Chapter # 3 Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
September 3, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana

⁽¹⁰²⁾

1901 ASV

1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there who had his hand withered.
2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.
3 And he saith unto the man that had his hand withered, Stand forth.
4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? to save a life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their heart, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth; and his hand was restored.
6 And the Pharisees went out, and straightway with the Herodians took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.

• I. Synagogue and Sabbath, Front and Center.
  • A. The synagogue was fundamental to the grip Israel's apostate leadership had on "the people" (John 9:21-23).
    • 1. The "again" is an active part of Mark's literary tactics.
      • a. The first use is in 2:1 where Mark introduces the "conflict" stories (2:1-3:6) and the third use is in this present text (3:1) at the conclusion of the "conflict stories". This presents us with a kind of "bookends".
        • 1) This is a strong indicator that the place and practices of "the synagogue" in the culture at this particular time in history are seen by Jesus as the place where the "T"heological warfare needed to take place.
        • 2) Luke 4:16 tells us it was Jesus' "custom" to attend the synagogue on the sabbath. This absolutely has to mean that He was totally aware of what was taught there. John 16:2 reveals that Jesus knew that His disciples would eventually be ejected from the synagogues. The records of the Book of Acts indicate that it was a constant practice of Paul to go to the synagogues in every town where one existed to proclaim Jesus as God's "Lord and Christ". The point: there was a "to the Jew first" mentality (Romans 1:16) underlying the proclamation of the Gospel even though there was an understanding that it would be inevitable that the synagogues would, for the most part, remain under the "doctrines of demons", being as entrenched as it was in the hearts of the majority of the Jews.
        • 3) Mark's focus upon the synagogue was a necessity to keep "Christianity" from being rejected as simply an "outlier heresy" that never had any real connection with the One, True God, Who had chosen Israel as a primary vehicle of "revelation" to humanity.
      • b. The second use is in 2:13 where Mark calls our attention to Jesus' "disciple-selections" as He walks along the sea-side just before calling that "horrible reprobate, Levi" to be one of His disciples. This is an echo of 1:16-20. This follows immediately upon the heels of Jesus' "positive proof" ("...that ye may know that The Son of The Man has power on the earth to forgive sins...") that He has God-Authority ("...who can forgive sins but God alone?...").
      • c. There are two, most basic, Jesus-claims in these "conflict stories": Jesus has God-Authority (2:10); and Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (2:28). The latter is a doubling down on the former. But, there is one primary issue for the opposition: Jesus' invasion of the synagogue with His authoritative new doctrine [designed to set the people free from the demonic doctrines of His adversaries] coupled to the explosion of His popularity with the masses of Judea. The loosening of the grip of the adversaries challenges their Luciferian ego-mania and that simply "will not do".
      • d. Thus, Mark's "again" is a potent indicator of an answer to the reason for the "conflict stories": Why, if Jesus is God's Man, did the leadership of "the people of God" (Judea) reject Him as such? This is Mark's anticipation of his readers' probable response to his presentation of Jesus: would God allow His chosen people to be so far off-target that the men He has allowed to lead them would actually reject His Representative?
        • 1) Mark's approach to this is to expose their motives as fundamentally antagonistic to God, Himself, (Luciferian) and to let that be his answer: obviously God has allowed this, for, as Paul later revealed, a Greater Plan not hitherto revealed (Romans 11).
        • 2) It is a good approach to the issues and this fact ought to be held as yet effective as we witness the same reality in the modern "Roman Catholic Church" which makes the unsubstantiated and dogmatic claim that it is God's "Church" because He "would not let His Church be led too far astray".
    • 2. Because the synagogue was such a fundamental "mechanism" for the "take-over" of God's Plan by the "spiritual forces of wickedness in high places", Jesus counter-attacks at that point.
  • B. The Sabbath was the timing of the coming together of Judea as a controlled "synagogue" by the leadership.
    • 1. This was a "master stroke" of the adversaries: the sabbath was the sign of the covenant of God with Israel, so if the sabbath could be dominated and controlled, the people could be also.
    • 2. Jesus' "the Son of the Man" is "Lord of the Sabbath" is the counter-attack. If the people are to actually be God's people (instead of being merely outer shadows whose inner realities are actually demonic), a legitimate observance of the Sabbath must be "in place" in the hearts and minds of the people and not merely in the overt activities.
      • a. So, what does "the Lord of the Sabbath" really mean?
      • b. It has multiple concepts attached.
        • 1) On the face of it, "the Lord of the Sabbath" means that He is the One Who determines whether His disciples are "doing that which is not lawful on the Sabbath", not the Pharisees. This threatens to knock them off of their pedestals and return them to the humiliation of being "mere men of dust whose aspirations of glory" are delusional.
        • 2) But, under the face of it is the reality that the Sabbath marked the covenant as a commitment to God of the deepest loyalty ("You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength"). This means that Jesus, as "the Lord of the Sabbath" is going to have to do the things necessary to bring that deepest loyalty into existence so that the covenant can be enduring unto the ages (Exodus 31:16-17). To do that, He had to be the epitome of that "total commitment" of "Love" for the Father, but He also had to be the epitome of the secondary "commitment" of "Love" for the neighbor (Mark 12:30-31). Thus, the Cross becomes the essence of "Sabbatical Loyalty" and the foundations for its development in the hearts and minds of people.

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This is article #101.
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