Mightier (Part 11): Jesus Explains Religion to the Religious Leaders

Can you be deeply religious and still miss Jesus completely? That is the question at the center of Mark chapter 2, and the answer might be more uncomfortable than we expect. In this passage, Jesus and His disciples are walking through a grain field on the Sabbath when the disciples pluck heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees immediately accuse them of breaking the law. But Jesus points out something important: the disciples were doing exactly what Mosaic law permitted in Deuteronomy 23. What they violated was not Scripture but the man-made traditions the Pharisees had layered on top of it. The Pharisees had constructed thirty-nine categories of prohibited Sabbath activities, building fence after fence around the commandment until the original purpose was buried. God gave the Sabbath as a gift, a reminder of rest and relationship with the Creator. The Pharisees turned it into a burden and made their rules more important than the heart of God behind the law. Jesus responds with one of...