The Gospel of Mark 7:1-13

Brian Hirvela

6/1/2024

“And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with defiled hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)

 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’ Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

And He was also saying to them, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever you might benefit from me is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

Jesus and His disciples landed by boat on the shore of Gennesaret and many people who saw Him brought the sick, the lame, and the demon-possessed to Him to be healed and cleansed. This was an exhausting event that the disciples went through and as always, they grew hungry and ate some bread.

“And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with defiled hands, that is, unwashed.” The Pharisees came from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus performing many great acts of power for the infirm. They traveled roughly 180 miles to Gennesaret to see what was going on and when they arrived and observed Jesus and His disciples, they were taken aback for the disciples were eating bread with dirty hands.

“(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)”

“They washed their hands often when they came from the market, or before they did eat, not for decency and neatness, but out of religion, lest they should have been defiled by touching any unclean people, or any polluted things; and not their hands only, but their pots and cups, their beds and tables, and brazen vessels; as indeed there is no stop when men have passed the hedge of the Divine institution, where it is hard to discern an ordinance of God in the rubbish of their superstitious traditions.” (Matthew Poole)

“The tradition of the elders was that all were to wash their hands before a meal; a cleanly custom, and no harm in it; and yet care for the body, which is of the earth; but they placed religion in it, and would not leave it as it was in its own nature; people were at their liberty to do it or not to do it; but they interposed their authority, and commanded all to do it upon pain of excommunication; this they kept up as a tradition of the elders. The Pharisees pretend to have a zeal for the authority and antiquity of the elders and their traditions when it is nothing but a zeal for their own wealth, interest, and dominion, that governs them.” (Matthew Henry)

And the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?” Before I get to Jesus’ answer I want to show you something. Have you thought about your traditions? You may say that you hold no traditions, but I would disagree with you. You have standards by which you define and live. You apply your standards to others and if they do not participate with your standards, you will ask the question, “Why do you not do according to my standards?”

This will lead you to frustration, escalation, and even, in some cases, violence. You will challenge the offender as the Pharisees have challenged Jesus. As people do not live up to your standards of what is right, the Pharisees are questioning Jesus with the authority of the elder’s tradition because the disciples were not living up to their standards,

Jesus responds, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. “But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’ Leaving the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” I will not suppose you hold to the doctrine of God, but the doctrine of men. Be that from your parents, public school education, the school of hard knocks, higher education, or even television and media.

You do not know the commandments of God, so you make your own commandments, like imposing pronouns on other people, commanding them to accept your way of life, holding to a code of ethics, like Bushido or Masonry, or holding to a religion that twists the Holy Scriptures to fit your desires. The Catholic church is ripe with traditions established by the Pope and imposes a works-based religion that does not lead to salvation. Other religions are similar in function, a system of traditions based on a lack of understanding of the Holy Scriptures, if they are even used.

And then some proclaim a knowledge of God but only for appearances. They do not live out the commandments of God but merely pay lip service. You have heard some say that Christians should not judge using the scripture of Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge,” but they use that in judgment on others not knowing what the scripture said, “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.” Here is that standard again, by what standard you measure to others you will be measured. If you do not live by your standards but require others to do so, you would be a hypocrite like the Pharisees.

Yet Jesus shows the Pharisees their error and derides them saying, “You are good at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever you might benefit from me is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

You see what was handed down by Moses who gave the Hebrews the Law of God. God spoke His commandment to the Hebrews in Exodus 20:12, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.”  The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 64-66 states that, “The fifth commandment requires preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to everyone in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals and forbids the neglecting of, or doing anything against, the honor and duty which belongs to everyone in their several places and relations with a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God's glory and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment.”

In the Holiness Code of Leviticus 20:7-9 Yahweh commands, “Therefore, you shall set yourselves apart as holy and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God. And you shall keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy. ‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother.
His bloodguiltiness is upon him.” The commandment is not simply about speaking evil of one’s parents, but about showing disrespect and disobedience towards them. The punishment for speaking evil of one’s parents is death, which is a severe penalty that underscores the gravity of the offense.

Yet the tradition of the Jewish priests states that as long as man gives to God, via the Synagogue, then he is no longer obligated to respect, obey, or honor his father or mother. And he can respond that it is Corban, given to God, and be free. Whatever the man’s parents may have benefitted from; his parents won’t benefit from it. Keep this in mind when Paul speaks of elder men and widows, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8) Indeed, the honoring of one’s parents is a good thing, and it will go well with you, but I will go one further, I encourage you to honor one another, defer to each other, and show respect. What you measure to a person will be measured to you. Thus, if you want a friend, be a friend if you want respect, give respect.

Therefore, if we look at what the Pharisees are doing, they are burdening their flock with unnecessary traditions that do not even exist in the Scriptures. And I would encourage you to not do as they do but pick up a Bible and read it. Yes, the Bible has rules, but they are there to show you Yahweh’s righteousness and how much easier life is when they are obeyed. But don’t do it because you have to, do it because you want to. Listen to this quote from The Reverend Most Right Michael Foster,

“Jesus is not abolishing the law in any way shape or form in the New Testament. But he is ripping away, clearing away, the traditions of men that have obscured the pure simplicity of God's law. The Pharisees took God's law and made it into an oppressive tax code. If you took the U.S. tax code and put it in one book it'd be 70,000 pages. In the Old Testament, we have slightly over 300 case laws that showed Israel how to apply the Ten Commandments in their particular context; and those Ten Commandments can be broken down into two Commandments; Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

And as we've seen, if you love God, you will love your neighbor. So, you really can break it all down to love God. but if you want to expand it; love God and love your neighbor; if you want to expand it a little bit more, there are the Ten Commandments. People say the Bible is not a book of rules, absolutely it is, it's got all sorts of rules in it, but it's just ten rules stated a bunch of different ways and those are really just two rules and that's really just one; Love God. It's not burdensome, it's simple. We're the problem. We're the ones that are always stacking stuff on top of that.”

Jesus came to save sinners. Sinners suppress the truth and hide in their darkness because they love darkness. They are unbelieving, vile, foolish, rebellious, haters of God who have adopted the ideologies of this world and the doctrines of men. They have become slaves to their sexual desires, perverting the flesh and mind, and rebelling against the created order of God. They are doomed to condemnation and will be judged by Jesus and sent to Hell where they will burn for eternity in the lake of fire.

However, God so loved His creation, mankind, that He sent His Son Jesus, who can forgive you of your sins and redeem you because He has the authority and power. Jesus brings eternal life to all who repent and believe. For Jesus bore all our sins; He bore all the sins of all who believe in Him. Jesus was born and lived a perfect life of obedience to God as a man. Jesus was condemned to be executed and die in the sinner's place. He suffered the totality of God's wrath upon Himself on the Cross, which every sinner deserves, so that those who believe in Jesus may have peace with God. Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death, and lives, and ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and He is in your midst with us offering you salvation.