Next to Godliness

*image originated here

Matthew 15:1-20, Mark 7:1-23, Luke 11:37-54

With modern medicine and technology, we know all sorts of things now about the importance of washing one’s hands before you eat. Back in Jesus’ day, it was just another religious tradition/law that the Pharisees and Sadducees were insistent about.

(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holdig to the tradition of the elders. 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.)

Mark 7:3-4

So, of course, they notice immediately when the disciples are not washing their hands before eating.

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise heave recieved from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ” ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Then worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ ”

Matthew 15:1-9

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding to the tradtions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

Mark 7:8-9

The Pharisees have aired their judgment and now Jesus calls them into account for their actions. Which do you think is worse: not washing your hands before a meal or leaving your father and mother destitute with the excuse that you’ve dedicated the money and time you would have spent caring for them to God? These religious men are so concerned with their broken traditions but they’ve forgotten all about God’s commands. They say lots of pretty things that make them sound ‘righteous’ and ‘holy’ but that’s all they are: words. While being gross by almost anyone’s standards, not washing your hands before a meal, in and of itself is not a sin nor does it make you ‘unclean’ in the eyes of God. One of the amazing things that happen here is that by declaring that what goes into a person’s mouth is not what makes them unclean, Jesus is also declaring all foods as clean for his people to consume. (Bacon for everyone! Yay!). Jesus wants us to understand that it was never about the rules, it was always about honoring God with our lives, money, time, and yes even our bodies.

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean’ ”

Matthew 15:10-11

For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)

Mark 7:19

Does it even remotely shock you that the Pharisees and teachers of the law had a negative reaction to this? I mean, Jesus did flat out call them hypocrites! The funny part is that Jesus’ disciples feel the need to come tell Jesus about how offended these hypocrites are!

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Matthew 15:12-14

This is also sad because no one has studied or been educated in God’s word as greatly as the Pharisees and Sadducees had. They were required to memorize the first 5 books of the Bible otherwise known as the books of the law. On top of that, they managed to keep track of all their absurd traditions. These men were extremely intelligent but they completely missed the Messiah they’d been studying and waiting for since birth! They grew up paying lip service to God but never getting to know Him and love Him. Their entire existence was bound up in their appearance of trying to look ‘holier’ than everyone else but they miss God’s mercy and compassion when they fail. What’s worse is that they are the spiritual heads of their nation. So the deplorable condition of their hearts and relationships with God is a mirror of the way their entire nation views and treats God! Take that and for a moment think of the spiritual heads of our own nations and the condition of our churches and the condition of so-called believers hearts and relationships with God. We have no room to judge these unfortunate men who blind themselves are leading an entire nation in darkness!

Peter demonstrates next that it isn’t just the Pharisees and the Sadducees that are missing the points in Jesus’ teaching when he asks Jesus to explain why what goes into your body doesn’t make you unclean but what comes out does.

Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’ ”

Matthew 15:15-20

For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ”

Mark 7:21-23

I’m not sure if it was on the same occasion or a different one, but Jesus went to eat in the home of a Pharisee and it was noticed that he did not wash his hands with a very similar response. This time Jesus is very specific in how this generation of hypocrites has cursed themselves in their ignoring of God’s commands in favor of their own traditions.

He gives them 6 Woes regarding their behavior. A woe being something that causes great sorrow, distress, and trouble.

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”

Luke 11:39-41

1.Giving God a Tenth but Neglecting Justice and Love

Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

Luke 11:42

If you’re going to give 1/10 of your earnings to God per the minimum amount required tithe we learned about in the books of the Law, then you also need to show justice and love to those around you. Giving God that tithe, without honoring Him in the way you treat others and your relationship with Him, is futile.

2.Loving Power and Position

Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

Luke 11:43

This is the greed and envy Jesus was talking about that truly makes a man ‘unclean’. They aren’t in services to worship and honor God, they’re there to gain power in their community and seem ‘better’ than others.

3.Like Unmarked Graves

Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.

Luke 11:44

These men are spiritually dead but they don’t realize it and none of their followers recognize it. They spend all their time trying to look ‘holy’ that most people think that’s what they represent and don’t even realize that they are completely lost from the path and life of righteousness.

4.Loading People With Burdens

With all of their laws and self-righteousness, they had truly made it literally impossible to be considered ‘righteous’ in their society. People are carrying around the weight of all their rules and laws enslaved to it with no way out.

Jesus replied, “And you experts of the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift a finger to help them.

Luke 11:46

5.Murderers of God’s Messengers

“Woe to you, because you build the tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefather who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this, God in his wisdom has said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the  prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

Luke 11:47-51

6.Taking Away The Key to Knowledge

Because the teachers of the law did not understand nor seek to understand true knowledge of God and His word they had cut off the ability for any else to come understand and seek God also.

Woe to experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

Luke 11:52

Jesus certainly didn’t make any friends with his words that day, but he was telling them the truth. Many times when we’re confronted with the truth we respond exactly as these blind men did: we get angry and defensive so nothing in our life changes. How different would the world be if instead we listened to the truth and patterned our lives after it so that our hearts, relationships, and nations no longer resembled the brokenness and darkness we’ve lived under since the fall of man?!?!

What do you think about washing your hands before a meal? What is in your heart based on the words that come out of your mouth? How do you respond to truthful criticism?