Reasons to hate Jesus: He demands love.

Mark 3:1-6 Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there with a withered hand. ²They were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day, so that they could accuse him. ³He said to the man with the withered hand, “Step forward!” ⁴Then he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵Then he looked around at them with anger, deeply grieved at the hardness of their hearts. He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶The Pharisees left and immediately began to conspire against Jesus with the Herodians, plotting how they might kill him.

“God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses.” (Ephesians 2:4)

The opposition against Jesus is mounting. The devil has sent his demonic horde to torture poor souls in Galilee and Judea. The money changers in Jerusalem hope to never see Jesus again. Mark tells us that two new enemies join the conflict.

The experts in the law (Luke 6:7) have spent centuries copying Old Testament scrolls that teach God’s Word to show the need for the promised Savior. But they have distorted that Word. They have been teaching that heaven can be earned with less-than-perfect lives. Sitting with the experts in the law this Sabbath are their disciples, the Pharisees. The Pharisees dedicate themselves to live by these teachings and traditions.

In the synagogue sits a man whose right hand is withered and useless. What will Jesus do? Tensions are already high between the religious leaders and Jesus. He has cleared out the money changers from the temple courtyard. He’s been healing people all over the place. He’s been forgiving people like he’s been given a divine right to forgive. He isn’t playing by their rules. They pit rules against love. For this offense, they want a reason to accuse Jesus in front of everyone. Take away his popularity. Humiliate him.

Here is the test. It’s the Sabbath. God made the rules about the Sabbath very clear when he gave the Third Commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy. Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work,  but the seventh day shall be a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. Do not do any regular work, neither you, nor your sons or daughters, nor your male or female servants, nor your cattle, nor the alien who is residing inside your gates, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In this way the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:9-11). God took this command to rest on the Sabbath very seriously. “On six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must certainly be put to death” (Exodus 31:15).

God takes the Sabbath day seriously. So, the religious leaders take Sabbath day seriously, too. So seriously, in fact, that they figured out exactly what counted as rest and what did not. This many steps is rest. This many isn’t. For example, my watch keeps track of my steps. If I take 4999 steps, that’s rest. When I hit 5000 steps, then that’s considered work. … And I could be put to death.

In the synagogue this Sabbath sits a man whose right hand is withered and useless. The religious leaders know that Jesus loves to heal the sick and injured. They are watching Jesus closely to see if Jesus will work by healing this man on the Sabbath. Then they can accuse him of breaking God’s Sabbath commands.

Jesus takes the bait! He calls the man to step forward into the middle of the synagogue. All eyes are on Jesus and this man.

Maybe this man is wondering what’s going on. He never expected to be in the middle of a contest between Jesus and the Pharisees. He’s just a regular guy with a hand that doesn’t work. This isn’t a problem that’s getting steadily worse. Most likely, he has had this issue for years. What’s the hurry for healing?

Think about it. This is taking place in the morning of the Sabbath. Jesus can simply wait a few hours until the sun goes down and then heal the man when the Sabbath is over. Waiting a few hours isn’t going to hurt this man’s physical condition. But waiting will hurt the Pharisees’ spiritual condition. They need to be confronted. Right there. Right then. They think they are setting a trap for Jesus. Jesus turns their trap against them.

Matthew tells us that Jesus turns to the religious leaders and says to them, “Who among you, if you have one sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:11-12). Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of their tradition that forbids people from doing good on the Sabbath by helping an injured animal. This man is more valuable than a sheep.

Mark adds that Jesus challenges them with a pretty bold question. :Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” Do you see what he’s getting at? What is more important – loving or using rules as an excuse not to love? Is it proper to love on the Sabbath? Is the Sabbath about love or law?

The religious leaders are silent. They’re like your kids when you ask them, “Why did you do that stupid thing?!” They think it’s better not to answer and appear wrong than answer and prove they are wrong. The religious leaders don’t like how Jesus phrased the question. They God know is good. God wants love. He wants life. But they hate Jesus so much that they pitted God’s laws against God’s love. These silly Pharisees have forgotten the last time they challenged Jesus with his disciples breaking the Sabbath regulations by picking and eating grain as they walked along (Mark 2:23,24). Jesus told them that time, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

God’s Sabbath laws of the Old Testament were designed to help people, not to harm people. The Sabbath was intended to provide rest from labor for God’s people, not to prevent the Son of God from helping his people. These religious leaders were emptying the Sabbath of its purpose and filling it with their man-made rules.

Jesus is angry with them. Not a sinful anger. This is godly, righteous anger because they have turned God’s laws of love into excuses not to love.

But he isn’t only angry. He is also deeply grieved at their stubbornness. He wants them to repent; to see him as the Lord of the Sabbath; to rejoice with this man whose hand is about to be healed instead of getting angry that Jesus is healing on the Sabbath.

Listen closely to what Jesus says and does. He doesn’t touch the man. He doesn’t actually say the words, “I heal you.” He says, “Stretch out your hand.” Just like that … muscles, bones, ligaments and nerves all work. But by the letter of their law, the religious leaders have no charge against Jesus. Ingenious! Nobody thought to write a law forbidding a man from stretching out his hand.

In addition to the demonic host and the host of money changers, now in desperation, the Pharisees join forces with the Herodians. Hatred makes strange allies. The Herodians supported King Herod and the Roman government. They are people whom the Pharisees would ordinarily have shunned. But in hating Christ and plotting his death they felt they needed the support of some who were able to wield secular power.

They hate Jesus because he has shown love on the Sabbath. Rules are rules.

How can we possibly hate Jesus for demonstrating love? Because we, like the Pharisees, like to use rules as an excuse not to love. For example, you see a vehicle stranded on the side of the freeway. You want to stop and help, but you’re afraid it might be a trick. So you keep driving. You have put the rule of your personal safety against the opportunity to love.

You know someone who has lost her spouse. You want to reach out to her, but you aren’t sure what to say. You put your comfort against the opportunity to love.

You know a guy who is trapped by alcohol or a whom who is trapped in an affair or a teenager who is trapped by social media or a child who is trapped by laziness and cheating. You know what God’s laws say about these things. These are sins. These people deserve judgment for their sins. So you don’t reach your hand into the pit to show love and pull out these lost sheep from the devil’s trap.

I have a good discussion every year with my Catechism students as we examine God’s 6^th Commandment on not committing adultery. We apply the commandment to homosexuality and I ask the students, “What should you do if your friend George says he’s gay?” They think the answer the pastor wants to hear is, “Stop being friends with George.” So, they’re always surprised when I tell them, “You need to be an even better friend to George. How will he ever hear about sin and grace, repentance and forgiveness through Jesus if you don’t tell him. He certainly won’t hear that from our culture.”

But that’s what our sinful nature likes to do – pit laws against love. We would rather reject people who break the rules than love those rule breakers. Love is hard work. Calling to repentance is hard work. Leading sinners to Christ’s cross for the healing of their souls is hard work. Pointing to the rules is much easier.

What is Jesus’ reaction when we pit rules against love? He is angry with us. We have turned God’s laws into reasons not to love. He is grieved with us. We are not leading others to repentance. If we follow the rules we think we don’t have to love the unlovable. We don’t have to love the rapist in prison or call our gay friend to repentance or forgive our cranky neighbor or pray for our persecutors or be nice to our ex or anything else. They have broken the rules.

Jesus is calling us to repent. Because as much as we like to think we keep his rules, we are rule-breakers, too.

Jesus kept the rules in our place. He loved us. Jesus did both. Keep the rules and reach down into the pit to rescue those trapped, lost and injured. Jesus did both – keep God’s laws and take every opportunity to show God’s love. Every time. All the time. He suffered. He died. He took the punishment for every time we used rules as an excuse not to love.

So, what do we do now?

We repent. We ask Jesus to turn away his anger and give us forgiveness. We ask Jesus to not grieve over us but to change us. We admit that we’ve gotten it wrong and hurt people by refusing to love.

Then we look for more opportunities to love. To set aside safety and help stranded motorists. To push aside our discomfort and reach out to the grieving widow. To counsel our alcoholic friend, confront the cheating wife, speak to the lonely teenager, and admonish the cheating child.

Use God’s Law and Gospel to guide your friend out of his or her sexual sins. Not using the Law as an excuse to refuse loving the sinner. Nor using love as an excuse not to apply God’s Law to point out the sin. Rather, asking for God’s guidance and wisdom to do both. Praying for the Holy Spirit to help you love like Jesus did. Not excusing sin. Not making excuses not to confront the sinner. But loving anyway. Amen.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)