The Righteous Heart
Text: Mark 7:1-23
Proposition: The danger of traditions that are perceived as spiritual acts of righteousness is that they can super-cede the necessity of having a pure heart.
Introduction: Etiquette, preference and custom, we all have them and have experienced them. But not all etiquette is the same, nor is preference, nor custom. In some countries etiquette, or doing the socially acceptable behavior, means to squat down and talk with friends and as you do to spit on the ground. What is socially acceptable behavior to some can be quite repulsive to others. I remember a time when I was a young man and I had a full beard and was eating some crusty bread next to a couple of friends. One of the fellows, as naturally as you could imagine, reached over at one point and picked a piece of bread crumb from my beard and ate it. And that was socially acceptable, in fact it was like a statement of friendship that he could do that and I would not be offended. The thing that presents a problem with these customs and preferences is that we can begin to make more of them than ought to be. We have the custom of taking our shoes off at the door, for a person not to do that, even if they did it innocently, could be offensive to you. Christmas time is full of traditions, the tree, the kissing under the mistletoe, the giving of presents, the over-eating of treats and meals, any of these could become a cause of offense. The great danger is that we can be tempted to manipulate traditions in order to build ourselves up and get what we want. Have a look at how Charlie Brown experienced this very thing.
Just as Lucy and Linus believed they could fool Santa Claus with a polished outer appearance, so too do people use outer appearances as an attempt to convince God of their righteousness. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus uses the term ‘hypocrite’ to describe the people that use tradition and custom in a way that is treacherous to faith. Turn to Mark 7:1-23 with me.
I. The Desire of Sin is That It Seeks To Prove We Are Better Than Others. When the Scribes and Pharisees came down from Jerusalem to where Jesus was the main intent was to use their standards and traditions as an influence against the work that Jesus was doing. They challenge Jesus through His disciples, that is, they seek to discredit Jesus and all that He does by the apparent failings of those who follow Him. Even today this principle is held to, the reason people can be excused from seeking God is that the church is inconsistent and flawed. The operative principle at work is still sin, it’s a belief that if I can pull others down then that action will have the effect of lifting me above them. That is what is at work in the minds of the Pharisees, if they can discredit the disciples, and by extension, Jesus, then they will increase in stature. That is after all what they really wanted, an increase in importance and esteem which leads to an increase in the ability to influence. And influence is power! The method that the Scribes and Pharisees used was to interpret the Scripture into a greater number of Do’s and Don’ts than was actually there. They had taken the Mosaic Law and created 613 laws from it. In each of these they created directives as to how they were to be carried out, making it a complicated and defeating task. The group that sought to carry out these laws to the minute detail was the sect called the Pharisees. They used the observance of tradition to be a demonstration of what holiness was supposed to look like. Not only did they deceive themselves in this but they made it appear impossible to ordinary folk that they could ever be right before God. It was for this reason more than any other that Jesus spoke so strongly against the Scribe and the Pharisee. They come and ask Jesus why He permitted His disciples to eat without first ceremonially washing their hands since to them this was a spiritual flaw, not a hygienic issue. They come to accuse God of improper procedure in terms of holiness. Consider how Jesus responds to their baited accusation.
II. Jesus Always Exposes Sin By Exposing the Heart. The method that Jesus uses demonstrates His authority and His wisdom. He does not justify His actions to mankind, He doesn’t need to explain or to reason why He does something or how He does it. He is higher in authority just as a parent doesn’t need to justify why they hold the hand of their 3 year old as they cross a busy street. They do it with authority that has the well being of the child in mind. The authority of Jesus is coupled to wisdom. He first uses principle, then brings example, then portrays a right response. Look at how this occurs:
1. The Principle: God has revealed that we are to be reconciled to Him through a heart that believes, justification by faith.
2. The Example : the commandment to honor father and mother, which is basic to long life, cannot be bypassed. The man made rules of Corban make a hypocrisy of worship. Essentially Jesus says that to say that you won’t help care for your parents because your resources have been set aside to worship God makes man’s commandment higher than God’s commandment. In all transparency, the money supposedly set aside for God was in reality going to be used for self. When self is the focus, worship will be in vain.
3. The Right Response: Jesus calls the crowd to draw closer and then He teaches them the right response. In doing so He seeks to free the people from hopeless legalism, the thinking that says if you don’t do it exactly right then it’s not pleasing to God. He points them back to the motivation of their hearts in faith as that which brings joy to God. In a proverbial like saying Jesus states, “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him, but the things which come out of him, those are what defile a man.” Later Jesus explains it in detail to the disciples which underlines the depths to which the Pharisaic influence had gone, that even these who knew Him needed elaboration. The desire within man’s heart to bring to God their own means of worthiness, be that work or particular forms of worship or wealth or the influence over many are all missing the point. It’s from within that defilement arises and no amount of religious activity can compensate for a heart that seeks to glorify itself. Jesus exposes sin by exposing our hearts pointing out that, ‘Why we do’, is more important than, ‘what we do’.
III. The Cautions For a Righteous Heart Jesus lists 12 ways that our hearts go astray causing us to be defiled. To defile for a Christian means simply to be made of common use. It would be like using a scalpel to butter bread or a face cloth to clean the inside of the toilet or a fine silk blouse to be used as rag to check the oil in the car. There are 12 ways that we defile what is holy in us, 12 ways that evil thoughts proceed out of our hearts. The first six are sinful actions and the last six are sinful passions. As we create the list of 12 let’s put the opposite of them down as to indicate what we ought to attain.
1. Adulteries 1. Faithfulness
2. Fornications 2. Sexual Purity
3. Murders 3. Peace makers
4. Thefts 4. Trustworthy
5. Coveteouness 5. Thanksgiving
6. Wickedness 6. Holiness
7. Deceit 7. Truthfulness
8. Lewdness 8. Self Control
9. An evil eye (Envy) 9. Contentment
10. Blasphemy 10. Integrity
11. Pride 11. Humility
12. Foolishness 12. Wisdom
It is these things that will take what is holy and make it common, that will defile you as expressions of your heart. You’ll notice that each of the 12 areas are places in which we sin because we were unwilling to let God be our sufficiency in that particular issue or need. Instead of letting God supply our need we seek to have that need met through our own designs. In each of the positive responses we will mirror Christ, and the Lord’s intentions for a righteous heart are won.