Jesus - The Only One - Mark 7:1-23

Sermon Series: Spare Me the Details - Just Give Me Jesus

Let me preface what I’m about to say by telling you that I am not an auto mechanic.  If you need a new alternator, timing belt, or need your transmission fluid changed you don’t need to call me.  I can do a few basics.  I can change out a battery.  I can change out an air filter.  And I can add things like coolant and brake fluid.  But the most useful and beneficial thing that I can do for our cars is change the oil.  Clean oil is the lifeblood for cars.  It is the only way to keep the inside of your engine clean and lubricated – which is the only way your engine will continue to run.  That’s why it’s so important to have your car’s oil changed every 3 months or 3,000 miles.  Have you ever considered how long your car would run well if you never changed the oil, but instead, every 3,000 miles you changed out your brake fluid?  While your breaks may work well there’s probably going to be little chance that you actually need them because your car probably won’t run at all.  Or what if you thought that you could keep your oil clean by washing your car every other week?  Would that keep your engine running well?  No, we know that that would not be the case.  There’s only one thing that we can do to maintain a clean, lubricated, and well running engine and that’s replacing old dirty oil with new clean oil on a regular basis.

Making sure that we keep our cars’ engines in good working condition is something that we all need to do.  But we also need to make sure our hearts are in good spiritual condition.  And like maintaining a car’s engine, there’s not a variety of different ways to do it.  Contrary to what many people believe there’s just one way to do that.  And we’re going to find in our text today that when we try the wrong ways we not only do nothing to benefit our spiritual condition, we may also end up frustrating Jesus.  So as we begin to look at Mark chapter 7 let’s ask the question, “What causes Jesus great frustration and what do we need to know to assure a good spiritual condition?”  And I’m going to argue that in this passage of Scripture we’ll find two absolute truths about Jesus that we need to believe in order to assure a good spiritual condition. 

Chapter 7 begins by preparing the reader for opposition.  Verse 1 says “Now when the Pharisees gathered to Him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem . . .”  We have noted in the gospel of Mark that the Pharisees and scribes are usually at odds with Jesus, but particularly when they come from Jerusalem.  The Pharisees and scribes coming from Jerusalem always seem to come looking to oppose Jesus.  Then according to verse 2 these Pharisees and scribes find an open door for opposition when they see some of Jesus’ disciples eating with unwashed hands.  In verses 3 and 4 Mark provides some commentary of His own to help his readers understand what exactly these Pharisees and scribes were concerned about.  Many of the Jewish leaders believed that on Mount Sinai God gave to Moses two sets of laws – the Torah (the written Law) and the Mishnah (the oral Law).  They believed that the Torah contained the ‘what’ in regards to the Law, but it was the Mishnah that contained the ‘how’ (i.e. the specifics of how the Torah was to be carried out).  But while the Torah came from God, it seems that the Mishnah was created and maintained by men – the Jewish religious leaders – but enforced as though they were from God.  The added rules and regulations became great burdens upon the Jewish people.  And what’s even more surprising is that at times the added rules and regulations contradicted the commands that God, Himself, had given.  In this particular context, the disciples had not washed their hands before they had eaten.  Now there was no Law given by God that would cause this to be a problem.  But the religious leaders in the past had added additional regulations in order to make sure that the Jews were ‘clean’ when they ate.  The added regulations required that hands be washed before eating.  In some instances, if you as a person had been in an environment like the market place that may have had Gentiles or pagans present (which they believed could make an entire person unclean), the Jews would have been required to cleanse their whole body before eating.  It wasn’t just the people that required cleansing either.  Almost everything used in the preparation of the cooking and in the eating process were also required to be ritually cleansed.

The key to unlocking this set of verses has to be in verse 5.  The Pharisees and scribes ask Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”  The question the Pharisees and scribes ask Jesus is a specific one dealing with a law (and I use that term very loosely) that had been created and passed down by the religious leaders.  The law dealt with making sure that a person was clean before he/she ate.  But at the heart of the question is something much broader.  The Pharisees and the scribes believed that it was through strict observance of the Law and the added regulations that one was deemed righteous and stood in right standing before God.  In other words, they believed that strict observation of the Law was the way one got to the Father. 

Here’s what I want us all to key in on.  If this was the case and if it was strict observation of the Law that was the way one got to the Father then Jesus wouldn’t have any problem with the question.  Not only would it have been a valid question, but it also would have been something that Jesus needed to address with His disciples.  But Jesus’ response appears to be one of anger and frustration.  Why?  The answer lies in who Jesus was and what He had come to do.  Last week we saw the seemingly unmistakable evidence that Jesus was in fact God.  He walked on the water, a place in the OT where only God walked.  He intended to pass by the disciples – reminding us of the OT imagery of God passing by Moses and Elijah in order to reveal Himself to them.  Jesus also took the Name that only God can take when He said, “Take heart, it is I (ego eimi – I am).  Do not be afraid.”  And we saw Jesus providing the healing that only God could provide when He continued to heal the people in and around Gennesaret.  Jesus was providing one piece of evidence after another demonstrating that He was in fact God.  It was impossible for us to get to God on our own, so God wrapped Himself in flesh and came to us.  Jesus was God with us. And Jesus is the only One who makes a way for us to the Father.  Jesus’ whole purpose in coming to earth was to make a way for us to be reconciled to God the Father.  He was here striving towards that end.  And the Pharisees come to Jesus (the only One who makes a way for us to the Father) and they continue to look at Him with frustration and anger and accusations because He’s not directing His disciples to follow the way that the ‘elders’ have determined is the way to the Father.  The only One who makes a way for us to the Father is being accused of keeping people from coming to the Father because He doesn’t encourage them to keep ‘the traditions of the elders.’

So Jesus gives His response to the Pharisees and scribes in verses 6-13.  In those verses Jesus makes some strong accusations against the Pharisees and the scribes.  And those accusations help us to understand what’s not important in coming to the Father – our own efforts to strictly observe the Law.  Jesus quotes a passage from Isaiah (Is. 29:13) in order to tell those Pharisees and scribes that while they might honor the Father with their lips, their worship is really in vain because their hearts were far from the Father, which was demonstrated in the fact that they taught the commandments of men as doctrine given from God.  There was and is a way for those who are far from the Father to come to Him.  And Jesus’ teachings in regards to coming to the Father were always very clear – the only way for us to the Father was through Him.  In John 14:6 Jesus is speaking and He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 

There is only one way for sinful individuals who are separated from and at odds with the Father to be reconciled to Him and to get back to Him.  It is only through the grace of God that we receive salvation - and we receive that grace by putting our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  That is ultimately what Jesus is pleading for us to do – to come to Him in faith and find that He is the way for us to be reconciled to the Father.  Listen, if you have never done that, and you are trying to get to the Father through keeping commands and traditions of men, you need to consider both the words and frustrations of Jesus.  Worship of God and worship of Christ CANNOT flow from a heart that is dedicated to the traditions of men (vs. 7, 6-13).  We can claim the title of ‘Christian’ for ourselves. We can sing praises with our lips.  We can serve in Jesus’ name.  But Jesus recites a verse from Isaiah declaring that those efforts are in vain if our hearts aren’t dedicated to Him.  Hearts dedicated to the traditions of men and hearts dedicated to Christ cannot co-exist.

In verse 14 Jesus turns His dialogue away from the Pharisees and directs it towards the people who were present.  The scribes and Pharisees had been pushing the traditions of men on the Jews with great emphasis and many of those Jews were striving with all they had to live up to the letter of the law as it was being given to them.  Jesus, fed up with the added burdens being heaped on the people calls out to those who were present and implores all of them to listen to Him.  He goes on to explain that it’s not the things which go into their bodies that make them unclean – it’s what is coming out of them.  Apparently Jesus’ words of encouragement weren’t easily understood though.  Verse 17 says that after Jesus had left the people and entered someone’s house along with His disciples that the disciples had questions about His statement.  So Jesus begins in verse 18 to explain what He had said.  Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that cleanness and uncleanness had everything to do with an individual’s heart – not his stomach.  I had a biology professor in college that explained what Christ says in a way that I had really never thought about before.  The things that we eat and drink enter our body in one sense, because they go in our mouth and we don’t see them after we swallow them.  But my biology professor said that those things we eat and drink don’t really enter our bodies.  It’s as if we have a hollow tube that’s open on two different ends.  The food and drink go in one end and they travel through that tube until they come out the other end.  Along the way certain vitamins and nutrients are extracted from those foods and drink, and those vitamins and nutrients do enter our blood stream and the rest of our body.  But the food and drink themselves simply travel through us.  Jesus explains the same thing in verses 18 and 19.  The things we eat and drink cannot make us unclean because they don’t enter our hearts.  So Mark inserts a little commentary of his own and tells his readers that in saying this Jesus “declared all foods clean.”  Jesus then explains beginning in verse 20 that a person is made unclean by what comes out of his heart.  It is in the heart that sin is conceived and it travels out from there.  Jesus even mentions some specifics to help us understand what He was teaching, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”  Mark wants His readers to understand that disciples of Christ, those who are really dedicated to Him, aren’t defined by what they put into their mouths.  The cleanness of our hearts has absolutely nothing to do with our own efforts.  Instead, individuals dedicated to Christ are defined by what flows out of their hearts.  It is the condition of the heart that makes one clean or unclean.  And if our own efforts don’t make us clean, then what is it that makes us clean?  The answer is Jesus.  Jesus is the only One who makes us clean!

Consider King David’s confession in Psalm 51.  Nathan the prophet had come to David to confront him in regards to David’s sin.  As David comes before God in prayer he is pleading with God to have mercy on him and to wipe out his transgressions.  Pay particular attention to verse 10.  David says there, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”  Nathan didn’t come to David in the same spirit as the Pharisees came to Christ.  Nathan wasn’t challenging David in regards to the cleanness of his hands or the cleanness of the foods that David had been eating.  Nathan recognized terrible sin that had come out of David’s heart.  In fact David was guilty of almost all of the sins that Jesus names in verses 21 and 22, “evil thoughts, sexual immorality . . . murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy . . . pride, foolishness.”  Jesus said that these things came out of an individual’s heart.  David seemed to know that as well.  And having been made aware of those things which were coming from his heart, David pleads with God to create in him a clean heart.

We need to watch carefully what flows out of our hearts.  What comes out of our hearts will reveal to us with great clarity the condition of our heart.  But how often do we do this?  How often do we take the time to look at and examine what is really flowing from our hearts?  Do we do it daily?  Do we do it weekly?  Do we do it monthly?  Do we do it at all?  Examining that which flows out of our hearts needs to be a regular practice for those who are followers of Christ.  Jesus says that when evil things are coming out of our hearts then we are defiled, or unclean.  And an unclean heart isn’t what Christ desires from us.  Jesus is looking for clean hearts that are fully devoted to Him!  We can believe that our hearts are clean and pure all we want.  We can act as if our choice to say a prayer asking Jesus into our hearts has freed us from any need to personally examine our thoughts, words, actions, and motives.  But that won’t help us to walk closely with Christ.  Jesus said an individual devoted to Him should surrender his life daily, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me”(Luke 9:23).  Daily surrender and daily following are going to require daily examining so that we can turn and repent when we find evidence of an unclean heart.

Imagine that an auto mechanic showed up at your home whenever you hit the next 3,000 miles on your vehicle with all the oil and tools to change your oil for free.  And imagine that when he knocked on your door and said that he was there to change your oil that you said to him – “That’s okay, I’m good!  I just washed and detailed my car the other day.  Go have a look.  It’s as clean as it can be.  And quite honestly, I wash the car every other week.  So I appreciate you coming by, but I don’t need you today.”  While this sounds ridiculous to most of us, this isn’t far from what Jesus experienced when confronted by the Pharisees and the scribes.

The incredible news for us today is that there is a way for us to get to the Father!  But listen, it’s not through laws of men and it’s not through our own efforts to keep ourselves clean!  While there are many who would try to convince us that these are the ways we get to the Father, Jesus, God Himself, made it clear that this is not the case.  The one way for us to get to the Father is through Jesus.  God came to us in Jesus.  And Jesus lived the life that we couldn’t live – He was perfect and was without any kind of sin!  Then He chose to be our substitute.  Not only did He live the life we couldn’t live, but He died the death we couldn’t die.  He suffered the wrath of God that should have been poured out on us – the sinners.  On the cross He took our place and the Righteous One died for sinful humanity.  And after He died on the cross, He rose again three days later, demonstrating His power over sin, and death, and Satan.  Jesus had paid the punishment for all of humanity and in turn offers them His Righteous so that we can have cleansing from our sin and so that we can come to the Father.  Jesus is the way!  I hope you understand that.  I hope you believe that.  And I hope that you have responded to that good news.

Questions for Small Group Discussion

1. Read Mark 7:1-13.  In these verses we noted that Jesus is the only One who makes a way for us to the Father.  He also rebukes the Pharisees and the scribes for placing too much emphasis on following the traditions of men.  In verse 9 Jesus says, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition."  Are we ever guilty of rejecting the commandments of God?  If so, how?  Are we guilty of rejecting God's commands in order to establish something else?  If so, what?  What do we need to do to turn our focus back to living according to and for God?

2. In verses 10-13 Jesus gives an example of one of the things that the Jews do in order to keep their traditions in order to make void the word of God.  Afterwards in verse 13 He says, "and many such things you do."  What are some of the things we do as individuals and as a church that we believe honor God, but may in fact make void His word?

3. Read Mark 7:14-23.  In these verses we noted that Jesus explained to the people and to His disciples that it isn't the things that we eat or drink that make us unclean.  If we are unclean it is a result of the things that are being conceived in and that are flowing out of our hearts.  So let's ask the question, how often are we examining the things that are flowing out of our hearts?  Are we examining them daily?  Weekly?  Ever?  How often should we examine what flows from our hearts?  How do we examine the things that come from our hearts?  

4. What step of faith does this passage of Scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?