Mark: Tradition vs Scripture [Mark 7:1-23]

Mark: Tradition vs Scripture []

Stand for the reading of the word of God []

MI: Jesus calls us to trust not in our own external righteousness or outward performance…but Jesus calls us to trust in His perfect work on our behalf.

This is the main thing to take away from today. If this is all you take away from today then today was a success. Because ,as sinful people, we are tempted to have what looks like a passion for God, yet be deceived, captured, and enslaved by the deadly lure of legalism. Tragically those who have been raised in the church are more susceptible to this deception. Our pride in our religious rituals, church practices, and cultural traditions blind us to both our great sinfulness and the great Savior who alone can rescue us from our sin.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote,

“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I’ve heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, can’t keep their heads about girls or drink, or even admit their cowards. But I do not think I’ve ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse themselves of this vice…There is no fault which makes someone more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others…the vice I am talking about is Pride…Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

The Scriptures us harsh language against pride, God is opposed to pride, because human pride is opposed to God. It thinks more of itself than it should and lurks in unsuspecting locations…pride is the sin which leads to the lure of legalism or human tradition instead of the word of God. We see this multiple times in our passage today…the traditions of man, which is rooted in the pride of man…this is in opposition to God himself.

Now, we are going to see several good lessons today, but where we have to be careful is that we don’t get a hold of the wrong side of the stick. For example, our first lesson is going to be the contrast between human tradition and Scripture…but to get a hold of the wrong side of the stick would to say…since human tradition is wrong, we will not hold to any tradition, we will not make any tradition, we will have no doctrinal statement, no set form of worship, everything will be spurt of the moment and spontaneous…OK but it isn’t long before that becomes your tradition. There is nothing wrong with having a doctrinal statement…you should have one! There is nothing wrong with having a standard practice in worship, or prayer, or bible study. You simply have to make sure that we don’t make what is man-made on a par with what is God ordained. So we have to be able to identify between tradition and scripture.

The Contrast between human tradition and Scripture []

The Pharisees and scribes, the teachers of the Torah [Law] pop back onto the scene again here in chapter 7. Amid Jesus popularity in the region they show up and we know by now they are up to no good. The last time we seen them in Mark’s gospel, was when they had the issue over the Sabbath, and after that encounter they went away and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. So here they do what they did before…they looked to the disciples to find fault in Jesus.

Look at verse 2, it says, “when they saw some of the disciples eat with unwashed hands, they found fault.” If you can’t find fault in someone the next best thing to do is look at those they are around. That’s a common human trait isn’t it? We see it today in the political world, the business world, if you can’t find enough wrong with the person look to their associates. Too often we have our minds made up in advance concerning the character of someone. Our opinion is already formed, and we only look for evidence to confirm that which we’ve already concluded. Facts won’t get in the way of opinion and if we can’t find what were looking for in the person we look to those close to them. This is what’s going on here to Jesus. We plainly see this in the Pharisees but far to often we play the same game with people as well. We’ll see a lot of this stuff today hitting close to home.

Now Mark takes a moment to explain the problem, remember Mark is writing to a Roman, Gentile audience so he explains what the meaning to unwashed or defiled hands is all about. Matthew records this same account, but he doesn’t explain what it meant because Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience. Read verse 3-4 again...

There were many other things they did…notice according to the tradition of the elders. This washing of the hands and other objects had nothing to do with hygiene but was about ritual or ceremonial cleansing. i.e. it was all about the show. On the outside the Pharisees looked the part, they looked as if they were very spiritual. But the reality is…it’s all a show… and Jesus would point that out.

These traditions of the elders was an oral body of rules and regulations that the religious leaders had established and forced upon all Jews. While initially they may of had good intentions when coming up with these rules but what eventually happened was this body of oral man-made regulations had become placed on the same level as the scriptures themselves.

The religious leaders had made their interpretation authoritative…so human idea replaced God’s word. Keep in mind, this is not a problem isolated to the first century but is a recurring issue. The reformation took place because of this same problem…man-made tradition replaced or equal to God’s word. This is a problem in our own day as well. Let me give you an example. How many of you have a study bible? A study bible has the scriptures and then at the bottom there is a commentary on that scripture…and study bibles can be very good and helpful as long as you have solid teaching, but how often are we tempted to pay more attention to the commentary than the scripture itself? Or how often do we rely upon the teaching of a favorite teacher rather than the scriptures. If we’re not careful we can allow man’s word to be equal to God’s word. I’ve used the Berean Christians in often, they received the teaching of Paul with readiness but searched the scripture daily to make sure they things he taught were true.

This Oral tradition of the Pharisees was ultimately an attempt to manipulate God’s law. Instead of seeing their own sinfulness and need for the righteousness of God, they manipulated the law and attempted to create their own righteousness. They manipulated the law in order that they might be able to keep the law. You see because God’s law, if one really takes a serious look at God’s law, you come to realize you can’t keep it. Jesus summed the law up in two, love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself…how you doing in that? Horribly! I Don’t love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, most of the time, I’m focused on me first, I don’t love my neighbor as myself, I don’t even like my neighbor, their weird and annoying. In fact you don’t make it past the first law of God without realizing I’ve made a royal mess of things.

You see the law of God is not a ladder we climb up to get closer to God, it’s a mirror by which we see our own filth and sin, so that, in turn, we might find the solution to that filth and sin problem in the person of Jesus Christ who came not to abolish the law but to fulfill the laws demands and pay the penalty for sin.

You see we must be careful we don’t grab the wrong end of the stick here as well… we might be tempted to say, well see Jesus was not concerned about formalism, he was not concerned about law and was all about love. No, we don’t unhitch from the law of God in the NT, Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. And while Jesus was all about love, law and love are not at war with one another. I heard a popular teacher today say, we must unhitch from the OT and even the 10 commandments as a NT church, and I really don’t know what he’s thinking, because the law points out our need for a savior. Jesus was condemning their man-made tradition not God ordained scripture.

Verse 5 the Pharisees used the comparison card again, “why don’t they...” i.e. we do this why don’t they? In their eyes their tradition was just as important and authoritative as God’s word. Don’t be to quick to judge these guys here…the church has done these things all throughout it’s history. When I was a boy, one of the big things was if women could were slacks or not? I remember thinking as a very young boy, “how does that make any difference?” A women who is a faithful believer wearing a dress, but once she puts on pants now somehow moves farther away from God…that’s ridiculous! I’d bet some of you have a similar story if you grew up in the church. Many churches will have their doctrinal statement or constitutional outline, which is good, but will also have their own personal rules and regulations for that particular body.

Where we have to be careful is like Warren Weirsbe said, “We must constantly beware lest tradition take place of truth. It does us good to examine our church traditions in the light of God’s word and to be courageous enough to make changes.” I thought it was fitting today as we worship in the basement, don’t get too attached to the wrong things.

You see because what had happened, as Jesus points out in verses 6-8 is, the religious leaders may have been honoring God with their lips but their hearts were far from God. They cared more for pots and kettles than the truth of God’s word, they cared more for things than people. If we’re not careful we can be more concerned about the church pews than people being saved.

Jesus makes his illustration in verse 9-13...

The difference between outward or external concerns and those of the heart and inner being []

We are tempted to reduce genuine piety to external things. Some concerns about outward propriety are often justified, but never can they substitute reality of the inner being…i.e. We are what we are inside, not what we appear to be on the outside. Our defilement doesn’t come from what is outside of us, but that which is within is what defiles a man.

Jesus points out that these religious leaders, though they looked very good on the outside, were corrupt within. But Jesus doesn’t just throw insults, he uses a specific rule they had which showed their tradition was in direct contradiction of God’s word.

Jesus quotes Exodus and Deuteronomy in verse 10, the law of God was clear concerning honoring your parents. But the Pharisees had a rule known as Corban, which negated the law of God. Corban is a Hebrew word which means, as Mark notes, “gift” the principle of Corban was a Jewish man could dedicate by an oath certain property or even themselves as Corban “gift” to the Lord, there by legally binding that property or themselves to the Lord and that property could not be used for anything else. So if, for example, the parents found themselves in a financial bind, the children were obligated to help the parents, but if they made certain property Corban, they were not bound to use that. Even though they could still use it for their own personal well-being. You see while Corban was colored in religious piety, it’s rooted in selfishness and protecting their own wealth.

These kind of external practices resulted in making void the scriptures [v.13] which results in disobedience. They reject the commands of God and establish their own, they manipulate God’s word to their own advantage.

God is not as concerned about what we look like on the outside as to what we are on the inside. God is not as concerned about my ability to preach as he is my motivation for preaching. God is not as concerned about my ability to communicate the text clearly publically as he is concerned about whether or not I believe it and live it privately. Friends and the same is true for you, you can put on a pretty front and pretend to be this great Christian, man can be fooled by the outward actions, but friends, God’s not fooled. He looks at the heart.

verses 14-23, Jesus is going to point out this again, there is a difference between tradition and scripture and outward performance and inward reality. The important lesson is...

The Importance of spiritual discernment and understanding []

Twice, in verse 14 and 16, Jesus says hear me, understand me, listen to me…emphasizing the importance of spiritual discernment and understanding. He makes the reference to food, in essence, Jesus teaching declares all food clean. The purpose was in the OT the Mosaic ceremonial law distinguished between clean and unclean food [] the purpose was to instill an awareness of God’s holiness and the reality of sin as a barrier to fellowship with God. But through the atoning work of Christ defilement is removed and fellowship with God is restored, thus the ceremonial laws have fulfilled their purpose and are no longer required. In this Jesus is pointing toward what He will do on the cross and in the resurrection. The point is simple…Jesus says it’s all about the heart.

We’re tempted to look at the disciples, who lacked understanding [v.18] and criticize…but we should take a good long look at ourselves…what lies within our own hearts? Remember! Even “ears to hear” can only be ours because it’s a gracious gift of God…not by our own power. If we have spiritual understanding and enlightenment, it’s because God gave it to you!!! Yes we must cultivate the truth, pay attention to the truth, and reflect on the truth of God’s word, but even the will to do that is a gift of God Himself!

Jesus gives this list of what defiles a man in verses 21-22, we won’t get into them in detail. But a glance at this list you realize Jesus’ point what defiles a person…these evil actions arise from one’s heart…and that is the source of sin. We can be focused on the externals, like the Pharisees, and just try to wash the kettles, clean the hands, never really getting to the source of the problem or we can listen to the words of Jesus and realize…I need cleansing from within and that only comes through Jesus.

The world says, the problem is out there, and the solution is to ask, what can I do? How can I fix this? The Bible says the problem is inside of us, within our hearts is the problem and the only solution is what Christ has done!

says, “Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.” When the Lord examines your heart, what does He see? Does He see a self-righteous person trusting in what I can do or a humble sinner trusting in what Christ has done? I know this is not popular today, but the difference is eternally significant. Have you humbly trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior? Or have you been trusting in what you have done? I pray the Lord move us this morning and we’d pray...

Examine me or Lord and point out where there is evil in me, make me aware off my own sinfulness and my desperate need for you. Amen.