What We Truly Need To Be Truly Clean

Introduction

Around the end of the second century, so roughly 200 years after the ascension of Christ the Mishnah was completed. Now, the Mishnah is a Jewish word which means “repetition.” It was a compilation of Jewish oral law and tradition. It was composed by Rabbis from all walks of life and its intention was to be a supplement to the Torah, which is the first five books of our Old Testament, or the books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).

The Mishnah is a large collection of sayings, and traditions, arguments, counter-arguments that seek to touch on all aspects of daily living.

After the Mishnah was completed rabbis discussed its teaching, wrote down their thoughts and commentary. More teachings, more laws, more traditions were added until about the 5th or 6th century when all of it was gathered together to what the Jewish people call the Talmud.

Today, this is what the Jewish people study at length to know how they are supposed to live that would make them pure or clean before God. It’s an enormous amount of writing and law and tradition. To study or read one page a day of the Talmud would take you over seven and a half years to get through.

Now, within these Jewish writings and traditions they say that their intended purpose is to “put a fence around the Law.” Meaning this, that the Jewish people, the religious leaders saw tradition, see tradition today as a way to protect God’s Word and assist people in living it out so that they would be clean and pure before God.

Now, when I say the Talmud seeks to touch on every aspect of daily life to assist people in living out the law, I’m not kidding. For example:

We know from God’s Word that the Sabbath is to be a day of rest. If you’ve been with us through our series in Mark you know the Pharisees held that command to an unbelievably high standard. They accused Jesus repeatedly for violating the Sabbath (Mk. 2:23-24, 3:1-2).

And so, in order to assist the Jewish people in obeying this law, a fence was put around it.

And so, in the Talmud today you would read that looking in the mirror on the Sabbath is forbidden. Why? Because if you saw a gray hair you might be tempted to pluck it out and therefore, perform work on the Sabbath.

You can’t wear false teeth on the Sabbath. Why? Because if they fell out you’d have to pick them up and would perform work.

Rabbis once debated at length about a man with a wooden leg. If his home caught fire could he carry his wooden leg out of the house? Is that work and thus a violation of the law?

Spitting is permitted on the Sabbath, but with certain regulations and parameters. For instance, you need to be careful where you spit because if your spit landed in the dirt and you scuffed it with your sandal, you’d actually be cultivating the soil and performing work.

I lived in New York City for a season many years ago, before I was married. I had a friend that I got to know who lived in a Jewish neighborhood. I would go to visit him often on Saturday, which is the Sabbath day in Jewish teaching. I’d get on the elevator to go up to his apartment and then all of a sudden be swarmed with several Jewish people cramming onto the elevator with me asking me to push the button for them for their floor because pushing that button was considered work.

Today, if you were to go to New York City and walk around Brooklyn, where my friend lived but also encircling the island of Manhattan you’d see a wire that surrounds it. Jewish law forbids that people leave their homes on the Sabbath but this wire, called the “Eruv” allows people to go about their daily activities on the Sabbath because that wire symbolically connects all homes in New York. And so it allows them to do what they want without feeling like they are breaking Jewish tradition.

Problem

Now, I mention these things not to mock or belittle the Jewish people but honestly, hearing these things shouldn’t cause us to giggle, it should cause us to mourn and grieve for them. They’ve enslaved and burdened themselves to law and tradition thinking it will make them clean before God.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees placed these weights and burdens on the backs of people telling them that to be accepted and clean before God, pure before God you must do this and not do that. And the traditions and rules just kept coming and coming. More than anyone can carry.

I mean hearing these traditions, these rules that the Jewish people subject themselves today thinking that rigid obedience to them will cause God’s face to shine upon them if they’re just obedient enough, if they just put one more fence around the law to help them obey perfectly, can’t we hear the hope and relief Jesus gives when he says in Matthew 11.

Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Human beings, by default, by our very nature look inward for acceptance, for hope, for salvation, to be made right.

We want to solve our own problems. We don’t want to look outward, we don’t want help from anyone else.

We recognize there’s a problem within us. We recognize there’s brokenness and so we’ll create rules or traditions in our own lives to help us obey or be a better person but then look for ways to get around them.

I mean, that’s what the “Eruv” wire in New York is all about. “Okay, the law says I can’t leave my home on the Sabbath (not Scripture, just tradition) so what can we do to “obey” the law but still do what I want to do without any disruption in my life? Let’s put a wire all around the city so that I can point to it and say that wire is connected to my home so I’m not violating the law.”

It’s madness, it’s foolishness, and it’s revealing a serious issue within all of us that Jesus addresses in this text.

Main Aim

God’s Word, not human tradition, not man-made rules is what brings freedom and life for it’s God’s Word that reveals Jesus to us. And we need Jesus because our hearts are broken, depraved, enslaved to sin.

And no amount of rules, traditions, or parameters will ever make our heart right. In fact, the more rules we create, the more boundaries we set up, the more fences around fences around fences we put up only reveal that our hearts need redeemed.

We don’t need more rules, we don’t need more boundaries, we don’t need more fences in our lives to make us clean. We need a new heart that only God can give.

Big Idea

And so, here’s what we see today in this text.

Acceptance from God is not achieved through the creation of more rules but from a new heart.

Body

Now all of us, apart from the work of God in our lives and hearts have Pharisaical tendencies. When we forget the cross, when we fail to rest in the sufficiency of Christ and his perfect life we revert back to works-based righteousness. The term you’re probably more familiar with is legalism. A legalist believes that strict adherence and obedience to the law makes them right with God. Obedience brings acceptance. Obedience brings purity. Obedience makes us clean. Obedience gives us value and worth. It gives us superiority over others who don’t live like we do. We become clean through our own self-perceived goodness.

And so, as Jesus addresses the Pharisees here in Mark 7, I want to draw it out so we see our own legalistic tendencies and the damage it does to our lives and relationships and fellowship with God and why what we truly need to be truly clean is a new heart that only God can give us through the work of Christ. We don’t need reform, we don’t need to just do better. We need new life, we need to become a new creation.

And so look again at the text here. Specifically for this first point, verses 1-7

Mark 7:1-7, “Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

What does Jesus confront the Pharisees over here and what must we guard ourselves against lest we drift into legalism? How do we know when we begin to drift into legalism? What’s the characteristic of a legalist?

Number one.

Legalists justify themselves by comparing themselves to others.

Mark is addressing in this narrative the issue of ritualistic cleansing. It was a practice, it was actually a mandate from God given to the priests back in Exodus chapter 30 and chapter 40. Before the priest could enter the tabernacle to offer a sacrifice for the people before God he had to wash his hands and his feet.

The ritual symbolized the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. We can’t come before God without first being cleansed.

Now again, this command was given to the priests, not the ordinary Jewish person but over the years it was adopted into ordinary Jewish custom through Pharisaical teaching and tradition. That’s why you see in verse 3 it says the Pharisees and all the Jews do this, “holding to the tradition of the elders.” They can’t point to God’s Word to validate this practice, just their man-made traditions.

And you can see from there in verse 4 more and more rules added to their daily lives. If they came back from the marketplace, they must ritually wash themselves because they might have come into contact with Gentiles or Samaritans or anything else that was seen as unclean.

They had to wash their cups and pots in certain ways to stay ceremonially clean; to be accepted and to validate their own sense of superiority over others who failed to uphold to their way of life.

You see it’s in verse 5 that you see their pride and arrogance and sense of superiority over others peak through. “Why don’t you do the things we do?” “You’re defiled for failing to live as we live.” “You’re not as good as us.”

Legalists justify themselves by looking at others who aren’t as morally pure as they are.

Aren’t we guilty of that as well? I mean, when confronted with our own sin, our own depravity and deceitfulness of heart aren’t we tempted to look at other people and say, “Yeah, I’ve got some minor issues but at least I’m not like them.”

Jesus tells a parable in Luke 18 of two men who went to the temple to pray. A Pharisee and a tax collector. Jesus says that when the Pharisee entered the temple he prayed like this,

Luke 18:11-12, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”

But when the tax collector went to pray he just said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

You see, the Pharisee, the legalist looks at those around them and says, “I’m not as bad as them so I’m good.”

Whereas what Christ calls us to is to look to him, We’re judged according to his standard, his holiness, his purity which immediately causes us to recognize that we’re depraved, sinful, rebellious traitors who have no ability within ourselves to be made right. That there is no good within us. We need to be changed from within. We need a new heart.

The ritualistic cleansing established by God in Exodus had a good intent. It was there to remind the Jewish people of their uncleanness before God and their need for grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Their need to look outside of themselves for salvation because there’s no good within any of us.

But instead of looking to a Messiah, instead of looking to a Savior to be made right they instead looked within and justified themselves by comparing themselves to others; to look at external acts of goodness in themselves and the lack of moral goodness in others.

Why did they do that? Why do we so often do that? Because it’s easier.

As one author once said, “It’s harder to compare hearts, which only God can see. So instead, they decided to draw up a list of external religious activities and see who came out on top. That is much easier.”

So, Jesus called them out because he does see the heart. They were nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. They were people who knew the right things to say while their hearts wanted nothing to do with God. And in reality they wanted nothing to do with God’s Word because God’s Word is going to convict them. So, instead they’ll stick to their man-made rules and traditions. That’s easier to control and manipulate.

And that’s really the second characteristic of a legalist we see in our text today.

Legalist ignore God’s Word in order to establish their own sense of authority.

Look at verse 8.

Mark 7:8-13, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Notice three actions the Pharisees do with God’s Word that they claim to adhere to.

They neglect God’s Word in verse 8 and instead hold to man-made tradition.

They reject God’s Word in verse 9 and instead establish their own traditions.

They annul God’s Word in verse 13 and instead pass down their own belief system.

A legalist rationalizes in their mind that they are protecting God’s Word when in reality they’re casting it aside and replacing it with their man-made rules which give them a better sense of authority and value over others.

I’ll take that even a bit further. I believe we like to create our own rules and traditions because we can manipulate them or use them for our own selfish and sinful benefits.

Let me give you a few examples. Jesus gives the first one in verses 10-12.

He looks at the Pharisees and says, “You know God’s Word. It says to honor your father and mother.” “But you guys have created this man-made rule or tradition called ‘Corban’ as a way out of it.”

Corban was a Hebrew word adopted into Greek that just meant gift or offering consecrated to God. Basically, if they declared their property as “Corban” it set it aside to be used how they wanted.

Bill Lane in his commentary describes it like this:

[Corban] placed a ban on something, reserving it for sacred use and withdrawing it from profane use by another person. The vow creates a prohibition with regard to an object and fixes upon it the character of an offering dedicated to God. This did not necessarily mean that the object declared corban had actually to be offered to God; it signified rather that it was withdrawn from its intended use and was no longer available for a particular individual “as if it were an offering.”

So, it gave them an out. They placed their tradition higher than God’s Word.

What about us though?

Well, you may have personal philosophies of life that are in conflict with God’s Word.

You may carry the philosophy that “I will not let anyone disrespect me, mistreat me or belittle me. If they do, I’m done with them.”

That flies in the face of Scripture. You will be mistreated, you will be disrespected, you will be belittled in life as a Christ follower. People will hurt you and let you down. That’s life in a fallen world with fallen people. What’s Jesus say anyway? “Love your enemies. Do good to them. Speak well of them. Forgive them.”

“Well, I don’t like that.” God’s response to that is, “I don’t care what you like. This is for your good, your joy, and my glory.”

Submission to God’s Word is what brings stability, it’s what bring life, it’s what gives you a foundation in a fallen world.

Matthew 7:24-27, ““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

What’s Jesus say brings stability and a foundation to your life? Hearing God’s Word and doing what it calls us to.

Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”

But how often do we say, “Well, I know God’s Word says that but you just don’t understand. I can’t do that.I won’t do that.”

Okay, you’re neglecting, rejecting, and annulling God’s Word and replacing it with your tradition and belief system as superior. And what warning does Scripture give us when we do this?

Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Let me give you one more just to make us all uncomfortable.

Statistically in the Western church Christians give about 2.5% of their money to fund missional causes. So, giving to the local church, global missions, church planting, etc. During the Great Depression Christians were giving around 3.5% which means we’re giving less today than believers were during the Depression.

Statistically Americans spend more money on Halloween costumes for their pets every year than what goes toward global missions.

Now, we’ve got a puppy and I’ve already heard in our home about what she can be dressed up for this year and dad is the killer of all joy in our home but over my dead body will we spend one penny on a costume for that dog!

But listen, what’s going on here? Most of us know Scripture calls us to radical generosity. Not poverty, not recklessness, but wise and radical stewardship of what God has given us to use for his glory, his kingdom.

But knowing God’s Word says this doesn’t change the fact that in so many lives we still ignore it and create excuses for why we don’t submit to it. Well, then we’re neglecting God’s Word. We’re annulling it, making it void and saying with our actions that it just doesn’t carry weight or authority in this domain of my life. And that’s what Jesus was confronting the Pharisees over.

All of these issues that Jesus is confronting the Pharisees over should be revealing to them and to us today that there is a deeper problem at play that needs changed in us. And that leads us to the final point today.

Legalist fail to recognize the true nature of the human heart.

Mark 7:14-15, “And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Jump down to verse 21.

Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

What Jesus said here was revolutionary teaching.

Vincent Taylor in his book, The Gospel According to Mark says,

“In laying down the principle that uncleanness comes from within, and not from without, [Jesus’ pronouncement] stated a truth, uncommon in contemporary Judaism, which was destined to free Christianity from the bondage of legalism.”

And we know this teaching was revolutionary because in verses 17-19, Jesus’ disciples just don’t get it and ask him to explain it more.

Legalists do not recognize the underlying disease of the human condition; that our hearts are dead in sin.

Ephesians 2:1, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.”

Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

We’re depraved, wicked, rebellious sinners who have no good within us. Human beings by their very nature our sinful. We are not foundationally good, but just need some reform. We are, at our core, unable to do good. Unable to seek after God. Unable to change ourselves or heal ourselves or save ourselves from what is so clearly broken in us.

Romans 3:10-12, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

A legalist thinks that with the right tools, the right rules, the right conditions I can do this, that I can reform, that I can change. I can muster up enough good in my life to be clean, pure, and acceptable before God.

And Jesus here is saying, “No you can’t!” “There is no good within you. You don’t need reform, you need a new heart, a new life. You need to become a new creation that only God can do.” There needs to be regeneration.

Jesus said in John 3,

John 3:3, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

God promises to give this new heart, this new life in Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36:26, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

A legalist thinks by treating the symptoms that the disease will go away.

That’d be like a doctor trying to treat lung cancer with a cough drop.

No, the underlying disease needs to be treated in order for you to be healed, not the symptoms.

We must understand from Jesus’ own teaching that there are no external actions that we can perform or abstain from that grant us acceptance or access to God.

You are not loved or accepted by God because you listen to the right music or give to the right charity or stay active in the life of the church or serve in the right ministry. God doesn’t love you more because you abstain from certain practices or participate in others.

Now, this isn’t an excuse for laziness or spiritual apathy. It’s not a justification for abuse of the freedom we have in Christ. But we don’t look to these things to give us credit before God. And we don’t look to the things we abstain from as the justification for our acceptance and righteousness.

Jesus says, “There is nothing outside a person that defiles them.” Why? “Because you’re defiled already. Your heart is what is the problem. That’s what needs to be changed, and you can’t change it.”

We are not born into this world neutral and depending on how you respond to the world around you then determines your guilt or innocence. If that were the case as soon as a child is born, lock them in a room with no interaction with other human beings or the world so that they wouldn’t be tempted to sin.

But no, Scripture says, you’re guilty from birth. David says in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51:5, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. (CSB)

Application

There’s really only two approaches to religion: “Do or done.” Our world would say the problem is “out there” and the solution to the problem is, “What can I do?”

But Jesus calls us to understand that the problem is not “out there” it’s “in here.” Our only hope is not, “What can I do, but what has Jesus done?”

We are redeemed only through the shed blood of Christ on the cross. We only have eternal life because Jesus lives. We are justified and declared righteous by God not because we are, but because Christ is and his righteousness covers us through faith in Him. We can only then do what is good and right, that brings glory to the name of God through the work of the Spirit in our hearts that are now new, given to us through the powerful working of God’s grace.

Because of our sinful nature, all of us still will have legalistic tendencies. We’ll be tempted to try and earn God’s favor or perform in such a way that would merit us credit and acceptance before God.

So, we need to be aware of this and then kill these sinful tendencies with the hope of the gospel.

We kill these sinful tendencies by living in community with one another where we speak these truths into one another’s lives.

We kill these sinful tendencies by observing the Lord’s supper often. It reminds us of who we truly are and what we truly need that only Jesus can give us through his life, death, and resurrection.

Conclusion

Let me close with this quote from Kent Hughes. I just love it.

The gospel is radical: a new birth, a new heart, a new creation, a resurrection! Apart from Christ, the world is desperately lost. It can only be redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus. There is no other way. We can polish the outside. We can educate ourselves. We can do “good” things. But none of these things will really change us. We need Christ’s life. - Kent Hughes

Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (p. 251). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 166). Crossway Books.

Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, pp. 169–170). Crossway Books.