Mark 7:1-23
"Nothing but Jesus and the Cross"
As the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law watch the healing
miracles of Jesus take place, they decide that they have to criticize
Jesus openly in order to stop Him.
Will their criticism be about the healing itself?
No.
Surrounded as they are by the recently healed, this would be a losing and
possibly dangerous strategy.
So, the best that they can come up with is this lame excusethey
saybasically "Your disciples dont wash their hands properly before
they eat."
How can these folks compare the healing of the sick to this
inconsequential matter of dipping hands in water to run off any demons
one might accidentally ingest while eating?
Jesus says that the Scribes and Pharisees have "let go of the commands of
God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
In many ways, things have changed very little from that time to this
time.
How many churches putas their highest prioritylets say what color the
carpet in the sanctuary should be or who gets to be chair of which
committee?
And we hear almost weekly about some scandal among clergy or laity who
put power, money, prestige, or personal desire above their calling.
How different this Gospel Lesson might have been if, after seeing Jesus
work and realizing its importance, the Scribes and Pharisees had come to
Jesus saying: "We would like to talk to you later about some issues; but
in the meantime, what can we do to help you with Gods work?"
How might our stories differ if we approach Jesus that way now?
So many things get in the way of our relationship with Christ, and our
ability to do His will as His Church.
Along with Paul may we be resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ
and Him crucifiedso that our ministryour message will not be ensnarled
by anythingbut will be done with the Spirits power.
Our faith must not rest on human wisdom, but on Gods power and Gods
power alone!!!
In the Gospels Jesus issues three bewares to His disciples.
In Mark chapter 8 Jesus says, "Beware of the leaven of the Herodians."
These were the Jews who went along with the occupying army of Rome so
that they might be able to prosper materially. For them nothing was more
important than property, careers, and money.
In Matthew chapter 16 Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven of the
Sadducees."
Their problem was that they had liberalized, deconstructed, watered
down or discounted the Scriptures to such a degree that there was no
good news left.
They didnt believe in angels, spirits, or even the resurrectionand this
is the reason they were so sad.
The third beware is of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Their leaven was legalism.
These Jewish believers had constructed a code of over 5,000 laws to
ensnarl life.
By following their code, they thought that they were earning Gods love,
deserving salvation, and even putting God in their debt.
The depth of their sin was the most obvious in their refusal to admit
their helplessness.
They believed that they were somehow good enough to earn salvation.
When Jesus came and ministered He often ran into the Phariseesin the
temple, at funerals, at weddings, in synagogues.
The Bible tells us that the Pharisees became the constant opponents of
Jesus Christ and, in the end, actually plotted Jesus death.
After the Pharisees complained to Jesus about the disciples not washing
their hands properly before they ate Jesus quoted Scripture "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 but rules
taught by men."
It is so easy for us to say, "How true this was of the Pharisees!"
but how hard it is for us to say, "How true this is of us!"
And its harder still to say, "How true this is of me!"
This experience with the Pharisees gave Jesus an opportunity to teach us
about the many ways we too can be trapped by our own evil intentions.
When we pick an apple with a worm hole in it, we are inclined to think
that a worm crawled to the surface of the apple, liked it, and bore the
hole from the outside.
Actually, a worm lays an egg in an apple blossom and the egg is hatched
in the core of the apple.
The hole that we see indicates that the worm has bored its way out from
within.
And so it is with what causes us to be clean or unclean.
Evil intentions come from within usfrom our own hearts.
There is a point where we decide and then we do.
What makes us unclean is not what we touch or eatthese things come from
the outsidewhat makes us unclean is what comes from the inside: the evil
intentions, the hateful longings, the desire to harm others.
This must have been a troubling thought to many of the people listening
to Jesus.
After-all, they had spent much of their lives practicing the rituals of
cleanliness.
It is so much easier to follow a ritual than it is to change ones heart.
The challenge is still with us. It is still easier to search for a rule
to obey than to allow God to regulate what we think
it is easier to hate someone and still smile at them as we wish for
their destruction.
How many of us give in to the temptation to continue desiring what we
would never openly advocate or admit?
Only when we seek Jesus way, repent, and allow Christ to replace those
evil desires with loving ones can we ever truly be clean.
None of us ever reach the point in our lives where we dont have to guard
against the evil that tries to possess us any longer.
This definitely argues for regular self-examination and confession,
Sunday school and Bible study, regular worship and prayer!
Jesus said, "Nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him
uncleanwhat comes out of a man is what makes him unclean. For from
within, out of mens hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander,
arrogance and folly. All these things come from inside and make a man
unclean."
Jesus replaced the normal Jewish understandings of defilement with the
truth that defilement comes from an impure heart, not the violation of
external rules.
Fellowship with God is not interrupted by unclean hands or food, but by
sin.
Sin is what gets in the way of our relationship with God, and sin is what
gets in the way of our ability to shine as Gods light to the unsaved
world!
So, what shall we do?
Is there an answer?
Yes, I believe there is
In order to become clean we must allow Gods Holy Spirit to help us let
go ofand throw onto the dung heap of hellevery tradition or command we
are holding onto that does not come from God and His Word.
We must put the salvation of souls as priority number oneand our own
egoswell they are not to have a part to play at all.
We must be willing to do anything and everything in order that others are
saved from the flames of hell.
If our criticizing and judgmental spirits try to squeeze themselves into
the equationthey must be squashed in the name of love!
If evil intentions, evil thoughts, arise within usGod forbid that we act
on themGod forbid that anything unclean come out of usGod forbid that
we do anything that causes anyone to remain in the darkto continue down
the road to hellto have a bad taste in their mouths about Jesus
Christor to have the wrong impression of Jesus teachings and His Words!
It would be better for us "to be thrown into the sea with a millstone
tied around" our necks than for any of us to "cause one of these little
ones to sin."
A few weeks ago, on my way into one of our hospitals, I saw three young
teenagers hanging out by a Pepsi machine.
I noticed that one of them was wearing a tee-shirt with Jesus Christs
name written on the back in BIG letters.
Upon closer examination, I read the back of the young boys shirt.
It said, "Jesus Christ is a ." Well, I cannot and dont want to repeat
what that tee-shirt said.
The other boys were wearing tee-shirts with similar messages.
I thought about talking with themand I wish I did
I thought about telling them that they have the wrong impression of
Jesus Christ.
I decided that I would go ahead and visit the patient I had come to see,
and if I saw them on the way outId speak with them
on the way out
they were no where to be found.
I missed an opportunity.
I dont want to do that again.
Lord forgive me.
And Lord forgive whoever, and whatever has given these young lads such an
awful opinion about Jesus Christlove incarnatethe Son of GodWho ate
with sinnersforgave a prostitutespoke of nothing but loveliberated
millions upon millions of people
and died a horrible death
the death we deserve
in order to save us
simply because He loves us!
Our job is to carry that message to those who are perishingthat message
and that message alone!!!
We are not to be "hypocrites".people who honor God with our lipsbut
have hearts that are far from God
we are not to be people who worship God in vainholding on to the
teachings of men instead of the commands of God.
To the Pharisees, to the teachers of the lawto the religious leadersto
the hypocritesand maybejust maybe to some of us
Jesus said: "Woe to youYou shut the kingdom of God in mens faces. You
yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those who are trying to.
Woe to you blind guides
You give a tenth of your spicesmint, dill and cummin. But you have
neglected the more important matters of the lawjustice, mercy and
faithfulness
You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside" you are "full of
greed and self-indulgence
You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but
on the inside are full of dead mens bones and everything unclean
You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to
hell?"
In our Epistle Lesson for this morning, which Robert read earlier, James,
the brother of Jesus tells us: "Do not merely listen to the word and so
deceive yourselves. Do what it saysthe man who looks intently into the
perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting
what he has heard, but doing ithe will be blessed in what he does."
We are to do what the Word of God tells us to do---on the behalf of
others!
And when we do this, not only do those who have needs get helped, but we
who do the helping are changed.
To give to those in need on Gods behalfto tell others about nothing
other than Jesus and the Crossand to shine Gods light into other
peoples lives by being kind, showing mercy, and keeping ones self from
being polluted by the world
is to fill our own hearts with Gods love and, thus, often drown out
those sins Jesus warns us about.
Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah has come into this dark world
and people are being healed and sinners are being saved
and all the Pharisees are concerned about is whether or not the
disciples have washed their hands properly!
How can they be so far off base?
How could they possibly miss the big picture here?
And yet, how many times do we miss the big picture?
Are we more concerned with the disturbance of crying children in church
or are we just so happy and grateful that there are children in church
that the crying doesnt mean a thing?
Are we more concerned about peoples souls or our own selfish desires?
If we are more concerned about our own selfish desiresthen bewarewe
may not be able to escape being condemned to hell ourselves!!!
Woe to us if we shut the kingdom of heaven in anyones face
We ourselves will not enter, nor will we let those who are trying to.
The heart is the key here; it is from the heart that our hands are
motivated to either do or not do that which is the true discipleship of
Jesus Christ!
We are to be motivated by our love for God and our love for our neighbor.
If we truly love God and our neighborwe will not complain about unwashed
hands while the most important thing is the salvation of souls
we will not just be paying lip service to God
and we will daily walk in such a waythat we will take up our Cross and
follow Christallowing Him, begging with Him to make our hearts clean at
all timesfor nothing other than the sake of Jesus and the Cross!
Let us pray: Give to us insight, O God, to keep our hearts from all evil
intentions. Fill us with a right and wholesome attitude about You,
ourselves and others. Motivate us to want nothing other than to know You
and You crucified and to spread this message to the entire world. Give us
loving and compassionate hearts. In Christs name and for His sake we
pray. Amen.
