of sin and death. The healing of all disease, and the feeding of all mankind with the bread of everlasting life, will be the work of Christ and the church during that larger sabbath of which the Jewish sabbath was a type.

There may be some during that great sabbath of the future who will be prejudiced against the good work that is being accomplished, but the Scriptures indicate that should there be opposition in their hearts, it will not be permitted to interfere with the dispensing of Kingdom blessings. Indeed, the prophecies indicate that the vast majority will gladly accept of the blessings and become obedient to the conditions upon which they are obtainable. They will say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, … we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”—Isaiah 25:9

Our Golden text indicates that we, as servants of Christ, cannot expect to be above our Lord. They called Him the prince of devils, and if we follow Him faithfully, we, too, must expect the enmity of the world. This, however, should be a cause for rejoicing, not for discouragement. We are to consider ourselves “blessed” if we have the privilege of suffering with Christ.

Suffering with Christ means that the opposition of the world is due, not to wrong doing on our part, but to right doing. If the accusations against us are false, we can rejoice, but if not, if we do foolish things, or things that are wrong, and get into trouble, we have nothing for which to be thankful—unless by the experience we learn to do better.

When the larger sabbath day has fully dawned, then there will be no more suffering for righteousness’ sake. The rebuke of God’s people will then he taken away from off the face of the whole earth, declares the prophet. (Isaiah 25:8) But the opportunity of reigning with Christ because of suffering with Him, will also cease; so we are blessed indeed, if we now have this witness of the Spirit that we have been made prospective joint-heirs in His kingdom.

QUESTIONS:

What caused the Pharisees to criticize Jesus for doing good on the sabbath day?

Of what was the Jewish sabbath typical?

Will the time ever come when those who serve God will not be persecuted?

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