What Defiles? - Mark 7:1-23 

image: paramount pictures [Public domain]

February 16, 2020

Mark 7:1-23 

Initial Thoughts

  • Get out your Bible, and look up Mark 7:16.

  • v. 9-13 Jesus direct answer to the Pharisees. Here, he points out the hypocrisy of their alleged loyalty to the Law. One can almost hear Jesus saying these words Biblical Literalists today.

  • v. 16-20 Not necessary, but omitting them leaves out some a great chance of some comic relief as Jesus engages in some toilet humor, literally.

Bible Study

  • Testing by the Pharisees about cleanliness

    • Jesus’ followers are not following the “rules handed down by the elders.”

    • They follow some of the rules - washing cups, jugs, sleeping mats.

    • They do not follow other rules - thoroughly washing their hands before eating.

      • Be careful with this one, or the six year olds in the house may stop washing their hands before meals, too.[

    • “What is at stake, then, is not just a specific practice but the larger question of authority. In short, the Pharisees want to know, just who does Jesus think he is to flout the tradition of the elders?” (David Lose, In the Meantime)

    • The cleanliness/purity laws act as another barrier to sharing the table

  • Jesus responds to Pharisees

    • Points out the hypocrisy of their customs. They have devised a way to get around God’s Law - honor thy mother and father - through their customs.

    • Calls them out on obeying Tradition over God’s Word.

      • This has to be a great passage for the Lutherans.

  • Jesus responds to the crowds

    • “Nothing from outside a person can contaminate a person in God’s sight; rather, the things that come out of a person contaminate the person.”

    • This was revolutionary. The crowds would have been taught that what they eat is vitally important to their cleanliness.

    • Jesus chooses cleanliness of heart over cleanliness of custom. He claims our outward actions, the way we treat each other, the money we spend, the time

  • Jesus responds to disciples

    • Expounds on his teaching to the crowd.

    • What enters a person does not make them contaminated (unclean), but what comes out of them.

    • The inside - the heart - is what matters.

    • This is a huge part of Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees. While they maintain the letter of the Law - as opposed to perfect Temple ritual - is the key to a relationship with God, Jesus maintains that your own heart, motivation, and the way you treat others is at the heart of your relationship with God.

  • Context of what comes next: Mark 7:24-37

    • “A sharp contrast to the hostility of the Jewish authorities is supplied by the faith of the Syrophoenician woman in the Tyre area. It is scarcely accidental that Mark places in sequence a controversy over food and the surprising faith of a Gentile.” (Raymond Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, p. 137)

Thoughts and Questions:

  • What Jesus does not do: Explicitly end dietary restrictions. Clearly, the early Christians were still practicing dietary laws even after Jesus was gone (see Acts and Peter’s dream). From Matthew Skinner: “Despite the radical nature of verse 15a, "there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile," we have no evidence that Jesus himself disregarded the dietary laws. ..Instead, Mark 7:1-23 speaks much more plainly about the source of defilement: it's more internal than external. It's more about who you are than about the foods or filth you avoid.“

  • Jesus tells us the source of all evil. It is not the Devil. It is not Satan, or some otherworldly power. “It’s from inside the human heart that evil thoughts come… All these evil things come from inside and contaminate a person in God’s sight.”

  • How many of us will preach this text with the assumption that we and our congregations are the rebellious followers of Jesus who upset the uptight fundamentalist Pharisees? 

    • Perhaps this instead can stand as a challenge to our own traditions: “Jesus is challenging them as to how their traditions contribute to them fulfilling their mission. And I think this is just where this week’s sermon might bring this odd passage to bear on our shared life. I mean, maybe we don’t seem at first blush quite as fussy about tradition as Jesus’ opponents did, but what if you were to suggest tinkering with some of our own traditions? Perhaps changing worship in order to make worship more understandable and accessible to a younger generation?” (David Lose, In the Meantime)

  • What are the differences between custom and God’s Law? What is cultural tradition and what is essentially Christian? What are the things that we do because they are the rules the elders passed on? The way bread is served at Communion, the Christmas pageant, who are ushers, is the flag hung in the sanctuary, what do we do on secular holidays, how we dress, when we meet, what a church looks like. Is Christianity that doesn’t look like ‘our’ Christianity still authentic? What happens when the customs of our elders get in the way of following God’s law of love? Civil rights, LGBTQ rights, etc.

Year 2Eric FistlerMarkComment