Mark 7:1-23.  It seemed interesting to me that Mark chose to put this story here.  Yesterday we saw amazing power surrounding Jesus.  Basically everyone was aware that something very very special was going on.  Now here come the religious leaders.  In Mark 1:22, 27 the people recognized that Jesus was teaching with great authority, he was “not like the scribes” (a certain group of religious leaders) and that he was doing amazing miracles that proved his authority.  In Mark 1:44 Jesus wanted to be sure the religious leaders were aware of this “proof” so he asked one of the people he had healed to go show himself to the priests and follow the Law of Moses concerning things he needed to do after being healed.  Mark doesn’t tell us if the man eventually followed through or not, but we do know that the religious leaders were aware of what Jesus was doing.  In Mark 2:6-11  we see the scribes questioning Jesus authority and right then and there he does a miracle to prove to them he has the right and power to forgive sins (they were right in what they were thinking, that only God can forgive those who have rebelled and disobeyed Him (sinned), but they missed the point that Jesus is God).  In Mark 2:16 the religious leaders were disgusted that Jesus would hang out with sinful people and in Mark 2:23-24 they accuse him of breaking God’s law the Law of Moses.  In that section he challenges their understanding of the Law and in Mark 3:1-5 he further challenges their understanding of the Law.  In Mark 3:6 the leaders immediately go off and start plotting how they can destroy Jesus.  They have no answer, they cannot prove their points from God’s word to them, so they plot to destroy Him.  In Chapter 3:22 the leaders come from Jerusalem and accuse him of using the power of the Devil to cause demons to leave people.  They cannot find fault with his actions from the Law so they attack him personally.  In chapters 4-6 we see Jesus teaching and doing miracles but the religious leaders are absent.  In chapter 6 we see unbelief in his own home town and Jesus suggests that his followers will find some who will not listen to them but the leaders are absent.  Here in chapter 7 they are back.

In Mark 7:1-13 Jesus is again confronted by the religious leaders, this time the attack seems to be led by the Pharisees.  The Pharisees were a group that was very serious about the Old Testament Law.  They studied it very carefully and then, in order to be sure and obey it, they made up hundreds of rules.  Remember that Jesus had been confronted about breaking the Law of Moses before and was successful in answering the complaint.  The leaders then attacked him personally and again Jesus was successful in answering their challenge.  Now they are using their rules to attack him.

There are three words used in Mark’s record of Jesus conversation with the leaders that are interesting.  In verse 2 the leaders ask Jesus why his followers eat with unclean, impure, or defiled hands (different translations use one of those three words).  In Greek (the language Mark wrote in) the word translated one of those three ways is “koinos”.  The work can mean “public”, “common or ordinary”, or even “ceremonially unclean”.  You might think of this in contrast with “holy” which means “special or dedicated”.  In Exodus 30:17-21, 40:12 God commanded Moses to wash Aaron and his sons before they went into the inner part of the Tabernacle (sort of a portable church used by the Jewish people before they had the permanent Temple).  This was a symbolic way of showing that they all realized that they were “spiritually dirty” (their attitudes and actions were offensive to God< they were sinners).  The dust of them symbolized their sin and the washing showed they realized their need to clean up before God.  This rule was only for the priest who was gong to enter the temple and perform rituals that were supposed to be in the presence of God.  You must remember though that this was only symbolic, a ritual, God sees and knows everything that is going on, he sees our “sin”, he knows our “guilt”.  This was a reminder to the Jewish people and who all who observed them.  The ritual did not apply to everyday life but the Pharisees made it that way.  So they accused Jesus followers of not caring about being “dirty” before God.

The second word Mark uses is in two forms.  When Mark explains to his non-Jewish readers in Rome what the Pharisees are talking about he uses a Greek word “anipto”.  This is a compound word “nipto” which means “to wash” and “a” as a prefix which means “without”, it is like our prefix “un-“; as in “cool” and “uncool”.  The Pharisees are saying these guys are uncool because they are unwashed; they don’t seem to care about God’s purity and feelings.  Mark then explains the tradition that the Pharisees have set up.  The Jewish people (at least the ones who “care”) don’t eat unless they wash (nipto) their hands first.  In the Greek there is a word before “nipto” or “wash” in verse three that translators have had a hard time with, the word is “pugme” which means “fist”.  What does it mean to “Wash with a fist”?  Some translators say it means “often”, others say if means “carefully”, some say it means “up to the elbow”, others just leave it out altogether.  To me a fist is a sign of anger or passion.  We have a saying, “so and so did such and such with a vengeance” meaning that the person acted passionately.  I wonder if that is the meaning here.

The third word Mark uses is in verse 4. In verse 3 Mark informs us of the tradition and uses the words “nipto” and “pugme” I suggested that the idea was that they were very serious about the washing.  In verse 4 Mark tells us that they don’t eat when they come home unless they “wash” first.  And he explains that they also are careful to “wash” the dishes they are using too.  In verse 4 Mark uses a different word for “wash” he uses the Greek word “baptizo”.  We get our English word “baptize” from this word.  The word was used for dipping cloth in dye to change it’s color.  It was also used in a recipe for making pickles for the process of “dipping” the cucumbers in the vinegar so they could turn into pickles.  Some scholars believe that the dipping of “baptizo” involves a change in the thing “baptized”.  I’m not sure that can always be the case though because Mark (and Jesus) seem to be making a contrast here.  When I wash my truck I spray it off with a hose.  Spraying it off will remove some dirt but the rest has to be rubbed off.  Same thing with dishes, dipping them in water, no matter how hot and soapy, will not remove all of the food.  Dipping is fine for a ceremony or as a symbol but if you are really serious about the dirt you have to wash it off.  I think Mark (and Jesus) are pointing out that the Pharisees are serious about the show but not really serious about really being clean (remember they are the ones who wanted to “wash with a fist”; it was their rule not God’s).  In typical self honoring fashion though the Pharisees wanted to know why Jesus followers would eat with “unwashed” hands (anipto, v. 5).

Jesus’ answers them by calling them “hypocrites”.  That word is directly borrowed from the Greek language and was used for actors on a stage.  In Greek theater the actors would use masks to identify which character they were being (you might have seen the happy and sad masks on a theater or as a symbol of theater).  The idea is someone who is pretending to be something they are not.  Jesus is accusing the Pharisees and others of being fakes, their actions are just a show and not real.  Jesus then quotes the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to prove what he is saying.  In Matthew 22:37 Jesus told the religious leaders that if you really want to honor God, if you really want to fulfill God’s Law you need to love God from the heart and with all you are.  These guys were not loving God from the heart and even their actions may have been kind of weak.  Their only passion was for their rules and they didn’t even back those up very well.

Jesus then uses an example of a real rule from God that they were not following.  In the Ten Commandments the Jewish people were told to “honor their father and mother”.  The Hebrew word (and also the Greek word used by Mark) translated “honor” has the idea of weight or importance.  In Exodus 21:17 God told the people that if they “cursed” their father of mother they were to be put to death.  The Hebrew word translated “curse” means to “treat lightly” we might say “blow off”.  So Jesus is saying that God (Moses was God’s representative) wants us to take our parents seriously and show them respect.  The Pharisees told the people to “dedicate” their stuff to “God” (no doubt by giving it to the religious leaders) and to tell their parents “too bad”.  Jesus told them that their rule was causing them to dishonor what God had told them and that it was one example of many.

In verses 14-15 Jesus then explains to the crowd what all of this means.  In verse 17 he calls what he told the crowd a “parable”.  The word “parable” means place two things beside each other to compare them.  It’s like using a rule to measure something.  Most of the time the comparison is between something we understand and something we don’t.  In this case the comparison is between what the Pharisees thought about food and pleasing God and what God really thinks about food.  From the first part of chapter seven we see how the Pharisees though we need to act to make God happy.  Here we have the real way to do that.  Remember what I said above, the original rule in the Old Testament was an example to help us remember that we are “dirty” inside, in our soul or spirit, and that God is “clean” or pure.  That’s a problem in our relationship with God.  In his explanation Jesus makes it very clear, eating with dirty hands is not what makes us “unclean” (defiled in some translations).  This is the same Greek word from verse 2, “koinos”, common.  Remember the contrast is between being “common” and “special” or dedicated.

When they get home the disciples are still confused, they don’t get it, so they ask.  Jesus seems a bit unhappy that they don’t get it.  He explains that the whole discussion isn’t about dirt.  What ever we put in our mouths is digested and then eliminated.  Of course our body adsorbs nutrients from the food and even poisons if they are there, but those don’t make us impure, sick or fat or dead but not impure.  Remember it’s all about our relationship with God, our spiritual life, not our physical life.  Our physical life is where we learn about God and practice honoring him.  In the Old Testament there are many laws about what foods the Jewish people could not eat, no lobster, no pork, many laws.  But they were there to teach a lesson; they were a test.  When I was in Junior High School I had a teacher who gave us a test once.  The first instruction on the test was to read the whole test all the way through before dong any of it.  On the last page of the test it said not to do any of the problems but to just put your name on the first page and turn it in.  the test wasn’t about doing the problems it was a test on following instructions, which most of us failed.  The Old Testament rules about food were a test about following rules not about what you really shouldn’t eat.  We see this in verse 19 when Mark tells us that Jesus was making it OK to eat all of those foods that had been banned.    Jesus then goes on to make this point completely clear.  Being “impure” (not devoted to God) is about what is in our hearts.  He then tells us that what is in our hearts shows up in how we act.  If you think to yourself that you are not in this list maybe the next to last one applies to you.  We all are “dirty” in our hearts and it show in our lives; it is our hear that makes us unacceptable to God.

That is the bad news, like Paul told the Roman church in his letter to them (and us), “All have sinned and fall short of God’s perfection” (Romans 3:23).  The good news is also in that letter to the Roman believers.  The very next verse in Romans tells us that we are made right with God as a free gift from him, our sins were paid for by Jesus.  It’s not about washing our hands or not eating bacon.  It’s not even about making our hearts pure first, it’s a gift from God (See Titus 3:5).  The purity comes after we let Jesus into our lives as the Holy Spirit changes us from within (again Titus 3:5).  This must have been great news to the non-Jewish believers in Rome.

God thank you for being interested in our relationship.  I see that the Old Testament laws were there to help me understand that I am common; dirty.  I do realize that there are actions that make you unhappy, Mark listed some of them for me in what I read today.  In the end I realize I can’t make you happy by being religious; following a bunch of rule.  I can only make you happy by honoring you with my whole life from the inside out.  And for this I need your help.  Thank you for washing me what the only thing that can really remove the “dirt” of my disobedience and rebellion (sin); thank you that Jesus paid for my sins.  Help my life become (pure and clean) with the help of your spirit.  Thank you for loving me.