Jesus & Religion (Mark 7:1-23) | 9/1/19
Mark 7:1-23 9/1/19 | Will DuVal
This morning, we continue our journey together through the Gospel of MARK; we’ve loosely been following Mark’s timeline, but our approach has been more THEMATIC than chronological. Last week we finished up a 3 part miniseries on Jesus & Parables, before that, we looked at Jesus & MIRACLES, before that we studied Jesus & HEALINGS, specifically, and before that, Jesus & DEMONS. And this morning, we CONTINUE our thematic exposition, in ch.7, vv1-23, as we discuss Jesus & RELIGION.
Now, “religion” is one of those LOADED words, with about as many definitions as there are people to define it. But I want to share with you MY OWN definition, lest you think I’m saying something in this sermon that I’m NOT and you get offended. Personally, I don’t CARE FOR the label “religious”, for reasons which will soon become clear, but perhaps you DO consider YOURSELF “religious”, and depending on how you understand that word, it might be a great thing. I can’t find a clear-cut definition in Scripture; the closest is probably James 1: “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (vv26-27). But James is really DESCRIBING religion more than he is actually defining it, what it IS, religion’s ESSENCE. So let me offer a definition for us:
“Religion is man’s attempt to make sense of the universe.”
At its core, this is what EVERY religion is trying to do: help us make sense of our world. Provide answers to life’s deepest, most important questions:
“Why is there a universe at ALL? How did all this get here?”
Why am I here, specifically? What is my PURPOSE?
How ought I to LIVE, morally...?
What’s WRONG with the world? Why is there so much evil? And how can it be fixed?
And finally, where’s all this heading? How does history END, and where do I go, personally, when I die?
Important questions. And the Bible no doubt offers its own answers to each. But I want to take the really RADICAL position this morning, and JESUS is going to take the really radical position in Mark ch.7 today, some scholars consider this passage to be the most REVOLUTIONARY thing he EVER said, in all 4 Gospels, the EXTREME stance that by THIS definition of the word “religion” – man’s attempt to make sense of the universe” – Christianity is the ONLY “religion” in the WORLD that is NOT ACTUALLY A RELIGION. Authentic, biblical Christianity does not fit with that definition of “religion”. And as we study through Mark 7, I see THREE QUESTIONS arising out of this text that elucidate for us the difference between religion, and true Christianity as defined and modeled by Jesus. So that’s the FULL title for this sermon:
“Jesus & Religion (or I might even say “Jesus VERSUS Religion”); subtitle: “Three Questions for Discerning the Difference”. Got that? “Three Questions for Discerning the Difference”.
So let’s dive in. Would you stand with me as you’re able for the reading of God’s word:
from MARK 7:1-23
“Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly,[a] holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[b] And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.[c]) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 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.”
9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”[e] 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[f] (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”” This is the word of the Lord...
1) The first question to ask, to determine whether we’re dealing with JESUS, or whether we’re dealing with “RELIGION”, is: Who’s the AUTHORITY? (vv2-13)
Look at the STARK contrast painted here in Verses 1-13, between the two answers. On the one hand, you have RELIGION’S authority, as articulated by the Pharisees and scribes in v.5, who ask Jesus “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders” – and on the other hand, you have JESUS’ response to them, in vv7, 8, 9, and 13:
v7: You [teach] “as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
v8: “8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.””
v9: You [reject] ““the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!”
v13: You [make] “void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.”
So religion’s authority is MAN; Jesus’ authority is GOD. I tried to make that explicit in my DEFINITION for religion – it is MAN’S attempt, HUMANITY’S attempt, to make sense of the universe. Christian theologian’s over the centuries have often contrasted RELIGION with REVELATION.
Religion is man’s attempt to look UP and try to figure things out for himself.
Revelation is God coming DOWN to make it clear.
Do you see the MASSIVE difference between those two, friends? Religion is DONE by us, humans, and STARTS with us, the human, who looks outward and upward, and asks “What can I DEDUCE about this universe? From MY experience of the world. Religion is... what’s called in epistemological terms, a posteriori knowledge. It’s Experiential knowledge. Knowledge AFTER the fact. After having looked around and observed things, what seems reasonable to conclude about myself, about God, about the universe... That’s what RELIGION does.
Revelation flips that upside down. Revelation is A PRIORI knowledge. It is INDEPENDENT knowledge. It doesn’t start with general observations from which to try and deduce cold, hard facts. No, it starts with a FACT, with a TRUTH, that is then born out in ALL of our experience. And that TRUTH... is GOD. “In the beginning... GOD!” It’s HIS universe, we are HIS creations, Scripture is HIS inerrant word, and Jesus is HIS incarnate Son, who speaks with A PRIORI authority.
That’s what got Jesus into so much trouble in his day. “They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark 1:22) “He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom... Is not this the carpenter's son? ...Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him.” (Matthew 13:54-57) Why?
Because their religion had become SO much about the wisdom of MEN, the tradition of MEN, the authority of MEN, that Jesus’ lack of a proper religious PEDIGREE was an affront to them. Jesus didn’t have a rabbi. He didn’t NEED one. He didn’t study in their synagogues. Didn’t NEED to. As God in human flesh, he possessed HIS authority inherently. But for these scribes and Pharisees, authority was ALWAYS “derived”. It wasn’t about “closeness to God”, it was about closeness to MAN. Who did you study under? That’s why Paul, in Acts 22:3, during his trial before the Jewish leaders, declares ““I am a Jew... educated at the feet of Gamaliel[b]...”, because he knows that’s the language these guys speak – that’s what matters to them; human authority.
But not only had they traded “closeness with God” for “closeness with man”; they had traded the WORD of God for the WORD of man as well. Their “tradition of the elders”. According to 1st c. Pharisaism, and 21st c. Judaism still today, there was the written Law, as recorded in the Law and the Prophets, the OT, but THEN there was ALSO this ORAL law, which is supposedly the divinely-inspired INTERPRETATION of the OT, passed down from teacher to teacher, through their rabbinic system. And this oral law was itself finally put into writing in the 2nd c. AD, called the Mishnah. Then there’s the rabbinic commentary ON that interpretation of the Law, called the Gemara. And then there’s the compilation of BOTH the Mishnah AND the Gemara, with additional later commentary tacked on, called the Talmud. And altogether, these “traditions of the elders” comprised THOUSANDS and thousands of pages – for instance, there’s an entire VOLUME of the Talmud just devoted to ritual handwashing.
THAT’s what these Pharisees expect Jesus’ disciples to follow here in v.5. The disciples aren’t breaking any OT Law. Notice the charge: ““Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?” The disciples are breaking the Pharisees’ additional, piled on rules. There’s nothing in the OT about washing your hands after you come from the marketplace, v.4; later interpreters OF the Law added that on because they were afraid that in the marketplace, you might bump into a Gentile, or a menstruating woman, or someone who had handled a reptile, ALL of whom were considered “unclean” by OT Law. So these “traditions of the elders” originally attempted to “FENCE” the Law; to put an extra hedge of protection against violating it. For example, the OT forbids work on the Sabbath; well, what COUNTS as “WORK”? We better write out a few dozen VOLUMES of commentaries detailing the difference between work and non-work. Thousands of pages. Mark notes in v.4: “there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.”. John MacArthur points out: there are THIRTY chapters in the Mishnah JUST devoted to the ritual washing of pots and pans. That’s what their religion had become.
No wonder the scribes and Pharisees were so highly esteemed in 1st c. Judaism! The average, illiterate, Jewish peasant would have needed a rabbi just to weed through all these extra rules and rituals imposed on them.
But the biggest problem was that RATHER than being a helpful FENCE around the OT, their tradition had actually become a Law unto itself. In fact, the Jerusalem Talmud claims of ITSELF: “The words of the scribes are more lovely than the words of the law... It is a greater crime to transgress the words of the school of rabbi Hillel than the words of Scripture” (MacArthur, “Scripture-Twisting Tradition”, Apr 18, 2010).
So Jesus confronts and exposes them. They have perverted the word of God with their UN-biblical traditions. They are no longer FENCING the word of God; they are BURYING it. Under a heap of ANTI-biblical laws. Like CORBAN law: ““You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! (not God’s; YOURS) 10 For Moses said, [IN Scripture] ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)[d]— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition.”
What’s this all about? John MacArthur explains: “The word Corban... referred to offerings of money or material goods that had been pledged to God... [A] tradition arose allowing people to declare their possessions “Corban,” thereby promising that they would eventually use their resources for sacred purposes. Even if a man’s parents asked him for financial support, he was forbidden from using anything he had declared to be “devoted to God” in order to help them. The rabbinic system thus provided adult children with a loophole by which they did not have to assist their aged or needy parents, and yet could still appear to be loyal worshipers who gave generously to God. Though a person could declare all of his possessions “Corban,” he was not required to donate them immediately ...In fact, whenever he wanted to use them for his own purposes, he could reverse the vow merely by saying “Corban” over them again. The hypocritical system... allowed people to maintain an external veneer of dedication to God while simultaneously turning their backs on their parents.” (Mark, 432-433)
And this is exactly what religion does, isn’t it? Any time MAN becomes the final authority, you necessarily end up with perverted, corrupted, sinful, hypocritical, self-serving RULES like this, because we’re not the solution to the world’s problems; we ARE the problem!
2) That’s the second question for discerning whether you’re dealing with Jesus or Religion: “Where’s the PROBLEM?” (vv14-19). Where is the Problem?
According to Religion: the problem is all EXTERNAL. Hence, the Pharisees’ emphasis on staying away from “polluting” agents, like Gentiles and menstruating women. The problem is “OUT THERE”, and I just need to stay away.
But according to Jesus: the problem – my problem, your biggest problem – is INTERNAL. It’s not “out there”; it’s “in HERE” [heart].
MacArthur quips: “It is not unwashed hands that defile a person but an unwashed soul.” (Mark, 448) Consider v15. Jesus makes his point, as we’ve seen him in recent weeks, in PARABLE form. He says “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.””. Matthew’s (15:17) Gospel makes the parable even more explicit: “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?” So this week could REALLY be week 4 in our mini-series on parables, and I could have titled the sermon: “The Parable of the POOP”. I wanna preach like Jesus; You guys would FIRE me, if I started using poop in my sermon illustrations! But It’s a perfect metaphor, isn’t it? It’s not what’s on the OUTSIDE that goes IN that is unclean – “Thus he declared all foods clean” – but rather what’s on the INSIDE that comes OUT that is truly nasty.
His point is basically: we’re not sinful because we commit sins; No - humans commit sins because we’re SINFUL. Sin is just what’s already inside us coming out. You ever say or do something, and 2 seconds later wonder, “Where did THAT come from?” Like you think you’re having a pretty good day, a mostly sin-free day, and then out of nowhere you get cut off in traffic and the four-letter words start flying. And then the guy turns off the next exit, he’s back out of your life, and you pause and think, “Where in the world did THAT come from?” It was inside you all along. Just waiting to bubble up. God just used that JERK to remind you of what’s still down in there, in your heart. That you’re still a sinner. Still in desperate need of His grace.
I love the story told of the brilliant theologian G.K. Chesterton. The Times magazine sent out an inquiry to famous authors, asking the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” with a prize offered for the most profound response. Chesterton’s reply back was simply:
“Dear Sir,
I am.
Yours, G.K. Chesterton.”
Parents: are you as concerned with what’s already INSIDE your kids, their HEARTS, as you are with their school environment. With the friend group they hang out with. I’m not saying we shouldn’t desire that are kids be surrounded by positive influences; but do you RECOGNIZE that the single GREATEST threat to your kids is NOT their secular public school curriculum... It’s not the music they’re hearing on the radio... it’s not ANYTHING coming from WITHOUT; it’s what is already WITHIN them. Their SIN. If you think that being the gate-keeper of everything that goes INTO your child is gonna SAVE them, you are KIDDING yourself. And you’re also fighting a losing battle – good luck with that, in the age of smart phones and the internet.
Jesus may have shocked these Pharisees, but if they would had dug out the word of God from underneath all their traditions, they would have recognized that Jesus was in no way ORIGINAL with his diagnosis here. This notion that WE are what’s wrong with the world, the idea of man’s TOTAL DEPRAVITY, our original, inherent sinfulness, runs all throughout the OT...
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?”Ps. 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
That’s Jesus’ diagnosis of the problem: the sinful human heart. And what is the CURE he prescribes for our condition? A spiritually terminal condition, by the way; the WAGES of our sin, Romans 6:23, is spiritual DEATH. Hell. But what’s the CURE? For a bad heart? We need a heart transplant. And once again, this prescription isn’t just a NT innovation:
Jeremiah 31:31-33 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.”
Ezekiel 36:26-27 “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
See, it’s not that God doesn’t CARE about us obeying his rules. He just knows that following rules without true heart change, without His Holy Spirit reorienting your affections, empowering you... CAUSING your obedience, devoid of that, it’s simply behavior modification. Rules without heart change make for, as Jesus condemned the Pharisees in Matthew 23: “white-washed tombs”. You can elaborately dress up the coffin with all the ornate trappings you want, but there’s still a dead, rotting corpse inside.
Unless... we’ve been born AGAIN! Jesus said “unless one is born again[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). THAT’s how you get a new heart, friends: you must be spiritually born again, by putting to DEATH your old self, crucifying your sinful self, confess and repent of your sin, and be REBORN to new life by trusting in JESUS for the forgiveness of your sins. That’s the GOSPEL!
That’s not RELIGION. That is a relationship, with a loving, merciful SAVIOR. And relationships, healthy ones anyway, aren’t grounded in behavior. If I’d gotten sick and had to stay home this morning, would I be any LESS your pastor? If this ends up being the worst sermon I’ve ever preached, will you love me less? If so, we have a transactional relationship, based on my external behavior. A healthy relationship is a matter of the heart.
And friends, Biblical faith, NT AND Old, has ALWAYS been a matter of the HEART:
1 Sam 16:7 “the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.””
1 Sam 13:14 “The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart”
Proverbs 21:2 “the Lord weighs the heart.”
Even in the OT LAW, where it can be easy to get bogged down in the long lists of “do’s and don’ts”, and forget why God graciously gave His people the Law in the first place, even there, God says it’s STILL what’s on the inside that counts:
Deut. 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God... to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”
As a father, I’d so much rather my daughter genuinely love and respect me, than arbitrarily and artificially obey my parental rules. She could theoretically obey every single rule, and HATE me in her heart, want nothing to do with me. Actually, that’s exactly what these 1st c. Pharisees were doing with God.
Deut. 30:6 “the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
That phrase, “all your heart”, occurs 17x in the OT! It’s ALL about the heart.
And this is MOST evident in the PROPHETS, and their calls to repentance
Hosea 6:6 “I desire steadfast love[a] and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”Relationship, not religion.
Joel 2:12 “ “Return to me with all your heart... rend your hearts and not your garments.””
Even your REPENTANCE has become a religious show; tearing your garments, carrying on in loud voices in the town square; Just be BROKEN, truly broken, heart-broken over your sin. THAT’s all I want from you, God says.
Amos 5:21-24 ““I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24 But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”You can keep all your religious rituals, unless your HEARTS have truly been changed.
(SKIP ISAIAH 1:11-17)
And finally, Isaiah 29:13, which Jesus quotes in Mark 7 - “this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men”Even what little they DO respect me, is not out of heart-devotion, but out of a sense of religious obligation. It’s “taught by MEN.” It’s merely tradition.
As radical and UNPOPULAR as Jesus’ diagnosis was in his own 1st c. Jewish context – that WE are the problem – it might be even MORE unpopular in our OWN 21st c. context today. We’ll come up with a THOUSAND explanations before we face the cold, hard truth. The problem is GUNS. No, the problem is mental health. No, it’s violent video games. No, it’s bullying. It’s absentee parents. It’s marginalization, and under-representation in the mainstream media. A THOUSAND scapegoats. Because we don’t have the brutal honesty to admit that deep down, in the darkest parts of our OWN sinful hearts, but for the grace of God, we would ALL be just as BROKEN, and just capable of the same kind of unspeakable evil.
Where’s the problem, friends? Is it OUT THERE? Everybody wants to blame somebody else these days. Jesus is holding up the mirror for us this morning.
3) Finally, Question #3: “What’s the FRUIT?” (vv20-23)
Here’s how JESUS warned his disciples to tell the difference between religion and true faith: “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit... Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16-20).
He LISTS the diseased fruit for us in Mark 7: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” THORNS. Thistles. Contrast that list, with the fruit of the SPIRIT, that Paul lists for us in Galatians 5: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control” (vv22-23).
See, religion will never fix us, fix the ROOT of our problems, pun intended, b/c it wrongly DIAGNOSES us with an external problem. Religion says the problem is the soil you’re growing in. It’s this tree virus that’s going around. It’s termites. Jesus says, “No, the PROBLEM is your bad seed that has given birth to bad ROOTS.” And BECAUSE religion can’t fix the real root of that problem, its proposed solution is to grow petri-dish fruit instead. Franken-fruit. And it’s never the same thing, is it? Test-tube fruit? I don’t even know if that’s a THING yet, is it? But how about Lab-grown meat? Or this new “plant-based meat” Qdoba keeps trying to get me to eat: it’ll NEVER taste the same; I don’t care HOW good the technology gets. And neither will the fruit of RELIGION.
Listen: Your good deeds, if performed from an unregenerate heart, leave a DISGUSTING taste in God’s mouth. He would rather you just be totally self-serving. At least then you’d be HONEST. Hypocrisy is Jesus’ LEAST favorite sin.
Jesus’ warning here isn’t just for 1st c. Pharisees; it’s for 21st c. religious folk as well. Do you realize that HELL is FILLED with religious people of ALL generations? “Christians” included. Claiming a label doesn’t mean ANYTHIjNG to Jesus; “Many will come to me and say “Lord, Lord” we attended church all our lives... and HE will say to them, “Depart from me, I NEVER KNEW YOU.” We never had a RELATIONSHIP. It was NEVER a matter of the HEART.
Do you know that your church attendance cannot save you?
Your life group participation cannot save you...
Your regular Bible study and prayer... your faithful tithing 10% every Sunday... Your SERVING every other month in the nursery... even serving in the TODDLER room – cannot save you. So you KNOW it’s not about your actions!
Friends, the ONLY thing, the only PERSON, who can save you, is JESUS CHRIST. ALL other ground is sinking sand. Including your RELIGION.
I wanna conclude here with a video. It may be familiar to many of you. It went viral in the church world 8 or 9 years ago now. It was made by a young man named Jefferson Bethke, and it’s entitled “Why I hate Religion, but I love Jesus”. We could question some of his theology. But on the whole, insofar as he understads “religion” the same way I do: as “man searching for God”, I think he does a pretty good job of powerfully portraying the difference for us, between Religion, and Jesus. Let’s watch.
Let’s Pray...