At
the church where I serve we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled
“Invite”. During this series we are looking at several events from history
where Jesus engaged and invited those who were far from Him to follow Him and
live in relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to discover
what Jesus said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him and live in
relationship with Him. During this series, we are going to discover how Jesus
said what He said to invite those who were far from Him to follow Him and live
in relationship with Him. And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer
is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts,
and hands in a way that equips and empowers us to
follow the example of Jesus when it comes to inviting those who are far from
Jesus to follow Jesus and live in relationship with Jesus.
This
week, I would like for us to look at an event from history that is recorded
in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible
called the gospel of Mark.
And it is in a section of the gospel of Mark that we see Mark give us a front
row seat to a confrontation that Jesus had with a group of people who had their
own perspective when it came to how people were to engage those who were far
from God and were to live in relationship with God. So let’s take that front
row seat together, beginning in Mark 7:1-5:
The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they
had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of His disciples
were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For
the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their
hands, thus observing the
traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless
they cleanse 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.) 5 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 impure hands?"
Mark begins to give us a front row seat to this
confrontation by providing the context by which this confrontation would take
place. However, to fully understand what is happening here, we first need to
understand who was involved in this confrontation and what the phrase “eating
their bread with impute hands, that is unwashed” means. When Mark refers to the
Pharisees and some of the scribes, the Pharisees and scribes were two different groups of Jewish people who were the self-righteous
religious leaders of Jesus' day. Both the Pharisees and the scribes were aware that Jesus had grown in
popularity in the eyes of the Jewish people. And as a result of His growing
popularity, Jesus was viewed as a threat by the Pharisees and the scribes to
their position and power that they loved.
And it was in this
context that Mark tells us that the Pharisees and some of the scribes had made
the trip from Jerusalem to northern Israel to check up on Jesus. And as they
came to check up on Jesus, Mark tells us that these self-righteous religious
leaders saw that some of Jesus disciples were eating
their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. Now when Mark uses this
phrase, he is not saying that Jesus disciples were not washing their hands
before eating a meal.
You see, this was not an issue of Jesus disciples
eating with dirty hands. We see Mark reveal this reality with what he says in
verse three: “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they
carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders”.
But what does that even mean? If the disciples were not eating with dirty
hands, then what was the problem that they needed to wash their hands? And what
is Mark referring to when he refers to the traditions of the Elders?
To answer these questions, we first need to understand
something about the history of the Jewish people and how they worshipped the
Lord. You see, in a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old
Testament of the Bible, called the book of Exodus, we see the Lord give the
Jewish people clear instructions when it came to how they were to approach the
Lord in worship. As part of those clear instructions, the Lord had commanded
those who served as priests of the Lord to wash their hands and their feet before
entering into the Tabernacle.
Now the Tabernacle was the place where the presence of
God dwelt among the Jewish people as the Lord led the Jewish people into the
land that He had promised them. Because
the priests were entering into the very presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle,
the priests were required to carefully wash their hands and feet so that they
would be ceremonially clean as they served as a minister to the Lord. It is
important to understand that this command was only given to the priests who
would be entering into the tabernacle to serve and minister to the Lord in the
presence of the Lord.
However, in Jesus day, this command that had been
given by the Lord to the priests had been extended to be required of every
Jewish person according to the oral tradition what was taught by the Jewish
religious leaders of the day. Thus, the Jewish religious leaders had created a
manmade law and elevated it as being as equal to the commands of God. And as
these religious leaders observed Jesus disciples not following the traditions
and laws that they had made for the Jewish people to observe, they responded by
questioning and challenging Jesus as to why He would allow His disciples to
disobey their commands, which they viewed as being as equal to God’s commands.
Now here is a question to consider: how often can we
find ourselves in the place where we are making man made rules and elevating
them to the place that they are viewed as being equal to God’s rules? You see,
as followers of Jesus, we are to take the message and teachings of Jesus and
the commands of Jesus and use wisdom and discernment to make sure that we apply
the commands of Jesus in a way that is clear and obvious for our cultural
setting.
However, in the process of striving to interpret and
apply the message and teaching of Jesus and the commands of Jesus to our
cultural setting in a way that makes those commands clear and obvious, we run
the risk and the potential danger of creating rules for following Jesus that
overstep and go beyond the rules that Jesus gave for following Him. And as Mark
continues to give us a front row seat to this confrontation between Jesus and
the religious leaders of His day, we see Jesus reveal the reality that the
religious leaders of His day had done just that. Notice Jesus response to the
religious leader’s question in verse 6-8:
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. 7
'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.' 8
"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of
men."
Mark tells us that Jesus responded to the question by
accusing the Pharisees and scribes of being hypocrites. However, to fully
understand Jesus response, we first need to understand what Jesus means when He
uses the word hypocrites. The word hypocrite, when used in
Jesus day, referred to one who was an actor or a pretender. In our culture today, we
would refer to such a person as a poser. A hypocrite creates a public
impression that is at odds with one’s real motivation or purpose.
So,
to be a follower of Jesus who strives to follow the message and teachings of
Jesus, yet sometimes falls short is not being a hypocrite. A hypocrite is
someone that says, “here is the message and teachings of Jesus, and you need to
follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. A hypocrite fails to follow
the message and teachings that they impose on others. Jesus point behind His
accusation was that the Pharisees were hypocrites
because they were giving an appearance to the Jewish people about where they
were at in their relationship with God that was at odds with where they were
truly at in their relationship with God.
Jesus backed His accusation by quoting from a section
of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called
the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 29:13, the prophet Isaiah called out the Jewish
people of his day as being hypocrites because they were focused on being
obedient to their man made rules while being disobedient to God’s rules. And in
the same way, Jesus was exposing the reality that the Pharisees and scribes
were focused on forcing others to be obedient to their man made rules while
being disobedient, and leading the Jewish people to be disobedient, to God’s
rules.
After quoting from Isaiah, Jesus hammered His
accusation home by proclaiming that the Pharisees and scribes were neglecting,
or abandoning, the commandment of God. Instead the Pharisees and scribes were focused
on holding fast to the tradition of men that they had turned into commandments
of men that held equal weight to God’s commands. Now here is a question to
consider: how often can we find ourselves in the place where we are doing the
exact same thing?
How often can we find ourselves focused on external
behavior while ignoring our heart motivations that lead to our behavior? How
often do we focus on the “what” of behavior without focusing on the “why” of
the behavior? You see, just like the Pharisees and scribes, man-made human religious
rules tend to focus on the outside behavior, while God is focused on the heart
and our inner motivations the produce the behavior.
After accusing the Pharisees and scribes of hypocrisy,
we see Jesus provide an example of their hypocrisy. Tomorrow we will look at
that example together…
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