The Lord of the Sabbath -- can give you rest from all the religious rules
Mark 2:13 And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them. 14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. 15 And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? 17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
This is a half truth. We have been told about the evil household servant who says the Lord delays His coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken. But here we have Jesus eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, but the purpose is to call sinners to repentance. Religion has all kinds of rules, but the overriding rule for Christians is that we have been sent out into all the world to preach the gospel and call sinners to repentance. If you are one with that rule you will have peace.
18 And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? 19 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
Fasting is another rule in religion. The purpose of real fasting is that you have a mission, an important task, and in order to accomplish this you need more time, so you have to cut back on other things to free up that time. Maybe you used to spend two hours watching the news each night and so you cut that off, it gives you an extra two hours a day. Perhaps in order to eat dinner you need to buy the food, prepare the food, eat it and then clean up and all that takes two hours. You cut out dinner and that gives you an extra two hours. If the bridegroom is taken away you now have a mission to get Him back.
21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
The New Testament ministry was a new cloth, it was incompatible with the old religion, if you try to use the New Testament as a "patch" for the holes in the old religion it will pull away from it and make the holes worse. This is what the early church tried to do, they tried to make the church a patch on the Old Testament. That is what the Judaizers were, going around and trying to impose the old rules of the Jewish religion on the Christians.
22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
We have seen this as well. When you put new wine into old bottles they burst. This is what happened with the Protestant reformation, it burst the bottle known as the Catholic church. This is what happened with the New Life movement, this is what happened with the Pentecostal revival, and this is what happened with the Jesus movement. In the 1970s there was a big debate over denominations. At the time you could not take the Lord's table unless you had been baptized into that particular denomination. That rule also got burst and it is rare to find any church that still holds to that rule.
23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. 24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
All these religious rules are based a little on the Bible but they ignore the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. We follow Him, we listen to Him and we are led by Him.
25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? 26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?
If you read that account David makes it clear they are on a special mission. This doesn't mean we just go around eating and drinking with sinners. We need to be on a mission to call sinners to repentance. It doesn't mean that we don't fast, we do fast if the Bridegroom is taken away from us. What it means is that as long as we are one with the Lord, following Him on His mission to reclaim the earth, then Jesus is Lord of the sabbath. All those rules, they are trumped by Jesus Christ.
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
We all need rest. Jesus gives us rest. If you are weary, if you do not have peace or rest in your life, you need Jesus.
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
