Shownotes:

Opening / Hook

• Previously in Mark 2 (Challenging Religion):
• Jesus interrupts his teaching to heal a desperate paralytic. The point: Jesus is greater than toxic religion
• Two kinds of people in the world: those who know they are sinners (Tax collectors) and those who think they are righteous (Pharisees)
• Jesus challenges the “religion police” of his day. Faith always expresses itself in certain activities (like fasting), but toxic religion uses this as a litmus test to police the spiritual life of others.
• Today: finish by talking about the Sabbath. Before we get to the text, we should do some review of the concept of the Sabbath.

KEY QUESTIONS: 

What pleases God?

Keeping the rules? (Law)

Caring about people? (Love)

Two errors: Distorting Law - Distorting Love

Note: we’re not advocating for “anything goes”

The deeper question: why did God give us the rules? Why does God set boundaries?

In religious mindset → it’s about giving us a way to prove ourselves to him

But what does Jesus say about that?

He’s going to turn religious thinking on its head

Sabbath Keeping

Let’s take some time to explain the Sabbath law.

Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The key principle: you have six days to do your work

The seventh day → don’t do any work / don’t make your servants or family members work

It’s a time for rest

More particularly → freed up from work = a time to focus on God

A day dedicated to the Lord (Ex 31:15)

Bible offers some specific guidelines

Don’t light a fire (Ex 35:3)

A man punished for gathering wood on Sabbath (Num 15:32)

Israelites rebuked for doing business on Sabbath (Neh 13:15)

Pharisees were well-known for adding extra rules to barricade themselves and others from breaking the law. They did this to the point that loving and caring for others took a backseat to religious duties. 

Analogy of a fence around a yard by a busy road and then add little fences everywhere in the backyard so as to not even get a chance to enjoy the yard. 

Examples: (note that different rabbis and Jewish communities differed in details)

Drawing water

Don’t walk more than 1000 cubits (⅓ mile)

Can’t carry anything from inside the house to the outside, or vice versa

Can’t assist in the birth of an animal on Sabbath

Trans: Now we’re ready for the story, and we’ll focus on two complaints that the Pharisees have about how Jesus views the Sabbath.

Harvesting Grain

• Complaint #1: breaking Sabbath by harvesting grain
• Mark 2:23-24 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”
• First off: the charge of “harvesting grain” is ridiculous

If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

Deuteronomy 23:25 ESV

Do they even read their Bibles? Bad interpretation comes from legalistic, prideful hearts. 

• The disciples weren’t doing labor / weren’t out working their fields
• Bringing in a crop to sell
• They were hungry → picked a few kernels of grain for a snack
• Two problems with the Pharisees’ approach
• First: when we elevate our applications to equal level with God’s word itself
• Bc by doing that, we have in effect diminished God’s word to the level of our opinions
• The Pharisees did that
• Second: when keeping the rules is more important than the welfare / well-being of people
• More on this in a moment

• Jesus’ response to complaint #1
• Mark 2:25-28 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of the God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests were allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
• Jesus could have quoted Deut 23:25
• But he didn’t just want to debate the letter of the law
• He wanted to point them to see the heart of God’s law
• So instead, he related an incident from OT about King David 
• King David was a great hero of Judaism
• Jesus tells a story about a time king David broke the OT Law
• Found i 1 Samuel 21
• Loaves of bread were kept in the tabernacle
• They were sacred bc they had been set apart for God’s use alone
• When something was set apart → not allowed to be used for any common usage
• David and his companions ate that bread
• They were on the run from King Saul → feared for their lives / feared being caught
• They were starving → the only food available was that sacred bread
• In the story: there was no censure implied
• They weren’t vandalizing the tabernacle
• Didn’t go in with attitude of dishonoring it
• In fact, it was the high priest himself who gave them the bread
• Implication: this story lands bc the Pharisees would not have condemned David
• And the OT did not condemn David
• From that story, Jesus derives an important underlying principle about Sabbath
• It applies to any of God’s commandments
• “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath”
• Jesus: the purpose of the Sabbath is human welfare / thriving
• Sabbath made for people, not other way around
• Commandments are made to help people thrive in a broken world
• For example: Bible prohibits sexual activity outside of marriage
• Bc God is a prude? Fun-sucker?
• No, it’s for human well-being
• Children raised by whole families / 2 parents
• People are not stricken with various diseases
• Not abused / heart-broken by shallow, fleeting affairs
• Etc
• Sabbath commandments give people rest they need
• Etc. Make a list of all the benefits to man:
• Rest, worship, family time, obedience, etc. 
• If religious rules are used in any way that places the rule itself above the needs of people → it’s off base
• Yet so often, in toxic religion → what was intended for human thriving
• Actually becomes a heavy burden that crushes people
• BTW, what right did Jesus have to dictate the true heart / purpose of Sabbath?
• Was this just another rabbinic opinion?
• NO: “The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath”
• Son of Man a title Jesus used often to refer to himself
• Maybe we’ll have time to dig into the meaning of that title at another time
• For now → Jesus is declaring himself to have authority over the Sabbath!

TRANS: 

Healing a Hand

• Complaint #2: breaking Sabbath by healing
• Mark 3:1-2 Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. 
• Everyone here has noticed this man with a deformed hand
• Jesus’ opponents are thinking: I hope Jesus heals that guy
• Not because the man was suffering → they would rejoice for him
• But because they wanted a reason to condemn him
• As someone who violates God’s law
• Often religious ppl will do anything to discredit ppl who aren’t under their control
• Or ppl who undermine their man-made authority

• Jesus’ response to complaint #2
• Mark 3:3-6 Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it? But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
• Jesus decides to draw out the secret heart attitude of the Pharisees → expose it
• So he brings the man with the deformed hand up in front of whole crowd
• Asks his critics a question
• Gist of the question → what is the purpose of the Sabbath?
• Same question as before, only in a different setting
• Is it a day for doing good, or for doing evil?
• Implication: they are the ones breaking Sabbath
• Bc of the evil intention of their plan to discredit Jesus
• Of course, they refused to answer him
• As we’ve seen, gospel of Mark gives us an intimate picture of Jesus’ humanity
• Here we see his emotions → he’s angry!
• At the way religion can be so hurtful to ppl
• When religion kills compassion → Jesus gets mad!
• He’s also sad
• Deeply saddened by the hard hearts of these leaders
• Jesus didn’t hate these people → although they might have hated him
• He loved the religious hypocrites too
• He wanted them to see what God was doing
• Surrender to it → embrace the King / Messiah
• But their hearts were hard
• So Jesus went ahead and healed the man → his hand was restored!
• Jesus’ point was made → Pharisees had no response
• What could they say?
• Jesus had discredited them rather than other way around
• So in their hardness of heart, instead of rejoicing in the miracle or acknowledging Jesus → they plotted to kill him
• Religious elites will do what it takes to hang on to their power
• For many it isn’t about serving God
• God & religion are a means to an end
• The real goal is power / control
• A warning to religious ppl and leaders in America
• Be careful lest our faith becomes a means to an end
• Lest it becomes a way to retain cultural / political power

CLOSE

• So what pleases God?
• Yes, it pleases God when he obey what he says
• Keep his commandments
• I think it pleases God especially when we embrace the good that he has in mind for us
• Not just obey blindly or grudgingly
• But it also pleases God when we are compassionate
• We care about people and their needs
• The two don’t have to be in conflict
• But in religious systems, they often are
• You might think your strict religious observances are really making God proud
• The problem: they might be making YOU proud
• But they only make God angry / sad
• When - for all your scrupulous religious activity - you don’t love people

Tie in the Sabbath to final (eternal) rest and the Gospel. 

They want to murder him and they did. They didn't know he was dying for them to know the truth. Literally. He taught, they did not listen. 

Sabbath mentioned over 50 times in NT but never is it told how to live it out in practice. Yet, there are rebukes about being legalistic about it. 

Law over love - Love over law

Speaker 1 00:00:35 Well, yeah. You know, um, what's interesting to me is that, that every religious system on the globe, whether it's Hindu or Buddhist, or Muslim, or, or traditional Christian or Mormon or whatever it might be, has a list of prescribed religious practices or activities. And a lot of 'em look the same cuz almost every group prays that Muslims pray, Christians pray. Um, and, and so down the list. So what, what differentiates us, and it's a great question for us to ask ourselves. Like, like why do we pray? Um, why do we do the things we do? Like what going to church or reading our Bible or whatever the list is, the sort of approved list for, you know, Christians in our culture today. Um, you know, what does it mean to us and and what are our motives? What's going on with those things? And those are, that's a question that gets raised, uh, with Jesus in, um, here in Mark chapter two. And it's get, it's raised by people who are really asking him why he doesn't do a religious activity that they want to do.

Speaker 0 00:02:32 And, and some people believe that the list is clear in the Bible Yeah. Um, about how we're supposed to worship God. And there are certainly a lot of things in there, a lot of disciplines, a lot of commands and calls to be obedient and things that God has said to do in the old and both the New Testament. But yet, if we look at it a little bit deeper, we need to understand that not all of those things, um, mean what they mean at first glance. Mm-hmm. and they're pointing towards other things. And, and, you know, when Jesus steps on the scene, he's trying to get to our hearts and not just our outward actions and motives, um, but people really come up against Jesus. That's what we've been talking about in this series, is challenging religion. Well, it's because Jesus is being challenged by the religious leaders of his day. Right. Right. Um, and so in Mark chapter two, we're calling the Pharisees the religion police because they don't like the way Jesus is doing things. He steps on the scene and he's, uh, not really doing it the way that they feel like he should be doing it. Mm-hmm. If he calls himself the Messiah, the son of God, they have a list of things that he ought to be doing. He shouldn't be hanging out with sinners, Texas.

Speaker 0 00:04:19 Yeah. So, in Mark chapter two, verse 18, we're gonna get right to this interaction. It says, once when John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, why don't your disciples fast like John's disciples and the Pharisees do. So these Pharisees see, uh, uh, Jesus and his disciples, and they're questioning, how come your guys are different from our guys? Right. How come you, if, if you say that you've, you're you're of the same faith you've come to, you know, save and, and be the Messiah, then how come you're not acting the way that we feel like you should be acting?

Speaker 1 00:05:48 Now it became an important practice, and it has important reasons for doing it, but I couldn't find a place that actually commands that makes it a non-negotiable for, um, the people who are the followers of God in the Old Testament period. Now, it's important again, it reflects that, you know, it's my, it's my sense that something's wrong. And so I need to rec, it needs to be rectified. It's something wrong in me or something wrong in the nation. So people would fast, um, as a, as a way of expressing their sorrow over a situation. Maybe the nation was facing, uh, a great enemy or the nation had become sinful. And, and so fasting as a sign of grief and mourning and dependence and longing and hope and need, um, and all of that is valid. Um, but by the first century, you know, had kind of like, like many things in faire religion, it had become kind of more about keeping outward checklists. Right?

Speaker 0 00:07:37 And so in this passage, the, the Pharisees who are the religious leaders at the time, the people who studied the loss group and wanted to follow all of its commands and rules, because they, they believed that that's how they got right with God, and they were blessed by God and they were closer to God. Well, they found their pride in doing this. And so they've narrowed in this conversation. It seems like the topic, like you said is, is fasting, but we could probably spread that out to all kinds of different things if we broadened this for a moment. Yeah. For, for people listening to this talking about religious police or the religion, police in our own lives, there's like you opened up with, there are so many different religions out there that have their own practices and customs, and there are those certain people who take pride in trying to follow those things.

Speaker 1 00:09:35 Yeah. Or, or you maybe a church that you attended at some point in the past, um, ha was, was structured like that where certain things were expected about how you dressed or, or what you did or didn't do. And there's a long list of dos and don'ts and, um, and, and you know what the, the side effect of that is that everybody's kind of measuring themselves against everybody else. And, and the people who can pull it off or who can look like they pull it off, you know, their stature rises and then they become judgmental of people who, who don't look like they can pull it off or who actually don't. And so, really the outward, the outward appearances or the outward practices might look really the same because whether it's empty religion of some kind, or whether it's true faith in Jesus, you're probably gonna fast. You're probably gonna attend worship. You're probably gonna, you know, serve and give and stuff like that. But, but, um, in, in this toxic religion mindset, the, the religion police are using those kind of lists to, to define who's in and who's out or who's better, who's worse or, or really to prop themselves up in their own pride.

Speaker 1 00:11:54 Out, no, understands it all. Mm-hmm. . So here's the flow of the passage that we're looking at. The person comes up to Jesus with this question or complaint, and then Jesus gives two responses. The first response I is a, is a illustration from the common Jewish practice of a wedding festival. And then the second response is drawn from other aspects of ordinary life. So, uh, the first response, uh, let me read that in verses 19 through 20, Jesus replied again, they're thinking about fasting. That's the original question, even though it has broader implications. So he's responding right now to the original question about fasting in verse 19. Jesus replied, do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can't fast while the groom is with them, but someday the groom will be taken away from them and then they'll fast. So first he says, look, here's a common experience, a wedding celebration. That's my first explanation to you about why my disciples don't fast, because I'm here with them. They should be celebrating.

Speaker 0 00:13:41 Because Yeah. Because usually there's some pretty good food at weddings. Mm-hmm. and, and a wedding feast is supposed to be a joyous time, a great occasion to, to, to celebrate, um, two people being joined together. And Jesus uses this, this analogy to talk about, um, you know, I'm here. And and there's such deeper meaning to it as well, though, if we think about Jesus, he's the, the bible, the the bride groom. Yeah. And the church is the, the bride of Christ. And, and Jesus is here, the bride is here, or the, the bride groom is here. And, and so it's, it's the inauguration of the start of, of this new thing that Jesus is doing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Coming to, to get his bride. Yeah. And, and that's what ultimately, you know, the book of Mark is leading to is it's called a gospel, the gospel of mark.

Speaker 1 00:15:22 Elated. Because one, you know, one day like he pointed, he's gonna be gone. And this is a foreshadowing of his crucifixion, it seems like mm-hmm. at the end of Mark's gospel. Um, but in the meantime, while he's there, you know, um, yeah, there's gonna be a time when his followers would fast, there'll be in dependence on, on God. And, and, and, um, they'll, so their practices will look like the Pharisees. But at the moment, and so what's happening is Jesus is really drawing our attention to why he's asking his critics to consider the meaning of fasting, not just the outward practice of fasting, but the meaning of it. And so, so he's saying, like, fasting is not just checking off a box mm-hmm. , it's not just doing a religious ritual because it's what you're supposed to do, but there's a context in life that says, oh, you know, um, fasting is more than that.

Speaker 0 00:16:47 And that's, that's what Jesus is always getting to do, getting to is the heart of the matter. Yeah. Um, you know, in his famous sermon on the mound, he handles a lot of that. Um, and really it reveals the heart of the religion, police, the Pharisees. Yeah. Yeah. A great point. Even even people around us today that hold to outward rules and conformity, but don't have that joy of, of resting in and, and celebrating in the fact that, you know, even though we mess up and we don't follow all the things on the list, that, that Jesus Christ, the bride groom came and he, he died for us to set us free from the burden. Yeah. The burden of having, having to measure up it shows and, and, and in, in this context specifically, I think that the Pharisees, um, are jealous because they want to be followed. They want to be the ones that people are, are looking to for wisdom and Yep. And following after as teachers Yeah. And rabbis. And so they're a little bit jealous. And it reminds me of imagine, you know, being that guy at a wedding who's in love with the bride to be, but yet he's, but she's, she's getting married to some other guy's,

Speaker 0 00:18:14 Yeah. And it's, and the Pharisees like that guy in the crowd when, when the, when the preacher says, does anybody have anything against this wedding? Say it now or forever hold your peace. Yeah. You know, and Yeah.

Speaker 0 00:18:35 Yeah. Imagine saying, no, he's not the right one for her. I am . Right? Yeah. Uh, because I tick all the boxes. Right. And, and let's just ca cast love out the window. They love each other, but this guy thinks he's the right one for them. And so, in a sense, it seems like the religious people are jealous because they want to be looked at as the authorities.

Speaker 0 00:19:45 Yeah. And that's a really good point that you bring up that Jesus said that because he says, when you fast. Yeah. And so, you know, as we continue to talk about this, Jesus is saying, fasting isn't, isn't over. Right. He hasn't come to like completely get rid of all of the history and all of the customs of, of Judaism altogether. He's really fulfilling it. And, and there's a moment of time here where Jesus is on earth. That's really, I mean, the clear explanation of this text is that mm-hmm. Jesus is on earth, so they don't need to fast, but, but when he's gone they will fast. They

Speaker 0 00:21:23 Yeah. Let's explore that just a little bit. I, I think we've talked about spiritual disciplines recently, but, but again, here, fasting is one of those spiritual disciplines, um, can, that can be done in a religious way or it can be done in a, in a heartfelt way to mm-hmm. to to honor God, to get closer to him. Fasting in particular, uh, as we've already talked about, can be, uh, over a mourning, uh, of our own sin. Right. Or, or a, a waiting on the Lord. Yeah. You know, waiting on him and saying, I don't, I don't need anything but you to sustain me. Yep. It's something that strengthens our faith a little bit when we're a little bit too over focused or over overstimulated with things mm-hmm. . Um, but the wrong way then to use fasting, especially in, in our day and age, probably would be to try to get something from God. Yeah. Right. To, to, I'm doing this because it's a command and if I follow his command, then he's going to bless me. And I know that there's this, maybe even this culture even inside of, you know, Christianity, but I know it is in, in other religions that if I fast and pray, he'll actually answer my prayers. So it's like, it's a transactional thing. Right. Okay. God, all fast, but then you gotta do this. Yeah.

Speaker 0 00:23:05 Yeah. And then even if we think about like re daily devotions, you know, reading, reading the Bible, I, I know me, um, in particular myself, I, there were times where I've had seasons of why did I read the Bible? You know, sometimes it is, I just know that I, I know that it's good for me. Yeah. Even if I don't want to, I make myself do it. That's why it's a, a discipline. Uh, early on though, there, there were motivations. Maybe it wasn't like, you know, to get blessing from God, but sometimes it was, I wanna see how much I can knowledge I can gain so that I can impress people with my knowledge. Right. Um, there were seasons of that in my life and there were seasons of, well I need to read this so that I can share it with other people. Right.

Speaker 1 00:25:05 Yeah. It's really good point.

Speaker 1 00:25:50 That's right. We're looking forward to that day mm-hmm. . Yeah. Amen.

Speaker 1 00:27:16 This is a little bit of a stretch cuz we don't really practice, uh, either of these things necessarily in our culture. We, we understand like, okay, so in that culture, their clothes were primarily probably made of wool because it was a sh a sheep herding culture. And so I don't know if you've ever had a wool sweater and you threw it in the, in the wash and hot and it's shrunk. Mm-hmm. , you know, and you come out with like a mini sweater. Um, so he is saying that he's, when he talks about new cloth, he's talking about cloth that's recently been woven, but it hasn't been washed yet. Or, or rinsed or cleansed. They had a process for doing that. And so you don't take that and, and use it for a patch, cuz as soon as it gets washed, it's gonna shrink and it'll rip away from the, from the old cloth. The same thing with the wines gets saying the same thing. And again, we don't use wine skins anymore in our culture.

Speaker 0 00:28:55 Yeah. Thi is this maybe meant to be a, a dig at the Pharisees, you know, maybe saying old dogs can't learn new tricks,

Speaker 0 00:29:08 So, so what, what's, what's the heart at at what he's getting at be So, so is he saying you guys are following the Old Testament but the the, the New Testament is here. I mean I think a lot of people would, might make that conclusion right? That there's the Old Testament in the Bible and then there's the New Testament. Right.

Speaker 1 00:30:19 So exactly what is the, the old and new incompatibility. And it seems to me that it's more pointing to the idea of that we've been touching on before about how those things are practiced, about the motive, the purpose, the approach, um, the, the mindset in which those things are practiced. There's a whole new way of approaching certain religious activities that are legitimate in and of themselves, but they've been abused or they've been misunderstood. So let's approach them in a whole different way. And the old approach and the new approach that Jesus, that Jesus is bringing are totally incompatible.

Speaker 1 00:31:49 We don't, we don't live in a theocracy mm-hmm. and, and we don't live in the land that God promised to give his people Israel. That was a unique national covenant. We don't live under that government form of government anymore. So those, those things have to be taken into account. The ceremonial laws fulfilled by Jesus when he went to the cross mm-hmm. , he became the high priest and the, and the sacrifice. But there are other elements of, there's a moral law mm-hmm. and there, so there are other elements we have to think about how do they apply if they do.

Speaker 1 00:32:31 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 00:33:22 And we, so there's, and we should serve our neighbor and mm-hmm. some other things that were in the community of Israel that are reiterated in the New Testament, like you said, but underlying question is why, why do we do those? Sometimes people have talked about that in terms of law versus grace. You know, um, do we do it because we're checking off these boxes to be worthy before God? Or do we do it as a loving response to the goodness of God that, that he's bestowed on us in Christ.

Speaker 1 00:34:32 Yeah. It's easy to do,

Speaker 1 00:34:53 Teach you. Yeah. He's trying to say. And so I, I wanna apply that just as we kinda wrap up here a little bit to two audiences. So yeah, we've applied it to the religious police, to the people who are trying to compare themselves to others. I wanna apply it to, first of all, to people who are coming out of a religious system of some kind. Maybe they're raised in it or whatever, where there's a lot of these kind of external ex uh, uh, expectations. Cuz I wanna say to that person, Hey, don't give up on, um, some of the religious practices they have, meaning they just have a different meaning than what you've been used to. And so sometimes a person coming out of a legalistic religious background will feel like, oh, now I could do whatever I want. Mm-hmm. , you know, I don't have to do, you know, give or attend church anymore or whatever.

Speaker 0 00:36:49 Yeah. Because ultimately our gratitude and the things that we do for God, um, out of love should, should come from understanding the gospel, understanding who Jesus is, understanding that he is the one who came and laid down his life for us. The church we're called his bride. He is the groom. And, and one day he will come back to get us. I I think it's beautiful that it says that, you know, he was gonna be taken away, um, and then they will fast again. Well, there is a time for all of us believers that we actually do long for the day that we get to be with him again. You know, the Bible says that when, when Jesus left and, and, and John and the book of John, he says, I, I go, but I have to go. And when I go, I'm gonna prepare a place for you.

Speaker 0 00:38:46 Yeah. Where, where we have on the, the wedding garment, uh, and there won't be any holes in it and we won't need to be. So anything, so anything new, there will be wine there that represents joy. There will be feasting because we are celebrating with him. And I think that's what the Pharisees are missing and have missed. And, uh, maybe you're listening to that and you've missed this all along, been a part of religion, but haven't had the relationship. Uh, we implore you today to start a relationship with God by, by trusting in Jesus. And, and if you've messed up and haven't measured up, that's okay. Jesus has come to set you free and save you and, and take your place so that you could have a relationship with God. So that's our third lesson in, in Mark chapter two, as we see Jesus challenging the religious leaders of his day. Uh, don't miss our final session in, in chapter two and it'll bleed into chapter three a little bit as he has one more interaction, uh, in this section. Uh, God bless you guys, and we'll see you next time.