Mark 7 - A Correction and Two Examples

Life in the Extremes

As human beings we have an inclination towards extremes.

The Pharisees started out with the right intentions but their desire to keep Judaism pure led them to hold on to tradition and their interpretation of the Law above the Law.

Their pursuit of righteousness led them to hypocrisy. They were extreme in their devotion and their application of the Law.

Their name comes from the word parash (pa-rash) which means to separate or make distinct. This means they are the separate ones or the distinct ones. They were different and they wanted the Jewish people to be different or distinct from the rest of the gentile world. They more than likely evolved out of an earlier group called the Assideans. They were in a sense rebelling against the synchronism of their day. That is good, their application was not. Their logic was God called us to be different and by golly we will be different.

They had an unwavering loyalty to the Law of Moses and more importantly they had an unwavering loyalty to their interpretation of the Law of Moses.

Their motto was,

You can do whatever you want, as long as it is what we tell you to do.

This is all very important because we can laugh, we can look down on them but I think Pharisees make us a little uncomfortable because sometimes it is easy to see ourselves in them.

As human beings I think we are much more comfortable with the extremes than we like to admit we love something over we hate it. We welcome it completely or we reject it with passion. We crave it or we never want to see it again.

I remember when I was in my early teens I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I was visiting my Aunt and she said something about not preferring something on her pizza. What struck me was it not that she had a preference, but that she used that word preferred. Still to this day I do not remember ever hearing that word before she said it. I don’t remember if I had to ask her what that meant or look it up later in the dictionary.

But so often that’s us. There’s no room in the middle. It’s love or it’s hate. It’s the best or it’s the worst.

We can love certain things and strongly dislike other things but there is a lot of room in the middle for preference.

Sometimes if we are not careful, we can drift into the Pharisees same way of thinking and being. We can place our preferences above the commands of God.

Jesus tells us,

Love God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

This can be all sorts of things ranging from styles of worship to order of service to wear communion goes in a service to how to grow the kingdom or what to wear to church. We have to be careful not to impose our desires on God or God’s law.

Sometimes, if we are not careful we add to this.

Grace and Truth

Even as we listen to a message like this today, we have to be careful not to drift into an extreme. Is Pastor Mike saying that there’s no rules or is he saying that I can do what I want? No that is not what I’m saying.

There are absolute truths, and there are absolute lies. The point is that we are supposed to love the truth absolutely. We are also called to love those who don’t know it and share it with them.

Jesus came full of Grace and Truth, we are to be like that.

All of this is important because it sets up the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees

Jesus Confronts False Righteousness

The Pharisees come to Jesus and complain because the Disciples were not washing their hands before they ate. They were not complaining because they were concerned with germs but because they were concerned with tradition.

It was not about not getting of dirt but about getting rid of the filth of “those people.”

Jesus responds to them,

Mark 7:6–9 CSB

He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands. Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition!

Jesus is saying, you say you love God and you say you love people but your actions prove different.

Jesus addresses their hypocrisy head on and one thing I have learned in my life is people do not like when you address their hypocrisy or their passive aggressiveness head on. They want you to play the game and if you don’t you run the risk of making an enemy. If you want to make people mad address these two things. Jesus did this often because the Pharisees were often hypocritical and passive aggressive. Jesus addresses this and they wanted Him dead in part because of this.

The Pharisees had all sorts of rules about how to interact and avoid gentiles and sinners. They had all sorts of rules about everything.

For example, if a Samaritan used a cup or a bowl that bowl was to be thrown in the trash. For them this was the same as if a pig touched it. It was good for nothing but to be broken and disregarded.

They would throw away the cup and they would throw way the person.

Sometimes, if we are not careful we can throw people away.

I don’t think we start out this way but over time mission drift starts to happen.

Mission drift is where we become so fixated on side things that we forget the mission.

A boat does not travel in a straight line it must constantly be adjusted and made to go straight.

We too must be careful to always come back to Jesus. For example, something we can all see daily. When can start to think that our political party is right because of the way they handle an issue. It doesn’t really matter what the issue is. What happens is our party does this “right” so everyone else is “wrong.” If they are wrong about this, they are probably wrong about everything. Then no matter what they say they are wrong. Once they are wrong we can disregard them and throw them away.

What started as a search for truth becomes something else.

The truth is that we need to be so intentional about coming back to the center where Jesus is. Let me give you an example,

When they bring the woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus in John 8, He doesn’t tell her it’s OK don’t worry about it. He doesn’t tell her. Oh well you know things happen. No he says I don’t condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Jesus is passing judgement, that is clear, but Jesus is not condemning.

In essence this is what Jesus says, objectively you are wrong. Sex outside the covenant of marriage is not allowed. Don’t do this anymore. Go and sin no more.

Jesus names the sin but does not discard the person in the process.

There is wrong and there is right. This is not in question, but we do not throw people away just because they are wrong or doing something wrong.

We are to be like Jesus bringing the message of reconciliation. We do not need to make people like us, but to let God make them like Him.

Jesus is correcting their lack of understanding and in the next two stories He is showing us what this is supposed to look like.

Jesus Expands the Table

The Pharisees separated themselves from the Gentiles. Jesus brings healing to a Gentile child. It is no coincidence that right after Jesus finishes scolding the Pharisees or separated ones that He includes a Gentile mother.

We see how the Pharisees separate and how Jesus includes.

Remember the Pharisees would throw this person away, they would have no problem discarding this mother and her child. Jesus on the other hand brings them in.

We can read Jesus’ interaction with this mother and think He is being harsh but that is not what He is doing. He is stating the Pharisees ideas and testing her faith.

Mark 7:27 CSB

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

Jesus does this for a few reason. One He is essentially stating the Jewish belief of the day towards Gentiles. Second, Jesus is testing her faith.

The mother replies,

Mark 7:28 CSB

But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Jesus responds and essentially says, yes you get it.

Mark 7:29 CSB

Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

Whereas some would reject and be completely fine letting this mother and her child suffer, Jesus lets this play out so we can see that all are welcome to the table.

For us in our modern context, some people make all sorts of rules about who can come to church but the church is meant to be a place where all are welcome.

The church is meant to be a place where the table always has an empty seat.

There are no perfect people in church.

Jesus Restores the Broken

Mark does not spell it out for us I think we can infer that the deaf man in Mark 7:31-37 is a Gentile like the mother in the story before. Does this matter? Yes, a little. If he is then once again Jesus is showing us that separation is not what it is all about but bringing in those outside. It is also another message of compassion.

This man is deaf and stutters. He cannot hear, he is alone in his thoughts, and he more than likely feels alone. His friends bring this man to Jesus and Jesus heals him. An interesting thing in this story is that the man does not ask to be healed, his faith is never mentioned. Those with him bring him to Jesus. They beg Jesus to do something for their friend.

Mark 7:32 CSB

They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him.

Something that is absolutely facilitating about this story to me is not that Jesus puts His fingers in the mans ears and spits. That is odd but what is so great is verse 34.

Mark 7:34 CSB

Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”).

Jesus takes a deep sigh. I don’t think this is a sigh of annoyance but more like Jesus weeping at Lazarus’ tomb.

The word for the sigh here is stenazo (sten ad zo) and it is a sigh of grief.

We have a Savior who is bothered by and feels the weight of brokenness. It is a sigh of this is not how it is supposed to be.

We have a a Savior who does not like how things are going and is doing something about it.

The Pharisees kept away from illness so they would not be defiled. Jesus heals the broken. The contrast is clear.

The Pharisees separated themselves. They were so preoccupied with their own self righteousness and their own cleanliness that they forgot the call.

Love God with all your heart soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

I imagine that these people would want healing if they were in this man’s situation. They are loving this man as they love themselves. They would want healing and would beg for it, so they do this for him.

The Question

Do we love people like that?

In the end we must ask ourselves, are we more like the Pharisees or like Jesus? Are we more concerned with tradition or with God’s way of doing things.? Are we willing to make an empty seat at the table or are we more concerned with having it our way?

Faith in Action: Do we separate ourselves or draw in those who need Jesus?

Shift

Show the slides.

We have the final quote back from Shift Phase 1A and it is significantly cheaper than previous quotes by between half a million and a million.

The total for Phase 1A which is everything but decorations is about 1.23 million and the well which requires an expansion tank is about $165k. The current well setup is only supposed to take care of 100 people.

We have a little over $800k in the shift fund right now. Building is only going to get more expensive. So the leadership team and I believe we need to move on this.

We are going to be passing out pledge cards that you can either fill out today or bring back next week. Please hear me no amount is too small and if you cannot give financially can you be praying? We believe this is a way to invest in the Next Generation and to reach those around us. We are also applying for grants and the DevCon team is looking at ways to help us with some fundraising.

The Student Cafe will be open to our local high schools to give a safe place for students to come after school to study or just be.

I believe in this project and I am trusting, in faith that God will provide.