Missing the Point

Introduction:

1. The movie, Chocolat, is about a woman who comes to a small French town and opens a chocolaterie.
• She does not fit the mold that everyone else in the town has been pressed into by the mayor and the church.
• Among other things, she teaches the uptight community how to enjoy life and one another more.
• And the movie builds to a crescendo that includes a meal.
• The movie, whether intended or not, seems to have a parabolic intention. It sounds like it belongs in the Gospels.

I. Counter-Culture

1. Jesus did not play by the "rules." Which is why he upset so many people.
2. Mark 2 is filled with example of his disorienting approach to discipleship.
• His first comment to a paralytic was to say, Your sins are forgiven. Which upset the scribes. They were not willing to accept his authority over illness and sin.
• He ate dinner with the outcasts of society. The Pharisees and scribes took umbrage that he was associating with such people.
• His disciples did not engage in observing the Jewish fasting days. (These were fasts that were added after the Law was given.) Jesus said there was no cause for fasting.
• When Jesus and his disciples pulled grain on the Sabbath to eat they were criticized for that. Not lawful to pluck grain on the Sabbath, they said.
• When Jesus cured a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath he was accused of violating the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man's benefit, not the reverse, he said.
3. What do you think the modern day counterpart of these stories would be? We are clearly not concerned about Sabbath keeping, but what isare our equivalents?
• How one dresses.
• Sexual behavior.

II.

Conclusion:

1. We started the sermon with Chocolat, and we'll finish with it too.
• The heroine of the movie prepares a meal for an old woman (Judi Densch) and her friends.
• The unlikely group enjoys good food, laughter, and chocolate desert.
• It looks like the group that would have shown up at Levi's house in Mark 2:15. But it was the group that Jesus most preferred to be with.
• It was they who got the point. Grace.
2. Jesus told the Pharisees that they had missed the point in regard to the Sabbath. The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath, he said.
3. As usual, Jesus goes to the reason that God gave us instruction. It was not for the sake of the instruction, but rather to help us be better, happier people.
4. Which is why he gave us Sabbath.