Pretender -

Mark 7:1-23

I grew up in small Churches, did I say they were Southern Baptist churches, and we had traditions, not as many as the Pharisees and the scribes, but we had rules, and my mother was a rule keeper.  Anyone growing up in the fifties and sixties in a small Baptist church knew what you did and did not do; we did not dance or drink adult beverages.  But the Pharisees and scribes when Jesus walked on planet earth would have put a Baptist to shame with all their traditions.

In Mark’s gospel the seven chapters we get introduced to are some of the many man made rules of the Pharisees and scribes.  This is a sample, and it is interesting how Jesus replies to their question.  “The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding 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.)”

From the time Jesus began teaching in the synagogue we see conflict, because the people said He taught with authority, not as the Elders, and the scribes, who were the masters of the Torah and treasured the traditional interpretations.   The following is a question and answer session between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees.

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to 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; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

 It is easy to be a pretender, to follow a man and not God, and it is a more comfortable life than being a follower of Christ.  But God cannot bless such a person with the joy of fellowship or power.  That was my earlier life in Christ, and it was full of self-trying to do what only God can do, it was not a life of peace, love, and joy.  Many who go by the title of Christian ware a mask of religion, but today you can take it off and begin a new, following Christ and not a man and his rules.

Now Jesus was not through teaching them or us, keep reading; “And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

The Lord has made it clear to me that I still wrestle with pride and foolishness and need to guard my heart and mouth in the area of slander, pray for me.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice