Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
September 3, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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(101)
Thesis: The synagogue healing on the Sabbath was Mark's final record to establish his argument that Jesus of Nazareth was not rejected by "the leadership of God's People" for any good reason.
Introduction: We have come in our studies of Mark's argument [that Jesus of Nazareth was not rejected by Israel for any good reason] to his last story. In the larger picture of Mark's record of the Gospel, it is Mark's perspective that he needed to explain why Jesus was not accepted by the "People of God". This continues to be a significant need even today as we can see from the argument of the Roman Catholic Church that it is "God's Church" by virtue of one reason: it is incumbent upon the integrity of God to preserve "His Church". God, say they, simply could not allow "His Church" to fall into any kind of really significant doctrinal error without failing in His own integrity as expressed by His promises.
This position by an obviously apostate religious organization rests upon the same delusion that the leadership of Judea entertained in the first century: it would be a failure of God to permit such a large-scale departure from the truth by "His People".
But Mark's argument is solid -- God did allow the "visible representation of the People of God" to be led into a deadly and decisive demonic theology. This is revealed by the obvious evils latent in the leadership of "The People". Mark shows that the leadership had absolutely no valid reason to reject Jesus of Nazareth as God's "The Son of the Man".
- I. The Essential Problem: A Theology of Appearances.
- A. To the leadership of the synagogues, "obedience" in concrete terms of overt action is all that God requires.
- B. But, the fact that God goes far beyond such "obedience" in identifying His people is not only beyond dispute, it is the essence of Jesus' teaching on "true righteousness" as a product of the heart and mind before it is expressed in overt actions.
- II. Mark's Approach to the Argument.
- A. He posits "another entrance" into the synagogue and another conflict over "sabbath issues".
- 1. The "And He entered again into the synagogue" is a literary marker to press his case.
- a. The issue of His entrance into the synagogue was nailed down in 1:21-28.
- 1) This "issue" was, on the one hand, His "authoritative" teaching.
- a) The critical aspect of this "authority" is nailed down in 2:10.
- i. Here the "authority" is focused upon "the forgiveness of sins".
- ii. This focus is, perhaps, the greatest issue that ever comes before men since it determines their eternal experience.
- iii. But the focus goes beyond "forgiveness" to reach to the identity of the One Who must "forgive" if a person is to actually have a good eternal experience.
- b) Jesus flatly declares that He, as "The Son of The Man" (Daniel 7:13), is that "One".
- 2) But this "issue" was, on the other hand, His "power" over demonic forces.
- a) Because Jesus was able to exercise such power, He became an overnight sensation and His popularity exploded.
- b) But this issue of "expressed power" was also nailed down in 2:10.
- i. It is an absolute principle that "power" establishes a kind of "proof" that will never be unseated.
- ii. God is revealed in Scripture as producing "works of power" to leave men without excuse if they do not allow those works to guide them into faith.
- b. Mark's use of "again" is pertinent.
- 1) He uses the word first in 2:1 at the beginning of his "conflict stories" over whether the rejection of Jesus by the leadership of Israel was legitimate.
- 2) He then uses it again in this opening verse of the final conflict story (3:1).
- 3) These two uses are clearly "bookends" that have to do with Jesus taking His doctrine into the synagogues and validating it with actions of power, the like of which had never been seen before in history.
- 4) But, in between the bookends there is another "again" (2:13) that also points backward to a critical element in the argument.
- a) Mark's records of Jesus selecting men to be His disciples has to do with His intention to pass forward His "task" once He has fulfilled His purpose for being on the earth at this time in history.
- b) But, the "selection" issue is a huge threat to His opponents, so that Mark is folding into the "Big" issue (of whether Jesus was legitimately rejected) the explanation for that rejection.
- i. As we have observed times without counting, this explanation consists of his argument that the Pharisees were threatened by Jesus' popularity and His new "synagogue" impacts.
- ii. The threat consists as a realization that the chief mechanism of "Life" for the Pharisees is being dismantled.
- 2. The "sabbath" issue in this record consists of Jesus' healing of a man's withered hand.
- a. In this case, as in the prior one in the conflict stories, Jesus' actions put the Pharisees in the position of being totally wrong and totally without excuse (the "that you will know" of 2:10 is now reinforced).
- b. The "synagogue on the sabbath" issues are now clear.
- 1) The "synagogue" is the Pharisees' main mechanism of their "positions of power" in the lives of the people.
- 2) The "sabbath" is the Pharisees' main foundation of their "positions of power" because they can use it to threaten the people with ostracism and eternal damnation.
- c. Jesus countered both.
- 1) He took the battle to their "field of play", the synagogue.
- 2) He demonlished their grip on the question of Who gets to determine both what is legitimate for "Sabbath issues" and Who gets to "forgive" those who fail.
- B. He presents Jesus as representing a completely new "T"heology that is irrefutable.
