The Stuff of Righteousness

They’re great because they tie the string of truth to shadows. Or they are such overblown caricatures of lawyers that we can’t help but laugh. Maybe Dan Fielding from Night Court.

Of the good ones, I think my favorite is Ben Matlock. His famous approach was to let the opposing lawyers play out their line while he seemed to corner the truth and reveal it in the end with a few insightful questions.

TV lawyers are entertaining. But in Jesus’ day, religious lawyers were no joke!

Pray

Mark 7:1–2 NLT

1 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.

Set against the crowds seeking Jesus for healing, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law (or scribes, or religious lawyers) came to Jesus not to hear or be healed but to criticize.

They criticized based on their standard of righteousness, not God’s. Instead of seeing God’s standards as complete in themselves and useful for the purpose God intended, they established a standard of their own.

Many of these man-made laws were established to put a hedge around God’s law. “If I don’t cross this outer line, I can’t have crossed the inner one.”

Is that the right approach? Let’s see how Jesus responds.

The Lawyers

Mark first give’s background. Likely Gentile audience who didn’t know Jewish custom.

Mark 7:3–4 NLT

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.)

And then comes the accusation.

Mark 7:5 NLT

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.”

This wasn’t an idol question. Matters of religious law were taken seriously. There were religious courts and had real authority. And courts need lawyers!

The laws of God or of man?

v. 5 the Pharisees lead with an acknowledgement that they speak of traditions and man’s edicts.

They speak in pride, but don’t, apparently grasp their error. They set their standard above God’s and bring accusations as though breaking traditions is the same as breaking God’s law.

How does Jesus respond?

Mark 7:6–8 ESV

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.”

Honor in spirit or in flesh?

He begins with scripture! There are many places Jesus could have drawn from in the scripture that exposes the hypocrisy of worship and sacrifice without a humble and sincere heart.

Micah 6:6–8 ESV

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Isaiah 1:11–12 ESV

11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

Even when being obedient in action to what the Lord has called, If we are not worshiping and honoring Him in our hearts, our obedience is at best wearisome. But when it’s paired with delighting in sin or a dismissive attitude towards God, we are trespassing of God’s mercy and goodness.

Jesus calls the Pharisees to task for such a trespass.

Jesus was meek. And humble. But He was also unavoidable! Jesus leveled His own accusation against the Pharisees as He quoted Isaiah. But then He turns the encounter into a court room right in the moment. He backs up His charge with evedince.

Mark 7:9–13 NLT

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.”

Jesus has a Matlock moment with the Pharisees. He is not dismissing the law of God, but condemning it’s misuse and misapplication.

The scribes and Pharisees sought to apply this approach of following God’s law not only to themselves, but to others. THEY sought to be the authority, not servants of God’s authority and God’s laws.

So Jesus turned from the legal showdown to the laymen.

The Laymen

Mark 7:14–15 NLT

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.”

God’s word is not just an intellectual exercise. Though He needed to set the Pharisees straight, refute their accusation, and bring the appropriate charge against them, it didn’t stop there. The False teaching had consequences.

Jesus made sure to correct only only those spreading the false teaching, but those who had been taught it.

Spiritual purity matters!

He shifts the focus back to their spiritual relationship with God and others. Physical bodies are not what God is concerned about. But the state of our souls, and the fruit of our lives. We have a body, so do animals. Our body is not our life.

Genesis 2:7 ESV

7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

That breath of life was much more than lungs and heartbeats. It was the living soul God gave man, and that makes us different that all the rest of creation.

That we live this spiritual life in these bodies of flesh is a mystery. But that’s what God intended, and I have nothing other than to trust God.

The Lesson

When they were alone again, the disciples sought to understand more…

Mark 7:17–23 NLT

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.”

Understand the Word.

The Bible is not, as it’s purpose, a text book. It is the revelation of God’s character and His heart for people. It is a road map to seeing His Glory.

But we can’t attain to that purpose if we do not take studying it seriously.

That means reading what it says. Listening carefully to what it does NOT say. It means always seeking the heart and intention of what is written. It means learning the context of the culture and the relation of scripture to other parts of scripture.

As Jesus sought to bring the laymen back to scripture, He reminded them of the scriptural. As for them, that is our first stop.

Conform to the Word.

But if we stop at understanding, we are no better than the people of Israel when Isaiah was prophesying against them. Scripture wasn’t commanding ritual cleaning as the Pharisees were applying it. It is concerned with a pure and clean heart.

Isaiah 57:15 ESV

15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Later in Isaiah, he prophecies about the coming messiah who will exemplify these characteristics. This was Jesus who was that example for us to follow. As He conforms to the word (that is the expressed characteristic of God) so we should try and to the same.

Apply the Word.

Jesus applied the Word. That truth understood and conformed to must be applied in our action and interactions.

“… , but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Jesus reminded the laymen there that they WERE required to be clean. But clean in their relationships. Clean in their thoughts and actions. Clean in their worship towards God. Clean in their integrity. Whatever come out of our lives can either glorify God, or deceive others about Him. There is no other choice.

And having cleaned your hands just just the right way doesn’t to that.

Nor does knowing all the right Christiany words and using them just right. Nor does dressing or acting proper, only to think vile thoughts in your mind.

God calls us to be holy as He is holy. We can’t do that on our own. It will be a life long endeavor to follow Jesus example. It must be done with passion. And it must be done as a result of loving God.

Wrap

Is there an area you have looked clean on the outside, but need cleansing on the inside? Maybe that includes sin that has impacted another person. God calls us to confession, to Himself and to those we sin against. If there’s a person you’ve sinned against, can you find a way to seek forgiveness from God, and then from them?

Is there an area in your life you’ve kept off limit from God? Maybe today is the day to let those hedges of fake purity down, and let God invade your life anew. He come’s with a broom, and the water of life!

Maybe you just need to acknowledge you need for God. If you know what that means or looks like or not. If “God, I need you!” is your prayer this morning, then cry out to Him!

As the music plays, sing, or pray, confess, or come to the front to pray with me. If God is moving in your heart - respond.