Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we reject the temptation to add man-made rules to the message of Jesus...

This week we are looking 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. In this event from history, as the Pharisees and some of the scribes had made the trip from Jerusalem to northern Israel to check up on Jesus, these self-righteous religious leaders saw that some of Jesus disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed.

These Jewish religious leaders had created a man-made 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.

Jesus responded to the question by accusing the Pharisees and scribes of being hypocrites. 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. Jesus was exposing the reality that the Pharisees and scribes were focused on forcing others to be obedient to their manmade rules while being disobedient, and leading the Jewish people to be disobedient, to God’s rules.

Jesus then provided an example where the Pharisees and scribes had invalidated God’s clear commands by elevating their man-made rules to the status of being equal to God’s rules. Jesus provided this example to point to the reality that God did not give humanity the authority to increase and add to the commands and demands that He has given humanity. Jesus point is that God is the only one who has the right to make laws about following Him and demand that we obey those laws about following Him. Jesus point is that no human being has the right to make laws that they demand obedience to that is equal to the obedience the God demands when it comes to His laws.

Jesus then hammed His point by telling a parable. If Jesus was telling this parable in the language that we use in our culture today, this parable would have sounded something like this: “Hey listen up and pay attention because this is important. There is nothing outside of anyone that can cause someone to be impure spiritually. Instead, it is what comes out of you that reveals the reality that you are already impure spiritually.”

Now I want us to take a minute an imagine ourselves as one of Jesus followers listening to this confrontation. You have grown up your whole life learning not only the commandments of God, but also the traditions of the Elders. You have grown up your whole life with a list of rules that clearly came from God that you needed to follow, along with a list of rules that came from the religious leaders that you needed to follow in order to be right with God. You grew up your whole life with an understanding that the rules that came from the religious leaders needed to be followed because they helped make sure that you obeyed the rules that came from God.

And now you have just heard Jesus accuse the religious leaders of your day of creating man-made religious rules that actually resulted in you breaking the rules of God, not obeying the rules of God. Now you are one of Jesus followers. What would you be thinking? How would you be feeling? How would you respond? We see the disciple’s response in Mark 7:17-23:

When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. ¹⁸ And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, ¹⁹ because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) ²⁰ And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. ²¹ "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, ²² deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. ²³ "All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

Mark tells us that upon getting away from the crowds and getting back home, Jesus disciples began to question Him about the parable. Jesus responded to their questions that revealed a lack of understanding by providing them a biology lesson that contained a deep spiritual truth. Jesus explained to His disciples that whatever physical food that enters anyone’s body by eating cannot cause someone to be impure spiritually, because the source of a person’s spiritual impurity is not their stomach.

Physical food that enters into a body does not stay in the body, but passes through and leaves the body. Some food passes through faster or more painfully than others, right? I mean we have all experienced this reality. Jesus then explained that what causes someone to be spiritually impure is not from what comes from the outside, but what is already inside the human heart. 

Jesus revealed the deep spiritual reality that the external actions that cause us to rebel against God, sexually, relationally, physically, emotionally, and intellectually are the result of what is already present in the heart. Jesus used this parable to prove the point that external, man-made rules cannot, do not, and will not make a person right with God.

And it is here that we discover a timeless truth when it comes to inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we reject the temptation to add man-made rules to the message of Jesus. Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we recognize the reality that man-made rules have no power to attract people who are far from Jesus to Jesus. Instead man-made rules only drive those who are far from Jesus further away from Jesus.

You see, man-made rules only produce rebellion against authority and against God. When we add man-made rules to God’s rules, we immediately increase the likelihood of resistance to our authority. The most difficult people to reach who are far from Jesus are those who were raised in legalistic churches and homes that emphasized man-made rules and who have rebelled from such authoritarian rule making and rule keeping. And intuitively we know this to be true, don’t we?

And for some of us, this may be your story. For some of us this morning, this is why we left church. For some of us, this is why we have been so resistant to accepting an invitation to attend church. You may have left church and resisted the invitation to return to church because you have had a bad experience  where you were forced to follow rules that did not come from Jesus who were given by people who lived hypocritical lives that looked nothing like Jesus.

Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we recognize the reality that man-made rules are ultimately a religious system of the world that is based on rules and not a relationship with Jesus. Man-made religious rules tend to focus on the outside behavior, while God is focused on the heart and our inner motivations the produce the behavior. You see, our rescue from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God is not based on our rule-keeping performance. Instead, our rescue from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God is based solely on trusting in Jesus performance for us.

And inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we recognize the reality that man-made rules only empower followers of Jesus to separate themselves from those who are far from Jesus. Man-made rules only empower followers of Jesus to separate from those who are far from Jesus because the very man-made rules that are designed to keep us right with God are designed to keep us apart from people who are far from Jesus.

Man-made rules only empower followers of Jesus to separate from those who are far from Jesus because the very man made rules that are designed to keep us right with God undermine our desire to love, serve and communicate the message of Jesus to those who are far from Jesus because we must make sure that we do not break any of our man-made rules when we are around those who are far from Jesus. Man-made rules only empower followers of Jesus to separate from those who are far from Jesus because man-made rules undermine our ability to relate to those who are far from Jesus in a comfortable way because we feel out of place and those who are far from Jesus feel uncomfortable with us.

So, here is a question for us to consider: Are you adding man-made rules to the message of Jesus?  Because inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we reject the temptation to add man-made rules to the message of Jesus...