About God Being Generous – Mark 2

A text – Mark 2:23-3:6

2:23 One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
2:24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
2:25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
2:26 He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”
2:27 Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;
2:28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
3:1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.
3:2 They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.
3:3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”
3:4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
3:5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

A reflection:

Early (in the second chapter) in the earliest known account of Jesus’s life and ministry (the Gospel of Mark) it is clear that Jesus and his followers will be hounded and persecuted. Before the end of this second chapter, two powerful groups are plotting to destroy Jesus.

We love to think of Jesus as our loving Savior and even Brother, all of us children of God. But this poor and also generous man was a version of the Son of God, the Messiah, that the people of Jesus’s time and place were not expecting. They were looking for an earthly leader who would physically restore Israel and Judea to a place of self-rule and prominence, so that the world would know that the Hebrew people were God’s beloved favorites and their destiny was secured.  The Jesus who is an itinerant rabbi, whose followers are so hungry they are eating grain in the fields, ON THE SABBATH when no one was supposed to work, this ragtag group could not possibly be that expected earthly leader Messiah and his followers. He was at best a real disappointment, and, at worst, evidence that that everything the leadership had longed for was wrong.

They could not let that be true.

But, what we learn from the Psalms, from the Old Testament, and from Jesus’s own lips is that what we want does not usually equate with what God has in mind. It is never about our being right. It’s about God being generous. The very next thing Jesus does is to ask whether it is lawful to do something good and helpful on the Sabbath. When the leaders are silent, Jesus heals a man’s withered hand. Jesus is restoring this man’s livelihood, his dignity, and his pride along with his hand. This miracle tells the plotters that Jesus is very dangerous to them: not only does he not obey every one of their Sabbath rules, but he also does miracles. He will be a formidable foe. So they double down to plot against him. At least, from the very start, Jesus knew how sad and fearful these leaders were. He died for them, too.

See? Not about their being right. About God being generous.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for taking our sadness and fear and not just being what we think we want you to be. Thank you for being great as well as good. Thank you for your generous care for us. Help us to remember that you are God, not just our idea of God, and more generous than we could imagine. Amen.