Did You Wash Your Hands?

Jesus takes on tradition

Good Morning everyone. Today we continue in our journey through the Gospel of Mark. Last week we finished chapter 6 so we are going to dive forward this week into chapter 7. There is a little bit of scripture here but really chapter 7 breaks down two ways. One part deals with Jesus taking the Pharisees and religious scholars to task over their emphasis on man made traditions being as important or sometimes more important than God’s Word.

So that’s where we will start today with Jesus taking these guys on. Before I get started though I just have to say that we will read these scriptures with a kind of YEAH go get ‘em Jesus attitude. While that is all well and good we shouldn’t stop at that point. We also need to think about if we hold to any of these same type attitudes.

I mean think about it. Up until about 30 years ago a preacher couldn’t wear jeans on Sunday. I remember the first church I was a youth pastor at I had to wear a shirt and tie to preach on Sunday morning. Now it’s one thing if it’s just a dress code that the pastor wants to maintain but the reasoning I was given is that there was a certain group in the church that would either leave or want me fired if I didn’t align on dress code. Wild huh?

That’s just one example of the traditions or notions that we carry that if we put some type of rules in place that it will somehow make us better or holier or closer to God. The truth is none of that will work. As a matter of fact all of it is our way to try to bridge the gap to God on our own and that is simply an impossible task. Let’s dive into the scriptures and see what they say.

We are going to start in Mark chapter 7 and we will go from verse 1 to verse 8.

Jesus Teaches about Inner Purity

One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. 4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

‘These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

7 Their worship is a farce,

for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’

8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”

Now this whole section verses 1-23 cover purity. Matter of fact the heading on this section is Jesus Teaches about Inner Purity. This is something that we as a culture and as a church could use some clarification on.

Now the first thing to notice here is that the Pharisees and scribes were watching Jesus not because they wanted to learn something from Him but simply so they could trap Him saying or doing something that they thought was wrong. And here’s something that’s funny is we have the same spirit running around today. Trying to catch people up in a slip up when they are speaking or not doing the exact thing according to how we have always done it.

There’s a phrase that just kills me. We’ve always done it this way. I want you to know this morning that as long as the message doesn’t change it’s ok if the methods do. We don’t reach people the same way we used to. Jesus did the same thing. He changed the way people heard about and experienced God. We as the church need to make sure we don’t fall into those traps and get ourselves caught up in traditions.

I mean if you notice several times Mark references traditions or rituals. And then in verse 5 they ask Jesus why His disciples don’t follow their age-old tradition. Had they only known the author of all those laws was standing in front of them.

Mark goes to great pains here to explain the exact tradition.

You see there’s a difference here. This isn’t like when your momma tells you to wash your hands before you eat. You do that because you might have germs or dirt on your hands so you clean those off. What this tradition was for was in case they might have come into contact with someone who was a gentile or considered unclean. It was a ceremonial tradition. In verse 4 Mark talks about this. In case they came into contact with anyone who was unclean they would wash their hands, food, cups, pitchers, and kettles. Just so they could as they thought remain pure all the while looking down on those around them and casting judgement everywhere they went.

When they ask Jesus about this He gives them the what for. Called them hypocrites and quotes Isaiah as a prophecy about them. You see when we expect people to follow rules just for rules sake and turn a blind eye to suffering, injustice, poverty, and don’t love them as we love ourselves we are being hypocrites. Man made traditions should never be placed above the Word of God nor should they even be side by side it.

My first point today is this...

Our traditions however meaningful to us should never get in the way or be a stumbling block to those that Jesus has called us to minister to. That includes believers and non-believers because we have a calling by Jesus to minister to both and to love both.

In the next section Jesus is still scolding the Pharisees letting them know exactly why they are wrong. We pick up in verse 9 and go through verse 15

9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition. 10 For instance, Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ 12 In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. 13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

14 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

So Jesus starts getting in their business here. And He cites a specific practice of these guys that they use to skirt around some things in scripture. When He says in verse 11 that people just say sorry I have vowed to give God what I would have given you isn’t just something the kids are saying these days kind of a thing. So in that day if you vowed some property to God it could never go to help your parents if circumstances changed. I’ll try to give you an example here.

Lets say that my grandfather was still alive and in great health. And at that time I vowed my property to the Lord. Then a few years later his health shifts and lets say he needs a surgery or he will die. And that surgery costs a large sum. I can sell a piece of my property to pay for it and I could go to the religious leaders and ask but because I vowed it to the Lord they won’t approve the exception and I can’t sell. Now here’s the kicker in those times this is what happened except the person who vowed their property can still make money off the property and increase their wealth farming it renting it out whatever. So they can reap financial rewards all day long and use it as a way to keep from having to use their money to take care of their aging parents and grandparents.

This is the practice that Jesus is referring to. And his audience knew it as well. He used this practice to prove that they honor their traditions more than honoring the word of God. Their agenda here was to keep accumulating wealth and also look good for the religious folks by vowing their property to God. It was all lip service and a front. It was all to hold station and status in the community.

Then Jesus calls to the whole crowd and let’s them know that it’s not what enters the body that defiles us its what comes from the heart.

And here’s my second point....

We cannot twist scripture or make our own context with scripture so that it fits our agenda and traditions. Our agendas and traditions along with our lives must be crucified with Christ and molded to God’s Word.

You just can’t take a piece here and a piece there and make it fit what you want your circumstances to be. God’s word is eternal powerful and never changing. We live in a culture today sadly that is twisting and turning scripture to fit their own personal version of Jesus.

And let me just say this and this is going to sound harsh and while I may be sorry for the way it sounds I’m not sorry for saying it. If your personal Jesus doesn’t line up with the Jesus that is revealed in Scripture all Scripture then you just have an idol that you call Jesus. Or worse than that it is a false Christ or Anti Christ. Jesus hasn’t changed in the last 2000 years. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The last section of scripture is verses 17-23 where Jesus teaches the disciples and us His exact meaning of what He said to the Pharisees.

17 Then Jesus went into a house to get away from the crowd, and his disciples asked him what he meant by the parable he had just used. 18 “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? 19 Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.)

20 And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. 21 For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

So the first thing here is right away the disciples had to ask for clarification from Jesus because they didn’t quite understand it. So when you read and reread a verse and then you pray and ask God to help you understand it that’s ok. The disciples had to ask God to explain things as well.

What Jesus explains to them is that our problem is not an issue from the outside in. It’s a heart issue and it comes from the inside out. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks right....and the mind thinks and the body acts. Jesus is saying that we have an internal issue in our hearts that not only will affect us now in our present life but will affect our eternal life.

I mean if Jesus wanted to keep listing things He could have gone on all day. That’s an abbreviated list but it covers a lot. So looking at what Jesus is teaching and that list and the fact that what defiles us comes from our own hearts you might say well I might as well give up there’s no hope. That brings me to my last point.

Out of our hearts come vile things that defile us. This is the curse of sin that is carried by all of us. There is only one way to be pure. Not by washing of hands but by the washing of our sins by the blood of Jesus on the cross.

You see there is hope. We all carry the curse of sin the curse that brings death....But Jesus oh man how many times in my life can I say But Jesus....But Jesus provides a way to Life. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life…no man comes to the Father except through me. The only way to be made pure to be made righteous is through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. It’s by His blood that our sins are forgiven…It’s by His stripes we are healed. Do you need hope today…Do you need a heart change today…Do you need to find life....Jesus is where all of that starts.