Introduction: Jesus has crossed the sea again, this time walking, having just fed the 5,000. Jesus is 1 year away from the cross. Even as you hear of his fame, we are also nearing his biggest rejections, starting with the Pharisees who desire to kill him. Soon the crowds themselves will polarize: many attracted by his feeding them will soon reject his most difficult teachings, the call to repentance and to find their life in Christ Alone. And there are some who will ultimately have true faith in Jesus as the Messiah, God incarnate from heaven, coming to die in the place of sinners....those who will hear Jesus’ message that must cut to the heart, because the heart is the root of the problem. Not the traditions of man, but the law of God violated from within, arising to violations by action. Read: Mark 6:53-7:23 [6:53] When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. [54] And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him [55] and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. [56] And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. (ESV) [7:1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3] (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] 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.) [5] 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?” [6] 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; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” [9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! [10] For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ [11] 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)—[12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” [14] And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] 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.” [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. [18] And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (ESV) Faith looks to Christ for salvation alone, obeying the word of God alone to know how to live. Doctrine, creeds, and confessions, that is, traditions, are only as valid as they are founded in the written word of God. To deny the commands of Scripture is to love yourself and to hate God and your neighbor...which ultimately is to hate your own body and soul. #1 Faith Clings to Jesus #2 Man’s Traditions vs. God’s Commandments #3 EXTERNALISM IS HATRED OF GOD AND NEIGHBOR #4 The HEART is the HEART of the MATTER. #1 Faith clings to Jesus In verses 53- 55 Here simply note the faith of the people to believe that Jesus cares, that he is powerful, that he will help them. They see Jesus, and they recognize him. At once again they go and tell others. Their understanding is partial, But All who touched his robe were instantly and entirely made well. The good, the healing miracles, the feeding of the 5,000 are never questioned as authentic. How great a contrast these good and glad tidings are to the Hearts of the Pharisees. WHEN THE PHARISEES GATHERED TO HIM...What do they SEE? ...they do not recognize a Messiah; they SEE his disciples are violating their extra-biblical ceremonial washings. #2 Man’s Traditions and God’s Commandments (vv. 1-8) [1] Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. [3] (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, [4] 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.) The bible does prescribe certain ceremonial cleansing rituals, washings, purification rites in the case of touching dead bodies (and other matters stated in Leviticus and Deuteronomy). But this hand washing is extra-biblical casuistry; that is from the general principles of clean and unclean laws, making illegitimately binding specific details that go beyond the actual law. The detailed hedge around the law of manmade traditions passed down by the scribes, the lawyers, and the weight is placed on the people to do these washings or else be unclean. A couple things to note... The Babylonian Talmud describes this ceremony: “Hands become unclean and are made clean as far as the wrist, How so? If he poured the water over the hands as far as the wrist and poured the second water over the hands beyond the wrist and the latter flowed back to the hands, the hands nevertheless become clean.” As a very brief aside, the word for washings here is baptisms, but the action described is clearly Pouring, or Effusion. It matches the sprinkling of blood and pouring of oil in other ceremonial ceremonies actually demanded by scripture. So Mark 7 is a place to help us on the word and language level to understand the meaning of baptism is not literally to immerse as is often claimed but to wash, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and the washing of dining couches fit. In this case the pouring of water over the hands. But that is Mark’s little explanatory washings 101 lesson so we could understand the point...Nowhere in the bible is this particular washing, this particular purification ritual ever commanded by God:And that reveals the core of the disagreement in verse 5: is it sin to not follow a ritual custom of the elders, a tradition, that everyone is doing IF the bible does not command it? Is it further hypocrisy to dwell on the minutiae of external purification without ever addressing the purification of the heart? [5] 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?” [6] And [Jesus] 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; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” #2A – What is a tradition of Man, what did they hope from the manmade tradition? 1. Commands Not based on the word of God 2. Hoped for Cleansing via external ritualism. UNCOMMANDED external ritualism. What Galatians calls the elementary principles, do not touch, taste or handle. These things both Do Not guide us into how to live rightly and have No Power to defeat the sin in our hearts. 3. The Westminster confession of faith in chapter 16 “of Good works” is written specifically to battle External Legalism and also a Hedonistic lack of following the Moral law found in the 10 commandments. a. It says, 16.1. Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention. ...Also God alone is Lord of the conscience. 4. The pharisees have a blind zeal for human tradition. i. And we’ll see in a second Jesus shows it’s a “pretense of good” intention but actually lacks love towards neighbors. #2B – So What is the commandment of God 1. Actual love for neighbor flows from the Law of God defining what is Good and what is sin. Not human tradition. 2. 16.2. These good works, done in obedience to God’s commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith: and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life. 3. Only The Word of God determines Doctrine. God-ordained commandments, so right doctrine is demonstrable from Scripture, not tradition. a. So when the pharisees say “how dare the disciple not do this tradition, this good work, and do the sin of eating with
