Talk 20 Mark 7:1-23 Beware of the Pharisees
Welcome to Talk 20 in our series on Mark’s Gospel. Today we’re looking at Mark 7:1-23 where the Pharisees see some of Jesus’ disciples eating food without first giving their hands the ceremonial washing that was required by Jewish tradition. So they ask Jesus about this. Jesus replies by quoting a passage from Isaiah where God says:
These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.
He then adds:
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.
As an example of this, Jesus points out that they were getting around God’s command to honour your father and mother by a practice known as Corban. Instead of helping their parents when they were in financial need, they would say that whatever money they had was devoted to God, and so they were unable to help them. In doing this they were setting aside the commands of God in order to observe their own traditions!
Jesus then calls the crowd to him and tells them that
Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’
When his disciples ask him to explain what he means by this, he tells them that what we eat or how we eat it can’t make us unclean because it doesn’t go into our heart but into our stomach and then passes out of our body. Mark then adds that
In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”
Jesus then says that what makes you unclean is what comes out of your heart – things like evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. These are the things that make us unclean.
So what can we learn from all this?
Notice first the continued opposition of the Jewish leaders to Jesus.
The continued opposition of the Jewish leaders to Jesus
They seem to have been against him right from the start. They have challenged his authority to forgive sins, they’ve criticised him for eating with tax-collectors and ‘sinners’, they’ve complained that his disciples have done what is not lawful on the Sabbath, they’ve accused him of being demon-possessed, and they’ve already begun to plot how they can kill him. And now they’re complaining about the behaviour of his disciples again:
Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands? (v5).
And that was the root cause of their opposition – the tradition of the elders. There’s a clear contrast in this passage between man-made tradition and the commands of God.
The contrast between man-made tradition and the commands of God
Notice the repetition of the word tradition in this passage:
3 …the tradition of the elders.
4 …they observe many other traditions
5 …Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders…?
8 …You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.
9 …You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
13 …you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.
What stands out in these verses is that traditions are made by men, not God. They are handed down by men. And there is the danger that in following man-made tradition we may not only let go of the commands of God, but even nullify his word. It can also easily lead to hypocrisy.
The danger of hypocrisy
Look at verses 6-8.
6 He (Jesus) replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hupokrites which means actor. In ancient Greece plays were performed in amphitheatres by actors who wore masks. So a hypocrite is someone who covers up who they really are, pretending to be someone else. This was just what the Pharisees were guilty of, honouring God with their lips, but far from him in their hearts. Their hypocrisy involved insincerity and dishonesty.
As a result, Jesus said that they worshipped God in vain. They were not honouring God by teaching his word, but rules taught by men. They knew what God had said, but they had let go of his commands. In Matthew 23, talking of the Pharisees, Jesus said:
…do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for men to see… (Matthew 23:3-4).
In fact, to get a full understanding of Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees, it’s worth reading the whole of Matthew 23, but the verses we’ve just quoted give a clear idea of the nature of hypocrisy. Their motivation for what they did and said was clearly wrong. They did not practice what they preached, and by their nit-picking rules they placed heavy burdens on people’s shoulders and were totally unwilling to lift them. But that brings us to the next key principle we see in today’s passage – the freedom that Jesus has brought us.
The freedom that Jesus has brought us
The legalistic regulations imposed by the traditions of men stands in stark contrast to the liberty that Jesus introduced through his teaching. Notice Mark’s statement in verse 19 that Jesus declared all foods clean! (Compare Peter’s experience on the rooftop at Joppa in Acts 10). What a contrast to the strict food laws imposed by Moses! As we saw in Talk 8, the kingdom of God which Jesus had come to proclaim could not be contained within the framework of Judaism. This is reflected in what Mark says in verse 3: The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing.
Admittedly it had taken some time for the church to break free from the restraints of Judaism, but the Council of Jerusalem (c.48-50AD) was a great step forward towards the freedom that Jesus had so vehemently proclaimed. I have dealt with this subject at some length in my book, The Voice of God, where I point out that the decision made by the church leaders in Acts 15 regarding food was an ad hoc decision motivated by the Holy Spirit to deal with a specific problem facing the church at that time. It was not binding on all Christians for all time. As we have seen, Jesus had already declared all foods to be clean, and this was clearly the understanding of the apostle Paul when he says in Romans 14:17-20:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
The underlying principle in this teaching is love. When a Pharisee who was an expert in the Law asked Jesus, What is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments“(Matthew 22:37-40).
Notice that Jesus says, All the Law and the Prophets. Not just the ceremonial law. All the law. The Ten Commandments are included. And everything taught by the prophets. The entire Old Testament. As Christians we are free from it all! But of course, if we really love God with all our heart and soul and mind, and if we really love our neighbour as ourself, we will not kill or steal or commit adultery etc. The Law was given to show us our sin and our need of a Saviour (Galatians 3:23-25). But now we are free. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free and we are to stand firm in that freedom (Galatians 5:1). As Paul says in Galatians 5:13-14:
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.
The importance of the heart
In verses 18-23 he says that nothing you eat can make you unclean because it doesn’t go into your heart. It’s what what’s in your heart that makes you unclean. In Matthew 5:27-28 , for example, Jesus warns against adultery in the heart. This is because, as he says here:
…from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’
This list is clearly connected to the Ten Commandments, where theft, murder, adultery, and coveting are strictly forbidden. But whereas the Ten Commandments relate largely to a person’s actions, Jesus is here emphasising the motivation behind those actions and the source from which they spring, the human heart. In Jeremiah 17:9-10 God says:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds (ESV).
The desires of our hearts influence the thoughts of our minds, and our thoughts determine our actions. But as those who have received Christ as our Saviour, Hebrews 10:19-22 tells us that we have confidence to enter God’s presence because Jesus has made a way for us by dying for us and as a result we can:
draw near to God with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience…
What’s more, Galatians 4:5-6 tells us that we have been redeemed from the law and adopted as God’s children, and God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. That’s why, rather than giving in to the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21), we are able now to follow the desires of the Spirit allowing the fruit of the Spirit to grow in our lives:
Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
How different these qualities are from the attitudes and actions of the Pharisees. From their bad example there is so much we can learn to avoid. Even as Christians we can fall into their ways as even Peter did briefly (Galatians 2:11-13). As those who follow Jesus we should never:
· Put man-made traditions before the word of God.
· Find ways of getting around God’s commands to further our own interests.
· Impose heavy burdens on others by our legalistic rules.
· Be more concerned with outward appearance than with true holiness.
· Act like hypocrites, honouring God with our lips, but far from him in our hearts.
And, of course, unlike the Pharisees, we must practise what we preach.
If we don’t want to fall into their ways, we need to examine our hearts.