DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. Mark 2:23-3:5
(3/15) 1st
Orthodox
Christianity As Fulfillment: St. Mark 2:23-3:5, especially vs. 2:28: “Therefore
the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” To say, “I am
Orthodox,” is to express a primary concern for right doctrine, right
living, and right praise. Hence,
strict adherence to authentic Tradition would seem to be Orthodox. However, consider a strange twist in
today’s reading. The Gospel
passage describes two conflicts involving the Lord and strict Orthodox Jews of
the Pharisees. In these two
encounters, it is Christ Who seems to be the One “bending” the
rules.
Was the Lord Jesus more “easy going” and less Orthodox than
His opponents, He, the Law Giver?
He established the Commandment: “Keep the sabbath day to sanctify
it, as the Lord thy God commanded thee.
Six days thou shalt work, and thou shalt do all thy works; but on the
seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do in it no
work...” (Deut. 5:12-14).
Also, He it is Who asserts, “Think not that I came to destroy the
Law or the Prophets. I did not come
to destroy but to fulfill....Whosoever therefore breaks one of these least
commandments, and teachs men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of
heaven...” (Mt. 5:17,19).
What is happening here? What
is the Lord teaching us about our Orthodoxy?
The key to unlocking this twist will be found in the little phrase from
St. Matthew’s Gospel just quoted: “...to fulfill” (Mt.
5:17). The Lord seeks “to
fulfill” the Law, not to break nor do away with the Law. Let us examine this Gospel and consider
Orthodoxy as fulfillment.
Both conflicts involve the Sabbath, the holy,
seventh day on which God rested from “...all His works which He had
made” in creating the world (Gen. 2:2). In this quote from the Genesis account,
notice what follows the statement about the Sabbath. God not only “ceased on the
seventh day” (Gen. 2:2), but, in addition He “blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it” (Gen. 2:3).
To what purpose? For what? The Lord Jesus answers these questions
in today’s reading.
God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath
“for man” (Mk. 2:27).
The seventh day is a Divine gift to mankind, a rest from labor, and a
day for giving thanks to the Lord.
The Pharisees began well enough.
Desiring to be orthodox in their practice of Judaism, the Pharisees
spelled out in measurable terms what constituted “rest” on the
Sabbath. They even noted 39
categories of activity that would constitute work, and they asserted that any
action that they could assign to any one of these categories was a violation of
the Sabbath (Deut. 5:12-15). Notice
carefully here: rest was converted from a Divine gift into a man-made system of
detailed regulations to be obeyed - as from God. Orthodoxy as “fulfillment”
was lost in a welter of minutiae and detail.
Do you
see? The Pharisees’ third
category of work was reaping, and so they could define the picking and eating
of grain by the Disciples as work (Mk. 2:23,24). The Lord, however, cited David’s
“violation” of the Law (vss. 25,26) to break open the hard shell of
legalism, and to return to the Sabbath the real purpose for the day - a gift
“for man.”
Men need material food. The
disciples were not violating the Law of rest. They were fulfilling the need of their
bodies for food.
Finally,
to establish the nature of true Orthodoxy, the Lord states clearly that He is
the One Who defines what constitutes work and He is the One Who determines the
intention underlying the Sabbath Law: “...the Son of Man is also Lord of
the Sabbath” (vs. 28).
In the second conflict (vss. 3:1-5), the Lord
Jesus again reveals Orthodoxy as fulfillment. A man needs healing. His loving Creator helps a man on this
day of rest that He has given to mankind: “Stretch out your hand”
(vs. 3:5), for “the Sabbath was made for man” (vs. 2:27).
With my prayer I cry unto Thee, O Lord; it is
time for Thy good pleasure. O God,
in the multitude of Thy mercy hearken unto me, in the truth of Thy
salvation. (Ps.
68:16,17)