The Gospel of Mark 7:1-23

The Gospel of Mark 7:1-23              May 26, 2018

We are starting Chapter 7 and we can call this:  The hazard of traditions.

We all have traditions and they have meaning and are useful in many ways and they also represent a hazard.  Sometimes we get bound by them.  This chapter is really a guard against that.  There is one misunderstood Scripture 

Traditions and Commandments, Difference,  Ceremonial Washings

Mark 7:1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem.    {about 100 miles}

*Matthew 15:1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus and asked,

*John 7:1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea {Jerusalem area}, because the Jews sought to kill Him.

We can say Religious leaders came from Headquarters to find fault and pin something on Him.  A hit squad of some kind.  They already made up their mind about Jesus.

The religious leaders speak of elaborate ceremonial washings, not washing for the sake of cleanliness.  You would have to first wash your hands to make them clean, then perform the ritual to make them spiritually clean

Mark 7:2 Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. 

 {unclean hands without religious ceremonial washing}

*Matthew 15:2 "Why do your disciples disregard the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands when they eat."

These washings were commanded by tradition, not by Scripture.  The Pharisees found fault about the failure of the disciples to observe elaborate ceremonial washings.  

This had nothing to do with personal cleanness, nor was this commanded by the Law, by the way. This was a ritual, such a practice, a tradition, the Pharisees treated like it was part of the law.

These professionals were the religious “hit-men.” They were upset any time or every time that Jesus undermined their authority over the people and their traditions.  They said Jesus was encroaching into their turf and responsibility and Jesus was not allowed to. 

We find this attitude in our churches today.  Do it the way they want it done or the deacons will talk with you. This is one of a major reason churches split apart.  Do and don’ts of the Sabbath is another example.  {adults you}

This is the same attitude and punishment that the Muslims do when they find a woman does not have her head covered or a man does not have a beard.

Mark 7:3 The Pharisees--and indeed all the Jewish people--don't eat unless they wash their hands properly, following the tradition of their elders.      {let’s look at this again}

*Matthew 15:2 "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread."

The hand-washing described here was purely ceremonial. It wasn’t enough to properly clean your hands if they were very dirty. You would have to first wash your hands to make them clean, then perform the ritual to make them spiritually clean.

We know the Jews always find a biblical mandate that approves the priests had to wash their hands and feet prior to entering the Tabernacle is what  provides the foundation and tradition for the wide-spread practice of ritual washings.

*Exodus 30:19 for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it.

The biggest concern of the Jews was “being clean because of health laws” including ritual washing, which seem to start about 200 B.C.  Ritual cleaning, not for cleanness.

For these ceremonial washings, special stone vessels of water were kept, because ordinary water might be unclean. To wash your hands in a special way, you started by taking at least enough of this water to fill one and one-half egg shells. 

Then, you poured the water over your hands, starting at the fingers and running down towards your wrist. Then you cleansed each palm by rubbing the fist of the other hand into it. Then you poured water over your hands again, this time from the wrist towards the fingers.

Remember, the wedding Jesus made wine from water, what did he use.

*John 2:6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.

The Jews even had an accompanying prayer to be said during the ritual washing: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King of the universe, who sanctified us by the laws and commanded us to wash the hands.”

To the Jews, this was very, very important.

Sometimes they call: “Tradition is a fence around the law.” (comes out of The Mishnah, writings of Jewish oral traditions made at the end of the 2nd century A.D.)

The problem is after a time the traditions take priority over the Law itself. 

The Jews viewed tradition as protecting God’s Holy Word and assisted His people in keeping it. This probably began with good intentions, but finally became a replace to the Law.

These laws started back when the Jews return from Babylon because one of the reason they went into captivity because not Observing the Sabbath.

In the effort to protect the Sabbath from being broken by labor, the Jewish people were given a list of don’t do—“fences” and what you can do:

•      One could not look into a mirror, lest a gray hair might be plucked;

•      One couldn’t wear false teeth, lest they fall out and picking them up would be working.

•      The rabbis debated about a man with a wooden leg: if his home caught fire, could he retrieve it on the Sabbath?

•      If someone spit on the Sabbath he had to take care of where it landed: if it landed in the dirt and was scuffed with his sandal it would be cultivating the soil and thus performing work.

Did you know, I have been told, if we are in an Israeli hotel on Sabbath, you will encounter the Sabbath elevators: every floor is pre-selected to avoid having to push a button.(Usually there are two: one stopping on odd numbered floors; the other on even.) 

The Pharisees’ commitment to ritual purity made them extremely very self-righteous.  Actually, we can understand why they started the Oral Law, which was written down, but was man’s tradition and interpretation on top of the written law.  

Mark 7:4 They don't eat anything from the marketplace unless they dip it in water. They also observe many other traditions, such as the proper washing of washing cups, jars, brass pots, and dinner tables.

We have to be careful of doctrine issues and start adding our traditions, because it could give the wrong impression of God to others individuals. Washing the hands removed partial ceremonial impurity picked up in the marketplace. 

Mark 7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with unclean hands."

Pharisees were alarm by this.  Remember, these washings were commanded by tradition, not by Scripture.

*Matthew 15:3 He answered and said to them, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

Mark 7:6-7 He answered and said to them, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (7) and in vain they worship me, teaching as Doctrines the Commandments of Men.

*Matthew 15:7-8 You hypocrites! How well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, (8) 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 

Notice how strong Jesus words were against the Pharisees.

Often, the best defense is a well-directed offence. Jesus quotes:

*Isaiah 29:13 Then the Lord said: "Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, worship of me has become merely like rules taught by human beings.

*Matthew 15:9 Their worship of me is empty, because they teach human rules as doctrines.'"

Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men-- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."

Jesus said the Jews abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

Mark 7:9 Then he told them, "You have such a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition!

*Matthew 15:3 But he answered them, "Why do you also disregard the commandment of God because of your tradition?

He who expounds the Scriptures in opposition to the tradition has no share in the world to come.  per Rabbi Eleazer,

It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict the Scripture itself.   The Mishna

We start to realize that these traditions (oral law) became more important than the Law.  

Mark 7:10 Because Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses his father or mother must certainly be put to death.'

*Matthew 15:4 Because God said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and 'Whoever curses father or mother must certainly be put to death.'   {5th commandment is cited in both its positive and negative}

Mark 7:11-12  But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban"--' (that is, a gift to God), (12) then you {Jews} no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother,

*Matthew 15:5-6 But you say 'Whoever tells his father or his mother,  support you might have received from me has been given to God," (6) does not have to honor his father.' Because of your tradition, then, you have disregarded the authority of God's word.

Now Jesus refers to the Law of honor your father and mother. They side-stepped the Commandment by simply declaring that their possessions were “Corban” (“given to God”), and thus dedicated for spiritual purposes.

They were to take care of their father and mother.  If they say, Corban, then they do not have to do it.  Their funds are set aside for the Lord, then they are exempt.  This was their reason to not support their own mother and father.  Reason children could circumvent their responsibility to parents.

Mark 7:13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like that."

Those who try to justify themselves by the Law end up modifying or changing it in order to escape its authority. 

Notice what we just covered with Jesus comments:

–      Teaching their doctrines as God’s Word - traditions;  v7

–      Laying aside God’s Word;  v8

–      Rejecting God’s Word;  v9

–      Robbing God’s Word of its power.  v13

In the same way, those who handle God’s Word without submitting to it are in the constant process of conforming it to their way of life, not Jesus Way of life.

What Defiles a Person, What Jesus talking and discussing about, “don't eat unless they wash their hands properly.”

Mark 7:14 Then he called to the crowd again and told them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand!

*Matthew 15:10 Then calling out to the crowd, he addressed them, "Listen and understand!

Mark 7:15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.    {remember, Peter was here}

*Matthew 15:11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."

A careful reading of this passage shows that Jesus was not addressing the question of clean or unclean meats, nor was He changing any of His own laws. 

Jesus was pointing out that the Pharisees had added to God's laws many commandments and rituals that were not commanded by God. One of those had to do with how one must wash his hands and arms in a special ceremonial way before eating. 

He also said that such rituals of men do not purify the heart: The dirt that one might ingest, having not washed his hands, cannot defile a person. What comes out of the person, such as evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication and other sins, are what defiles him or her.

Any dirt from unwashed hands does not enter the heart but the "stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods " (verse 19). Jesus was saying that whatever enters the stomach is processed by the human digestive system to obtain any possible nutrients, and what is left is eliminated from the body as waste. 

This is the simple and logical explanation of this text in its context, which shows that it has nothing to do with the subject of clean or unclean meats.

Mark 7:16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen!"

There that say, if you have ears, then listen.  Jesus is speaking spiritually.  What comes out of us is what defiles us.  There are certain animals if you eat, it will kill you.

List of poisonous animals:  Birds, Frogs and toads, Salamanders, certain Fish,  Insects.  Many says this gives them permission to eat unclean animals.  Making it a habit.  

What about Peter, did he eat unclean animals?  This was several years later, 10 years?  Peter had this re-emphasized on a rooftop in Joppa; 

*Acts 10:12-16 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. (13) And a voice came to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." (14) But Peter said, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." (15) And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common."  (16) This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. 

Peter finally understood what was told him in the vision.

*Acts 10:28 Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Mark 7:17 When he had left the crowd and gone home, his disciples began asking him about the parable.

*Matthew 15:12 Then the disciples came and asked him, "Do you realize that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?"     {really}

*Matthew 15:13-14 He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be pulled up by the roots. (14) Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If one blind person leads another blind person, both will fall into a ditch."

*Matthew 15:15 Then Peter told him, "Explain to us this parable."

The disciples still just did not “get it.” What else is new.

Mark 7:18 So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,

*Matthew 15:16 So Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding?

Jesus is not talking about physical food, but spiritually.

Mark 7:19 Because it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and is expelled as waste." 

*Matthew 15:17 Don't you know that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then is expelled as waste?

Mark 7:20 And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

*Matthew 15:18-19 But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  (19)  For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

What comes out of the heart (mouth) is what makes us unclean.

Mark 7:21-22 because it's from within, from the human heart, that evil thoughts come, as well as sexual immorality, stealing, murder, (22) adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

Mark 7:23 All these evil things come from within and defile a man."

*Matthew 15:20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."

Most of us fail to appreciate its impact since we are not familiar with the bondage from the legalism which had taken over.  Some traditions can be helpful as reminders of our heritage, but we must constantly beware lest traditions take the place of truth. 

Jesus just set aside the Oral Ceremonial Washings Laws which are the traditions of the Jews and not part of the written Law of God.