“Things Such as That”

Opening Prayer (Intercession & Petition)

Imagine being a young boy or girl, you are back home, and your parents have just given you the one toy you have been wanting for what seemed like an eternity. Did you leave it in a box and set it on a shelf somewhere in your room? Did you put it away your closet or under you bed? No! The excitement of receiving a token of your parent’s love and the culmination of expectation would have led you to play with that long-anticipated toy until you had your fill of excitement and joy.

This is a similar attitude we should have to God’s Word, His Law, and His Promises as we go through life. We must appreciate and love it to such a way that it becomes part of us, through God’s presence in our lives.

Read Mark 7:9-13.

Going around the main thing. (v.9)

The word describing Jesus speaking to the Pharisees connotes the meaning of an authoritative tone which is similar to the opening scene in Genesis 1:3.

The Pharisees are seen as experts, yes, but the experts that would make Satan proud, for their sly of hand and loose footwork leading people astray in regards to the Scriptures.

The bigger problem is the attempt by the Pharisees to go around the Word of God in order to closely follow their own misguided understanding.

There is a real problem with the way the Pharisees approach speaking for God to the Jewish people, and how hypocrites would speak for God today pretending to be the mythological Janus.

The difference in voices matters. (v.10-11)

Jesus now introduces another word to describe the actions done by Moses in giving the law. The word, Eipon, works to describe the statements made by someone else. Here Moses’ authority is not depicted as his own, but God’s authority in and through His servant. Jesus is now quoting Exodus 20:12, and Deuteronomy 5:16.

Jesus then shifts the attention to a different word, describing the act of speaking evil about one’s parents. The word, Kakologon, carries the tone of to call down evil on the person. This relates to Exodus 21:17, and Leviticus 20:9.

Jesus then moves into the problem with the tongue and how speaking can lead to issues as he now speaks about holy vows, particularly the giving of one’s goods to the temple. This is referenced in Leviticus 1:2, and Matthew 27:6.

This final time as Jesus addresses the issue of speaking in regards to God. The correlation is now in the use of the word Legate, so as to implicate the Pharisees in a case of collusion to commit and perpetuate Blasphemy. They not only want to serve God, the Pharisees desire to be God, by proxy of His divine authority.

This makes religious hypocrisy so egregious, as it presents itself as righteous, but at the core is as dark and rotten as Lucifer was when he fell.

The wrong voice kills God-given joy. (v. 12-13)

Jesus, championing God’s Word, goes for the core of the Pharisees’ issue. Where the Lord gives laws for giving life, the Scribes give laws that lead to death. What the Pharisees call Corban, is a selfish attempt to draw themselves as elevated over the rest of the people.

In Numbers 30:1-11 we see guidelines God gives for vows. These are given in order to protect the people, so that if they are speaking in haste, they are able to have a path to redemption from their own issue of self-assurance.

Jesus deals the final blow to the Pharisees’ logic as he remarks how their application of the “verbal Torah” undermines the Word of God. Jesus has just laid the foundation for Paul’s words to the Galatian church. Galatians 1:8-9.

Here we can introduce what Jesus calls each one of us to do, in practicing “child-like faith.” We are called to adhere to the treasure of his grace and mercy. He is far more precious than any other gift or treasure we have in this world.

Child-like faith leads to trust-based obedience.

Child-like faith leads us to obedience based on God’s life-giving power in us.

Keeping what is called the law of Grace is not the work of mankind, it is the Holy Spirit at work in us.

Where the Holy Spirit dwells, God’s Word and its teaching become a freedom and life-giving source for everyday life.