GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 2:27
The Fork
In a hypothetical world, a man has a fork. It is an ancient fork, handed down to him from his ancestors dating back to the Middle Ages when such instruments began appearing. To show his honor for the fork, he had it gold-plated and hung in an elaborate case. He proudly discussed the fork’s provenance with everyone who visited. He lit candles on the shrine before the fork. One day, he had a diamond mounted on the handle and daily polished each of the four tines. He declared that there was never a fork like this fork which had been used by his ancestors, who struggled to maintain the fork’s sacredness. Even though he occasionally exhausted his supply of forks, he would never allow this particular fork to be used. His guests would have to make do with their fingers. He would sometimes stay awake late at night admiring the honored instrument.
Wait a minute—is this a fork like those found in the cupboard drawer? Yeah. A fork. And this man exalts this fork. Yeah. Preposterous. Ludicrous. But hold on before criticizing this man and his fork. St. Mark wrote about a group of people who had a particular day—a day that had twenty-four hours exactly like the day before it and the day after it. But this day they revered and enshrined it with thousands of petty rules and regulations, demanding that everyone treat the day the same as they did. They berated and condemned anyone who did not obey to the day’s strict rules. To this group of Sabbatarians, “And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’” (Mark 2:27)
Jesus was not denying the useful nature of a day of rest, a Sabbath, as a time to relax the strain on the body and spirit, a time to replenish the physical resources. But these critics turned a useful day of rest into a shrine to be worshiped, making it more laborious than the day before and the day after. Keeping the Sabbath rules was their way to curry favor with Yahweh. No, Jesus said, this day is for man, so he should not worship it. Just as the hypothetical man’s fork was made to be used to get food from the plate to the mouth, not to be enshrined and worshiped, so the Sabbath was to be used by man, not the Sabbath using man.
The cautionary principle is to not be distracted by something that interferes with the worship of the Father.
Directory