Religious Conflicts Mark 7:1-23 & 8:11-23

             This is the third in a series of five messages looking at Mark chapters 6-8.  If you’ve read the first two, bear with me a moment.  If you haven’t, whenever interpreting things from these chapters it is important to note this pattern:

6:30-44 Feeding Miracle

6:45-52 On the Sea of Galilee

6:53-56 Healings

7:1-33 Conflict with Religious Leaders (and conflict with a foreigner)

7:34-37 Jesus uses his spit to cure a deaf man.

 

Then (minus the healings) it happens again in almost the same order!

8:1-10 Feeding Miracle

8:11-13 Conflict with Religious Leaders

8:14-21 On the Sea of Galilee

8:22-26 Jesus uses his spit to cure a blind man.

 

We’re looking at these chapters with the pairs Mark has created.  Today’s pair is the Conflict with Religious Leaders.  Here are the texts:

 

Mark 7:1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, ²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; ⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) ⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
⁷in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

⁹Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God)— ¹²then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, ¹³thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, ¹⁹since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. ²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, ²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

 

Mark 8:11-13

¹¹The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. ¹²And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” ¹³And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

 

 

            Let’s remember that both of these scenes have a feeding miracle in the background.  (Feeding of the 5000 is 6:30-56; and Feeding of the 4000 is 8:1-9)

            When I was a kid I remember the worksheets in Sunday school.  There were often drawings of the religious leaders.  On the whole they were portrayed as a harsh and judgmental bunch with frowns on their faces.  I’m sure we all know people who are like that, so the depiction could be true.  But on the whole I believe we make a mistake when we think of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day as mean, overly righteous, stuck-up, or anything like that.  If you want to know what the religious leaders were like it’s probably best to look at your reflection in the mirror.

            Let’s take a minute to remember their situation.  In 586 B.C.E. Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by the Babylonians.  Ten years prior most of the Jews had been hauled off into exile.  Almost everyone who remained left after the city’s destruction.  It is hard for us as Christians to understand just how central Jerusalem and the temple were to the Jews holding on to their faith and their identity as a people.  During the long decades before they were allowed to return an entire generation had come and gone.  In this exile time they learned how to hang on to their faith and the hope that God would save them.  Central to doing that was knowing where to compromise and assimilate, and where to hold the line.  Observing the laws of Moses became central to holding that line.  It really became the core of their faith and the core of holding on to their identity.

            In time the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild.  But they did not forget the exile. 

Centuries passed.  Threats came and went.  Nations and empires rose and fall around them.  Seldom did they enjoy national independence.  Usually they learned to cooperate with the empires that ruled them.  And through it all was the enduring law of Moses.  They found it to be flexible, grace filled, and capable of enduring through time.  They truly felt it was God’s gift to them.

When Jesus came along he wasn’t exactly yanking the rug out from under all that.  But he did challenge what was the center of faith.  I believe that the religious leaders had very good intentions for how they applied the law.  Unfortunately it missed the mark.

In our world there are many things that are legal, but that does not make them right.  Many things are legal, but that does not mean the law reflects the will of God.

Our society values competition.  It is the capitalist way!  I don’t want to speak against the efficiencies of our economic system.  Capitalism has many good points.  But a drawback is the way those who have certain skills tend to thrive at the expense of others.  I think the same can be said for the religious laws of Jesus’ day.

Were Jesus to be in America today I believe he’d find a lot to praise.  He’d also find a lot to condemn. 

I encourage you to make all your decisions, whether big or small, in light of these facts:

-You are a sinner in need of God’s grace.

-God loves you and wants to bring you wholeness of life.

-God made you good.  And God has given you gifts and abilities.  You are to use them to provide for yourself and for the needs of others.

-God wants to see all people flourish and grow.  God does not want to see anyone pushed down by the actions of others.

-God holds the future secure.  You are safe.