Sermon 10-25-2020

Mark 2: 23-28 The sermon text from the Gospel of Mark invites us to go back a few months in the annual cycle: it is late summer and the grain is still in full splendor in the field. Wheat, rye and the other grains are ripe for harvest. But it is Sunday and the farmers are largely letting the work rest on that day. If the weather stays good, they will soon go out with their machines and catch up with the harvest. The people walking can still enjoy the peace and quiet in the fields and meadows and let their views wander over the golden cornfields.

The stalks are grown long and on top one can see the plump grains. If you can't resist, rip off a spike, peel out the grains and chew them in your mouth.

Like such Sunday walkers, Jesus travels with his disciples: and it came to pass that he went through the cornfields on the Sabbath, according to the Gospel of Mark. They rejoice in nature and in God giving them everything they need to live. The disciples are free, they follow Jesus and listen to His words.

In the Sermon on the Mount, he had said to them, "Do not worry about your life what you will eat and drink; nor for your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds under the sky: they do not sow, they do not reap, they do not gather into the barns; and your Heavenly Father feeds them. (Mt 6,26-27) The disciples live in this trust that God gives them everything they need to live. That is why they move through the city and the countryside in complete freedom. Here they will find something to eat and there something todrink. Of course, they rip some grains off on their way. Not to destroy something, but to eat. They want to satisfy their hunger. They live out of their hand into their mouth,

peel out the grains and enjoy their taste. They take care of what the Creator has in store for them. â…Ą. From our current perspective, we quickly question this behavior: is such a life not naive and ultimately doomed to failure? Because at the latest in winter nothing will grow in the fields and those who have not taken precautions will starve. And what about ownership?

The grain has not grown on its own: a farmer has laboriously prepared the soil, sown the seeds, fought pests for months and ensured that the field is irrigated. It is wrong for the disciples to simply use the work and property of others.

It is not only we who show incomprehension about the behavior of the disciples: even then there were people who took offense: the Pharisees. However, they criticized something different from us. For they interpreted the behavior of the disciples as work. And work was forbidden, according to their understanding, on the holiday, on the Sabbath.

Not only the Pharisees at that time forbade the work on the Sabbath, my grandmother did so as well on Sundays. I remember visiting her by myself when I was 15. It was very quiet in the apartment where my grandmother lived. Only the many clocks could be ticking. In every room, my grandmother had set up a noisy clock – so that she didn't feel so alone after my grandfather died.

And now I sat in this ticking apartment after the Sunday service. I wanted to watch tv, but my grandmother warned me that was sin on Sunday. I got a book out. Oh no, reading that is work and is forbidden. You can't do that on Sunday. With despair, I took my last alternative out of my backpack: my knitting wear. And as I could have anticipated knitting was also considered work and a violation of the commandment to keep the Sunday holy. You can imagine that I spent the most boring day of my life and then never visited to my grandmother's house again on a Sunday.

As my grandmother’s words questioned me, the Pharisees judged Jesus and his disciples as well. They ask Jesus why His followers are doing something that violates one of the Ten Commandments.

Maybe we should not condemn my Grandmother or the Pharisees right away. For they were devout people who led a God-fearing life.

We have also discovered that the behavior of the disciples might be questionable for us as well, even though we have other questions today. We should not raise our index finger to the Pharisees, but rather be grateful to them. For if they had not asked then, we would be today without the answer that Jesus gave them.

Jesus takes the Pharisees seriously. He answers them wisely. For he, too, has dealt with the question of how best to live the holiday.

He, too, believes that the third of the tens commandments is very important: "You shall sanctify the holiday!"

But Jesus interprets this commandment differently from the Pharisees. They had thought long and hard about how to sanctify the holiday. It became important to them that as little work as possible was done on this day. That is why they considered what work should and may not be done on the holiday. This went so far that housework was also largely forbidden and one was only allowed to walk a certain number of steps.

Jesus interprets the third commandment from a different perspective than the Pharisees. According to his understanding, this commandment does not want to forbid anything. On the contrary, the commandment wants to free people and strengthen them. Because on the holiday, we humans are freed from having to work. We can rest and draw strength. What's more, on the holiday, we join God's rhythm. Just as the story tells how God created the world on six days and rested on the seventh day, so too may we

share in this divine rest. So, the holiday is a day of breathing. And it is a day when we rejoice with God at the completion of His creation.

For the Israelites, the Sabbath is also a day when they thank God for the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. They thank him for freeing them and sending them on their way escaping slavery.

That is also why Jesus reminds the Pharisees of an escape story.

He tells of the escape of David, who would later become the greatest king of Israel. David, too, was not content to protect the Sabbath commandment through prohibitions. The story to which Jesus alludes tells of this: Once David had to flee with his followers and had nothing left to eat, he went into the house of God and ate with them the Temple showbread, which only the priests were allowed to eat. David broke a sacred order intentionally. He did so that he and his friends would live.

And by doing so, he exposed the true meaning of God's orders and commandments: they do not stand for themselves and must not be protected by prohibitions. But God's commandments serve life.

They want to strengthen people and make them free. And therefore, Jesus can answer the Pharisees: The Sabbath is made for human's sake, and not the human for the Sabbath."

And Jesus, who according to tradition is a descendant of David, adds: Thus I, the Son of Man, is also Lord of the Sabbath.

III. And because the Sabbath is a god-commanded day in the Jewish tradition, it has a special dignity. It is a day when it is time for encounter with God, with ourselves, with nature, with family, neighbors and friends‌ It is a day when we are looked at by God and let ourselves be promised: "You are my beloved child. I don't count what you've

done all week or how much you've worked. Nor do I condemn you for being weak right now and doing little. I look at you with mercy. I look into your heart." This view of God transforms people.

The first Christians moved the Sabbath to Sunday. This was the day when Jesus rose and God transformed death into life.

Every Sunday now tells of this new creation. Every Sunday gives us a taste of the kingdom, the presence of God. Every Sunday we are reminded that we are not slaves of our daily lives, but beloved children of God. And when we worship on Sunday and hear His good news, we feel something of the great freedom that God gives us.

IV. Jesus lived this freedom. He opened people's eyes to the fact that God does not want to make them small by prohibitions, but to make them free by his guiding commandments. Free for a life with God. And free to live in responsibility with their fellow human beings. It is therefore no coincidence that immediately after our sermon story, the Gospel of Mark tells of Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The question again is the question of the Pharisees, whether it is permissible to heal a person on the holiday and thus to pursue a job. But at its core, it's about something else. The question is: how do we deal with the freedom that God gives us?

For Jesus, the answer is clear: He uses his God-given freedom to help people in need.

When we follow Jesus, this is also part of our lives: to work for people who cannot keep up. To be in solidarity with those who are marginalized. Simply to share what is given to us to live. It does not have to be huge programs for world change. Even a close look and engaging heart with the people who live in our immediate environment can change many things.

Those who travel with Jesus are close to God. This was true at that time for the twelve disciples and all the other men and women who followed Jesus. And that also applies to us today. God accompanies us every day of the week. He says yes to us. He gives our lives a dignity that we cannot work for. He makes us free and looks at us with loving eyes. We are reminded of this – every Sunday anew.

Amen