Life App for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, 6/3/18 to 6/9/18 

A way to live a mission in the wider world:
Change laws that work hardships on other people 

Based on Mark 2:23—3-6 (see retelling below); a reading that comes from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, 6/3/18. 

[Mark tells two stories from Jesus’ early ministry of his conflict with the religious leaders of the day.]  As Jesus and his disciples passed through a grain field on a Sabbath; they plucked the heads of the grain and ate them.  The Pharisees objected that they were working on the Sabbath.  In reply, Jesus told a story of David and his followers; when they needed food, they went into the Temple and ate the bread of the Presence (twelve loaves baked every Sabbath that were a sign of God’s presence to feed the people through the growth and harvest of wheat and was to be eaten only by the priests).  Commenting on what David did, Jesus says the Sabbath is made for man; man is not made for the Sabbath. [Human needs should govern Sabbath observance.]  Jesus says that the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

Jesus went into a synagogue on the Sabbath where there was a man with a withered hand.  To heal on the Sabbath was forbidden by religious law.  The Pharisees wanted to see if Jesus would break the Sabbath law and heal the man.  Jesus said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on sabbath, to save or to kill?”   The Pharisees became angry.  Their hardness of the heart grieved Jesus.  Jesus asked the man to stretch out his hand.  When he did, health returned to the man’s hand. The Pharisees were so angry they planned with the Herodians [politically-oriented followers of Herod] on how to destroy Jesus [note that his ministry is just beginning].

A theme:  Caring for the needs of others takes precedence over rules that would prevent it.