What Defiles a Person? Part 1

This morning, we begin a new section in the Gospel of Mark which focuses on a question that is central to Jesus’ conflicts with the religious leaders of his day: What defiles a person? Over the next three weeks we are going to answer that question, so today we need to do a bit of definitional work. We have to start by defining what we mean by defilement. Defilement is the idea that one can make himself unacceptable before God by failing to observe some rule or by coming in contact with the wrong substance or by being born of a defiled race. In its essence, defilement assumes that our environment is primarily to blame for our sin. Defilement, at least as we find it in the Gospels, is related to the OT laws of cleanness. There are around 100 laws in the book of Leviticus dealing with cleanness. Some are mundane and have nothing to do with actual sin (like touching a dead body). Others are acts of sin that also result in uncleanness. It is important to understand that these laws are not aimed at defining sin, but at defining ceremonial acceptability. In other words, touching a dead body was not a sin – after all, it was required to properly bury someone or even have a nice meal – but it did mean that you could not approach the altar of Yahweh. And, most cleanness laws provided for a means of purification, in which the unclean person could be made acceptable for worship again through sacrifice or washing. These laws were intended to serve as living symbols of the holiness of God. God is particular, he is totally other, and to treat him as though he were common is to fail to reverence him. So, to come strolling into the temple of God for worship after having butchered a lamb for your Sabbath dinner would be to treat worship like a common habit no different than making a meal.

But, something changed with the Hebrews after their defeat and exile in Babylon. When they returned to Jerusalem under Nehemiah and Ezra, they recognized that they’d been judged for their lack of obedience. When you read the book of Nehemiah, you’ll find that one of those concerns centers around the practice of marrying women from the pagan nations that now inhabited the land – something God had forbidden in the law. Nehemiah also found that the Jews had lost their reverence for the Sabbath. Nehemiah 13:18 warns, “Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” This devout concern for the law of God and the need to purify the people so that they might never be conquered again led to fundamental changes in the Jewish religion. During the intertestamental period, rabbinical traditions and commentaries developed, providing guidelines and rules for the proper observance of the OT law. These traditions evolved into three major camps – the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. The Pharisees and the Essenes especially established strict traditions for ritual cleanness, and the Essenes even totally removed themselves from society, living in the caves outside of Jerusalem. All these groups shared a common belief that the reason the Messiah had not come yet to deliver them from their oppressors is because of the defilement of the Jewish people. The Jews continually failed to rightly keep the Sabbath. They had not properly made themselves ceremonially clean. They’d been too accepting of foreigners and needed to purge the land of its pagan influences.

It is in this context that we come to Mark 7:1-13. From this text I want you to see two points: The Hypocrisy of Tradition and the Honor of the Law. First, consider the Hypocrisy of Tradition from verses 1-8. Jesus’s popularity had grown to the point that the scholars and religious elite of Jerusalem decided that they needed to travel to the north to find out more. When they got there, they were immediately appalled to find that his disciples were not observing the rabbinical traditions of cleanness. They point out, in verse 2, that the disciples ate with unwashed hands. To rightly value their offense, we need to understand three things about this washing. First, they were not concerned about hygiene. They weren’t offended that the disciples had failed to practice good sanitation and were at risk of spreading disease. Second, this rule regarding washing was not commanded in the OT for every Jew but was rather given to the Levites to prepare them for their work in the temple. In Exodus 30:17, God establishes a ritual cleansing that all priests are to observe before they enter the Holy of Holies. The rabbinical tradition had taken these Levitical rules to be and assumed that if this was necessary for the Levites, then it must be necessary for all of Israel. Lastly, the Pharisees have come to find Jesus because he is rumored to be the Messiah. As I said earlier, they believed that the Messiah would only come if all of Israel was obedient to the law of God. So, imagine their surprise when they see those who are closest to Jesus failing to follow the traditions they’d establish for that perfect obedience.

In verse 5, Mark tells us that the Pharisees voiced their objection to Jesus, asking, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” Jesus answers this question with a rebuke. There are two aspects of this rebuke that you need to understand. First, for the first time in Mark, Jesus uses his favorite nickname for the religious leaders: hypocrite. The word “hypocrite” refers to an actor who takes on different roles in a play. In our day, this word has come to refer to someone who does not live up to the standard they proport to believe. So, you will often find unbelievers calling Christians hypocrites because we say that we are against sexual immorality, and yet Christians can be just as sexually immoral as the rest of humanity. That would just be a contradiction. It is not what Jesus means by the word. Jesus gives us his definition in the reference he makes from Isaiah 29, “They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Hypocrisy is living by a standard while failing to have a heart for God. It is a misalignment between your heart and your actions. The Pharisees were fervent to obey the law of God, setting up all sorts of traditions and rules to avoid even the slightest hint of disobedience. Yet, the whole time, they had no desire for God. They followed those rules for the power it gave them, for the recognition it brought.

Second, this rebuke condemns their traditions as a departure from the law of God, not an enhancement of it. He says, in verse 8, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” The Greek word for “leave” means to omit or forsake. Oh, what irony – the Pharisees had forsaken the law of God while attempting to perfectly keep it. Here is the problem with defilement. Obedience is not about the list of things that you can avoid, but the desire of your heart to please God with your life. When I was a youth minister, it always amused me when my students would ask, “How far is too far.” They’d come to Bible study with some complicated scenario regarding their relationship with their girlfriend or their friend’s interest in marijuana. My answer to them was simply this, “Is the thing you want to do born out of a desire to honor God with your life or out of a desire to gratify yourself?” That usually ended the conversation right there.

And that brings me to my second point: The Honor of the Law. In verses 9-13, Jesus doubles down on his rebuke of the Pharisees by raising a specific example of their hypocrisy. In this example, he shows how their traditions actively reject the Law of God. In verse 10, he reminds them of the fifth commandment – “Honor your father and mother.” Then, he raises this rule that they’d established, known as the Corban Law. In those days, when a man turned thirty, his father might pass on the family business to him and deed the property to him, with the understanding that he would ensure for the care of his father and mother in their old age. But, the religious leaders had established a rule that allowed this man to give a sizable donation to the temple, by which he could gain permission to abandon his parents in their time of need. In verse 13, Jesus condemns this practice, saying that they have made the Word of God void by their traditions. Notice two things about this condemnation. First, Jesus assumes that the command to honor father and mother is a lifelong obligation. God’s intention is that a child will always honor his parents, even when he is an adult. That honor, when you are a child, certainly means obeying them. But, it also means caring for them when they are in their hour of need. This understanding of the law also condemns the modern practice of abandoning parents so that we can go live our best life. 1 Tim. 5:8 says, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Second, Jesus’s condemnation serves as a warning against valuing tradition above the Word of God. This is a danger for every church, but it is especially a danger for Baptists. There are certain Baptists who will not let a man in the church if his hair is touching his collar, or worse yet, if he isn’t wearing a suit. There are other Baptists who will not allow any other translation besides the KJV. There are Baptists who hold to a certain style of music, or no music at all. There are those who think a certain set of procedures should always be practiced. Now, to be sure, traditions can serve like guard rails that keep us on track. Traditions can serve to enhance our worship and create a culture within a church. But, traditions can also stand in the way of true, faithful ministry. If your only argument for why we shouldn’t change something or why we shouldn’t do something new in the church is, “Well, that’s just not the way we do things” or “we’ve never done it that way”, then you are making void the word of God by your tradition. If you allow your social standards of dress or decorum prevent you from showing the love of God to another person, then you have left the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.

Brothers and sisters, obedience to God is not measured by how many boxes you can check on your list of traditions, but on your desire to please him with all of your life. Are you holding to tradition for the sake of control or power or comfort? Then repent and seek instead to live for the glory of God. Are you allowing your traditions to serve as a wall set up against other believers, or as an excuse to avoid taking the Gospel to the lost. Then repent and instead desire the things of God.