Urgency pt8

We have a lot of religiosity in America today. A lot of rules. A lot of manmade creations of holiness. What we don’t have is a lot of consistency.

Let me be as plain as I can be. Do not talk to me about how America is going to hell because of such and such politician or law or judge or election, if you cannot tell me what Jesus had to say about what it means to follow Him. In so many ways, we have reduced following Jesus to cheap slogans and religious activity and left behind real obedience and sacrifice.

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

7:1–23 are the longest conflict speech in the Gospel of Mark. The length of the section is a clue to its importance. Mark labors to clarify that the essential purpose of the Torah, and hence the foundation of morality, is a matter of inward purity, motive, and intent rather than of external compliance to ritual and custom

And that is EXACTLY what Jesus confronts in this passage. And He is not polite about it. He does not mince words. He calls it EXACTLY what it is. Blatant hypocrisy. Empty religion. Fakery.

(Read Mark 7:1-5)

The Pharisees start in on Jesus about traditions. This is the “way” things are to be done. You guys are not following the ritual. The way things have always been done is being violated. And they are offended.

The Gospel according to Saint Mark 7 A Dispute about Purity (7:1–23)

The tradition of the elders was the oral law, handed on from rabbi to pupil; the tradition was meant to protect the Torah, but grew so complex that in time it tended to conceal the Law’s real intent

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

One way to convey the power of the Jewish distinction between clean and unclean, perhaps, is to draw a parallel with authoritarian societies and organizations, where people avoid all contact with a person who is under suspicion or who has been fired, for example, so as not to endanger their own position

I swear to you, there are some Christians in America in 2021 that are the most offended people ever. They are always finding a reason to be offended by someone else. It is amazing to me that we are so little offended by our own sin and so much offended by the sins of others.

Can I give you some critical counsel, if you spend all your time being offended by and complaining about lost people, you will NEVER find the time to share the Gospel with someone. We do not have the luxury of being offended. We DO have a calling to take the Gospel to people. So maybe, if you fell offense rising in you, begin to pray for that person.

(Read vs6-13)

Jesus does not hold back. He goes full bore into them. Revealing their accusations for what they are- hollow attempts to justify their own unrighteous actions by directing attention somewhere else.

v6-8

hypocrites

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

The sarcasm of v. 6 (and v. 9) in the NIV is also present in the original Greek: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.” When Jesus refers to the Pharisees as “hypocrites,” he takes a term from the theater meaning to play a part on stage. Especially in Greek theater, actors wore various masks according to the roles they impersonated. The word “hypocrite,” accordingly, comes to mean someone who acts a role without sincerity, hence a pretender

2. False honor- their mouth says one thing, but their actions make a liar out of their words

3. vain worship- false worship- connects with the honor with lips- empty ritual replaces relationship

4. tradition over obedience- adherence to “cultural” norms is elevated over obedience to what God says He wants- we make idols

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

The result of the pretense is that “ ‘their teachings are but rules taught by men,’ ” thus idolatry, that is, the replacement of the divine by the merely human

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

The Pharisees do not simply “set aside” God’s commandments, that is, favor something in their place; they “reject” (Gk. athetein) them by making a conscious choice against them.

(Read v9-13)- an example- modern example- “love your enemies”

Jesus uses an example from His time.

Mark Clean and Unclean (6:53–7:23)

To declare something corban, however, did not mean that it was actually given away. It simply meant that no other claim could be made against it (France 2002:286). So, a wealthy man who was angry at his parents could declare part or all of his accumulations corban and escape the legal requirement that he care for them

Here is one from ours. We are told, unequivocally by Jesus, to love our enemies. So often the church fails to do that. We know how to name our enemies. Misrepresent our enemies. Demean our enemies. Fear our enemies. Hate our enemies. But love them? And unconditionally as Jesus said to, that’s crazy talk. Yet that is one of the key teachings of Jesus.

And just like the Pharisees we have all the excuses- and reasons- and examples- of why that is outdated and inapplicable. Yet there it stands as a command. That we ignore or nuance or justify. And look at the result in v13- “thus rendering void the word of God...” Guess what the word void means- “to cancel”- I would submit to you that cancel culture in the church is far worse than it is in the culture we decry- because we, by our actions or inactions- are cancelling the very Word of God sent to us for our salvation. Maybe we need to work on cancel culture at home, before worrying about it in the world.

(Read v14-19)

So Jesus returns to what started this whole mess. Eating with hands that had not been ceremonially washed. In other words, ingesting sin.

Jesus blows this whole idea up. It is not what comes into a person that makes them sin. Paul addresses this as well in Colossians 2:20-23. This whole idea of asceticism. We use it as a false sense of holiness. I don’t do that. I don’t watch that. I don’t play those games. I don’t dance. I don’t smoke, drink, or chew or go with girls who do…LOL

We have some freedom, and the extent of that freedom is defined not by what we imbibe or abstain from but by how we handle it.

(Read v20-23)

The issue is not what we are taking in, it is what we are doing with it in our hearts. When we take something that God has created for good snd abuse it or use it in a way contrary to His purposes, it becomes sin- and the sin is not the fault of the object, it is our fault- we have corrupted God’s good gift!

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

Uncleanness and defilement are matters of intention and the heart, not the violation of cultic rituals and formalities.

Why do we do that? Because our nature is fallen- sin corrupts- and it’s only goal is to corrupt our souls to the utmost, to kill us.

That is why we need Jesus so badly- not just one time, but all the time. He saves us constantly, by making us more like Him and less like the old us. By renewing our hearts and giving us a passion for holiness to replace our passion for sinfulness. What Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 is as true today as it was when he first wrote it. We are being, and have been, and will be reconciled to God thru Jesus.

Without that reconciliation, we can take in whatever we want to and it will always be corrupted, because our hearts are corrupt. We will take even the best things and make them into ways to sin. We need redemption, completely, utterly, personally, to be made right with God.

The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)

It is precisely the heart that the tradition of the elders fails to address, and because of this it fails to represent either the commandment or the will of God.