Mark 7:1-13

The Pharisees Accusation

The Pharisees Came from Jerusalem to find something against Jesus. He posed a threat to their authority and they were looking for a way to discredit him from being a good Jew and going so far as to kill him. They picked what seems to be the most trivial accusation to discredit Jesus. Washing of hands seems to be of little importance until one understands the backwards way of religion.

The Pharisees and the scribes elevated the oral tradition above the law of God . It is written in the Talmud (Book of oral traditions) “it is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.” This is religion! It is performance based instead of relation based. According to the Pharisees if you ate before washing your hands correctly, you were sinning before God. This is not in the scripture, but in the tradition of the rabbis.

Before we are to hard on the Pharisees, we need to take a look at ourselves. What I mean by this that sometimes we create a box as to what a “good Christian” is. And most things that are going to be on that list are going to be external. These are things like avoiding cussing, drinking, smoking, and immorality. Also engaging in time spent in bible study and prayer, tithing, serving, attending worship regularly, and many more that we can add to the list.

We base these things on what we read and scripture and we should avoid the behaviors that are prohibited in scripture and engage in behaviors that promote spiritual maturity.

However these are not indicators of whether a person is a believer or not.

Jesus Response to Pharisees Accusation

Mark 7:6–8 NASB95

And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

Honoring lips

Jesus accused the Pharisees of talk without walk. The Pharisees like to pretend they were holy and righteous. From external behavior and practice they appeared that way. They adhered to the external commandments of the law and even created their own to appear even more holy.

They were not doing this out of a relationship with the Lord, but to look good in front of other people. They were more concerned about their own appearance and reputation than they were a relationship with God. As long as they appeared holy then they could have authority over those who did not appear holy.

Distant Heart

Judaism was a works based religion. They believed that as long as you observed the Law, Prophets, and oral tradition you were good in the eyes of God. If you were good in the eyes of God then you would be admitted into heaven.

Though the Lord is concerned with how we live our lives, He is more concerned with our relationship with Him. He teaches us this in the judgment parable. Matt. 7:21-23

Matthew 7:21–23 NASB95

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

The Lord is more concerned with our relationship with him than our behavior. When our relationship is right with the Lord then we will be following Him and our behavior will naturally be righteous.

Vain Worship

Vain has two meanings and I believe both would be applicable in this passage of scripture. The first is having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth. the second is producing no result; useless. I believe that because the Pharisees saw themselves better than everyone else they were unable to worship God in spirit and truth. All the ritual and religious behavior that they participated in was useless.

Self-righteous church folks are the same way. When they look down on sinners and talk about how bad they are, they are no different than the Pharisees. Self-righteousness inhibits our ability to worship and minister.

We must see ourselves as no different in value of a sinner. The only difference between us is that we have redemption and forgiveness from Jesus Christ. This is not anything that we did, but instead only what Christ has done for us. Therefore there is no boasting in who we are or what we have done, but only in what Christ has done. Eph. 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 (NASB95)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Neglecting the Word of God

The tragedy of the religious leaders in Jesus day is that they had little regard for God’s Word. They elevated their own traditions over the written word of God. They went so far as to make their own tradition equal with God’s word. In essence they were saying they were equal with God.

We need to be careful not to do this our self. When we read God’s word and receive plain instruction and do not do what it says, but instead do what we think is best, we are elevating ourselves to “God Status”

Jesus Accusation Against the Pharisees

Mark 7:9 NASB95

He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He told them that they say they keep the commandments of God, but they actually violate the commandments of God with their tradition

He pointed out that the Corban tradition was a violation of the 5th commandment. Corban was something a person could set aside for the purpose of God. Once it was declared Corban then it could not be used for the purpose that it would have been used.

People would use this regarding helping their parents fiscally in their senior years. A son could say that anything that I would have given you has been declared Corban. This was a blatant violation honoring your parents.

The fact that the Pharisees would accept such a donation showed that they had no regard for God’s law.