Mark 7:1-23
Key verse 7:18-19...... “Are you so dull? He asked. Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body. (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean.’)
 

 In today’s passage, Jesus gives a revolutionary statement by declaring all foods clean. In Jesus’ time the Jews were very serious to hold onto their dietary laws and other similar laws regarding spiritual cleanliness. However, they did not know the original meanings of why God gave them these laws during Moses’ time. As time went on, they lost hold of God’s commands and put more emphasis on traditions and religious rituals. They thought that they were spiritually clean by keeping many traditions and doing many religious rituals.  According to Jesus in this passage, however, their hearts were not clean. Instead, their hearts were far from God. Their hearts were full of evil. 

What God wants for us is to have a pure heart and a clean heart.  He wants us to be able to distinguish between tradition and his word. Tradition has no power to save or change anyone’s heart. The word of God has power to transform us and to change us so that we may be new creation in Christ and so that we may worship and love God with a pure heart and right motives, not like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time who were superficial and habitual. This morning, may God help us to search our hearts and thoughts and ask Jesus to forgive our superficial and habitual worship. May God give each one of us a desire to have a clean heart before him so that our thoughts, words and actions may please and glorify him. 

Part 1. Traditions of men and the commands of God (7:1-13)
 
Let’s read verses 1-2, “The Pharisees and some teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were ‘unclean’, that is, unwashed.”   The Jewish religious headquarters in Jerusalem sent people to check up on the influence of Jesus’ ministry which was growing exponentially. They did not come with the desire to listen and to learn from Jesus and experience his power and new life. Rather, they came with a critical heart and ready to criticize Jesus and find some evidence that he was breaking the law so that they could have a charge to condemn him and have him killed. 

John 5:18 and Mark 3:6 support this. These incidents show that when Jesus healed a paralyzed man and a man with a shriveled hand on two different occasions on a Sabbath, they plotted how they might kill Jesus. These religious leaders who appeared on the outside to the eyes of men to be religious and holy actually had murder on their hearts.  They also noticed his disciples doing something unreligious to their eyes. They looked closely at Jesus’ disciples who ate without washing their hands before they ate. The disciples were indeed very free in Jesus. They were like new wineskins. They were learning and teachable and also had very big appetites. When they saw the delicious watermelon in front of them, they grabbed it with their hands and tore out a chunk of it. Then they bit it and spit out the seeds all over the place. The disciples eating their food without washing their hands, infuriated the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They saw this as a great sin before God. To the Pharisees, what was at stake was not sanitary purposes for purity, it was ceremonial cleanliness. 

 The Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they gave their hands a ceremonial washing. If they failed to do this, they thought that they were unclean in God’s sight. They considered this to be the essence of service to God. They were quite serious about this ceremonial washing. It was said that when one rabbi excluded the ceremony of hand washing, just one time, he was excommunicated. Let’s read verses 3-4, “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.”  

 What was this ceremonial washing? It was a tradition passed down from generations by the religious elders. The water had to be blessed by a rabbi with certain prayers. Then you would just pour it on your hands, just a little and by that you would be clean. These traditions were at for a good reason because they were based on the Jews desire to obey God and to be clean before God. 

 In Moses’ time, God gave them many laws. The purpose of these laws was  so that by obeying these laws they could be trained to be a disciplined and holy people of God. God wanted his people to keep their identity as his people in a godless and unbelieving world. God did not want his people to conform to the wicked and unbelieving world, even a little bit. God wanted his people to be a holy people and a kingdom of priests so that they could eventually lead the world to God. This is why he said in Leviticus 11:44, “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy…” Therefore God gave his people all different kinds of laws about what to eat and what not to eat. It was not merely what they ate that made them clean. It was the fact that by obeying these commands that God could bless them and that they could enjoy the meaning of being his people. 

For example, when we read Leviticus chapters 11-15 we find many laws of what to eat and what not to eat. We also find many laws about regulations about infectious skin diseases, regulations about mildew and how to have cleansing from skin diseases and mildew. Some of these laws look rather strange and they are tedious to read about. We want to skip over this part of the Bible because it does not seem to apply to us at all. But again, what was the reason for them?  It was so that God could train his people to be an obedient people and a  holy and godly people, set apart from the world. 

 However, over time, the Jews lost the meaning of why they needed these laws. They did not see that to obey these laws meant their love for God. Little by little, as time went on, they left God out of the laws.  They began to add things and subtract things to the law for their own convenience sake. As a result the spirit of the law was lost  in the flood of their traditions and habitual acts of worship. For example,  they criticized Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. In fact, they wanted to kill him for healing the man. They lost the meaning that the Sabbath was meant for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was so that man might find rest in God and have new life and have hope in God on the Sabbath. 

After Jesus’ time, the Jews became even more focused on tradition rather than on God himself. There is one story about a fiddler on the roof which takes place in a small Jewish Russian village in the beginning of the 20th century. A father, named Tevye,  has three daughters whom he wants to marry in the traditional way, by a match-maker. However, they want to defy centuries of Jewish tradition and culture and marry men of their own choice, not their father’s or the village matchmaker’s.  Even one daughter wants to marry a Gentile. The father feels helpless. He feels helpless because he is so stuck in his traditional ways. In the beginning of the story, which was made into a musical and movie, all the different religious Jewish articles are shown. The inside beauty of the synagogue and the beautiful large Torah scrolls and many other ornamental things.  The father questions the audience, “Why do we do all these things?”  He then says, “We don’t know we do all this. It is tradition.” 

 Tradition and religious rituals are meaningless unless we know the reason why we do them. Unless we do them for God and love for God they become burdensome to us and we become burdensome to others when we enforce them on others.  When I was six years old I went to a Jewish day care camp during one summer. At lunch time, I remember the woman who served us the lunches as we ate at the picnic table outside. When I was thirsty for milk to have with my bologna sandwich, she would say, “We do not serve milk with meat. No milk with meat!” I was very sorry that I could not have milk with my bologna sandwich. However this was one Jewish dietary law. It originated from  Exodus 23:19b which says, “…Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”  But how they cam up with restricting me from having milk with my bologna sandwich, I don’t know. All I know is that I came to dislike that woman and say mockingly about her, “No milk with meat! We don’t serve milk with meat!”

 Let’s see what the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to Jesus about his disciples unclean eating habits. Let’s read verse 5, “So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, ‘Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands?” 

How did Jesus answer their stinging criticism? Let’s read Jesus’ reply to them in verses 6-8, “He replied, ‘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. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”  The Pharisees in Jesus’ time fulfilled this prophecy of Isaiah. Jesus called them “hypocrites.” What is the meaning of a “hypocrite”? A hypocrite is one who is just acting a part. It is a word used for actors on the stage. They were going through the religious rituals without experiencing any reality at all.  They said one thing with their mouths, but did another with their actions.

 They merely were giving God lip service. Their hearts were far from God. Their hearts were not with God. To God’s eyes, their worship was in vain. That is, all their traditions and religious rituals and all their prayers were in vain because God saw their hearts were not with him. God saw their superficial and habitual worship and he was grieved and broken hearted. We see here that when we let go of the command of God and emphasize tradition, we lose our spirit. We become superficial and habitual in worship of God. We become hypocrites and worthless to God. 

We should understand, however, that traditions are not bad. Tradition can help us to be faithful to God. However, we should not be bound to the tradition as a matter of right or wrong. For example, for a long time at UBF we only sang the traditional hymns in our hymn books. These hymns are one hundred, even two hundred years old. However, not long ago, we began to have more contemporary singing and music. We were able to do this because Missionary Jacob is not bound by traditions. He just wants to glorify God because music is a form of worship, if it is to God, expressing our love to God. We can do all of this because we are free in Jesus and not bound by tradition. We want to put God’s command first.

Last year I needed to take a computer class. It was only offered on the night I had fellowship meeting. When my coworkers at GMU heard this, they did not say,  “No, we can not change fellowship meeting! It is our tradition to have fellowship meeting on Wednesday night!” Instead, they agreed to change the day just so we could all meet together and maintain our spiritual vessel at GMU. In our daily spiritual life we should not ignore traditions. However, we must always emphasize God’s commands so that we don’t become habitual and superficial.  
 
What God is looking for is our hearts that are devoted to him. He wants us to give him our hearts out of love for him. This means that when we do anything for God, it should be based on his word in the Bible and out of love for God. If we go fishing, or if we attend fellowship or even Sunday Worship and we don’t have God’s word for the reason we do this, then we fall into habitual, superficial and meaningless worship. Sometimes we bind ourselves and others by making rules that are not really from God’s word. Then we have no joy. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day had no joy when they saw Jesus’ disciples eating with unclean hands. 

 Their life reflected their emphasis on tradition over God’s command in many other ways. In verses 9-13, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees again for putting their own tradition before the word of God. And he gives an example of how they did so.  Let’s read verses 9-13, “And he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, Honor your father and mother, and, Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father and mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.’”

  The word of God in the Ten Commandments says to honor your father and mother (Ex.20:12). But they set up their own tradition and made it a kind of law. It was the law of Corban. They said to their aging  parents, “We must give glory to God first. We can not take care of you. We give you into the hands of God. We devote you to God. May God take care of you. Amen” They ignored their parents and put them into nursing homes. By their actions they looked devoted to God as if they were honoring God before their parents. But in their hearts they were selfish and irresponsible. They did not want to sacrifice even a little of themselves to obey God’s word.  In their hearts, they did not love God by honoring their parents. They only tried to avoid responsibility so that they could  show off , appear religious, and impress people. It is clear here how they nullified God’s word. To them, their tradition was more important than God’s holy command.
 
We can see here that they had no inner life before God. It was all for the eyes of men to see. When they let go of God’s commands, they became nothing more than a show before men. This is what grieved Jesus’ heart the most. It is when our spiritual lives become not spiritual, not before the eyes of God, but before the eyes of men. It is when we put emphasis more on tradition than the holy and absolute word of God. We can learn here that tradition has no power to change anyone to be the servants of God. This is because traditions change over time. Only when we obey God’s holy commands can God change us into spiritual men and women who please God. This is because God’s word is active, alive and powerful. In verses 1-13, Jesus directed his attention on the Pharisees and spoke to them with a shepherd heart. Now in verses 14-23 he talks to the crowd and later to his disciples to show them what really  makes them clean and unclean.

Part 2. What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean (14-23) 

Let’s see what he said to the crowd. Let’s read verses 14-15, “Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen to me everyone, and understand this. 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.’”  According to Jesus , no food that one eats can make a person unclean. There is nothing external that can make one unclean inside. What makes one unclean is what comes from within.  After Jesus spoke this to the crowd, he left them and entered into the house. However, his disciples were confused about what Jesus said. They stood there scratching their heads.

 So they asked him about the parable. Let’s read what Jesus said to them. Let’s read verses 17-19, “After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. Are you so dull? he asked. Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.’ (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods ‘clean.’) What Jesus says here is a revolutionary statement. With one statement he is throwing out the door all of the laws of cleanliness that the Jews had followed for hundreds of years. 

 What Jesus is saying is that it is more important what is inside a man. He is saying that one should be more concerned with the internal rather than the external. Paul wrote in Romans 2:28-29, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”  What Jesus said in verses 18-19 was meant to have great future spiritual implications.  By saying this, Jesus was looking at the future Christian church. Through this statement, he envisioned the disciples to be different than the religious leaders.  Through this statement he wanted his disciples to be men after his own heart, not men of superficial and habitual tradition. Jesus did not stop there. He went on further to explain this more specifically to the disciples. 

Let’s read verses 20-23, “He went on: ‘What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from within, out of men’s hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.’” 

 Jesus explains that our thoughts of our heart are important. What we think about can make us clean or unclean.  This is because what one thinks eventually grows into words and actions. People who say many dirty words show that they have a dirty heart, full of dirty thoughts. People who rape or have many divorces, show that their hearts and thoughts were full of sexual immorality and adultery.  People who speak a lot about sports, show that they like sports. They think a lot about sports. 

Our thought life is what really God sees. God always sees the heart before the action. One day, God will judge all men. God will even judge all men’s secrets. And God will judge all men’s careless words. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34-37, “…For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

 How then can we overcome our evil thoughts? How can we become clean on the inside? How can we have a clean heart if by nature we are sinners whose thoughts are continually thinking ways of evil and many sinful things?  One must first believe the word of God that on the cross Jesus died for all our sins. His blood he shed cleanses us from every sin. Then God will give us the Holy Spirit to begin the work of making us holy in his sight.  

 That is God’s part. What we need to do next is to train ourselves to read and study the Bible personally and hold onto the word of God. Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable----if anything is excellent or praiseworthy---think about such things.”  Paul encourages us to set our minds on good things. This might mean to keep on thanking God for every and in any situation, instead of complaining. David wrote in Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” God’s word in our heart can make us holy and clean. God’s word in our hearts can produce in us a clean heart and clean thoughts and righteous acts.  

It all comes down to preparing my heart and making sure that I have Jesus and his word in my heart. It takes effort and action. There is a short book I once read called, “My heart, Christ’s home.” In this book the writer describes one’s heart as different rooms in a house. One day Jesus comes to visit his heart, which is a house. Jesus goes into the different rooms of the house. The author writes knowing that each of the rooms in his house has something dirty about it that he knows Jesus should see. For example, in his bedroom, he left a dirty magazine. He knows he must get rid of it before Jesus comes to see the bedroom. When Jesus goes into the living room, instead of seeing the Bible opened up, he sees a TV guide magazine and the TV on. The man knows his house is dirty. He repents and wants to clean his house so that Jesus may be pleased to want to stay there. Sometimes when we have guests coming over my house, it is the best time to clean the house. I don’t want them to see a dirty house, though I am not saying my house is dirty, but it always needs cleaning, especially when you have three children. As we know, cleaning our house takes effort, but the reward is great. We then are proud to show off our homes.

We must treat our hearts like a house. It would be embarrassing to have someone come to our house if it is so dirty inside. Jesus wants each of us to clean our dirty hearts. He wants to dwell in our hearts so that we may men and women after his own heart and not superficial and habitual worshippers stuck in meaningless and empty traditions. Today we learned that holding onto God’s command is better than tradition. Tradition is not bad, but it has no power to change us and give us clean hearts.  Faith in Jesus and obedience to God’s command can cleanse our hearts.  May God help you to experience his joy when you put priority in reading and studying and obeying his words.