Month: September 2021

2¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 

²¹ “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” 

Pronouncement about the Sabbath

²³ One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” 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? 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.” ²⁷ Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; ²⁸ so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” 

3Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”

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. 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.
⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. ⁷ Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; ⁸ hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. ⁹ He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him;
¹⁰ for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.
¹¹ Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² But he sternly ordered them not to make him known. 

Jesus appoints the twelve

¹³ He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, ¹⁵ and to have authority to cast out demons. ¹⁶ So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean,
¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. NRSV

Get into the Word

1. What is the next big question for Jesus? Who asks this question [see Notes]? How does Jesus respond? What images does he use? How do you think the people responded to his answer? 

2. What happens in the field? Who confronts Jesus? What is the objection this time? Who does Jesus refer to in his answer? What else does Jesus say about the Sabbath? How do you think this affected the people? The Pharisees?

3. Where does the next incident take place? What is going on? How does Jesus respond to the situation? What question does he ask? How do the religious folk answer? What does Jesus do next? How do the Pharisees react? What differences are there in the three versions?

4. Where is Jesus preaching? Why do you think he chose this spot? What does he tell the disciples to do? Why would he need a boat?

5. How do the people respond to his healing? What did they try to do? How did the evil spirits respond to Jesus’ healing. How did Jesus react to this? Why do you think he did so?

6. Where does he go next? What’s his agenda? What does he call the ones he chooses? How do you think they reacted to this? How might you have reacted if you’d been one of them?

Get Personal

How does Jesus act regarding the social customs of his time? How does he act in relation to Jewish law? How does God help you navigate through the moral and social questions and customs that you confront? How does Jesus’s example help you deal with these kinds of dilemmas?

Notes . . .

Notes . . . (cross-references to Matthew and Luke are given in brackets)

2:18-22. Luke’s discussion of fasting is very close to Mark’s. Luke adds Jesus’s comment, And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says “The old is good,” [5:33-39].
Matthew includes the discussion of fasting, but says John’s disciples actually ask the question. Jesus’ response is the same as in Mark, [9:14-17].
2:25-28. Luke includes the same story of grain on the Sabbath. He does not include Jesus’ comment about the sabbath made for people, not people for the Sabbath, but he does include the assertion about “lord even of the Sabbath,” [6:1-5].
Matthew also includes the conversation about work on the Sabbath. In addition to David, Matthew says Jesus said, Have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the law and yet are guiltless? [12:1-8].
3:1-6. Luke’s version of the Sabbath healing differs from Mark’s in some details. Luke refers to scribes and Pharisees,

(not “them”) and says they were looking for “an accusation against him.” Luke records the same questions from Jesus, but does not refer to Jesus’ anger or being “grieved at their hardness of hearts.” After the healing Luke says the Jews were filled with fury, [6:6-11].
Matthew says the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to cure on the sabbath, “so they might accuse him.” Jesus responds by asking them if they would rescue a sheep on the sabbath. After the healing they went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him, [12:9-14].
3:13-19. Luke says Jesus prayed on the mountain before calling the Apostles (official representatives or ambassadors), and also says that Jesus called them from the larger group of disciples. He does not explain their authority. Luke also has “Judas son of James” in place of Thaddaeus, [6:12-16].
Matthew does not mention the mountain or prayer. He says the Apostles’ authority is over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. His list of Apostles agrees with Mark’s [10:1-4].