Please turn with me to Mark, chapter 7
Imagine with me for a minute, that a mom asks her child to clean up their room. (I have four daughters. Any resemblance to actual events is strictly coincidental. I assure you that I am about to describe a universal problem.)Let’s say that this child first responds with “sure thing, mom!” Later, the mom goes to the child’s room to check on their progress. (How much progress do you expect my story to have at this point?That’s right. None.)
But instead of a clean room, mom finds the child carefully polishing the doorknob of the bedroom door, and a carefully painted sign “I love mom” on the outside of the door. “I thought I told you to clean up your room?” says mom.“Oh, right, you sure did, but I thought I’d do this instead. Then everyone can see how much I love you by this big sign!”
What’s the problem here? A disobedient child! They did not obey their mom. They busied themself with something, maybe even with good intentions, but it had nothing to do with what the parent asked.They neglected the command of the parent, the best way of showing love and respect, in exchange for something that was easier for them to do. On the surface and by itself it looks like a good thing. But it betrays a heart of rebellion.
In today’s passage, we’re going to see that we cannot make ourselves right with God. We have a fatal, and universal heart problem that we can’t solve on our own. We need someone to solve it for us.
Let’s read.
We cannot make ourselves clean
Mark 7:1–5 (CSB)
1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. 2 They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands.3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.)5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean hands?”
Clean and Unclean
The first five verses of our passage explain to us a small corner of a rather complex system that the Jews in Jesus day were creating called “Halakha” or “the way of walking”. Mark simply calls it “their traditions.”
You can see Mark recording this small corner of Halakhic tradition about ceremonial washings. You get the sense that he’s rolling his eyes at it. “Man they had a rule for everything, rules about washing their hands, cups, pitchers, kettles, dining couches, the family cat, and on and on and on and on….”
They were very concerned about cleanliness because they believed it was part of being acceptable to God, right with God. The Old Testament law is largely concerned with things being clean and unclean, meaning acceptable to God. If you were in a state of uncleanness, you must cleanse yourself before participating in the worship of God.
So that’s a good thing, right? What’s the issue? None of these traditions referred to in our passage were commanded by God! The Pharisees made them up, thinking that they would be extra acceptable to God. More acceptable than the average person, who they not-so-affectionately referred to as “sinners”, because they did not also follow these traditions, and that is what they are accusing Jesus and his disciples of.
And Jesus calls them out. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, which I’m certain the Pharisees would have loved aiming at other people, and says, he’s talking about you.
Hypocrites!
Mark 7:6–13 (CSB)
6 He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands. 8 Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.”
9 He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition! 10 For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 11 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban’ ” (that is, an offering devoted to God), 12 “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.”
“You have abandoned the command of God…” would have been such a scathing rebuke to these religious elite who would have prided themselves on their good behavior! Their careful religiousness! Their moral and ethical right-ness!
And then he tells them that not only have they abandoned the command of God, their rules and traditions actively work against God’s commands. He gives one example, but says they are more about this thing called “corban" which Mark helpfully defines for us. “Corban” literally means “offering” - in this context it is a tradition created by the pharisees that allows them to say certain things (money, etc) are “offered” to the temple, but still available for personal use, but not use by anyone else. It was a way of protecting assets against an obligation for any charity.
God’s command is to honor your father and mother, meaning help them out when they need it, but this idea of Corban that the Pharisees made up allowed them to not have to do that. “Sorry mom and dad, I can’t lend you my car while yours is in the shop, mine belongs to God. It’s just not allowed. You’ll have to take the city bus. What’s that? A ride? No sorry, I’m too busy doing God’s work…”
Like the child refusing to clean their room because they are too busy doing something else, even though it seems to look on the surface like its honoring mom, is dangerous, hypocritical evil.
The Messiah is standing there, on a mission to save His people from their sin. And they are accusing Him of not following their traditions. Blinded by their self-righteous traditions, they are judging their creator and their savior as a sinner.
And then he says something so sweeping and shocking that his disciples think he is telling another parable. Jesus clarifies the heart of all the Old Testament Law.
Mark 7:14-15 (CSB)
14 Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
We have a heart problem
Mark 7:17 (CSB)
17 When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable.
They don’t understand his teaching. “He can’t possibly mean that… ah ha! This is another one of those parable things!”I mean look at his statement in verse 15!
Defilement, things that makes you unacceptable to God, does not come from external contamination. Eating the wrong food, listening to the wrong music, drinking the wrong beverages. How far can we extend Jesus’s statement? How many things that go into us from the outside can defile us?No-things! Zero things!
“Careful, Matt… this is maybe starting to get to be a dangerous line of reasoning… you can’t possibly mean that I can eat whatever food, drink whatever drink, and still be acceptable to God…”
Ah ha, but that’s the thing.How is it that we become acceptable to God?Defilement does not come from external contamination, so no external cleansing is required. No religious ceremony… where does cleansing come from?
Let’s keep reading.The disciples are confused we have to help them out.
Mark 7:17–23 (CSB)
18 He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean).
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
Where does defilement come from? Our hearts. Maybe not literally the organ that’s beating in your chest, but rather your heart stands for your “you” - your personality, your desires, the part of you that is responsible for making decisions. All of our hearts produce evil. Look at this list. You will find yourself on it, and if you don’t you are guilty of deceit, pride, and foolishness.
Here’s the thing, our culture says to look inside for meaning, for truth for hope.Find your truth and your goodness inside. Look within for the answers your seek.Our culture's gospel proclaims that true life, true hope, your true self is found inside by looking within.
But the reality that Jesus declares to us is that it is within that is the problem! What comes out of your heart doesn’t bring you hope and truth, it defiles you.
One commentator said: “The capacity for fellowship with God is not destroyed by material uncleanness of food or hands; it is destroyed by personal sin.”
We need someone to solve it for us
So if defilement doesn’t come from external sources, if it comes from within, then cleanness from that defilement can’t come from within, from our efforts, either. The problem is inside, the solution has to come from where? Outside. Where does this passage say we should go for cleansing?
It doesn’t. It leaves us hanging.It leaves us needing more information.
What do the disciples do when they realize they don’t understand something yet? They go to Jesus asking for further explanation. Fortunately, Mark’s Gospel does not end in chapter 7 verse 23, and fortunately the Bible does not end in Mark 16.
And the original audience that Mark was writing to would have known it. They would have had other writings, other scriptures, explaining the solution. Where does Jesus locate the source of defilement? Our motivation to do evil? Our heart.
The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel spoke of a day when The Lord God will finally fix his people’s problem.
Ezekiel 36:25–27 (CSB)
25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.
Here’s the washing that is needed. Here is the final solution to our problem. We need a new heart. Where do we get it? From The One who is here in Mark 7 telling us that no amount of external washing up will make us clean, because its not what goes into us that makes us defiled in the first place. From the one telling us that its whats inside us, our own heart, that produces evil. From Jesus.
Jesus is the one who spoke to Ezekiel and gave him the words “I will put my Spirit within you.” We need Him to place his Holy Spirit in us.
How does that happen? Ephesians tells us:
Ephesians 1:13–14 (CSB)
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. 14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
Cleansing is a lifelong process
Jesus was the only one whose heart never produced evil. What did his heart produce? The opposite of the list.
- evil thoughts <> pure thoughts
- sexual immoralities <> sexual purity
- thefts <> hard work
- murders <> healing and help
- adulteries <> faithfulness
- greed <> generosity
- evil actions <> good deeds
- deceit <> speaking truth in love
- self-indulgence <> self control
- envy <> contentment
- slander <> praise
- pride <> humility
- foolishness <> wisdom
The tree of our heart produces bad fruit that defiles us, He produced this good fruit. And then went to the cross to take the blame for our evil. Evil he never committed. He paid the penalty for our evil. And in so doing, destroyed the ultimate power of sin over us.
On the basis of his payment for our sin, he offers us forgiveness. And when we trust him for forgiveness, he not only cleanses us, but gives us His Spirit, a new heart within us.
But while it is true that Jesus grants us forgiveness, and no longer counts our sin against us, the story doesn’t end there. We can therefore get this wrong idea that sin is no big deal any longer. That Jesus will just forgive us. So sin doesn’t matter, its all good. That is not the right conclusion.
The process of cleansing takes a lifetime. This is a process called “sanctification” or “becoming holy”. The Holy Spirit is a guarantee that it will happen fully. but that doesn’t mean we can sit back and live any kind of way we want.
Our work does not cleanse us, only the gift of a new heart from God does that. But once we have received that promise, there is work to be done.
2 Corinthians 7:1 (CSB)
1 So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
The gift of a new heart comes through faith. But that new heart will then prompt us to work together with God in the process of cleansing.
Romans 8:13 (CSB)
13 …if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Does this mean you can lose your salvation? No. But it might call into question whether you had it in the first place.
Imagine, again, that child who was told to clean their room. “Sure thing, mom!” They say, and then don’t do it. When confronted, they apologize, and say they’ll get right to it, so mom forgives them. Comes back a little while later and still no progress on the room. The kid is playing games.
The kid apologizes again, is forgiven again, mom comes back again later, and still nothing. Mom asks what the deal is, and the kid says, “well, I really don’t want to clean my room, and you’re just going to forgive me anyway, so I figure why bother?”
What do you think mom’s response will be? That’s right. The whole wrath of God down upon that child’s head.
The point is, what do you suppose the heart of that child toward mom is?It is not a heart that loves, respects, and desires to honor her.
Our response to our sin will tell us much about our relationship with God. Is our response to our sin sorrow and repentance and effort toward “putting to death the deeds of the body with The Spirit’s help”? Or is it, “Oh well, I’ll be forgiven. No big deal.” Which response is it that honors Christ who died for you?
Brothers and sisters, no amount of religious performance or good behavior can make us right with God. We need a new heart. This new heart is a gift from God. Our response to that gift should be going to war against all the things within us that made the new heart necessary in the first place.
Turn to Christ to receive that new heart if you have not. If you have, continue to go to him for help in putting to death the things that come from within that defile us.
Let’s pray.
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