What Does Jesus Teach about Fasting and Sabbath Observance?

Jesus vs. the Pharisees

This morning we’re going to be continuing our series through the book of Mark. As we’ve seen so far, this part of the Bible, the Gospel of Mark – it focuses our attention on the life and work of Jesus Christ. For the past several weeks, we’ve seen how Jesus began teaching and performing miracles, and how these things have confirmed his identity as the Son of God. But little by little, we’ve also seen that some of the primary Jewish religious leaders of those days – the scribes and the Pharisees – they and Jesus haven’t been on the same page. And in our text his morning, as Jesus confronts the Pharisees on what true religion should look like (fasting and Sabbath observance in particular), we’ll see the rift between the Pharisees and Jesus grow even larger. So if you haven’t already, please open your Bible to Mark Chapter 2. If you’re using one of our church Bibles, you can find our text on page 786. I’ll be starting at verse 18, and I’ll read through the end of Mark Chapter 3, verse 6. Before I read our text, though, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]

Virtue-Signaling, Fasting, and Sabbath Observance

In 2015 – only about 10 years ago, a British journalist was discouraged to notice a pattern in human behavior. He noticed that relatively few people who voiced their support for certain social causes actually cared about those social issues. A significant number of people would buy T-shirts that said “Save the Puppies,” or they’d update their social media profiles or put new bumper stickers on their cars. But for many of these people, it wasn’t because they actually cared deeply about these things, but simply because they wanted other people to think that they cared. People just wanted to publicly signal how virtuous they were. So this British journalist described this issue of “virtue signaling,” and for the past ten years, that phrase, “virtue signaling,” has become a popular and insightful phrase to explain a long-standing tendency of the human heart.

Because even though the phrase “virtue signaling,” is only ten years old, it describes a form of human behavior that’s been around for thousands of years. In fact, we see evidence of it here in our text. Because many of the Jews – even many of the religious teachers, the Pharisees – they followed certain rituals and customs, not primarily as a conscious act of worship to God. But they practiced their religion in order to be seen by other people – in order to signal how virtuous they were.

But for the Jewish scholars and Pharisees in Jesus’s day, it wasn’t enough to simply practice the outward requirements expressed in the Scriptures themselves. But since the Pharisees were so eager to prove how virtuous they were, they also strictly followed traditional rules that had been handed down from Jewish elders and rabbis – further rules that dictated what law-keeping should look like. Of course, the problem is that these traditions and additional rules weren’t from God. In fact, sometimes these extra rules even missed the whole point of what God’s commands were supposed to promote in the first place.

And so in our text, Jesus doesn’t play the virtue-signaling game like everybody else. His concern isn’t to follow manmade customs to gain people’s approval. His concern, instead, is for his relationship with God to be lived out in a way that’s truly right. And that’s reflected in what Jesus teaches here. So as we work through the text, we’ll see that Jesus speaks to give the Pharisees – and to give us a right view of fasting, a right view of Sabbath observance, and a right view of his authority. So these will be the three main points that we give our attention to this morning: A right view of fasting, a right view of Sabbath observance, and a right view of Jesus’s authority.

A Right View of Fasting

So in our first section of text, Mark 2, 18 through 22, you’ll see that Jesus explains a right view of fasting. In verse 18, we’re told that a group of people – followers of John the Baptist and followers of the Pharisees – they were all fasting. Which means that they were holding back from eating or drinking for a set amount of time. And the idea here was that people would fast like this, to express sorrow, to pray, to refocus on God, or similar things like that. Fasting was recognized as something people did when they were seeking greater closeness to God.

In the Jewish law, there was one day every year, that God commanded his people to fast. The day of Atonement. That was the day that a special sin offering would be made for the people. God wanted to remind his people to rightly grieve over their sin, and to hunger for Him, and for his provision of life. But other than that one day each year, there were no requirements to fast. It was voluntary.

Over time, though, it became somewhat assumed that if you were a good rabbi, a truly spiritual person – it was expected that you would fast regularly. In fact, it was a custom among many of the Pharisees to fast twice a week during daylight hours – every Monday and Thursday. And over time, this pattern of fasting became a form of virtue signaling. The original reason for why they were fasting faded into the background. Expressing regret for sin – seeking provision and proximity with God – those things were largely forgotten. And for the Pharisees the important thing was no longer why they were fasting, but how often they were fasting and how intense their fasting was.

And so when people noticed that Jesus and his disciples weren’t fasting like this – that they weren’t following the religious customs of the Pharisees – these people came to Jesus and asked about it. In verse 18 of our text, they say, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” Why aren’t they fasting every Monday and Thursday?

And Jesus gives an interesting response in verses 19. He says, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.”

Essentially, Jesus was saying that it wasn’t the right time for his disciples to fast. Because something major was going on – a joyful event that he compares to a wedding. And since a wedding day isn’t the right time for people to weep and fast, it’s right that Jesus’s disciples wouldn’t be fasting either. That’s the case that Jesus is making here.

But Jesus goes even further than this, and he indicates that he’s actually the reason for the party. He’s the ultimate bridegroom, he’s the ultimate source of celebration and joy and hope. And his presence with the wedding guests should make grieving and fasting unthinkable. You have to understand, this is a rather remarkable statement. Because again – fasting is a right thing for people to do when they’re longing to be closer to God. But Jesus is saying, “No, no, don’t grieve. Don’t fast. Because I am with you.” That’s what Jesus is saying. And by saying this, Jesus is confirming that He’s the divine Son of God. He is the Holy One of heaven, who has come down in human flesh to be present with grieving sinners and to bring them close to God. So no one should grieve at a time like this! This is a time to celebrate, a time to worship, a time to give thanks to God for his steadfast love and faithfulness!

Now, just to be clear, Jesus isn’t putting an end to fasting here. He isn’t saying that from now on it’s useless or wrong. In fact, in verse 20, Jesus acknowledges that a time is coming when it will again be appropriate for his disciples to fast. “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” So for you and I, right now, we live in a time where Christ isn’t physically present with us. The bridegroom has been taken up into heaven – and so until he returns, there will be seasons in this life, where it’s right – even an important part of our religious life – to drop what we’re doing, and to fast. As American Christians, I imagine that many of us haven’t taken much time to humble ourselves physically in this way – to fast, to grieve over evil, to refocus our longings to be closer to Jesus. But since the bridegroom has been taken from us into heaven – Jesus indicates that fasting should be part of how we live out our faith. If we aren’t fasting, then we’re neglecting one of the tools God has given us for deepening our relationship with Him.

But at the time that Jesus was speaking, here in our text, Jesus was present with them. And so for the disciples of John and for the Pharisees to go on fasting – as though God were far away – they were missing the whole point. Because the Son of God was in their midst. Fasting didn’t fit with the reality of Jesus’s presence.

And that’s why, in verses 21 and 22, Jesus uses two illustrations to describe how the religious traditions of the Jews were incompatible with the arrival of Jesus. First, Jesus speaks about wine and wineskins. Back in those days, grape juice would be fermented in leather bags. And for the first use, the leather bags would be able to stretch as the fermentation of the juice released carbon dioxide and caused the bag to expand. But once the bag was stretched out, it became brittle, and you couldn’t put new wine in it, or else the fermentation process would cause the bag to burst. In the second illustration, he explains that if you try to sew a new, unshrunk piece of cloth onto an old article of clothing, the new cloth will end up shrinking and tearing away from the place you were trying to patch.

So with both of these illustrations, Jesus is making the same basic point. His arrival has ushered in something new. The Jews shouldn’t expect that Jesus will fit neatly into their old traditions and practices, because they’re really not compatible. Instead, with the arrival of new wine and new cloth, the Jews will need to let go of their old manmade customs. Even more than this, they’ll need to be prepared for new expressions of worship that center around Jesus, instead of worship that centers around earthly sacrifices, an earthly priesthood, and an earthly temple. These Jews can’t go on weeping and fasting as though nothing has changed. Because God is with them – Jesus is there. It’s a time to celebrate. And to insist on crying and grieving and fasting – it’s ultimately a rejection of Jesus and the significance of his arrival.

A Right View of Sabbath Observance

But the Pharisees had other misguided opinions and assumptions. They not only had a wrong a view of fasting – they also had a distorted view of what it meant to keep the Sabbath. And this is the second point we’ll consider in our text – Jesus, here, lays out a right view of Sabbath Observance.

The Sabbath was a holy day for the Jews. The last day of every week was set apart as a day of rest and worship. And this Sabbath principle was instituted by God himself at the very beginning of time. At the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 2, we see that God worked six days to create the world and then set apart the seventh day as a holy day, a day of rest. And later on God explicitly told his people to follow the same pattern – to do all their work on six days, and then to set apart the seventh day as a day that’s holy. This command – to observe the Sabbath day and to keep it holy – it’s one of the Ten Commandments, which communicated God’s perfect moral standard.

And so for the Jews, respecting the Sabbath day was a big concern for them. And over time, a number of traditions developed that went beyond what Scripture said – rabbis began to give specific rules that dictated what people must do if they truly want to be godly, and if they truly want to keep the Sabbath. One of these restrictions was that people couldn’t walk more than 1,999 paces – about a half mile. So based on this arbitrary number, if you walked any further than that – if you took that two-thousandth step, then it suddenly became work – it became a full-fledged journey to someplace, and you were considered to be a Sabbath breaker. Some rabbis imposed restrictions that were even more stringent – if a bone in your arm popped out of place – since it wasn’t life-threatening, since it wasn’t necessary to have it fixed that day, rabbis taught that you must wait until after the Sabbath to set the bone back in place. The Pharisees really believed that these traditions and restrictions were essential for keeping God’s law.

And so when Jesus’s disciples are walking through the grainfields, plucking heads of grain – which we see in verse 23 – the Pharisees are upset about it. They approach Jesus and say, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Because from the perspective of the Pharisees – based on their standards and traditions – they were convinced that Jesus’s disciples were making a big mistake. And, you see, this was considered to be a bigger issue than the fasting thing. Because not fasting wasn’t really a violation of law – it just suggested that Jesus’s disciples weren’t all that spiritual. But here, the Pharisees believe that Jesus’s disciples are actually violating God’s moral law. So in their eyes, this is a bigger deal.

And yet, again, Jesus answers in a rather unusual way. He asks the Pharisees in verse 25, if they’ve read about David. David was pretty much the greatest king that the Jews had ever had. He had lived about a thousand years earlier. And since the Pharisees were familiar with the Old Testament – of course they had read about David! But he draws their attention to a specific event in David’s life, earlier in the Bible, in 1 Samuel, Chapter 21. See, before David became King himself, he had been serving the man who was King of Israel before him – a man named Saul. But David was so successful in his service, that King Saul became jealous of him. He wanted to put David to death. So as soon as David learned that his life was in danger, he ran. But since he had no equipment or food or anything, before he went into hiding, he stopped to visit the priest of God, and to ask for supplies. But the priest didn’t have normal food on hand. All he had was the special bread – the holy bread – that had been set apart in God’s presence. It was part of the worship God had asked for in Leviticus 24, verses 5 through 9 – and only the priests were supposed to eat the bread.

But Jesus explains this story to the Pharisees, in verses 25 and 26 of our text, and he points out that when David was in need – when he and the men with him were hungry –  David ate this holy bread – the bread of the Presence, and he gave it to those who were with him.” And Jesus asks the Pharisees – do you remember that story? Because Jesus makes the argument that there are lessons from that event in history that the Pharisees should have learned from.

He mentions one of these lessons in verse 27, when he explains that, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In other words, the reason why God rested on the seventh day after six days of creating the world – it wasn’t for God’s sake, as though he needed time to recover. And it wasn’t for the sake of the holy day itself. There was nothing inherently better about that seventh day than the other six. But Jesus is saying that God rested on the seventh day, and set it apart as holy for the sake of humanity. The Sabbath was made for man. It was made for our good – so that we could rest, rejoice, and refocus on God.

But in the days of Jesus, the traditions of the rabbis and Pharisees had distorted the Sabbath day. They were so fixated on enforcing manmade restrictions and regulations, that they forgot why the day had been given in the first place. It should have been a day for promoting refreshment and well-being for God’s people – a day of delighting in God. But instead, it had become a day of fearful rule-following, a day of affliction. In some ways the day was made even more burdensome than the other six days of regular work.

And so Jesus seems to be reminding us, here, why God has given a holy day each week, and why he gave the tabernacle and the holy things in it, like the bread of the Presence. God gave these things, not because He needed them, but because his people did. These holy things were put into place to serve us – to promote our repentance, our redemption, and our refreshment. We weren’t made for the Sabbath, or for the bread of the Presence, but God actually made things for us, for our good.

And so Jesus is pointing out that in King David’s day, when he and his men were in need and took the holy bread – this same principle is at play. It’s true that there were ceremonial rules about the bread – that it should only be for the priests. And yet what we see is that caring for fundamental human needs took precedent over the ceremonial restrictions.

If you look down with me in Chapter 3 of our text, verses one through six, Jesus emphasizes a similar point. As he enters the synagogue with his disciples on the Sabbath, he sees that there is a man there with a withered hand. And as soon as Jesus steps in, a number of people are watching, to see what Jesus does – whether or not he’ll heal on the Sabbath. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the traditions of the rabbis and the Pharisees claimed that if someone’s injury or disease wasn’t life-threatening, then it wasn’t lawful to seek medical treatment until after the Sabbath was over. In their minds, in order to truly rest on the Sabbath, you had to be as inactive as possible. That was their understanding of what Sabbath-keeping was. And so the Pharisees in the synagogue were watching to see if Jesus would heal this man – to see if he would provide non-essential medical care on the Sabbath – so that they could accuse him.

But Jesus isn’t intimidated here. In fact, he calls the man with the withered to come near, and Jesus speaks to everyone in the synagogue, and asks, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” Jesus is raising an important question. Is it really lawful for people to see someone suffering on the Sabbath, and to do nothing? Isn’t that harmful rather than good? Is God really pleased for us to do harm on the Sabbath, when it’s in our power to do good?

That’s the question that Jesus is asking here. But he doesn’t get a response. The end of verse 4 tells us that the people were silent. See, the severe patterns of restrictiveness and passivity were the only form of Sabbath keeping that these people knew. Their attention was fixated on what they shouldn’t do. And they failed to consider what the day was even for – that this one day in seven was a day for renewal and refreshment and healing. So no one was willing to speak up, to encourage Jesus to show this man mercy.

And as Jesus observes this, verse 5 tells us that he’s angry and grieved by it. He’s upset because of how hard these people’s hearts are. They care more about virtue-signaling – they care more about looking righteous and religious on the outside, than they actually care about honoring God, and reflecting his character, and showing mercy to those in need.

And so Jesus heals this man. By his own words and actions, he declares that doing good and showing mercy on the Sabbath isn’t just something that God reluctantly permits on that day – but it’s an important part of what the Sabbath is, and why the Sabbath was given.

Now, as an important side note, I want to point out why Jesus’s teaching on Sabbath observance is still relevant for us today. You’ll notice, Jesus doesn’t make any claims that the Sabbath idea should be abolished – that people should stop setting aside one full day in seven for worship. He doesn’t say anything like that. Instead, it’s quite clear from God’s design in creating the world, and from the moral standards of the Ten Commandments, that it remains true and right that God’s people should set aside one day in seven. But ever since Jesus rose from the dead – the day of rest that God invites us into isn’t the seventh day of the week – of the old creation – but it’s the first day of the week – which is an even more glorious day of rest, a day of new creation. From the earliest days of the church until now, Christians have met on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day.

And the same good purposes of this holy day are intended for us. God has given us one day each week to set aside our regular work, to rest in him – to actively rest our souls in the good news, and to refocus on God. As true followers of Jesus, it’s right that we’d make it a priority to gather each week for worship, just as Jesus consistently went to the synagogue with his disciples. It’s right that we would plan ahead, to remove burdens from the day, to get our housework and homework done on Saturday. It’s right that we would try to free up the day from other work or responsibilities so we don’t have other things pressing in and distracting us.

And yet at the same time, we can recognize that there are certain, necessary things that will spill over onto Sundays. Hospitals will still need nurses, prisons will still need staff to oversee the inmates, towing companies will still need to respond to emergencies when people’s cars break down. People around us may be in a crisis, and may need us to drop our plans to come show mercy. This is a bit different, but I remember once, in seminary, there was a student who came in very late to class. And the professor wasn’t very pleased, so he asked about it. And this student explained that he had seen a man on an overpass bridge who was preparing to jump. So my classmate stopped, he showed mercy, and he helped talk this guy down from the bridge. Things like that aren’t restricted or forbidden on the Lord’s Day. The day is intended to serve the spiritual well-being of God’s people. And meeting fundamental human needs and showing mercy – these things fit with what the day is intended to promote.

A Right View of Jesus’s Authority

But there’s one more way that Jesus corrects the Pharisees, here, in our text. He explains what it means to have a right view of his authority. This is my third and final point from the text – a right view of Jesus’s authority.

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered Jesus’s power and authority here in the gospel of Mark. It’s one of the major themes, here. In previous weeks, we’ve seen that Jesus’s ability to heal and cast out demons is evidence of his divine authority. But even though there’s another miracle here – the healing of this man with the withered hand – Jesus’s authority is showcased in a different way. What we’re especially supposed to see is that Jesus has authority to correctly define what God’s Word means. His authority is greater than the Jewish traditions – greater than all the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus has authority to officially explain what right religion should look like.

And interestingly, this is another one of the take-home messages that Jesus draws out from that historical event about David – that situation about David and the holy bread, that he referred to earlier, in Chapter 2. He wants the Pharisees to consider that what David did, to take the holy bread, and to use it for himself and his hungry men – that decision was right. As David operated as a king, to interpret and apply the requirements of the law, David judged that human life took precedent over the ceremonial restrictions about the bread of the Presence.

And yet in our text, Jesus indicates that someone has arrived who has even greater authority than King David. In verse 28, Jesus identifies himself as the Son of Man – which is a reference to Daniel 7(:13-14). The Son of man is described as the great lord of heaven who comes on the clouds and is given dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth. And Jesus, referring to himself, says, “So the Son of Man is lord, even of the Sabbath.” Jesus has even greater authority than David did, to interpret and apply God’s law concerning the Sabbath, and concerning everything.

But, in our text, we see that the Pharisees were unwilling to accept it. Because determining what was right and wrong – historically, that had been their job. The Pharisees believed they were the experts, to decide what true morality and true religion were. And so when Jesus asserts his authority, it drives the Pharisees to their breaking point. In Mark 3, verse 6, after Jesus heals on the Sabbath, the Pharisees leave the synagogue. And immediately they meet with a group of Jews (pro-Roman Empire Jews) called the Herodians, to plan Jesus’s death.

That’s how unwilling the Pharisees are to accept Jesus’s authority. Because it would require them to change their minds – to change their opinions, to change how they live. And it will require them to change, in that they wouldn’t be the teacher anymore, but they’d need to become the student.

And many people today are like the Pharisees. You might even be one of them. It could be that you don’t like what Jesus says about fasting, or Sabbath observance. Or you might dislike that Jesus identifies you and I as evildoers – sinners who need to be transformed, and who need forgiveness. But these are precisely the kinds of things we need to hear, because they’re true. Our impulses or opinions may very well be wrong. Our feelings and preferences will often deceive us. But Jesus accurately, authoritatively tells us what’s really right. The Jesus leads us into the ways of true religion, into a true relationship with God – into ways that really are good for us. So let’s be eager to live out our faith, according to Jesus’s Word, eagerly receiving his authority, as we walk together by faith. Let’s pray.