Mark’s Gospel • Chapter 7

Dave brings us back to Mark’s Gospel, and leads us through chapter 7. We see Jesus clash with the Pharisees (again!) and witness two miracles in Gentile country.

(Sermon transcript below)

Sermon transcript

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands are properly washed, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 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?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 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)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

In this chapter, Mark directs our attention to an encounter with the Pharisees and scribes. We've already met the Pharisees and scribes in Mark's gospel. Let’s remind ourselves of the previous meetings:

The Pharisees are the ones who questioned Jesus' authority to heal and forgive. Remember when the guy was lowered through the roof? They stood there, privately incensed that Jesus should claim to be able to forgive sins.

They are the ones who questioned his eating with sinners. When Jesus said, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." Jesus came to heal and bring life. The Pharisees, in contrast, are concerned with external compliance.

They are the ones who pointed out that the disciples were wrong to pick grain on the Sabbath. Jesus' response is that, "The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Again, we see the Pharisees concerned with behavioural compliance - this time it's over and against the need to eat.

They are the ones who have already plotted with the political leaders to "destroy" Jesus. This was in the wake of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath. Their rigid interpretation of Sabbath rules don't allow them to be happy that a man's withered hand is healed.

So, is short, they aren't on board with Jesus. Quite the opposite. They are shown to be a main opponent of Jesus.

They clash with Jesus, in this chapter, over hand washing.

It seems like they have a huge list of rules, right? And that these rules are incredibly important for them. What are these rules and where did they get them?

Well, remember Moses? Through him, God gave his people a set of laws to live by. These included the ten commandments and other laws on all kinds of topics, including cleanliness and purity.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day were group that taught these commandments from God, the ones given to Moses. But they also taught a set of unwritten rules, which they called the "tradition of the elders". This tradition added a whole set of rules that sought to extend God's law. If God's commandment was that the priests must wash in a certain way before entering the presence of God, the Pharisees extended that rule for everyone, in daily life and they really spelled it out. Mark gives us some examples, the "washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches". You can't fault the Pharisees commitment to purity. And that's what their name means: those who are set apart.

So Mark sets up this cash between this group and Jesus. Jesus who is doing the signs of a Messiah, who is drawing a crowd and causing a stir.

Wouldn't such a man stick to these rules more than anyone else? And yet here he is, mixing with sinners and unacceptable people - and his disciples don't even wash their hands properly.

So they pose the question to Jesus.

And what does Jesus say? He calls them hypocrites. Actors. They say all the right words, but their heart is far away. Everything they do is "in vain". All that washing is meaningless.

But doesn't the washing and ritual keep the people safe and healthy? Isn't that part of the point of the laws?

Yes. But is Jesus talking about hygiene or heart here? Heart. He's talking about the heart.

Remember when Samuel goes to pick a new king for Israel? God tells him to look past the tall, strong candidates. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Replace "man" with "Pharisee" and we come back to Mark. The Pharisees are concerned only with external compliance to regulations. Regulations that they've developed themselves.

They ignore the law so they can hold to their own tradition.

Jesus picks out an example from the Pharisees playbook. God's commandment says to honour your father and mother. In those days children would carry the responsibility of looking after their parents in old age. The Pharisees say, well, I kind of want to keep all my stuff, all my money. Tell you what, I'll pledge my money, my house, my property to God. I'll give it all to the temple funds. Of course, I'll use it while I'm alive... it would be daft not to, right? My parents won't get a penny, but I'm honouring God.

Whereas God's commandment was directed to the heart (honour your father and mother), the Pharisees traditions and loopholes were all about behaviour.

You can see how they thought. How they ignored the simple commandment from God, created a complex system of loopholes to do whatever they wanted. All in God's name.

And now they have the misfortune of God himself, in Jesus, appearing on their doorstep. Jesus simply calls them out. Speaks the truth. "You bunch of hypocrites.

But he's not finished. This isn't an opportunity he wants to miss. He calls everyone together. And he throws everyone's worldview upside-down.

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 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.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 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, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

When the Pharisees added the tradition of the elders onto God's commandments they produced a particular way of thinking:

Purity and holiness was about staying away from dirty things, and if you touched something dirty, you had to wash it off. Something external was the problem that you had to solve by distance and washing.

Think about the mindset that this would produce: I'm OK as long as I follow the rules. The heart could be a million miles from kindness and love and faithfulness, as long as you washed.

Jesus comes into this world and says, no.

It's not about external things defiling me. It's not about what foods I eat. Or who I touch. Or how often I wash. It's about what comes out of me.

Now, that's a completely different way of looking at things. If bad things come out of me, I'm defiled. Unclean. Not OK.

With this one statement, Jesus takes away the hope of every self-righteous human, but also lifts the heavy burden from sinners and those deemed "unclean" by society.

On the one hand, the self-righteous Pharisees, full of pride and murderous thoughts toward Jesus are told that it's these very things - their pride and evil thoughts - that defile them, make them not OK before God. You can't wash pride off. You can't keep distance from your own thoughts. No effort can produce righteousness.

On the other hand, this is the beginning of good news for the ordinary people, sinners and those deemed unclean by society. That list of rules they should have been following doesn't even work. The relief must have been quite something. It's the beginning of good news, but Jesus is in fact calling them defiled too, as no one can be free from "evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness." The human condition is to be susceptible to these things. No one has kept free of all of them for even one day, I imagine.

Mark keeps us hanging here. He shows Jesus tipping the world view upside down: no one can be clean because the bad things come from inside you. But at this point in the story we have no solution. No resolution. Just a corrected diagnosis. We are, in fact, in need of a doctor or else we'll die. We need a saviour, a hero. The hero isn't me. My effort at righteousness is "in vain".

Most of us know how this story ends. Jesus walks to Jerusalem, toward his execution. This man is killed, but rises from the dead. And everything he ever said is true. When he talked about our hearts being defiled he was diagnosing a condition that he knew he could heal. The condition leads to death, but what we didn't know is that his death is one death that counts for all.

But we're not there. Mark leaves this story here. A loose end. Unresolved. Feel it. You're sick. You need a hero.

So now we change scenes. Jesus has been in Galilee, talking to the people of Israel. And now he goes North-West, to Syro-Phonecia. Out of Jewish territory. Among the Gentiles. We've just seen that Mark feels like he has to explain to his readers the complexities of Jewish customs regrading how they washed and what Corban means. So a lot of people think Mark was writing mainly for Gentiles. otherwise, why would he feel like he has to explain those things? And now Jesus is confronted by a Gentile.

What would be the question on a Gentile readers mind as they read or listen to this story of the Jewish Rabbi who fulfilled all the Jewish prophecies? Might they be thinking, "but I'm a Gentile - what has this hope got to do with me?" I think that would be a real issue for them.

Maybe Mark has included this story of when Jesus met this Gentile woman to show where he drew the boundary lines of his Kingdom. Let's read.

And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

On first reading, the thing that jumps out to me is that this doesn't sound like the Jesus who a few chapters back was so moved with compassion that he brought bread and fish out of thin air. It sounds harsh, referring to her as a dog. And it would be easy to try and explain this away, or read past it quickly. But I think that if we want the Bible to shape us, and not us shape the Bible, we have to pause at the bits that throw up questions.

So what questions jump at me?

• Jesus calls her a dog. Isn't that rude?

• Jesus seems to be pushing this woman away, despite the suffering of her daughter. Why?

• The woman's smart answer seems to change Jesus' mind. Is that what really happens here?

But I need to hold these questions alongside the question that guides our reading of all Scripture: What is the author saying in this passage, and how does it fit in with the rest of Scripture?

What is Mark saying? Mark seems to be showing us that Jesus' kingdom isn't limited to Jews. Jesus frees the daughter. He performs a sign of the kingdom in Gentile country. But we also see that Jesus sees his main mission at this point to be focused on the Jews. So, he wants to focus on his immediate mission: the Jews, but he responds to this amazing woman's faith and frees her daughter from the demon.

My initial questions are valid, and I need to ask them. But if I lose sight of what Mark is saying I'll distort the passage.

I don't have time for a full discussion of this little passage, important as it is. But I do encourage you to take some time to consider it.

Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Jesus leaves the woman and that region, and travels to another mainly Gentile region, Decapolis.

Again we ask ourself the question: why has Mark included this healing of a Gentile at this point in his narrative? Well, he seems to be piling up the evidence that Jesus is the saviour of Jews and Gentiles alike. It's great news for his mainly Gentile readers and it's great news for us in sunny Redcar town.

In this chapter of Mark's gospel we've seen Jesus deliver a double edged sword: external things don't defile us - but the bad things that come from our heart do. We don't need heavy rules, but we do need a saviour. And in this this chapter we've seen that this Saviour of the Jews is actually the King of the world. The blessing is for us too.