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March 5 – Mark 7:1-23

T

he Pharisees criticize the disciples for eating without first washing their hands. But their criticism has nothing to do with good hygiene or sanitation; instead, it is about ritual purification. No one knew about germs and bacteria in the first century. The religious leaders did follow traditional rituals and rules for remaining ceremonially clean, though, and they carried out these rituals and rules in detail. They couldn’t understand why Jesus didn’t force His disciples to do the same.


Jesus’ response reveals that the religious leaders are hypocrites. They carefully keep these manmade purification rites while ignoring the clear commands of God. Washing hands does nothing for an unclean heart. And God cares about the heart. All ten commandments are about loving God and loving people (see Exodus 20:1-17), and in order to keep these commandments, we need a loving heart—a clean heart.


Jesus points out that the religious leaders lack this kind of heart because they readily declare the wealth they should use to help their aging parents as “Corban” (dedicated to the temple to honor God). Like ceremonial washing, “Corban” is a “human tradition,” not a command of God (v. 8), and in this case, the human tradition is used to circumvent the fifth commandment—“honor your father and mother.” In fact, Corban is a loophole. As religious leaders, they have the use of the wealth dedicated to the temple, which means that they can appear pious by dedicating their wealth to God and essentially keep it all, ignoring God’s command to care for their parents. This plainly reveals the state of the Pharisees’ hearts.


After calling the religious leaders out for their hypocrisy, Jesus turns to the crowd and declares that it is not external uncleanness they need to worry about but internal corruption (v. 15). Later, when His disciples question Him, He explains further that anything going into the body goes to the stomach and then out—not to the heart, and it is the evil that comes out of the heart that defiles a person (v. 23).


When Jesus responded to the Pharisees, he quoted Isaiah 29:13:


These people honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

their teachings are merely human rules.


This tendency to make our own religious rules that we know we can follow is common to human beings. We want to be in control, and it is easier to keep human rules than to look to God for heart change. But God promises heart change. In Ezekiel 36:26, He promises to remove our “heart of stone” and replace it with a “heart of flesh.” He fulfilled this promise by sending Jesus to redeem us so that we might be conformed to His image. But some, like the Pharisees, chose to criticize Him and go their own way rather than listen, learn, and submit to His loving plan for the salvation of their souls and the cleansing of their hearts.


As you spend time with the Lord today, ask Him to reveal where your heart needs cleansing and softening and then ask Him to cleanse and soften it. Then worship Him with your whole heart, knowing that you can depend on Him to redeem the parts of you that have been defiled by sin. Through Him, you, His beloved child, are made whole and clean.

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My name is Melissa Anderson. I'm a spiritual director and ordained pastor who loves God, people, and words. You can read more about me by clicking the button below.

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