Mark 7 - What Does It Mean to Be An Evangelist?

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That Which Defiles

When the Pharisees and teachers of the law had come from Jerusalem, they confronted Jesus' disciples about not washing their hands before they ate. This is one of the many laws from the Old Testament that the Pharisees had added countless more regulations. 

“There had grown up a great body of traditions; traditions which in the first place were intended to be interpretations of the law, and applications of the law to local circumstances; traditions which in the second place became interpretations of traditions, and applications of traditions; and the traditions in the third place, which were interpretations of interpretations of interpretations of traditions!” (Morgan)

 A really strict Jew would do this not only before the meal, but also between each course. And the rabbis were deadly serious about this. They said that bread eaten with unwashed hands was no better than excrement. One rabbi who once failed to perform the ritual washing was excommunicated. Another rabbi was imprisoned by the Romans, and he used his ration of water for ceremonial cleansing instead of drinking, nearly dying of thirst. He was regarded as a great hero for this sacrifice.

Rituals, especially those which come from scripture, are not bad in themself. But when they are used in a legalistic way creating "haves" and "have nots", they destroy not build up the community. We must always be on guard for when our rituals have become more of man than of God. 

Once again Jesus denounces the hypocrisy of the Pharisees by quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah when he said, 

“‘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.’ Isaiah 29:3

We might say the people were giving God, "lip service". There was no substance to their worship because it was all about them! They completely missed the meaning of worship, which literally means to "give God worth!" Worship is not about us and when it becomes about us, we worship in vain. 

The Living Bible gives this translation of Mark 7:8,

"These people speak very prettily about the Lord but they have no love for Him at all. Their worship is a farce, for they claim God commands the people to obey their petty rules." (TLT)

They took many of the traditions and commandments and twisted them to mean something entirely different than what they were intended for. 

For instance, we are to honor our mother and father and take care of them. But the Pharisees taught the people that the money they might give to their parents could be better used for the temple treasury. In a sense not only to they distort God's Word, but Jesus says they "nullify God's Word".  Meaning taken away what it was meant to do. 

In this practice, a son could say that his possessions or savings were Corban – that is, especially devoted to God – and therefore unavailable to help his parents. Through this, a son could completely disobey the command to honor your father or mother and do it while being ultra-religious. Jesus called this making the word of God of no effect through your tradition. - Guzik

Jesus then makes a statement that is of ultimate importance as we look at the role of the Law in our faith. 

Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

A few verses later Mark adds, "And in this way he declared all things clean."  

Of course, Jesus would want us to eat healthy and take care of our bodies, but there is nothing we can eat that is morally wrong,. Our sinful nature does not stem from what comes into us, but what goes out of us. For it is what comes out of us: lust, greed, adultery, that makes us unclean. When Jesus judges a man or woman, he looks at their heart.

The disciples were not understanding the tenor of Jesus' comments. Jesus rebukes them saying, "Are you so dull?" As a human being, Jesus experienced moments of frustration. Other translations say, "Are you without understanding?", which soften the comment somewhat. 

Jesus Honors a Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

Jesus moved on from there to the city of Tyre. He went into a house looking to keep a low profile but lo and behold a Greek women from the Syro-Phoenician area came into the house. She begged Jesus to heal his daughter, who was possessed with a demon. 

Jesus traveled some 50 miles to the north to visit these Gentile cities (the region of Tyre and Sidon). This was unusual in Jesus’ ministry because His focus was on the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24).

It also shows that Jesus did not obey the Jewish traditions that said a faithful Jew would have nothing to do with Gentiles and would never enter a Gentile’s house. Guzik

Jesus' response was to let her know that his first priority was to reach the lost children of Israel. He even went as far as to say it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. It seems pretty "politically incorrect" for Jesus to say this. The fact of the matter is that Jews considered "non-Jews". were also known as "Gentiles", dirty dogs. They had once again distorted an Old Testament law. 

But the woman shows her great faith by saying even the dogs would be happy to eat the crumbs that fell off the table. The woman's heart for her daughter and her faith in Jesus moved him. Jesus told her that when she went home, her daughter at home would be delivered from the demon. The woman went home and found her daughter just as Jesus had said. 

Note once again that Jesus used all kinds of methods to heal people. In this case Jesus wasn't even in her daughter's presence when he cast the demon out of her. 

We need to see the power of coming to God as we are, and letting Him make true His promises to those weak and unclean. If the woman had responded, “Who are you calling a dog?” she would not have received from Jesus what her daughter needed. Her humble, faith-filled submission to Jesus brought the victory. “Nothing appealed to our blessed Lord more than faith coupled with humility.” (Ironside)

Jesus Heals a Deaf and Mute Man

Jesus left Tyre and Sidon and went back south to the Sea of Galilee to the area of Decapolis, which means "ten cities". The people brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and could not talk. They begged Jesus to put a hand on them. They obviously had great faith that Jesus could just touch the man and he would be healed. 

Jesus took the man away from the crowd, put his fingers in his ear, spit, and touched his tongue. You might say this was a very unusual method for Jesus to use to heal someone.

Undoubtedly, Jesus knew there was something special in His manner that would minister to this man. “He adapts His method to the peculiar circumstances of need of the one with whom He is dealing. I am quite convinced if we could perfectly know these men we should discover the reason for the method. In each case Christ adapted Himself to the need of the man.” (Morgan)

Jesus also prayed with a deep sigh saying, "Be opened". The man's ears opened up and he began to speak normally. 

Apparently Jesus reconnected with the crowd, because Jesus asked them to keep this event secret. But the people were simply too amazed and too overjoyed to keep this to themselves. After all, would you be able to be quiet if this happened to someone you knew? 

When Jesus does something miraculous in our lives, it is pretty hard to keep silent. We want to tell the whole world what he has done for us and someone we care about. This is a great way to characterize "evangelism". It is simply telling the world what Jesus has done for you. People man not accept it, but no one can take away your testimony. No one can say, "That did not happen to you!" 

This happened in a later story when Jesus healed a blind man, and the Pharisees accused the man of lying. The man basically said, "You can say whatever you want, but one thing I know, I was blind but now I see!" 

All the people could say is, "He has done everything well!"