This last week we put up our Christmas tree. We have a tradition around our house that we go to this farm where we get a living tree, have it cut down, and bring it home. I usually have the job of trimming it, and mounting it on it’s stand, and then we would light some candles, have some egg nog and play some Nat King Cole Christmas carols on the cd player. Susie would make cookies, and all the kids would help hang the decorations. That was our tradition. This year it didn’t seem to go that way. The tree we ended up getting had already been cut down some time ago. My older kids are not coming home this Christmas, so we ended up decorating the tree in stages, without a lot of the rituals that we used to have. I kind of found myself missing a lot of the ceremony surrounding putting up the tree, until I realized what I really missed was having our kids around.
The point that I want to make though is that sometimes we find certain rituals and ceremonies very comforting. Especially during the holidays. And the same is true in the church. People like familiarity. They like traditions. “This is the way it’s always been done.” They might not know why it has always been done that way, but that doesn’t seem to matter as much as the fact that they like it done that way.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with traditions or rituals or ceremonies, per se, but we have to be careful in the church, and in our Christian lives, that we are not attributing some measure of sacredness to something that was intended to be merely symbolic. Symbolism cannot save you. Rituals can never save you. Ceremonies, no matter how sincere, how soothing, or how holy they may seem, can never impute righteousness.
Now in this rather long text today, we are looking at the distinction between the external and the internal. We are looking at the distinction between traditions and the truth. Between the spiritual and the physical. I could break it up into two or three sermons, and I probably should for the sake of time and the volume of material. But I believe that it is all connected in such a way as to teach this important distinction, and so I am going to try to deliver it in the way it was intended to be received. All in one sitting. That means we will have to move rather quickly and not spend too much time on non essential details such as geography, and things like that.
The text starts with Jesus establishing the distinction between truth and tradition. Note vs3, the Pharisees have questioned Jesus, really they are accusing Him, of not keeping the traditions of the elders. Now that tradition was the ceremonial washing of hands before eating. This was not just a matter of hygiene. This was a ceremonial hand washing that had been established by the rabbis to purify the person involved. There had been a ceremonial washing in the law that was prescribed for the priests, but this was not that. This was in addition to that, which every good Jew was supposed to do, which acted as a sort of purification rite for the person involved. Vs3 “(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.)” Note; there are many other things… which they observe. The point is that they attributed a certain degree of righteousness or holiness that they believed was obtained by observing these elaborate rituals.
But Jesus calls out them out on this, because He says, these are the traditions of men, and not of God. Vs 6 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."
So the litmus test, according to Jesus, is whether such a thing is of God or is it of men. It doesn’t matter if it is sincere, it doesn’t matter if it is well intended, it doesn’t matter if it makes you feel better about yourself, if it is not something dictated in scripture, then it is not of God, it is of men. And as such, it may or may not have any value in the spiritual realm. No amount of washing will make you clean spiritually. No baptism can save you, because baptism was never given to save. It was given as a symbol of being saved. Symbols cannot save, any more than the blood of bulls and goats could save.
Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites. Hypocrite means literally an actor on a stage. That’s the problem with such public rituals which are man made. They give an appearance of religion, of holiness, but actually they are a fake persona that is put up for the sake of men. And while men may applaud you, God sees the heart and knows that it is only an external affectation.
That leads us to the second point which I see here in the text, and that is the distinctives of true worship. Notice Jesus says in quoting from Isaiah 29, “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
God is saying through Isaiah that such traditions do not constitute true worship if they are merely ceremonies and traditions made by men and not by God. Jesus said in John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The Psalmist David said God desires truth in the innermost being, in the heart. So it is not what is on the outside that counts towards God, but what is on the inside.
The heart, by the way, is one of those Christian words that some of you may not understand. The heart is the soul of man, or the seat of the will, intellect and emotions. And the way that operates is like the muscle or mechanism between the spirit and the body. Man was made spirit, soul or heart, and body. Either the spirit or the body is going to be dominant. The heart responds to the leading of either the body or the spirit. As Christians, we are to be living according to the spirit, not according to the flesh. The heart puts into action the desire of either the spirit or the desire of the flesh. So to worship God, our heart must be yielded completely to the spirit, to do the will of God.
One of the great travesties subjected upon the evangelical church today is this modern concept of worship, or praise and worship. I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but most of what constitutes worship today in the church is not founded upon the whole truth, but is a distortion of worship. I’ve heard pastors and especially so called worship pastors, berate congregations for not “getting into it” enough in the “worship service” because some people didn’t want to raise their hands or clap their hands. If that’s not an example of external, ceremonial traditions then I don’t know what is. Now granted, there may have been older traditions just as intrenched in the church which had no basis in scripture either. But the fact remains, that you cannot achieve holiness by singing the word holy seventy times seven in a worship service. You cannot achieve righteousness by raising your hands, or closing your eyes, or having some sort of ecstatic experience. Holiness is not an outward expression, but a matter of the heart.
In vs6, Jesus says that you cannot honor Him with your lips, if you don’t honor Him first in your heart. Out of the heart comes the actions that show the condition of your heart. Now Jesus is a preacher, and as a preacher He knows the value of a good illustration. So He illustrates this point by referring to a commandment of Moses, which of course was given to Moses by God.
Vs.9-13 He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. "For Moses said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER'; and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH'; but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
Now notice first of all that Jesus accuses them for setting aside the commandment of God in favor of keeping the tradition of men. I once had someone leave this church over the fact that I rebuked them for exactly that thing. I wasn’t trying to be mean, I simply tried to show this person that their attempt to keep lent was in violation of Jesus’s commands concerning fasting in Matthew 5 in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said to not broadcast it when you fast, and the Lord who sees the secrets of men’s hearts will reward you. But if you fast to be seen of men, then you have your reward in full. This person wanted to participate in a local church’s Lent program, where they then walked around town for three days with a cross marked on their forehead so everyone could see they were fasting. And for some reason, when I countered that with scripture, he got very incensed, and left the church in a huff. That’s an example of setting aside the commandment of God for the tradition of men.
And Jesus gives another example, one that was being implemented by the Pharisees. They conveniently set aside the commandment to honor your father and mother, by some tradition that if you said that your money was dedicated to God, then you could ignore the needs of your parents. They said it was dedicated to God, “Corban,” but the fact is it was only something that was said and not acted upon. They denied the command to honor their parents who were in need. And Jesus said that you do many such things as that. It’s interesting that Jesus obviously thinks that it is the responsibility of the child to honor their parent when they are old and have financial needs or physical needs.
And I have to say something about this commandment. Jesus said I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. We were studying Ephesians a number of years ago when we came upon Ephesians 6:1 which says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.” And I commented that as new covenant Christians, we are still to keep the moral law of God. And once again we had someone leave the church over that. They wanted to say that grace eliminated the requirement of the law. But Paul makes it clear that our children are to still honor their father and mother. And here in this passage, Jesus makes it clear as well. We are still to keep the moral law of God. The ceremonial laws of God have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and there is therefore no longer any need to keep them. They were symbols, ceremonies, rituals for their instruction before the cross. And Hebrews 10 makes it clear that once the perfect sacrifice had come, the need for the pictures and the symbols was done away with. Hence, we do not keep the Sabbath, or sacrifice bulls and goats, or keep any number of feast days and ceremonies which the Jews were required to keep. But we still are not to murder, or bear false witness, or covet our neighbors goods, and we still are to honor our mother and father. Jesus identifies such things in vs21,22 as defilements or sins. The difference in the new covenant is that though we are still to keep the law, we are no longer under the penalty of the law. Jesus has paid the penalty, so that we might keep His commandments out of our love for Him, and not out of fear of punishment which is death.
Jesus said in Luke 6:46 "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” It’s not enough to give him worship of your lips, but also in deeds. Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And so John says that’s how we may know that we are Christ’s, by our keeping the commandments. 1John 2:3-5 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.” So true worship then is loving God, which is keeping His commandments.
Well, Jesus distinguished true worship, and then He distinguishes what is true defilement. Vs14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” Now it is important to understand the context in which Jesus is making these remarks. He has been talking about ceremonial cleanness. The Jews were concerned about uncleanness, such as unclean hands, unclean foods, and unclean people. The Gentiles were considered unclean. Certain diseases could make you unclean.
But Jesus is talking about spiritual uncleanness. There were ceremonial laws given by Moses which declared certain things as unclean. But they were given as pictures, or symbols of spiritual uncleanness. And that is what Jesus is explaining. From the Jews perspective, defilement worked it’s way from the outside to the inside. Jesus is saying that the opposite is true; not what goes into a man defiles him, but what comes out of him. Defilement comes from the heart.
An example of that may be seen in Adam and Eve. Before the fall, they were naked and unashamed, because they were pure in heart. But when sin entered into their heart, suddenly they see their nakedness with impure eyes, and they were ashamed. Sin, or defilement, is a matter of the heart. Thus, the scriptures say that whatever is not of faith is a sin.
Well, the disciples, like some of us perhaps, don’t fully understand what He is saying. So they ask Him privately what it meant. Vs18 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, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.)” So first, Jesus is saying what does not defile a man. Mark says that He was declaring all foods clean by this statement.
There are a few church denominations today which seek to put Christians back under the Jewish dietary laws of the Old Testament. And once again, they are resorting to the invalid principle that what goes into the body defiles the heart. But Jesus is saying that a basic understanding of the physiology of the human body illustrates that isn’t true. We have total freedom today to eat whatever we want. Now you can still sin through the sin of gluttony, but the food itself, is not a sin.
Mark as you know was tutored by Peter. And you will remember that Peter had a vision on the roof recorded in Acts 10 of a giant sheet coming down out of heaven filled with all kinds of unclean animals, and God said, “Arise Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter said, “No Lord, I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean.” And God said, ““What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” And that happened three times, that Peter might not only know that all food was permissible to eat, but also that Gentiles who were considered unclean were no longer to be treated as outside of God’s grace, but were to be given the gospel that they might be saved as well. So it is likely that Peter’s retelling of that event to Mark gave further impetus to his clarifying remarks about Jesus’s statement, that He declared all foods clean.
So if unclean hands or unclean food does not defile, then what does defile a man? Well Jesus answers that question in vs20 by saying it is an unclean heart. And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Jesus gives us 12 things which are evil. I don’t believe the intent to define sin, but to give examples of it. In many other places writers of scripture give a different list, maybe longer or shorter, including some but not all. Paul gives a long list of 15 sins in Galatians 5:19. Solomon gives seven abominations in Proverbs 6:16. But they are examples, not a definitive list. Now I could spend an entire sermon discussing the characteristics of these 12 defilements. But I don’t think that is necessary. I think most of us understand what they are. I just don’t think most of us recognize them when they are apparent in us.
It’s noteworthy to point out that Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount sharpened the edge of every commandment. He doesn’t do as the Pharisees did, which was to find loopholes in the law, such as honoring your parents, so that you could get around the law. But instead, Jesus said if you lust after a woman in your heart, you were guilty of adultery. If you hated someone, you were guilty of murder. The problems is that our hearts are wicked. We were born in sin, David said. Jeremiah the prophet says in Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately wicked; Who can know it?” And a heart given over to rebellion produces the fruit of that rebellion which is sin. Sin defiles the heart, which gives rise to sinful actions. Sin starts in the heart and works it’s way outside. So the origin of defilement is the heart which is desperately wicked.
Well, I want to turn quickly to the last two paragraphs in this chapter, and we will look briefly at two miracles that serve as illustrations or parables of these principles. The first is that of a Gentile woman who comes to Jesus on behalf of her child who Mark says has an unclean spirit. I think that description is appropriate, because Jesus has been talking about uncleanness. The girl has an unclean spirit, and in addition she was a Gentile. Gentiles were considered unclean. Much of the washing of hands that the Pharisees did after going into the market place was because they were afraid that they might have bumped into a Gentile. They called Gentiles, dogs. It was a term of disdain. And surprisingly, Jesus uses this epithet when responding to this woman.
Jesus says in vs 27 "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Jesus’s ministry was to the Jews first. But there were some instances of Gentiles being healed. Even in the OT you see Naaman healed, and you see the harlot of Jericho saved. And this instance is another one of them. It’s important to note that the Gentiles are saved by faith just as the Jews are. There is not one means of salvation for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. But the “just shall live by faith.” “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”
But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” Jesus hearing the answer of this woman, falling at His feet, calling Him Lord, calling on Him as the One who has authority over the realm of the devil, the One who has come to set the captives free, Jesus says to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter." And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.
The point of this parable then is that the uncleanness of this woman and her child was able to be washed away by Christ. Ceremony and ritual were unable to save her. She was outside of the covenant of Israel, and her daughter doubly so as she was unclean not only through birth, but by the devil’s design. And yet the mercy of Christ was sufficient to cleanse her and make her whole and holy. Not by her righteousness, but through His righteousness applied to her.
And what a picture for us all, who are born entirely in our sins, our hearts are naturally deceitfully wicked, and doubly so we are unclean due to our repeated sins of rebellion, having all of us broken all twelve of Christ’s list of defilements. And yet the Lord is able to create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us, by transferring our sins upon Himself, and placing His righteousness upon us.
One more picture and then we are through. Vs32, “They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him.” This person is most unusual. Of all the invalids and demon possessed and impaired people that Jesus healed, this one seems the least encumbered. He was deaf and did not speak very well. It can be assumed that this man was a Greek, which means he was a Gentile as well. He was from Decapolis, a group of 10 Greek cities. And so perhaps that uncleanness is the reason that this person was highlighted in Mark’s gospel, because though his infirmity was not the worst, his condition as a Gentile made him exceedingly hopeless to be healed by the Jewish Messiah.
But what’s even more interesting is the last person healed was done so without even being present. This person whose infirmity seems not that difficult, Jesus does more physical things in healing him than in any other person. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva.”
Now all of that is hard for me to understand. Why would Jesus, who could heal with a word, do all these physical things with spittle and so forth? Why put HIs fingers in his ears, and touch His tongue? I cannot say for sure. But I have to think that Jesus is illustrating how our ears must be opened, and our tongue must be loosened by the Spirit of God, if we are to have a new life in Christ. It illustrates that righteousness is not a work of man, but a work of God. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us.
I think that there is a passage in Ezekiel which speaks to this principle. Ezekiel 11:19-20 says, ”And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”
The point being illustrated in the healing of this man who was deaf and mute, was that when the Lord gave him a new heart, when he was made new on the inside, he became new on the outside. What he was unable to do in his old flesh, he is now able to do clearly and completely in his new spirit. That is the picture of salvation that I think we are to understand from this passage. That without a new heart all the outward cleansing and ceremonies and rituals can never get inside to the source of our sin. But with a new heart, comes a new life in the spirit by which we can please God.
Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth in the form of a man, to die on the cross for our sins, that all who believe in Him and come to Him in repentance of their sins might be given a new heart and a reborn spirit, so that we might have new life in His name. That is the invitation that we extend to you today. Jesus has paid the price, if you are willing you can be made clean. Simply come to Him today and call on Him to remake you and transform you. To give you a new heart.
I will close with a portion of David’s prayer in Psalm 51 which is a good template for those seeking this clean heart, O Lord, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. ... Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ... Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ... O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Amen.
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