This page generated some warnings.
If you're not the creator of this page, it's probably safe to ignore this.

Mark 2:18-3:35

Theme: Jesus is Lord over the Scriptures and the Sabbath, with God’ power to preach, heal and cast out demons. He is ushering in a new kingdom which welcomes sinners and the unrighteous.

Aim: Join his kingdom by following Jesus’ teaching and example - do the will of God.

Study

What have we seen so far?

Christ’s Controversies

Fasting

  1. What did fasting mean in the context of the OT?
    • Humility and sorrow, especially for sin.
    • Required on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29-34, 23:26-32)
    • Act of dependence on God
    • Was fasting wrong (in and of itself)?
  2. So why weren’t Jesus’ disciples fasting?
    • Jesus was still with them => a cause for joy!
    • Example: Nobody wears funeral attire to a wedding
    • One day Jesus won’t be with them, he will be taken away => then they will fast.
    • They do not need to fast to seek God because Jesus is right there with them!
  3. What does Jesus mean when he calls himself “the bridegroom”?
    • Read Hos. 2:19-20, Isa. 62:5
    • In the OT, God identifies himself with a bridegroom
    • Jesus here is claiming to be the Lord
    • His disciples are not fasting, because they are in the very presence of the Son of God
  4. What does Jesus’ response tell us about his mission?
    • The new kingdom is not a ‘bug-fix’ or tweaking of the old Mosaic law and traditions of the Pharisees
    • Jesus brings in a radically new kingdom, and with it, radically new teachings.
  5. What is the appropriate response for us to have to Jesus?
    • Fast? He is no longer physically with us
    • Feast! We know he has already died and rose, and with it, he has saved us!

Sabbath

  1. What is the Sabbath for, and how have the Pharisees missed that?
    • The Sabbath is a gift from God for us => a day of rest, not a chore
    • Given for spiritual rest as well as physical
    • Pharisees have turned it into a way to show/gain righteousness
    • The extra laws have turned a day of rest into something akin to traversing a minefield
  2. Read Deut. 23:25. Why doesn’t Jesus use this to answer their accusation?
    • Uses an example of when the Pharisees’ laws were broken
    • Rather than just telling them they were wrong, Jesus corrects their whole understanding of the Sabbath.
  3. What is Jesus saying in v27 and 28?
    • The Sabbath is not a law given to ruin one day a week, but for our own benefit => we are to use the Sabbath to rest and honour God
    • Jesus ultimately claims he is the final authority on what is and isn’t lawful on the Sabbath => he claims to be God
  4. Why don’t Jesus’ opponents reply, and what does this tell us about them?
    • Jesus catches them out => if they say to do good, they contradict themselves by permitting Jesus to heal, if they say to do harm, they go against the law.
    • Doing good does not break God’s law, but it does break Jesus’ opponents’ extra-biblical laws and traditions
    • Their traditions don’t allow for the most important commandments - love God and love your neighbour
    • They no longer follow God’s law but their own.
    • The root of their hatred of Jesus is that he exposes their sin and hypocrisy
  5. How are we tempted to ignore Jesus in similar ways?
    • Follow his commands, not the traditions of men, especially when they conflict
    • Accept his teaching and correction, don’t harden your heart
    • Hard teachings are hard to follow, do we really think of others before ourselves?

Christ’s Comrades

  1. Where are all the places in v7, and what does that tell us about Jesus’ mission?
    • Galilee and Judea => in Israel, these are Jews, Jesus’ own people
    • Idumea, Beyond the Jordan, Tyre, Sidon => outside of Israel, Gentiles, from South, East and North respectively, poetically from all around
    • Jesus welcomes all peoples to hear his teaching and follow him.
  2. Why does Jesus’ family act the way they do?
    • Unbelief
    • Additional challenge to Jesus => his own family did not believe him but thought he was crazy
    • Likely worn out by the constant crowds
  3. What do the scribes accuse Jesus of?
    • Casting out demons by the power of demons
    • They accuse him of being Satan => shockingly perverse
  4. What is Jesus’ response?
    • This accusation makes no sense => why would Satan fight against himself?
    • A divided kingdom cannot stand => a textbook tactical blunder is to fight yourself instead of your enemy (reminds me of the Moabites with Gideon)
    • Once a strong (and powerful) man is bound up, he becomes powerless => so to Jesus has the power to bind up Satan, so he becomes powerless before him, and so Jesus casts out demons.
    • They have misunderstood that Jesus is not using demonic power, but is rather much more powerful than any demon, even the prince of demons.
  5. Wait, what do you mean there’s an unforgivable sin?!
    • First, we see before any of this unforgivable business that “all sins will be forgiven” and so clearly Jesus does not mean that forgiveness is finite.
    • Rather it means that anyone who rejects Jesus and refuses him as their saviour will not be forgiven
    • This comes immediately after Jesus has been accused of being Satan, and God’s work is being attributed to Satan - it cannot be disconnected from this.
    • If someone persistently rejects and despises Jesus to the point of calling him Satanic - then such a person will not even seek forgiveness, let alone receive it.
  6. How does the response of Jesus’ family challenge our own attitude towards him?
    • Blood family is not Jesus’ primary concern
    • His true family are those who do the will of God
    • We can easily forget this, and focus on things like doing Christian things (CU, Bible studies, etc.), external appearances of holiness, having bullet-proof apologetics and so on
  7. Think, take home and pray about what it will look like for you to do the will of God