Mark 6:53-7:23
"Beware of Hypocricy"

V.1-5
“Pharisees” Separated ones

They separated themselves from the non-religious and even the religious because even they were not religious enough for the Pharisees

Ceremonial washing

•One Jewish writing- 'He who neglects hand-washing, deserves to be punished here and hereafter.' 'He is to be destroyed out of the world, for in hand-washing is contained the secret of the ten commandments.' 'He is guilty of death.'

•Mishnah- 'Three sins bring poverty after them, and to slight hand-washing is one.'

•One Rabbi- 'He who eats bread without hand-washing, is as if he slept with a harlot.'

•Schulchan Aruch- (Volumes of Jewish law) enumerates twenty-six rules for this rite of hand-washing in the morning alone.

•Talmud- It is better to go four miles to water than to incur guilt by neglecting hand-washing, He who does not wash his hands after eating,' it says, 'is as bad as a murderer.'

**If even the shadow of a Gentile would pass over their cup or kettle they would ceremonially wash it

V.53-56 Jesus was healing the sick and lame bringing restoration to their lives and what were these Pharisees concerned with?

•Mark 2 when eating at Levi’s house trying to bring sinners into the Kingdom of God the Pharisees protest by asking His disciples why Jesus eats with sinners.

•Mark 2 Jesus and His disciples are walking through the grainfields and pick some grain. When up pops the Pharisees and accuse them of harvesting on the Sabbath.

•Mark 3 Jesus heals the man with the shriveled hand and the Pharisees object that Jesus would do such a thing on the Sabbath

Things aren’t very different today

Royouth Forum- “I recently visited a certain church in Chicago. In the Sunday services people were almost asleep, but they all came dressed up nice, parked their luxurious sedans and limos in the Church parking lot and then scolded me for my wife having some small star-shaped earrings, that she received from me as an engagement present. I guess the $250,000.00 JAG is NOT an "idol", but my wife's silver-made ($5) earrings were.”

In V.6 Jesus has had it with their self-righteousness and He gives it to ‘em!

V.6-8

This wasn’t the only time that Jesus had confronted the Pharisees

Matt 23:27 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

V.9-13

“Corban” an offering to God.

We have committed our money to more “spiritual” uses.
So we can’t use it to take care of our parents.

V14-23
Ceremonial laws were brought to an end because Jesus’ death provided forgiveness, cleansing and purity. No longer would they be made right by their outward religious acts but by their faith in Christ’s work.

Traditions are not wrong. Many of them are established to help protect what is revealed in Scripture. However, they can begin to supercede Scripture and lose their initial intent.
We must not hold so closely to our traditions lest we quench the Spirit of God.

V.20-23

These are all conditions that we see rampant in our world and we want to legislate against them.
The problem is that these are conditions of the heart.

Can a politician change a heart? What changes a man’s heart?

Alistair Begg- “Jesus is primarily concerned with who we are rather than what we do. Because what we do may not really represent who we are.”