Mark Part 8

MARK

JESUS, THE GREAT PHYSICIAN, DIAGNOSES THE HUMAN CONDITION

MARK 7:1-23 – JESUS, THE GREAT PHYSICIAN, DIAGNOSES THE HUMAN CONDITION

Have you or someone you know ever gone to the doctor thinking everything was OK – maybe it was just a routine checkup – only to have the doctor give you some bad news? Has that ever happened to you or someone you know? “Wow! I didn’t realize I was that sick!” That was my reaction. This is what happens in our lesson today in Mark Chapter 7. In this case it is not a physical diagnosis by a medical doctor, but rather, it is a spiritual diagnosis by Jesus, the Great Physician.

Jesus garnered that label as the Great Physician back in Mark Chapter 2. There Jesus had an early run-in with the Pharisees who objected to the company He was keeping. He was eating with tax collectors and sinners! How dare Him! Jesus’s response was, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Well, in our lesson today Jesus has another encounter with the Pharisees. They view themselves as being OK. They see themselves as spiritually healthy. They follow the Law. They do all those religious things that good Jews are supposed to do. Well, Jesus the Great Physician is about to give them a diagnosis that they are not expecting to hear. 

So, here is the setting for Mark Chapter 7 – Jesus is at the end of His Galilean Ministry. Even though we are not quite halfway through Mark’s Gospel yet, chronologically we are about two-thirds the way through Jesus’s earthly ministry. His popularity is still quite high, but at this point it is going to begin to decline. From this point forward, we will see increased opposition to Jesus by the Jewish leaders. Their hostility toward Jesus is going to influence the people and turn them against Him. So, let’s go ahead and get started, looking at Mark Chapter 7 beginning in v 1.

READ Mark 7:1-4

Q1, why were the Pharisees and teachers of the law from Jerusalem upset with Jesus’s disciples? They ate with unwashed hands. How dare they do such a thing! The “unwashed” hands referenced here is not about personal hygiene. It is not about cleaning dirty hands. It is common sense to wash your hands before you sit down to eat. Most civilized people in the world, even back in those days, do this. What is referred to here is a ritual or a ceremonial cleansing. Well, what does the Mosaic Law – the law God gave Moses on Mount Sinai – say are the requirements for washing hands? The only requirement in the Law is for the priests. If you read Exodus 30 and Leviticus 22 it lays out all the ritual cleansing laws. But that was for the priests only. Later traditions developed by Jewish rabbis over the centuries made the ritual washing a requirement for ALL the people, not just the priests. Now these traditions were well-intentioned. They served as a guardrail for the law. They helped the people better keep the law. What started out originally as a positive thing became more and more burdensome over time. Rules upon rules upon rules were added until eventually they became traditions which, in effect. replaced the Law.

John MacArthur said something very interesting about this… The Mishnah is the accumulated content of Jewish traditions. It was compiled around 200 A.D., not long after the time of Christ and the apostles. The Mishnah contains volumes upon volumes of material. Thirty chapters alone are devoted to the ceremonial ritual cleansing of pots and pans. So, now you understand why Mark says in v 4 that “there are many other traditions that they observe.” It had gotten ridiculous.

The scribes and Pharisees have elevated what they called the “traditions of the elders” above Scripture. We see that in Christianity today, most notably in the Catholic church where church traditions appear to be held in higher regard than scripture. The traditions are placed very high.

Here’s the point of all this… Q2, were the disciples transgressing the Law of Moses by what they did? No. They were NOT violating the law by not ceremonially cleansing their hands before they ate. They are just failing to follow the traditions of men. So Q2 is false.

But apparently what the disciples are doing – or in this case NOT doing – bothers the Pharisees enough that they go to Jesus and ask Him about it in v 5.

READ Mark 7:5

Jesus responds to their question by quoting scripture, the prophet Isaiah.

READ Mark 7:6-7

Jesus quotes here from Isaiah 29:13. In v 6 you have the answer to Q3. What word best describes Jesus’s view of the Pharisees of His day? “Hypocrites.”

When Isaiah penned these words about 750 years before, he was condemning the empty ritualism of his day that dominated Judaism. Q4, according to Isaiah and Jesus, as a result of their teachings being all about the rules of men, what was it that the Pharisees were doing? The answer is in v 7. They were worshipping God in vain. In other words, their worship is empty. It is worthless. What is happening in Jesus’s day is really nothing new. It had apparently been a problem for centuries. I see it as a problem in Christianity today. A lot of religious activity has become repetitious, nothing more than ritual. Even as Baptists, we can sometimes find ourselves just going through the motions without really thinking about the deeper spiritual meaning behind what we are doing. It is easy to do, like with the Lord’s Supper, right?

READ Mark 7:8

Now, there is nothing wrong with traditions. Jesus isn’t condemning them. He is just pointing out the problem of replacing God’s word, His truth with those traditions.

What Jesus does now is He gives a real-world example of one of the practices that they had. It illustrates the hypocrisy and emptiness of their religion. That begins in v 9.

READ Mark 7:9-10

“Honor your father and your mother…” That is in the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:12. “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die” comes from Exodus 21:17. Both of these are taught in the Old Testament book of Exodus. They are not that hard to understand. V 11, “But YOU say…” YOUR tradition, this is what it is…

READ Mark 7:11-13a

That word Corban means literally “devoted to God.” It is basically an offering. It is money designated for a sacred purpose. That all sounds really spiritual, doesn’t it? This is a practice that had developed in the Jewish rabbinic system. It was one of their traditions. This is the problem… Instead of taking care of aging parents like they were obligated to do (you have to remember that there was no government welfare system back then). So, the only way that the elderly were taken care of was by the family. The adult children would say something to this effect: “I’m very sorry, Mom, Dad. I know you’re struggling for food. I so wish I could give you some money. However, I have dedicated my money to God. That is more important anyway, isn’t it?” You get the idea.

Q5, how did the Jews of Jesus’s day avoid having to do anything for their father or mother? By saying that something is a gift devoted to God. That is all they had to do. “Sorry, this gift is devoted to God. I can’t help you out.” This was actually happening in Jesus’s day. In practice a person could look spiritual by not spending their money to take care of their parents’ needs. But that was NOT and still is not God’s desire. God’s heart is for the most vulnerable of people – the children, elderly, widows, orphans. Those are the ones God has the biggest heart for, the most vulnerable.

Q6, I will admit is a bit of a trick question. The KJV says “You made the word of God of none (or no) effect.” The NLT says “You have cancelled the word of God.” The NASB says “You have invalidated the word of God.” It is apparently a pretty complex work that is used in the Greek. So, if you circled “nullified” that would be OK. But the Jews were certainly “exploiting” the word of God by their real-world everyday practice. You would not be wrong to say they were “ignoring” or “rejecting” God’s word to honor their father and mother. So, in my opinion it is OK to circle any or all of these words.

The end of v 13 says, “And many such things you do.” There were many other examples that Jesus could have pointed to. He just chose this one to make His point.

Jesus views the religious people of His day as being spiritually empty! Based on what Jesus has just said, do you think God is pleased with their worship? No, I don’t believe that He is.

Up to this point here in Chapter 7, Jesus has been talking to the scribes and Pharisees. Remember they came to Him. Jesus now turns and begins to address the crowd at large (there is a large crowd following Jesus so they are standing around). Jesus wants to clarify a basic Jewish misunderstanding about what sin really is. The Great Physician is about to make a diagnosis of the human condition and it is not good.

READ Mark 7:14-17

In v 15 Jesus makes a statement that the disciples refer to as a parable. It is not the traditional parable that Jesus often teaches involving a story or an illustration. This is more like a one-verse clarification of sin, but it confused the disciples.

The key word in v 15 is “defile.” It is the same word that earlier in this passage the Pharisees had misused when accusing the disciples of eating with defiled hands. What does “defile” mean? To defile someone or something is to take what is clean or pure and make it unclean. It is not a physical act, but a spiritual one. So, the first characteristic of sin that Jesus points out is that sin, at its root, is a spiritual condition. When we sin, we become spiritually defiled, or unclean. And, because God is holy, our sin hinders our fellowship with God. Our defiled condition can most certainly affect us physically, and it often does (you can become ill by what you eat, by touching someone who is sick you can get what they have) but it is first and foremost a spiritual condition.

The second characteristic of sin is that it defiles a person internally. Our battle with sin starts in our mind. It is not the external things that spiritually defile us. It is not the eating of certain foods. It is not washing dirty hands or dishes. It is not about touching sick people, and so forth. It is none of those things that most of the Jews in Jesus’s day focused on. So, there you have the answer to Q7, what does NOT defile a person, v 15? It is anything entering a person from the outside. We have a sin problem and the root of that problem is found inside a person. And that makes the answer to Q8 false. According to Jesus, what enters a person DOES NOT defile them.    

The disciples had all been raised good Jews. They are wondering to themselves as they listen to Jesus, “What does Jesus mean?” So, they do the right thing. Later, when they are alone in the house with Jesus and away from the crowds, v 17, they ask Him to explain the meaning to them.

And so, Jesus, being the good Teacher that He is, does just that, beginning in v 18. So now He is talking to His disciples.

READ Mark 7:18-19

A third characteristic of sin is that it is not produced by external factors. The foods we eat are not what produces sin in our life. So then, the application for Jesus’s day is that all of those dietary food restrictions that you read in Leviticus – you can forget about all that. Why do I say that? Because Mark adds this note in parenthesis: “Thus Jesus declared all foods clean.” We see this reinforced by God later in Acts Chapter 10. Peter, a die-hard Jew, has a vision on the rooftop and sees all these foods that are off limits and God tells him, “Kill and eat!” That was revolutionary for Peter. All those other external things the Jews focused on like blood, bodily fluids, decaying flesh, Gentiles and sick people do not in and of themselves produce sin. Those things could cause someone to become physically ill, but they do not defile a person spiritually.

Why is that the things outside a person do not defile them? That is what Q9 asks. According to Jesus in v 19 it is because why? They go into the stomach and then are expelled from the body.

Do you all remember the very first sin in the Bible, Genesis Chapter 3? Was the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil what caused Adam and Eve to sin? Was the fruit itself evil? No, that sin, like every other sin since, started in the mind. Adam and Eve both desired to be like God. They both believed the serpent’s lies (Adam was standing right there when Eve sinned and they were both held accountable by God the same) instead of what God had told them. Their sin was willful disobedience to God. Basically, it is this: “I want what I want more than what God wants.”

So, it wasn’t the external fruit that produced sin, but rather an internal rebellion against God’s command.

 Jesus further clarifies the issue of sin with these words…

READ Mark 7:20-23

Q10, Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.” Where is the place of this defiling influence inside of a person, v 21? The heart. That word "heart," biblically speaking is NOT the organ that pumps blood. We have adopted this same term in English when we say things like “I love you with all of my heart” or “He broke my heart.” The heart in this sense refers to the very center of a person’s being. The heart includes the mind and the will and the emotions. It is often used interchangeably with the soul. It is what is deep down inside of you.

Now, there is no need for us to go through the list, is there? You all understand what Jesus is saying. From within us come all sorts of evil and ugly actions and attitudes. Let me give you a few verses that underscore what Jesus is saying here. These are verses that you are familiar with. Maybe you didn’t know where they were, but when you see them, you will recognize them.

Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Proverbs 4:23: Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.

Psalm 51:10: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Psalm 19:14: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

So, what is Jesus’s diagnosis of our human condition? The diagnosis is not good. We have, bottom line, a sin problem and it is fatal if not treated.

Why did Jesus come the first time? This is something we have talked about and I want to retrace our steps just a little bit. The title of this study is “Messiah’s Mysterious Mission.” So far in our study of Mark, Jesus’s mission has yet to be revealed. None of the characters in Mark’s narrative including Jesus’s disciples are aware of Jesus’s mission. Not yet anyway. However, we know from having read our Bibles (and been in church our whole lives) what Jesus’s mission is and it is a redemptive mission, right? We know that. Jesus’s eye is on a cross, not a crown. Why is this Jesus’s mission? Why a cross? Why will Jesus have to die? It is all because of our condition.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), right? We fall short of God’s holy standard. “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). So, our sins have separated us from God. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). Our sin has doomed us to an eternity apart from Him in a place of torment. So, clearly something had to be done! Jesus’s mission will become clearer as we read further through Mark. We will see that He came to save us. He came to deliver us from the penalty of our sins. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). He came that we might have life. He came to restore our broken relationship with God.

In Mark Chapter 7, the Great Physician has just given His audience the bad news. Q11, what is the Great Physician’s diagnosis of the human condition? Is it just bad? It is terminal. We are going to die! We humans have a sin problem and it is going to be fatal if not treated.

Q12, based on what you know from the Bible, what is our prognosis? Can the human condition be treated? YES. There is hope! The Good News of the Gospel is that there is good news. Have you ever got bad news from the doctor but then you get some good news – “We can treat this!” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And I love v 17… “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

So, how did you all answer Q13? Is there a cure for our sin problem? There is a cure, right? God’s grace by faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus to save us. It is faith, right? We cannot see Jesus with our physical eyes. None of us have seen Jesus with our physical eyes. The disciples did, but we haven’t. So, we are going to place our faith in Someone we have never seen to save us from something that is going on internally, inside of us, from our sins and the penalty of our sins. We must at some point believe with our heart – mind, will and emotions, all of our being. We must at some point place our faith in Him.

I love the way the pastor ended his sermon today. He was talking about the Beatitudes (Matthew Chapter 5 v 10-12). He talked about the “reward” (our reward in heaven). He asked, “what is that reward in heaven?” Do you remember what he said? Christ. Jesus Himself is our reward. We think about the streets of gold and the mansion that we are going to get, the crowns and all these things… NO! The real reward is Jesus Himself. The intimacy with Jesus is what he said. It is not a place in heaven. It is not our mansion. It is not a crown. It is Jesus Himself.

That is the cure for our disease, for our sin problem – it’s Jesus. It is what He did for us. It is nothing that we did.