Jesus does not mince His words in confronting the Pharisees concerning their religious hypocrisy.

The video link is here:

The Gloves Come Off

The Audio links (Spotify and iTunes) are to the right.

Here is the transcript used in today’s podcast:

Mark 7

Of Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Oral Torah

During the span of the Greek and Roman occupations, two important political/religious groups emerged in Israel. The Pharisees added to the Law of Moses through oral tradition and eventually considered their own laws more important than God’s (see Mark 7:1–23). While Christ’s teachings often agreed with the Pharisees, He railed against their hollow legalism and lack of compassion. The Sadducees represented the aristocrats and the wealthy. The Sadducees, who wielded power through the Sanhedrin, rejected all but the Mosaic books of the Old Testament. They refused to believe in resurrection and were generally shadows of the Greeks, whom they greatly admired.

“What happened in the intertestamental period?” (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2024], from https://www.gotquestions.org/intertestamental-period.html

More on this “oral tradition” practiced by the Pharisees, from an article in “https://www.gotquestions.org/Mishnah-midrash.html.”

“Orthodox Judaism believes that Moses received the Torah (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) from God and that he wrote down everything God spoke to him. However, they also believe that God gave Moses explanations and examples of how to interpret the Law that Moses did not write down. These unwritten explanations are known in Judaism as the Oral Torah. The Oral Torah was supposedly passed down from Moses to Joshua and then to the rabbis until the advent of Christianity when it was finally written down as the legal authority called halahka (“the walk”).”

“What is the Mishna? What is a Midrash?” (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2024], from https://www.gotquestions.org/Mishnah-midrash.html

That sounds reasonable – the Scriptures and then the commentary and application of these scriptures. And it IS reasonable – until you begin to replace the Scriptures themselves with the commentaries of man, giving those commentaries equal footing with or perhaps MORE credibility than the Scriptures themself. That is the situation many of the religious leaders found themselves in by the time of Jesus.

Think of it like this:

Let’s pretend there is a commandment “Children should not touch a hot stove lest they be burned”. Then a wise sage says that the designation “children” are to be those under the age of twelve. So now we think of this commandment as “All those under the age of twelve can not touch the stove.” Then a wise teacher says, “you know, if we just ensured that children stay 6 feet away from a hot stove, they won’ t get burned.” So now when we think of this commandment, we hear “All children under 12 cannot get within six feet of a hot stove.” The next step would be to ask the question – what if they don’t know the stove is hot? Let’s say “all children under the age of 12 just stay 6 feet or more away from ANY stove, hot or cold. That will keep them safe.” Finally, a wise man will say we can circumvent any injury from a hot stove to a child under the age of 12 by saying “All children under twelve stay out of the kitchen.”

We started with:

“Children should not touch a hot stove lest they be burned”

We ended with:

“Anybody under twelve stay out of the kitchen.”

The latter statement is now considered law, and the original law is buried under all the commentary and subsequent explanations.

Much of what Jesus faced in dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees is His dealing with their elevated view of the oral traditions containing explanations and definitions from Rabbis and teachers through the centuries that, by Jesus’ time, obfuscated the original wording and intent of the Mosaic Law.

That is what Jesus is facing in this chapter of Mark’s Gospel.

7:1-23 The gloves come off

7 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.[a])

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.

7 They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’[b]

8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

After 400+ years of rabbis commenting and applying the Mosaic Law, more attention was given to rabbinical interpretation than to the actual Torah itself, to the extent that by the time of Jesus, their “traditions” bore little to no resemblance to the original wording or intent of the Mosaic Law.

9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe[c] your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’[d] and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[e] 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

This begs the question “Should we then completely ignore the teachings of wise men and women concerning the Scripture?” I say no. BUT…… having said that, I become wary when a teacher goes beyond what the Scripture says and starts telling me what I should DO in regards to that Scripture. I don’t know if this is a good example or not, but let’s take the example of smoking cigars or cigarettes. There is no doubt of the health risks that are associated with smoking. But when a religious leader begins to say that you cannot be a believer if you smoke cigars – that is stepping over the line. That religious leader CAN (and should) teach the morality of healthy living, relating the scriptures that highlight that truth. But when that leader starts stating that the Word says “thou shalt not smoke”, he is taking the commentaries and traditions of his faith tradition and placing them on a par with actual Scripture, and THAT is the problem I have with that. THAT is what Jesus is facing down here with the Pharisees. Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day wanted to dictate every facet of Jewish life, attempting to prove their holiness by their ceremonies and customs.

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16] [f]

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

Guys – food is food. You eat it, and then eliminate that which is defiling.

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

And THIS is the main point – the traditions that had developed through the 400 silent years, all of the outward application of the Law – the feasts, the purity traditions, don’t begin to touch the heart, which is the source of all evil.

Having said all THAT – if you find pleasure in and worship God through following after the Law as AN ACT OF WORSHIP, that is one thing. But at the point where you start to demand that others do what you do, then a line is crossed. These Pharisees had crossed that line.

Blessings!

Paige