Mark 2:23-28 Lord of the Sabbath
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: January 5, 2018 Mark 2:23-28
Note1: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Note2: I am a Seventh-Day Adventist and keep the Sabbath. I am not trying push my beliefs on you in this post. I am just giving you an example of a devotion that I did on January 5, 2018 as I studied Mark 2:23-28 using this devotion format.
Jesus happened to be going through the grain fields on a Sabbath. As they made their way, his disciples began picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees asked him, “Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful on Sabbath days?” He asked them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? How was it that he went into the House of God during the lifetime of Abiathar the high priest and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat, and gave some of it to his companions?” Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
(Understanding the Passage) I read in one place that it was not the actual picking that was breaking the Sabbath rule but the rolling of the wheat head in order to get the grain from it. In their zeal for God and their fear of falling back into who they had been before the exile, the religious thinkers had tried to protect the Sabbath by defining what was Sabbath breaking in every situation that they could imagine. They had used their intellect and logic without God’s inspiration and had come up with perfectly logical, detailed rules that made no sense in real life. Their rigid rules were a burden to the people because they were trying to force their logic onto every situation regardless of the different factors that contributed to a situation. In the process, their one-size-fits-all rules negated the very principle and spirit that the Sabbath was created to develop in mankind-a love for God. When we focus too much on the little don’ts and do’s, we lose sight of the bigger, more important principles.
The principle that the people had forgotten is that God created the time of the Sabbath for the benefit of humans. He restricted work on that day so that humans could rest and have time to simply be with Him. Sabbath was meant to be a time without outside distractions from God. It was not meant to be a burden to humans. If we need to eat and there is no other way except buying the food or picking it, we should do that and eat rather than fast out of rule keeping on Sabbath. Fasting should be a choice that brings someone closer to God not a necessity because of fear of breaking a rule.
Why was Jesus going through a grain field and why were the Pharisees there with Him to see the disciples eating? It would be interesting to know the background to this story, but for Peter, the extra details are not important. The important part is that he remembered being hungry as they walked by a field and picking the grain heads and eating the grain as they walked. The casual way the disciples did this makes me think that most common people did things like this without thinking of all the nitpicky rules of the Pharisees, so when the Pharisees started criticizing the disciples, the twelve men were probably a little confused at first. Did they start to worry that they had broken a rule and brought criticism on their teacher? It must have been a relief to hear their teacher defending them. On the other hand, they were watching once again the conflict between the established views and their radical teacher’s views.
Did Peter have trouble following Jesus’ reasoning? I did at first. Jesus tells of David taking the shewbread because he was hungry. I always thought that David was sinning here, but Jesus is saying that it was fine with Him that David broke the rule that had been given. He was saying that some rules should be broken when a human’s spiritual or physical needs were involved. More importantly, he was showing that God does not view keeping the rules as the criteria of sin, but rather the spirit with which the rules are kept. David’s action was not out of disrespect or disobedience to God. It was out of caring for the people that God had put in his charge. Not harvesting on the Sabbath, does not mean that God cares about the appearance of harvesting, but about the work drawing our focus from Him. He did not give the Sabbath restrictions to cause us hurt but to give us benefits. When we restrict the Sabbath so that someone is hurt, we are not keeping Sabbath whereas if we break the normal Sabbath restrictions in order to bring comfort and love to another, we are keeping the Sabbath. It’s confusing sometimes. We most honor and love God by respecting His rules, but we must also honor and love God by breaking the rules sometimes.
(Revelation of God) (Application) Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. It is His day to be with us, his people. It’s date night for the married couple. Every week He wants us to be with Him and renew our vows to Him. It is the time that all of creation knows that we are special to Him. I need to remember the purpose of the Sabbath and make the effort to know Jesus more on that day.
(Prayer) Help me not to put rules before other people’s needs. Teach me to think like You, seeing the needs of others and valuing their best interests. Help me not to feel guilty when I break a rule that I know is good in order to help someone who You value. Guide me so that I know the difference between valid rule breaking for others’ needs and convenient rule breaking that is unwarranted. Many times, I can’t tell the difference.