"Christ vs.Critics: the Plot to Kill the 'Madman'"

Mark 2:23-3:6 Apr.6/03

The Deadly Epidemic

There is a deadly epidemic sweeping the countryside. No, I'm not referring to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), even though its presence in this province has caused local hospitals to bar visitors and outpatients from even entering. And I don't mean AIDS, which is another deadly killer. Nor has Saddam released some lethal chemical gas. No, this epidemic is of another kind. It's the epidemic of CRITICISM - cutting words that slice the victim's self-worth to shreds and drain away their life, syllable by syllable. It's more contagious than SARS: everybody does it, because we've all come under criticism at some point, and the first thing we want to do then is find something to criticize in someone else. I'm as bad or worse a culprit than anyone else; I was blessed with an analytical left brain, so started adult life thinking I knew it all, was always right, that high marks qualified me to be a marksman in shooting down the tiny mistakes of others.

        Husbands and wives criticize each other; there's even a special word for it, we call it "nagging" (I could give some examples, but it's safer for you to fill in your own blanks on this one!). Parents criticize kids (isn't it in our job description?) - "Why aren't you doing your homework?" "Hurry up, you're going to be late!" "How many times do I have to tell you to pick up your clothes and put them in the laundry?" Teachers criticize students: "Now sit up straight at the piano and remember to arch your fingers." "You're not practicing enough." Peers criticize each other when there's no one else to criticize: "I can't believe she's wearing that same outfit again!" "I had everybody else's year-end reports in on time except yours." Even in church - sometimes ESPECIALLY in church - we're guilty of criticising without justification. "There's not enough older hymns!" "There's not enough contemporary pieces!" "The service is too long!" (You go sort that combination out!) Too many homes (though I dare to think not here) have "roast preacher" for Sunday dinner. Last week in the hallway after worship, several of us were tossing around the need for a Marriage Enrichment small group; but after a few minutes it sounded more like what we wanted was a gripe session!

        It's an epidemic - it's catching. Once criticized, you become keen to pass judgment on someone else. Famous preacher Charles Spurgeon observe, "Fault-finding is dreadfully catching: one dog will set a whole kennel howling." A typical family was driving home from church. Dad was fussing about the sermon being too long and sort of boring. Mom said that she thought the organist played a little too loud during the second hymn. Sis, a music major in college, said the soloist sang about half a note off key during most of the song. Grandma said she couldn't hear very well - they were sitting in a bad place. Little Willie listened to all of this and started to complain about not being able to see around a woman with a big hat who sat in front of him. After a moment, though, he nudged his dad and said, "But, Dad, you've gotta admit, it was a pretty good show for a nickel."

        It's an epidemic because criticism is deadly to relationships. It attacks our fragile self-esteem, and constant criticism can push people into self-destructive habits. No one's immune to it; Jesus Christ had critics, too. Their influence on Him was truly deadly in the long run, but Jesus through His Spirit offers a life-promoting alternative: grace and caring.

The Surface Issue: What's Lawful on the Sabbath?

What do you find to criticize about a sinless person? Jesus' enemies couldn't fault Him for obvious sins; so they attacked Him for doing too much good. The Sabbath laws and restrictions that had built up around it for centuries offered the best route to trap the Son of God in going overboard with goodness. The Pharisees even had laws about eating eggs laid on the Sabbath, and whether it was classed as "work" to look in a mirror. In Mark 2:23f we're told the Pharisees criticize the disciples for picking heads of grain on the Sabbath as they're hungry and walking along, then rubbing off the husk and eating the kernels. Exodus 34(21) specified that the Sabbath was to be kept even during harvest; eating heads of grain involved harvesting and winnowing, so had to be work, they reasoned, and hence unlawful.

        Another instance of pickiness is at the beginning of chapter 3, when a man comes to the synagogue with a shriveled hand. Over the centuries, Jewish interpreters of the law had decided it was lawful to give aid on the Sabbath only when a person's life was threatened; that obviously wasn't the case here. In the minds of Jesus' opponents, to heal the man's hand would constitute unnecessary work and make Him a law-breaker.

        Jesus responds to this surface dilemma of what's lawful on the Sabbath by coming down on the side of grace and mercy rather than legalism. In 2:24-28 He reminds his foes how David and his companions once ate the consecrated showbread which was lawful for priests only to eat. Every week 12 new loaves were placed on the table before the Ark, and the previous week's loaves were removed to an entryway to the temple where the priests could break off chunks to eat as they came and went. It was these "week-old" loaves that David and the other fugitives ate. The normal customs were set aside in an emergency, for the higher purpose of strengthening and preserving the anointed leader's life. In verse 27 Jesus boldly affirmed, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." In other words, God gave the Torah, the Law, not as restrictions to spoil our fun, but as helpful guidelines to promote our well-being (through physical rest) and our relationship with God (through worship and reflection on His Word). That's what's important to the Lord, not checking off a list of rules.

        Faced with the dilemma about healing the man with the shriveled hand, Jesus states the choice this way in 3:4: "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" When you put it that way, God's direction becomes obvious. It would be sinful to refrain from doing the good of healing. David McKenna comments: "...[Jesus] establishes the fact that the sacredness of the Sabbath is built upon the moral principle of Grace rather than the religious regulation of the Law...It is by His Spirit -- the Spirit of Grace -- that the Law of the Sabbath is fulfilled. Bells of reformation are ringing through this passage of Scripture. When David hungered and ate the showbread intended only for priests, he prefigured the priesthood of all believers. When Jesus needles the scholars of the Law with their own Scriptures, all of the people are freed from legalistic chains. And when Jesus calls out His prerogative as Lord of the Sabbath, Grace takes over where Law has failed."

The Heart Issue: God's Anger & Grief at the Callous on our Caring

Actually, the question about what's allowed on the Sabbath was just a means by which the Pharisees could attack and criticize this upstart unschooled preacher. The text hints at a deeper issue, the infection of the challengers' hearts. There was some dark motive behind the criticism. Mark notes in 3:2: "Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely..." From this and other instances we can surmise that the Pharisees and other religious leaders were jealous of Jesus, trying to protect their position and power. Their own insecurity and lust for status prompted them to be "out to get Him".

        Often hyper-criticalness can be traced to a person's own lack of self-esteem or appreciation of their value before God. Someone has said, "When you throw mud at someone, you're the one who is losing ground!" The critic may be questioning their personal worth, struggling with a sense of inferiority; sub-consciously their value is on shaky ground. That happens when we trust in our own strength rather than in God's unconditional love, mercy and acceptance of us as displayed through Jesus Christ.

        We may be leaning on our spouse, for example, to bolster our image before others. Our unrealistically high expectations of them result from a deep desire to look the best in public. One high-profile pastor's wife said that for many years the message she got from her husband was, "I need you to look good because, when you look good, I look good." What a set-up for constant criticism, watching the other person closely, lest their minor defects reflect on you!

        When Jesus frames the issue bluntly in terms of doing good and saving life vs doing evil and killing, Mark says the critics "remained silent". A human's normal compassionate response and sensitivity was blocked in them: what counsellor John Regiehr refers to as an emotionally "locked heart". When we operate from the basis of self rather than God, we open the door for Satan's "freezing" influence to block the normal loving connections the Creator designed us for. Much like when you have surgery on a tooth, the dentist may "freeze" the nerves so they don't respond normally. Though the answer to the rhetorical question should have been obvious, no one was able to admit it because of their pride and jealousy.

        3:5 says Jesus "looked around at them in anger...deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts..." The Lord's eyes swept the room, stopping momentarily to confront the gaze of each of His attackers, like a pair of lasers penetrating deep into the void of their soul. He was angry. This anger was about God's hostility to obdurate sin, the divine wrath against a perverse disruption of the creation that was intended to be a glad fellowship with its Maker but was rejecting Him instead. The hearts He had fashioned to respond to need had been distorted to fester on their own interests. Commentator Robinson notes, "This indignant anger was not inconsistent with the love and pity of Jesus. Murder was in their hearts and Jesus knew it. Anger against wrong as wrong is a sign of moral health (Gould)."

        The phrase "deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts" could more literally be put, "grieved at the stoniness of their hearts". As if their beating hearts had been metamorphized into marble. Maybe you've seen photos of a "petrified forest": once-living organisms changed into solid stone. Impressive but very, very dead. Jesus' "grief" or "deep distress" is at seeing this stoniness in their hearts, the callous on their caring. God's anger then is not a vicious or vindictive rage, but tinged with pain at the loss of the precious relationship and communion that He desires to enjoy with us creatures. The Lord's heart is NOT hard, but caring, even when rejected, snubbed, and attacked.

Stretch Out: God Stretching Us beyond Calloused Hearts

Though we're tempted to be stubborn and critical, God graciously stretches us to go beyond selfishness and receive His healing for our petrified hearts. In 2:25 Jesus gently needles His detractors, "Have you never read..." -- teasing the Pharisees to go back and look again at the Scriptures they purported to treasure so highly. If they did, they might see God's overarching love and support for those in urgent need: there's some slack cut to further His long-term ends, in that case, David's rescue from his enemies.

        Jesus did not try to skirt around or avoid the issue of the man with the shrivelled hand, but had him stand boldly in the midst of the group so everyone could see what was about to happen. Somewhat startling for the spies, I'm sure! He tells the man simply this: "Stretch out your hand." In such an unsensational manner of healing, Christ showed respect for the Sabbath by not requiring the man to do anything unlawful.

        Although it was as undramatic as possible, the healing still sent the Pharisees into orbit. Mark says they went out and immediately began to plot with the Herodians (normally their political arch-enemies) how they might kill (literally, "destroy") Jesus. They viewed him as a madman, someone to be eliminated for the public good, like the plots against Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein. Later in the same chapter, Jesus' own relatives say He's "out of His mind"; the teachers of the law figure He's "possessed" by Satan.

        So by a simple act of healing a shriveled hand, Jesus sets in motion the chain of events that will lead to His death. Criticism kills. As the man stretches out his hand and finds it whole, Jesus already knows this act will lead to His own being stretched out on a cruel cross. There, lifted up, He will draw all people to Himself, people yearning to find fullness in place of the shriveling of our soul. (Jn.12:32)

        So what are some application points for us died-in-the-wool critics who find it all too easy to chip in a negative word here and there? How can we find healing for our calloused hearts? First,

a.  Before picking on Others for picking grain, remember Jesus picked You!

We've noted how a lot of criticalness stems from a person's own feelings of insecurity; realizing God's love for us and steadfast commitment to those who trust in Christ will help us be slower to criticize others. Paul reminds us in Galatians 5(20f) that discord, jealousy, dissensions, and envy are just as much "works of the flesh" as are more blatant excesses such as sexual immorality, debauchery, and orgies. He says (5:15), "If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." Now that sounds like a critical bunch! However, 5:24 notes, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." Living by the Spirit helps us not be "conceited, provoking and envying each other" (5:26). Instead of competition and comparing, we will "carry each other's burdens" and in that way "fulfill the law of Christ" (6:2).

        Paul brought up the same point about belonging to the Lord and thus being answerable primarily to Him in Romans 14. God has accepted us -- who are we to judge someone else's servant? (14:3f) Christ died and returned to life so that He might be Lord of the dead and the living; He is boss, not you or me, because He paid the price. "If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord...You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat." (Romans 14:7-10)

        Second,

♢Beware "plankeye": get a good mirror

I said "plankeye" not "pinkeye" which was a disease our cattle sometimes got on the dairy farm. "Plankeye" is the disease of soul from Luke 7(37,41f) in which we're hasty to take a speck of sawdust out of a brother's eye when we've got a beam or plank of wood in our own. Jesus' advice in general was, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged.Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

        To get the plank out of your eye, it's helpful to have a mirror. There are mirror mirrors, but then there are people mirrors -- a friend, a spouse, your accountability group, and especially prayer: the Lord can use all these means to let you see yourself more objectively. One prayer Dale Schlefler uses frequently for self-examination is, "Lord, show me myself as You see me." God can help you spot the hypocrisy, the blind spots, so you won't be so critical of others.

        Third, don't forget

♢The Goal of Constructive Criticism: Going on with God, in Grace

There is a place for correction and rebuke in the Christian community; think of it as constructive criticism. Jesus said in Luke 17(3), "So watch yourselves.If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." The goal is not making him grovel in the mud, but restoring him to service in God's adventurous mission. Paul told the Galatians (6:1), "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted." The goal is restoration, wholeness free from sin's shrivelling...going on with God, in grace. We see both the need for correction and the larger purpose in the powerful passage about scripture in 2Tim.3:16-17: Scripture is indeed inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness; but note the "so that" (lest we carry our Bibles around as sledgehammers ready to bash anything the least bit out of line, like the Pharisees lurking behind every barley stem): Scripture is profitable for these things "so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." Constructive criticism doesn't condemn someone hopelessly, but seeks to build them up, restoring them for Christ's Kingdom work, equipping them to pick up their cross and carry on for Jesus.

"Yellow"

Tony Campolo tells this story which relates to how precious each believer is to God...even the ones we would tend to criticize...even us at our worst, when our low self-esteem makes us all the quicker to jump on others critically. Tony recalls:

        "When my son, Bart, was just a little guy, he had a favourite blanket. He actually gave the thing a name. It was called 'Yellow'.

        "Bart needed Yellow every time he was upset or tired. Just pressing Yellow to his little face brought him instantaneous comfort and the assurance that all was well with the world. He used the blanket so often and demanded it so constantly, that we ended up tearing the blanket in half. That way we could give him one half while we washed the other.

        "The blanket disintegrated. It became like a rag. But no other blanket would do when Bart was upset...If you saw old Yellow you would consider it worthless, but to us that blanket had great value. Its value was established, not intrinsically, but because someone we cared about loved it very much. [Campolo concludes] And so it is with you. Your value is established, not because you are a great achiever...You are valuable because God loves you. We can never diminish a person's worth, for the King of Glory loves that person infinitely."

        Jesus is waiting to stir up in us a little "yellow" fever - in a good way - to stop the epidemic of criticism. He cut us a lot of slack, we can do as much for others. Let's pray.