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Mark - Who is Christ?
A Bible Study Course on the Gospel of Christ according to MARK
PART 4 - Jesus' Great Miracles in Galilee and its Surroundings (Mark 3:7 - 8:26)

12. The Argument about the Washing of Hands, and the Traditions of the Elders (Mark 7:1-13)


MARK 7:1-13
1 Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem. 2 Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?” 6 He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 “For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.” 9 He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban, that is to say, given to God”;’ 12 then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”

People wash their hands before they eat, for the air contains microbes, which cause several diseases. But whoever claims that external washing is necessary for justifying themselves and pleasing God spiritually are foolish and superficial, for the Holy One demands purification of the heart, and not empty rituals. A worker whose hands are dirty, for example, because of his hard work, and who believes in forgiveness of his sins by Christ’s blood, is holy in the image of his Creator, in spite of his dirty hands. But he who is clothed richly, who bathes often, yet with his heart unclean or filled with evil thoughts, will certainly be in hell in spite of his ablution and various washings.

Christ brought a radical change to religions. He freed us from rituals, ordinances, and laws, and revealed to us the nature of prostration and its end, that is the new heart. The claim of keeping all the commandments is hypocrisy and self-deceit as long as man is not born again of God. Prayers are superficial and false as long as man has not confessed his offence, saying: “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” All the services we render to God are without reward for they are coming out of the storehouses of selfishness. The natural man cannot please God with traditions of men, ordinances, and various rituals, nor with prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and almsgiving, for whatever comes out of the heart and the mind of man is unclean and unacceptable to the Holy One.

Only what comes from God is acceptable. Our righteousness offered to us by Christ is a mercy from God, and not our own work. Our sanctification is also the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot keep the commandments by our own effort. Religions founded on keeping laws are but imagination, hypocrisy, and self-deceit, for God wants our repentance and heartbrokenness, that he may fill our burning hearts with his love. Then we will become changed from within. We will serve our parents with reverence and gratitude, sacrifice our hopes for them, and spend time to them, giving thanks to God. Praises will spring up in our hearts, for God has come to us in his Son, and has delivered us from the bondage of rituals.

Do you know that hypocrisy is the most infamous sin in those who appear godly, speak piously, and pray before others, but their heart does not speak as their mouths do, and their thoughts are away from God? Many prayers are false, for they do not come out of a humble heart, nor are they purified with Christ’s blood and Spirit. All profession of religion is false before God if he who prays did not commit himself entirely to the Holy One.

The danger of godliness in the way of selfishness increases as soon as the fanatic make special laws to plan the way for special sanctification, and condemns all those who live as they do. Keep from hypocrisy. It is more dangerous than poison. It can kill love and faith with honest prayer. It also inflates ego of the hypocrite.

PRAYER: O Father, we thank you because you were merciful to us sinners, and you forgave our sins completely with the death of your only Son. Fill us with the power of your love that we may devote ourselves to you with praise and thanks, and serve, at the same time, our parents out of love. Keep us from godly pretence and hypocrisy that we may turn away from pride, and live broken lives before you O God. Amen.

QUESTION:

  1. Why does washing of hands and performance of ritual ablution have no purifying power before God?

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