And thus by Bible study continues with Mark 7. If you noticed that I skipped 6 then first let me congratulate you on being attentive and an excellent observer, and secondly do not fret that I skipped 6. I read it in my personal time, but did not feel impressed to do a study. At least not for the time; I am plenty sure that God will show me something in that chapter later on in my walk. For now chapter 7!
I pulled more than the average amount of intrigue from this chapter than even from 5. First of all reading this chapter in different translations does wonders for the interpretation. For my study I’m reading from both an NLT and NIV translation. If you are not keen on those that is fine, you may comment your concerns if you desire. But for now let us stay focused on seeing what we can get out of the chapter to enrich our lives.
Here Jesus is being the less friendly to the Pharisees who come to him complaining that his disciples were not observing tradition. They try and strike a blow like a venomous bite to his ministry any way they can. But to Jesus they are no more than nipping at his heels. So it is for good reason that he is upset. The Pharisees, much like they are in every other chapter, are more concerned with the traditional law than the godly law. And what makes them worse is that they know the truth, but substitute their own man-made law instead.
Given today’s modern church setting, does this strike a familiar cord with anyone reading this? Perhaps you came from a church like this, or still attend one?
My mental image for when Jesus replies to these people is not a pleasant one. For one thing an exclamation point is inserted, which gives the idea that force or great enthusiasm was used. Not only that but the sentence itself gives emotions that leave one to think he was calling them out instead of lovingly waving his finger.
I mean when was the last time someone looked at you with the most compassion, care, and kindness in their heart called you a hypocrite? The mental image even still leaves them looking sarcastic and sound as if they are bringing you down.
So Jesus cast judgment! His rebuttal was truthful and scriptural. He quotes Isaiah back to them and reveals to them that they are the very people the prophet of the old testament warned about.
This I find ironic, seeing as how these Pharisees are assumedly masters of the old text, INCLUDING Isaiah.
But here in Mark 7 Jesus is calling down the thunder on them, and pointing out the flaws in their teaching. A very just and timely thing for Jesus to do. He tells them of how they ignore God’s law and substitute their own traditions. He even gives an example!
“10.) Moses gave you this law from God: ‘Honor your Father and Mother,’ and ‘anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ 11.)But you say it is alright for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I have given to you.’ 12.) In this way you let them disregard their needy parents.
And he goes on to say that this is just one of many examples. But then he addresses the crowd. He already has their attention thanks to the Pharisees, but now he uses this opportunity to teach them something.
What a wise God we serve that when he is being put to the test, he is able to teach someone during this transgression and point it to God at the same time!
He says what goes into your body does not defile you. But what comes out defiles you. As he left his disciples, that wonderful group of Jesus’ elite, come up after he has given this deep and ethical speech and ask, “What does that mean?”
Jesus from what I can see is honestly and truthfully surprised that they didn’t understand Him, so he delves deeper. Food doesn’t go into your heart, but into the stomach and then out of the body. This does he declare that ALL food is acceptable and clean. It is what inside your heart that defiles you. That is the punch line, his biggest point in chapter 7. He talks about the list of things that are born within our hearts that defile us, not what we project it out onto. So if we have an issue with gluttony, since we’re talking about food, it’s not the steaks fault, or the ice cream, or the Chic-Fil-A, or the vegetables, or the grease, it’s the lust of food that has slowly, and not overnight, built inside of our hearts that has made us defiled. And it’s not just gluttony, but he gives a list of these things that we birth inside our heart. That list (of motives of defilements include: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. Notice gluttony is not there, and I’m sure in your mind you have a few other things you could add to that list. However he finishes that list. The odds are that if you know of something, like gluttony, that does not appear on the list then it is most likely just a different variation of something already ON the list. Most likely this is a list of motives, of what drive us toward making something clean Unclean. For instance gluttony can be seen as another form of theft, greed, malice, or lewdness, it just depends on the motive of gluttony.
And here I think is a good place to stop. The rest of Mark 7 is about the daughter who is demon possessed, and the mother wanting Jesus to heal her. He tells her that he must first feed his children, implying that he does have extra for anyone else.
I find this intriguing, but this is another topic for another day!
She then replies that even the dogs eat the crumbs from the children’s plate. This excites Jesus, this makes our Lord happy to hear that response. Almost like she was testing her …
But again, we’ll save that other half of chapter 7 of Mark for another day
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