Mark 7:8-9
"You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!"
I think it was the great theologian Ozzie Osborn of Black Sabbath fame who said,
"You work your life away and what do they give?"
"You're only killing yourself to live."
I know I'm just being facetious, but the point I'll try and make today is that in all our human traditions and rituals that are meant to be our salvation from sin, we are really just killing ourselves (sin death that is) because we're trying to mitigate things through our own ritualistic works. And Jesus taught us that we have no business assuming that he would approve of it.
These hypocritical people had figured out ways to get around God's commands in order to benefit their priesthood. They created ceremonies to observe their own traditions regarding cleanliness which represented holiness or godliness before men.
Take for instance shopping. You want to go and buy some things from the market to prepare your dinner. You're careful to only buy what's considered clean food. And you pay for it with your coin. And you are given change in return during the exchange. And now you have a dilemma. You see the coins that you were given in exchange may have at one time been in the hands of a gentile. According to the ceremonial washing rules you need to wash the possible uncleanness away. You don't know if it's unclean, and you can't be certain. Ceremonially speaking you are unclean until you make certain that it is indeed ceremonially clean. Not just clean, but ceremonially clean.
There's a difference!
Numbers 19:9
"Then someone who is ceremonially clean will gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them in a purified place outside the camp. They will be kept there for the community of Israel to use in the water for the purification ceremony. This ceremony is performed for the removal of sin."
You can't just come home and wash your hands and your food and coins. You've got to ceremonially clean them. It's a spiritual thing you see. The ritual is cleansing any sin that might be clinging there. And you had to get someone to help you out with this, because you needed ritual oils rubbed in and specific oils for specific things. And there's no way you'd get it done right alone.
What you would do is like a surgeon you would hold your hands out with your fingers extended upward and take your fist and rub it in as the water is being poured over your hands by someone else and running off not touching any part of your hands again because as soon as the water touches your hands, the water itself is defiled. The water needs to drip off the wrists away from you. Then comes the second washing in which you hold your hands downward so that the water would drip down off of you again getting whatever you missed the first time around. And this sort of thing would be repeated throughout the meal. Then you've got to cleanse everything in the kitchen. The pots and the pans because you don't know some unclean thing like a fly, or something may have come along and landed on one of those things. Plates would be destroyed because they have a rim, and sin couldn't naturally flow off from it.
These are just some of the many other traditions and dogmas that are laid out in what's known as the Mishnah. These kinds of ceremonial traditions exist in all religious cultures. In fact, if you were to really dig deep into the source of these traditions, you'd probably find out that they all come from some pagan background. But it's tradition. And there's a lot of history involved in the religious traditions. History that twists the worship and respect for the commands of God.
Jesus had a lot to say about that.
Mark 7:6-7
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:"
‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
These doctrines and doctrines like them are found even today throughout the Roman Catholic traditions and even among Protestant religions.
For instance, infant baptism.
You will not find even one sorta kinda word from God on that doctrine anywhere in scripture. This is only found in traditional texts. It's the traditions of men. And both Roman Catholic and Protestant practice it, and these "teachings are merely human rules."
Jesus said they "nullify the word of God by your tradition" (v.13).
Now to me, anything that Jesus says nullifies the Word of God, is something that I absolutely want to reject.
But then Jesus gets down and dirty with the truth. Then he says one of the most radical things he's ever said until now. Something that tore at the heart of everything these ritualistic people believed. Something that was going to either blow their minds and release a life changing revelation into them, or something that was going to harden their hearts and minds against him forever. And he didn't just say it to the religious authorities, he made sure everyone heard the teaching.
Mark 7:14-15
Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them."
Nothing!
He said nothing.
Not one thing can defile you from outside yourself. But rather it's the things inside of your heart, things like avarice, envy, pride, greed, anger, jealousy and every other sort of sinful thing. Things that you can't ceremonially wash away. These are the sorts of things that you have to turn and walk away from in repentance.
Under the Mosaic law there are certain meats that were forbidden. Pork for instance. During the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, he is remembered as a major villain and persecutor of the Jewish traditions. He made it a law that they must eat pork, or they'd be put to death. Thousands, during the time of the Maccabees, died because of that edict. They chose death over freedom by not eating pork.
And now Jesus steps all over their traditional dietary guidelines and their history. And it seems odd, but apparently, he has to instruct them as to the physicality of this new teaching.
Mark 7:18-19
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
The meat isn't spiritually unclean. It cannot spiritually defile you.
What other things do we ritually consume and believe to be spiritually unclean?
There are too many human religious beliefs to list that qualifies as a traditional belief that is done in order to justify something before men.
But what about those things that truly make us unclean? Where are the ceremonies cleansing us from those sins?
The thoughts of adulterous and fornicating men and women.
The thoughts of envying your neighbors wife or husband.
The thoughts of hatred against your enemies.
The thoughts of greediness.
The thoughts of disrespect for your parents and elders.
The thoughts of compromising some social restraint in order to achieve something for yourself that doesn't belong to you. In another word, theft.
The thoughts of lust, fornication, greed, gluttony and more.
What about those unclean thoughts?
Where's the ceremonial tradition for them?
Jesus doesn't leave it for conjecture.
Mark 7:20-23
He went on: "What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person."
That's where the true spiritual uncleanliness begins, in the heart. Not in what you're taking part in on the surface, but uncleanliness comes from your heart. Eating meat like pork isn't spiritually unclean. It may be unhealthy but it's not defiling your spirit.
What that means is, spiritual ceremonies aren't going to cleanse away your sins. Baptism doesn't wash your sins off of you either, it's simply a recognition of your faith in the forgiveness of sin that is given as a matter of Grace from Jesus Christ. When you are blessed in baptism in the name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are recognizing the gift of grace that was extended to you from God. You are accepting it, receiving that gift and your ceremony reflects that acceptance. It's a public profession of the faith that has already been established in you. The water doesn't do it, the pastor and people affirming you aren't doing it. The church isn't doing it. For just as what defiles you come from within, so to what makes you clean is a matter of the heart. Spiritual renewal is accomplished from within.
Spiritual Renewal:
1. Repentance - Sin is a disease of the spirit. Jesus' blood is the cure for that sickness.
Acknowledge, confess and forsake your sins.
Psalm 32:5
"I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."
A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise. That's why Jesus said you must be born again. A renewed heart and mind.
2. Pray and Study - Regularly immerse yourself in God's Word. Pray for wisdom and understanding so that you'll know God's will for you.
Romans 12:2 advises, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind."
Scripture transforms our thinking, refreshes our spirit and renews our heart.
3. Reflect - Periodically assess your spiritual walk and look at the areas that require improvement and renewed renewal.
Psalm 139:23-24 encourages us,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!"
Pray often for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Call upon him for guidance and understanding. You're not going to find that help in any other way. Not all spirits are holy, so you have to be on watch for false spirits. You'll know if the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth if you can back up what he's saying in the scriptures that He inspired. Not in the traditions and doctrines of men that added to the scripture writings, but in The Word of God alone.