The End of Religion

Mark 2-3

Mark 2:27-28 — "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Every relationship worth having is more than the rules. The same instinct that turns a marriage into a checklist turns our walk with God into one too — a Tuesday-night scoreboard that's never satisfied. Religious or secular, we're all keeping score. Jesus walks into this story and refuses to play the game.

1. Jesus is over the rules.

Jesus doesn't argue the rule — he claims to be the one who wrote it.

Mark 2:23-28 (NIV) One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

• "Son of Man" isn't humble — it's Daniel 7. When we mess up, our first move is the rulebook. Jesus says: put it down. Look at me.

2. Jesus is over the religion.

Religion can stand in a room with human suffering and still be doing math.

Mark 3:1-5 (NIV) Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."

Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hardness of heart, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

• They aren't watching the man — they're building a case.
• Jesus' anger isn't sadness. The blindness is chosen. It's pride.
• Religion is advice. The gospel is news — something has been done for you.

3. Jesus is over the divide.

Religion and irreligion agreed on one thing: kill him.

Mark 3:6 (NIV) Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

• Pharisees (religious right) and Herodians (cultural left) agreed on nothing — until Jesus.
• Both want to be their own savior — one by being moral, one by being free. Same engine: pride.

Mark 2:17 (NIV) On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Come and Rest

"Jesus is my Sabbath."

Whichever scoreboard you walked in carrying — the religious one, the secular one, or both — Jesus looks at it and says one thing: put it down. He is the rest you cannot manufacture, the work you cannot finish, the score you cannot keep. When the voice starts up on Tuesday night, say it out loud: Jesus is my Sabbath. He worked so you could rest. The bread is broken. The cup is poured. Come.

Sermon Resources

Pastor Samuel Sutter — [email protected] — 5/3/26

He affirms, even celebrates, the original principle of the Sabbath—the need for rest. Yet he squashes the legalism around its observance. He dismantles the whole religious paradigm. And he does it by pointing to his identity. Jesus could have claimed divine authority to change the Sabbath, by saying something along the lines of "I'm Lord over the Sabbath." But he is saying even more. The word Sabbath means a deep rest, a deep peace. It's a near synonym for shalom — a state of wholeness and flourishing in every dimension of life. When Jesus says, "I am the Lord of the Sabbath," Jesus means that he is the Sabbath. He is the source of the deep rest we need. He has come to completely change the way we rest.

— Timothy Keller

For a Jew in Jesus' world, the sabbath had all that mixture of social pressure and legal sanction, but it meant much more as well. It was a badge of Jewishness for people who'd been persecuted and killed simply for being Jewish. It was a national flag that spoke of freedom to come, of hope for the great Day of Rest when God would finally liberate Israel from pagan oppression. It looked back to the creation of the world, and to the Exodus from Egypt, and it marked out those who kept it as God's special people, God's faithful people, God's hoping people.

— N.T. Wright

He forces them to confront the real issue that is at stake: Is God for health or for death? If God is for health, how can he deplore the working of good in people's lives even on a holy day? Which is more important, rules or people? Jesus stresses the universal aspect of the Sabbath ("the sabbath is made for humankind," 2:27 NRSV) and ignores any other significance it might have. Jesus' approach gives the personal aspect priority. He does not first ask, "What are the rules and what do people think I should do?" but "Who needs to be helped?" He presumes that religion and its institutions are not ends in themselves.

— David E. Garland

How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between.

— N.T. Wright

Whence comes such fury, but because all their senses are affected by a wicked hatred of Christ, so that they are blind amidst the full brightness of the sun? We learn also, that we ought to beware lest, by attaching undue importance to ceremonial observances, we allow other things to be neglected, which are of far higher value in the sight of God... For so strongly are we inclined to outward rites, that we shall never preserve moderation in this respect, unless we constantly remember, that whatever is enjoined respecting the worship of God is, in the first place, spiritual.

— John Calvin

Who Should Come to the Lord's Table?

Those who are truly sorrowful for their sins, and yet trust that these are forgiven them for the sake of Christ; and that their remaining infirmities are covered by his passion and death; and who also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their lives more holy; but hypocrites, and such as turn not to God with sincere hearts, eat and drink judgment to themselves.

1 Cor. 10:19-22; 11:26-32; Ps. 50:14-16; Isa. 1:11-17