| Church School Lesson: A Well-Earned Rest |
"A Well-Earned Rest"
May 24, 2026
Background: Jeremiah 31:12-13; Zechariah 8:5; Matthew 11:16-19;
Mark 2:18-28; 6:30-32; John 2:1-11
Print: Mark 2:18-28; Key Verse: Mark 2:27-28; Devotional: Eccl 2:20-25
Mark 2:18-28 (ESV)
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
21 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.
22 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.”
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:
26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”
27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark Chapter 2 (Commentary)
Mark 2:18-22 When people observed the followers of Jesus, they noticed something different. Though John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasted, the disciples of Jesus didn’t (2:18). The Old Testament certainly expected God’s people to fast periodically, but Jesus said the circumstances in his day were different. The presence of the Messiah was a time for rejoicing and celebration. It would be no more appropriate for his followers to fast in his presence than for friends of a groom to fast at his wedding (2:19). Fasting would come later—when the groom was taken away (2:20). After Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension, the legitimacy of fasting would resume for his people. You can’t put a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment (2:21) and you can’t put new wine into old wineskins (2:22). In other words, the newness of the Messiah and his kingdom wasn’t compatible with their expectations.
Mark 2:23-24 The Jewish religious leaders had accused Jesus of blasphemy (2:1-12) and fraternizing with sinners (2:12-17). Here they accuse him of violating the Mosaic law. One Sabbath day while Jesus and his disciples walked through grainfields, they picked heads of grain to eat (2:23). But the Pharisees would have none of that (2:24). In their view, picking grain was tantamount to harvesting, harvesting was work, and work was forbidden on the Sabbath. Therefore, they labeled Jesus a lawbreaker.
Mark 2:25-28 Jesus replied to the charge against him by emphasizing how deficient these “experts” in the law were in their knowledge of Scripture: Have you never read . . . ? (2:25). His first example was David, who took the bread of the Presence for himself and his hungry men when he was on the run from King Saul (2:25-26; see 1 Sam 21:1-6). If the Lord’s anointed could eat the sacred bread when in need and be innocent, how much more could the Anointed One do the same? The Sabbath was made for man (2:27), to meet people’s needs and benefit them. It was not to be a mere religious observance, absent of all compassion. Furthermore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (2:28), which was another claim to deity. As God, Jesus had established the Sabbath; therefore, he knew its proper function. Once again, his reasoning silenced the Pharisees, but their hatred grew. This wouldn’t be the last time Jesus offended their Sabbath sensibilities.