That’s what it’s come to. Already. After just a year. How can we kill Jesus? Actually, the Greek word is stronger. Apollumi means something like “destroy once and for all”. “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him once and for all” (Mark 3:6).
Who are these would-be killers? Pharisees. An influential sect within Judaism. The name means “separatists.” Beginning 4 B.C., when Greek idolatry threatened the Jews, God used the Pharisees’ devotion to his Law to save Judaism. But now they’ve morphed into legalism—righteousness by avoiding “unclean” people and following “the traditions of the fathers”.
Herodians. A Jewish political party aligned with the family of the Herods, who ruled part of Israel under the Roman Caesar’s thumb. Typically the Pharisees avoided the Herodians, but popular Jesus became their common foe.
Scribes. Interpreters and teachers of biblical Law. Theologically, many were Pharisees. Though not mentioned in this text, they too opposed Jesus (see Mark 7:1-13).
Interesting that today in the U.S. nobody wants to kill Jesus. People take him or leave him, but few, if any, want to crucify him. Maybe because the popular Jesus today is a nice guy, loving, good. Not a provocative bone in his body. Different elsewhere though. Who do you think ISIS is trying to kill when they behead Christians?
This section of Mark’s Gospel divides into four parts which I’ll mark off with the words of Jesus’ enemies. The text is too long to quote in its entirety, best to read with Bible in hand . . .
Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners (Mark 2:13-17)? Jesus called tax collector Levi (Matthew) to follow him. Many tax collectors (Jews who assessed taxes for the Roman empire) and “sinners” (Jews Pharisees avoided because they didn’t keep “the religious rules”) joined Jesus and his disciples at Levi’s dinner party. “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Table-togetherness signifies social acceptance.
Jesus doesn’t avoid these sinners or eat with them in a hidden cave. In Levi’s open courtyard Jesus unashamedly shares a meal. Nor does he try to rationalize it. (“We didn’t know these people would show up!”) Rather, he provokes the Pharisees: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). In other words, “I’m eating with them intentionally. These are the people I’ve come to call. Not you.”
Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s and the Pharisees (Mark 2:18-22)? ” . . . John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.” Though Jewish Law required fasting only once a year on the Day of Atonement, different groups fasted more often (like the Pharisees who were fastidious fasters).
Jesus answers provocatively. “As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast”—provocative because Isaiah 62:5 told of the day when God would rejoice over his restored people “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride.” Jesus implies that he is the heavenly bridegroom.
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” A not-so-subtle hint that these guys are the old, dried-up wineskins, and the new kingdom Jesus is bringing requires a new order.
Why are your disciples doing what isn’t lawful on the Sabbath (Mark 2:23-28)? As Jesus’ disciples walk through grainfields, they pick grain and pop it in their mouths . “And the Pharisees were saying to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?'” The LORD had commanded no work on the holy Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-10a) and warned that those who profaned that day should be put to death (Exodus 31:14).
Jesus doesn’t answer, “I’m sorry; I forgot what day it is.” He knew the legalistic Pharisees had made Sabbath-keeping a burden, so he reminded them of the LORD’s original intention: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” By restoring the the LORD’s intent, he identifies himself as “the Son of man [who is] lord even of the Sabbath.” A not-so-subtle jab at the Pharisees’ Bible-interpretation skills—and an audacious claim about himself!
How can we kill him (Mark 3:1-6)? Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Jesus knows they’re watching him there in the synagogue. He knows what holy day it is. A suspicious spectator might think this was a sting operation by the Pharisees. Who knows? Maybe it was. And Jesus, it seems, played right into their hand. He openly called the withered-hand man up front. He asked a compelling question about the Sabbath law. You could hear a pin drop. You could feel the wrath rising in Jesus as he surveyed the congregation. You could see the rage slowly shift to sorrow over how hardhearted the people were to this hurting man and to Yahweh himself. Openly to the man: “Stretch out your hand.” And there before them all, like a computer-engineered movie scene, his withered hand turned whole. That’s when the Pharisees had more provocation than they could take. They stormed from the synagogue and plotted with the Herodians how to destroy Jesus.
Jesus the Provocateur. Jesus wasn’t out to pick a fight. But when the real bullies assaulted him, he didn’t shut his mouth and slink away. By his responses in every instance, he provoked the Pharisees. His replies fueled their anger until their blood boiled for death. If Jesus wasn’t trying to pick a fight, what then was he doing? Rebuking sinful leaders who twisted his Father’s words to suit their own ends. Correcting their heresy by speaking Truth.
We all see God through our own eyes. We all read his words from our own point of view. We are all marred by our own sin and by the world’s. So through his written word, Jesus comes and provokes us. Like: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). “Repent”. None of us has all the right answers to all the questions, yet sometimes we act as if we do. Everybody’s theological system has its flaw, but we refuse to admit that. Who of us loves God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength? Who of us loves her neighbor as herself? Which one of us really loves his enemy and does him good?
Jesus comes not to pick a fight, but to provoke us to repent, to change our way of thinking and seeing and doing. To better learn the truth and walk in it. A lot we learn easily. But some things we need poking and prodding to get. If we’ve read Jesus’ words and found none provoking us, better read them again more carefully and humbly. Because Jesus will keep at it ’til we get what he says, don’t like it, but finally submit to it. That’s what a loving, good and gracious provocateur does.
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