Mark 2

Jesus is not only a doctor of man’s body; He is the doctor of man’s soul. And the chief sickness of the soul is sin. There is no other doctor besides Jesus who can heal the soul from sin.

According to Matthew 9:13, Jesus reminded the Pharisees of what God had said through the prophet Hosea: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). The Pharisees thought they could please God by carrying out proper sacrifices and by obeying the Jewish law, but Jesus says that it is mercy that God is pleased with. Instead of avoiding and condemning sinners, as the Pharisees did, Jesus reached out and called them and forgave them and loved them.

(Matthew 9:14-17; Luke 5:33-39)

18-19 According to the Jewish law, the Jews only had to fast once a year, on the Day of ATONEMENT (Leviticus 23:27-29). But the Pharisees used to observe many other fasts in order to appear righteous in men’s eyes. On one such fast day, the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples were fasting, but Jesus and His disciples were not. Some Jews attempted to accuse Jesus’ disciples of not following Jewish traditions. But Jesus said, “Why should my disciples fast? While I am here it is like a wedding feast. No one fasts while the bridegroom is present; that is a time for eating and rejoicing.”

For John the Baptist’s disciples, however, it was suitable to fast, because John had been thrown into prison (Mark 1:14). But it was not suitable for Jesus’ disciples to fast, because He was still present with them. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven … a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3:1,4).

20 Then Jesus said that one day the bridegroom will be taken from them. He meant that one day He would be killed. Then would be the time for His disciples to mourn and fast.

21  To make Jesus’ disciples follow the old Jewish traditions²⁰ was as unsuitable as sewing a patch of new material on old clothing. The new material will shrink and tear away from the old material and the hole will become bigger. The new spiritual life of a Christian does not mix easily with the old traditions of the world.

22 In the same way, new wine must not be poured into old, hard wineskins.²¹ The new wine will expand and burst the old skins, and both wine and skin will be lost. New wine needs new wineskins that will stretch. Similarly, for new spiritual life new behavior is needed. Fasting was done by the Jews mainly in times of sorrow and or out of fear of judgment. But Christ has brought joy and salvation; therefore, fasting because of sorrow or fear is no longer suitable.

Nevertheless, Jesus does not teach that we should never fast (Matthew 6:16-18). It is good to fast during special times of prayer, especially when important decisions need to be made (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23). Jesus fasted forty days while He was being tempted (Matthew 4:2). Christians fast not because of any law or desire to appear righteous, but because they desire through fasting to better worship God and to more clearly understand His will. But let us not think that by fasting we will be reckoned more righteous than those who do not fast. Righteousness comes from the heart, not from following outward customs.

Luke in his Gospel adds another saying to this section: And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, “The old is better” (Luke 5:39). The Pharisees and other Jews who rejected Christ liked the old wine of the Jewish religion. They did not want to try the new wine of the Christian life.

But anyone who actually tastes the new wine of Christ will not want to turn back to the old.

(Matthew 12:1-8; Luke 6:1-5)

23-24 According to Jewish law, it was legal to pluck a neighbor’s harvest by hand (Deuteronomy 23:25), but it was not lawful to do so on the Sabbath. The Pharisees called it “reaping,” which was forbidden on the Sabbath (Exodus 34:21). According to the Jews, no work of any kind could be done on the Sabbath,²² and the Jews considered “picking” heads of grain to be a kind of work. Therefore, they accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath law because, being hungry, they were picking grain.

25-27 But Jesus reminded the Jews of their own King DAVID, who also disobeyed one of the Jewish laws. He was hungry and so ate some special bread that only the priests were allowed to eat²³ (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Jesus’ meaning was this: God made the Sabbath law for man’s benefit, not to add a burden (Exodus 20:8-11; 23:12). If a man was hungry, he had a right to eat on the Sabbath. Therefore, the disciples had a right to pick grain on the Sabbath to satisfy their hunger. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (verse 27). The Sabbath was meant by God to be a day of rest and joy, not of hunger! The rules of the Pharisees were too strict. They had turned the Sabbath into a day of oppression (see John 5:10 and comment).

28 The Son of Man—that is, Jesus (verse 10)—has final authority over the Sabbath. He can decide what can and cannot be done on the Sabbath. Jesus taught that works of necessity (such as satisfying hunger) and works of mercy (Mark 3:1-5) are legal on the Sabbath.

According to Matthew 12:5-7, on this same occasion Jesus also gave the example of the priests who had to work at their priestly duties in the temple on the Sabbath. They, like King David, also “broke” the Sabbath law, but they were not considered guilty. But now someone greater than King David had come, that is, Christ. Not only that, but “one greater than the temple is here,” said Jesus (Matthew12:6). When Jesus came, all of the temple rules and sacrifices became unnecessary. Jesus was the true temple. The Jews thought that God’s presence was in the temple, but in fact, God’s presence was fully in Jesus. If priests serving in the temple could “break” the Sabbath law, then surely these disciples serving Christ could break it too, because Christ was greater than the temple.

Then in Matthew 12:7, Jesus again reminds the Pharisees of God’s words: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13). In God’s sight, it is more important to show mercy on the Sabbath than to follow all the customs and sacrifices of the Jews. If the Jews had remembered these words of God, they would not have accused Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath law.